My Experience Behind the Scenes of ‘College GameDay’

Written By: Ben Gillard (@benjgillard)

I don’t think that there is a better representation of the culture change surrounding Indiana Football than the scene in Bloomington on Saturday. ESPN’s College GameDay, drawn by the Hoosiers 7-0 start, filmed their full pregame show in B-Town for the first time ever. (They filmed an abbreviated Thursday night version in 2017), and I was backstage to witness this historic event. Here’s what I saw.

From the minute I arrived, it was a sight to behold. It was still dark at 6 a.m. and a chilly 40 degree breeze blew through the air, neither of which deterred the thousands of Hoosiers fans who had gathered in anticipation of a show that would not start for another 3 hours. Eager fans had been lining up since 4 p.m. the previous day, so what was another couple of hours?

As I walked in front of the crowd, they erupted into cheers. My fellow reporters and I quickly looked around to see who they were cheering for, only to realize that they were cheering for us. This fanbase has been so starved for something, anything, to cheer for that they could hardly contain their excitement for this team and this season. 

GameDay gave a lot for the crowd to cheer for, starting with the opening of the show. Former Indiana head coach Lee Corso made his triumphant return to Bloomington, flanked by members of the 1979 Holiday Bowl team on the “Indiana Bandwagon.” Corso received a hero’s welcome as he made his way to the stage in his vintage IU sweater. It was evident that the former coach was extremely touched by the scene, as he could be seen soaking it all in with misty eyes during the commercial breaks.

In many ways, last Saturday felt like the moment Indiana “arrived” on the national college football stage. As the hosts deemed the hype around IU “real” and complemented the way the Hoosiers have been dominating games, chants of “Football School” broke out. While this has been a rallying cry all season, it has never seemed as real as it did on Saturday. As someone who had seen a combined 7 wins over my 3 years in Bloomington, I used to dream of times like this, and I am so glad it is happening.