BRISTOL, TN – SEPTEMBER 10: ESPN’s Desmond Howard, Rece Davis, David Pollack, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit on set during College Gameday prior to the game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Tennessee Volunteers at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 10, 2016 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Michael Shroyer/Getty Images)
ESPNNCAABy Alex Putterman on

When you think of ESPN’s College GameDay, you surely imagine the show’s set placed in front of a big, open area where masses of monochromatically dressed college kids have assembled to mill around and jump up and down.

But on Sept. 23, GameDay will come to you from the single most congested (and perhaps least collegiate) place in America: Times Square.

The show will have no official host, but will instead seek to draw Manhattan-dwelling fans of all college football teams.

The replies on the announcement tweet suggest that fans are not thrilled about GameDay’s first ever trip to New York City.

https://twitter.com/Twoniner/status/908338517905952769

Here’s how ESPN vice president of production Lee Fitting explained the decision to bring GameDay to the Big Apple:

“New York City is a melting pot of college football fans and the heartbeat of America,” Fitting said in a press release. “Thousands of alumni gather in the city each fall Saturday to root on their school and we are bringing College GameDay to New York for them! We want every alumni base and college football fan near and far to join us in Times Square to provide the celebratory, festive atmosphere that is synonymous with the show.”

And here’s longtime GameDay analyst Kirk Herbstreit:

“This is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, for us and the fans,” Herstreit said. “With iconic Times Square as the backdrop and alumni bases from all over the country making their presence known in the crowd, my expectation is that it will be one of the top College GameDay settings of all time. We can’t wait to bring the show to the Big Apple!”

No matter how much ESPN hypes GameDay in Manhattan, many fans are going to have a hard time accepting it. The point of the show is to celebrate college football, and few places in America embody the spirit of college football less than New York City, home of zero FBS teams and a culture of prioritizing professional over college sports. Though there isn’t a no-brainer destination for GameDay on the 23rd, Stillwater (for Oklahoma State-TCU), Palo Alto (for Stanford-UCLA), or Athens (for Georgia-Misssissippi State) would all have been solid choices that wouldn’t have risked upsetting so many fans.

Of course, GameDay will still draw a sizable crowd to Times Square and a massive audience on ESPN, then head the following week to a traditional college town—Blacksburg, Pullman, and Knoxville look like candidates—while New York City goes on not caring about college football.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.

View all posts by Alex Putterman