For the first time in two years, College GameDay is coming to USC. As it turns out, the good folks at ESPN think the South Carolina-Missouri game is the most exciting football game going on in the nation Saturday. And that may well be true.
(Seriously, though, what else are they supposed to cover? The Buffalo Bulls against the Miami (of Ohio) RedHawks?)
It’s always nice to see our campus so prominently featured on national television — even if it will be hard to see the full glory of the Horseshoe behind the rabid, sleep-deprived fans that will crowd around the CGD sports desk like apostles jostling their various prophets for attention or spare change.
But aside from the heavy TV studio equipment, hordes of parents will also be en-route to USC’s leafy-green campus this weekend.
College Gameday's location is a weekly spur-of-the-moment decision. Parents Weekend preparations, however, are not.
The problem inherent in this arrangement of "big football game" and "parents coming to visit" isn’t hard to figure out. When College GameDay comes around, they’re almost expecting roving masses of sports junkies to give the scene behind the announcers a little flavor. With yelling, noise-makers, plastic hands, swirling towels and perhaps a smidgen of free-flowing alcohol.
With parents around, students may be a little less frenetic and a little more tepid. After all, what self-respecting student could appropriately respond to the general demand to “chug,” with her mom standing next to?
College Gameday coinciding with Parents Weekend festivities was unpredictable to say the least — there’s no one who could really be blamed for this situation.
So, parents, if you’re going to go to the football game with your child, try to keep in mind that in the world of collegiate football is a wild and not-always-controllable one.
And students, maybe warn mom and dad. It could be a bumpy ride.