All eyes are on UCF, as College GameDay Built by The Home Depot heads to Orlando on Saturday, November 17, ahead of the ABC Saturday Night Football matchup between AAC opponents No. 11 UCF and No. 24 Cincinnati. The show will originate from Memory Mall (9 a.m. – noon ET) on ESPN, and will simulcast on ESPNU. Live programming, including SportsCenter and College Football Live, will occur throughout the day on Friday, Nov. 16, and leading into the show on Saturday morning.
Host Rece Davis, who is joined by Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, David Pollack and Maria Taylor, as well as contributors Chris ‘The Bear’ Fallica, Jen Lada, Tom Rinaldi and Gene Wojciechowski.
UCF will host Cincinnati on ABC’s Saturday Night Football (8 p.m. ET), the first time the premier college football franchise has aired a game between two American Athletic teams. UCF holds the nation’s longest winning streak, 22 games in a row, and are 6-0 in conference play this season. The Knights would clinch a berth in the AAC Championship game with a victory, while a Bearcat victory would prolong the American Athletic East Division race. Chris Fowler, Herbstreit, and Taylor will be at Spectrum Stadium for the call.
Show Highlights
- UCF: Why not us– UCF has the longest active winning streak in major college football, but unfortunately life outside of the Power 5 conferences has meant they don’t get the love that goes with it! Reporter: Gene Wojciechowski
- Ben Abercrombie– Last season, freshman corner Ben Abercrombie sustained a paralyzing neck injury while playing in his first game for Harvard. His inspirational fight to get back to campus. Reporter: Tom Rinaldi
- Minshew Mania – Don’t let the hype about the mustache fool you, Washington State quarterback Gardner Minshew can flat out play, and he has his squad creeping into the hunt for the College Football Playoff. Reporter: Jen Lada
Corso to Make Headgear Selection No. 323; College GameDay by the Numbers
Coach Corso will make headgear selection No. 323 this weekend in Orlando, where he resides. The lovable personality now has a career record of 209-113, including 5-5 record this season.
Corso Facts
- Corso has never put on the UCF or Cincinnati mascot head. His pick will be the 58th different mascot head he has donned at the end of the show.
- Corso, an Orlando resident, will be making his 37th headgear pick in the state of Florida.
- He’s lost his last four headgear picks in Florida; 20-16 in headgear in the Sunshine State
- His last headgear win in the state came in 2014 when Florida State held on to beat Notre Dame
Stats from ‘The Bear’
- UCF is the 71st different school to host GameDay; Orlando is the 83rd different city to host GameDay.
- This is the first time GameDay will visit the site of a conference game between two AAC teams. GameDay has been to one AAC home site – that in 2015 when GameDay was in Philadelphia for the Notre Dame at Temple game.
- This is the first show since Western Michigan vs. Buffalo on November 19, 2016, that two FBS teams which had never previously been part of a game at a GameDay location will be featured.
- This is the isn’t the first time UCF head coach Josh Heupel has been part of a GameDay game – while at Oklahoma, Heupel was part of five GameDay appearances as the Sooners quarterback in their national championship run in 2000.
College GameDay has Outstanding Offseason, Winning Three Sports Emmys
College GameDay continues to be recognized as sports media’s most successful studio show, as the premier pregame show was awarded the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Studio Show Weekly, winning that category for the fifth consecutive year and its eighth time overall in the category. The show’s journalism and operations technical expertise was also recognized, capturing Sports Emmys for Outstanding Short Feature and Outstanding Tech Team Studio. To date, the show has won 10 Emmys in the last 11 years.
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Contact: derek.volner@espn.com
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