With the Oregon vs. Stanford showdown set for Saturday, ESPN’s College GameDay is back in town. The caravan of trucks rolled into campus around 6 p.m. Wednesday and began setting up at 6:30 a.m.
“We try to get forklift-type traffic done by the time classes start on Thursday,” said Judi Weiss, operations producer for GameDay. @@http://www.wilx.com/news/headlines/Gameday_Rolls_Into_East_Lansing_132348058.html@@
Employees will spend about nine hours setting up the stage and props in order to be ready in time for Friday’s shows like Sports Center and College Football Live. Weiss explained that although the focus may be on Saturday, an earlier presence is important for “getting everyone hyped for the game.”
Many students stopped to take pictures of the setup, including Isaiah Sexton@@http://www.uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Isaiah%2ASexton@@, a freshman majoring in sports business.
“I watch GameDay all the time on TV, so seeing it here is kind of cool,” Sexton said. Regarding the game, Sexton is confident in a Duck victory. “It’s Stanford so it’s pretty big, but I think Oregon can definitely smash on them like last year.”
“It should be a good game,” said Ryan Hogrebe@@http://www.uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Ryan%2AHogrebe@@, a junior majoring in general social science. “Hopefully the Ducks can pull it off — I have faith in them.”
Weiss, on the other hand, prefers to stay neutral.
“They’re both great teams,” Weiss said. “It’s fun when we get to cover big conference rivalries.”