ESPN College GameDay to Broadcast Live from JMU Oct. 24
10/18/2015 11:08:00 AM | Football
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HARRISONBURG, Va. – ESPN College GameDay will bring its weekly college football national pregame show to the Shenandoah Valley on October 24 as No. 5 James Madison hosts No. 13 Richmond as part of JMU Homecoming Weekend.  College GameDay, which typically attracts thousands of fans to the live production, will air on ESPN from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday. The show reviews major news topics in college football, previews the significant national games of the day and ends with Lee Corso's headgear prediction prior to games kicking off around the country.  ESPN personalities typically on the show include host Rece Davis along with Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, David Pollack and Samantha Ponder. The show's producer, Lee Fitting, is a 1996 graduate of JMU.  JMU heads into the 3:30 p.m. game at 7-0 overall and 4-0 in the CAA following Saturday's 51-0 victory at Elon, the largest margin of victory on the road in program history. Richmond is 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the league after a 37-12 win over Rhode Island. The state rivals will clash as the only undefeated teams in Colonial Athletic Association play.  JMU owns the nation's second-longest regular-season winning streak at 14 games. The Dukes rank among the national leaders in total offense, scoring, first downs, third-down percentage and sacks. They also feature one of the front runners for the STATS National Offensive Player of the Year award in quarterback Vad Lee. ESPN made one visit to JMU already in September to highlight Lee as its Big Man on Campus after his performance against FBS foe SMU.  All reserved, general admission and student tickets sold out Sunday evening within 10 hours of the announcement. Fans can still pursue limited tickets available via StubHub.
More details will be shared on JMUSports.com early in the week related to attending College GameDay, location details, creating signs and other fan activities.  To date in 2015, College GameDay has visited Arlington, Texas for the AdvoCare Classic between Alabama and Wisconsin followed by campus venues at Michigan State, Alabama, Arizona, Clemson, Utah and Michigan.  College GameDay Fun Facts: -This is the eighth time GameDay has originated from a non-FBS site. The others – 2002 Harvard at Penn, 2005 Southern vs Grambling (in Houston), 2007 Amherst at Williams, 2008 Hampton at Florida A&M, 2013 Delaware State at North Dakota State, 2014 Incarnate Word at North Dakota State and 2014 Yale at Harvard. -James Madison will be the 65th different school to host the show on its campus. The previous 64 are 40-24 in their GameDay debut home game. -Harrisonburg is the 73rd different city the show has visited. Richmond and James Madison are the 80th and 81st different teams to be represented at a GameDay site game. -Corso has put on the winning mascot head in six of the seven non-FBS games GameDay has attended. His lone loss was last year at Harvard when he picked Yale. -Corso has never picked either team, so this will be the 53rd different mascot head he has donned. -GameDay has been in the state of Virginia once in Week 8. The score that day in 1999 was Virginia Tech 62, Syracuse 0. That game holds the mark for largest margin of victory in a game from which GameDay originated.
College GameDay Features -Miami Hurricanes' OL Hunter Knighton returned to the field this season after suffering a heatstroke and spending nearly two weeks in a coma in 2014.  (Reporter: Tom Rinaldi / Producer: Kristen Lappas) -With just about all hope lost, how did Michigan State pull off a play for the ages? (Reporter: Gene Wojciechowski / Producer: Jarrod Ficklin) -The Tigers' OL Mason Darrow was embraced by his Princeton football team once he told them he's gay – so he took it public. (Reporter: Rece Davis / Producer: Ben Webber)