“College GameDay” has front-row seats to Baylor University’s football matchup against the University of Oklahoma on Saturday at McLane Stadium, and the prospect of the Sports Emmy-winning show gracing Waco with its presence has much of the city talking.
Mayor Kyle Deaver, stadium namesake Drayton McLane, Baylor President Linda Livingstone and Waco’s power couple, Chip and Joanna Gaines, all have weighed in with excitement for the team, the school and the Waco community.
The Gaineses will serve as guest pickers during the three-hour broadcast that lasts from 8 to 11 a.m., ahead of a 6:44 kickoff. The Baylor graduates who helped put Waco on the map with their hugely popular “Fixer Upper” show on HGTV, and whose Magnolia Market at the Silos draws an estimated 35,000 visitors weekly, continue a guest-picking tradition that this season has included actor Matthew McConaughey, basketball great Dwyane Wade and country singer Eric Church.
Chip and Joanna will join host Rece Davis, analyst Kirk Herbstreit and regulars Desmond Howard and Lee Corso in picking about 10 college football games, ESPN spokesman Derek Volner said in an email message. This last segment, which will run from 10:40 to 11 a.m., will include the Gaineses picking the winner of the Oklahoma-Baylor contest, Volner said.
In a tweet Thursday afternoon, Chip Gaines wrote, “Umm.. I’m trying to play hard to get here.. but YESSSSS!!!, Joanna and I are IN! See you and the crew on the banks of the Brazos!” confirming their choice as guest pickers.
He retweeted a video from Davis, the show’s host, showing Davis riffing on an issue of People magazine with the Gaineses on the cover. Davis says “I wonder if I can convince them to come to the mansion that is ‘College GameDay’ ” and suggests the couple’s next natural step after making the cover of People would be to the guest picker chair.
“I can confirm Chip and Jo will be the celebrity guest pickers for Saturday’s ‘College GameDay’ road show at Baylor,” Magnolia spokesman John Marsicano said by email. “They’re honored to be a part of what undoubtedly will be a very special day for the city of Waco.”
“College GameDay,” as college football fans know, is an ESPN production that brings out the fanatic in fans at college campuses on fall Saturdays. The cast and crew talk football, profile players and make predictions, all while team partisans go berserk in the “pit” beneath the show’s set. Attendees typically arrive armed with venomous handcrafted signs that poke fun or ridicule.
Baylor, in a press release, said it will not allow signs to go overboard.
A crew sets up a stage outside McLane Stadium for ESPN’s “College GameDay,” which will air from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday, ahead of Baylor’s matchup with Oklahoma kicking off at 6:44. Chip and Joanna Gaines will appear as the traveling program’s guest pickers. Staff photo — Jerry Larson
Saturday will mark the third time Baylor University receives the “GameDay” treatment in football. In 2014, the Bears beat Kansas State University, 38-27, with “GameDay” in the house. In 2015, it lost a shootout to the Sooners, 44-34.
The show arrives this year with Baylor perched atop the Big 12 standings after an unbeaten start just two years removed from a 1-11 season record.
“We have had two great experiences in Waco. … We expect a great crowd on Saturday morning, kicking off a big day of the campus and community,” Volner said.
ESPN will interview Baylor head coach Matt Rhule on its visit.
“We always say that ‘College GameDay’ travels to the sport’s best storyline each week,” Volner said. “Baylor has had a tremendous season thus far: now the undefeated Bears are facing Oklahoma, who have won the Big 12 four consecutive years. The game has conference and College Football Playoff implications, which is the perfect recipe for a major game this time of year.”
The game, a sellout, will be nationally televised on ABC beginning at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, with kickoff scheduled at 6:44 p.m., hours after the “GameDay” crew has put a wrap on its presentation. The South Plaza at McLane Stadium, near the Sheila and Walter Umphrey Bridge, will serve as the broadcast venue. Baylor students and fans may start filling available areas near the “GameDay” scene at 5 a.m. Saturday, three hours before the show begins.
But Baylor is expecting crowds to begin arriving even earlier.
It released information to students who might want to spend the night at McLane Stadium in hopes of getting a prime spot to view “GameDay” festivities. A Baylor identification card is needed to enter the check-in area, and the line for camping will open at 4 p.m. Friday, the university announced.
The Umphrey Bridge and tailgate area bridge will be closed to pedestrians from 8 to 11 a.m., and until 2:30 p.m. after the broadcast, Baylor announced in a press release. The bridge will re-open briefly at 11 a.m. to allow fans back over the bridge as crews dismantle the “GameDay” set, according to the press release.
Drayton McLane, whose kickoff gift got the ball rolling toward construction of Baylor’s five-year-old McLane Stadium, joined others in celebrating the revival of the football team under Rhule and reveling in “GameDay” making the trip to Waco again.
“This is college football at its best,” McLane said via email. “When Baylor was planning the stadium and wanted to build on the Brazos and IH-35 for ease of access and big visibility, they wanted one of the best stadiums in America which would foster one of the best football teams in America. Then to have ESPN ‘GameDay’ coordinating from there is not only great for Baylor, but for Waco and all of Central Texas. It’s a great opportunity.”
Earlier this week, Rhule said the show’s benefits extend beyond football.
“My hope is obviously always for recruiting that people all across the country see that ‘GameDay’ could’ve gone anywhere and they chose to come here to see this great Baylor-Oklahoma game,” Rhule said. “I don’t want this to just be about our football program. I want it to be about the university and also about Waco, what a great place to live, what a great place to raise a family, what a great place to be.”
Mayor Kyle Deaver mentioned Rhule’s quote during a gathering Thursday attended by about 200 people at Ridgewood County Club.
School president Linda Livingstone, in a Tribune-Herald guest column, quoted Scripture, Matthew 5:15, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works, and give glory to your father in heaven.”
She said for three hours on Saturday, “the good works of Baylor and Waco” will be on full display before a national television audience.
— WACOTRIB
