Do you think Gameday will come to Wichita this year?

[Shocker-maniac]

It's not. But just wait 20 years and Loyola will be a force to be reckoned with. Just ask Elgin..... :/

Your missing the point we have Loyola because the MVC is going to have have huge TV ratings in that large market. Don't you know that Chicago comes to a halt when Loyola plays basketball?

[DwShock]

No

[_kai_]

Loyola has a really great Men's Synchronized Swimming Team, you guys just don't even know. You don't even know.

Doug Elgin knows.

[wsushox1]

Loyola has a really great Men's Synchronized Swimming Team, you guys just don't even know. You don't even know.

Doug Elgin knows.

Bo knows

[Kung Wu]

Loyola Chicago has the most recent men's NCAA national championship of all Valley schools. I know Volleyball is a small and growing sport, but still their athletics department deserves some credit for a national championship.

I wouldn't be surprised with their history and momentum to see them as a perennial top-three competitor in men's basketball in the MVC in the next decade (I know, that timeline SUCKS for us). Moser has a very young roster this year, so his leash is probably three more years long. But if he doesn't produce big time in the next three years, we will see how serious LoyChi is about men's basketball.

[WstateU]

Any chance ESPN College Game Day coming to Wichita this season?

[1972Shocker]

Any chance ESPN College Game Day coming to Wichita this season?

The only chance I could see of that happening is if we got to the final game of the regulars season undefeated again (not likely), we play that game at home (have not seen the MVC schedule) and the game is against the 2nd or 3rd place Valley team (again who knows and would ESPN have enough notice of that to schedule Game Day in Wichita). Even if all of these things fell into place our chances would still be significantly less than 50-50 I would think.

[Royals85]

The first College Gameday of the year isn't until mid-January, so any non-con opponents scheduled early in the year wouldn't help land Gameday. With Creighton out I don't think any opponent in the Valley is currently a big enough name to help land the event no matter WSU's record at the time.

Gonzaga has hosted Gameday twice, Butler once, so it isn't impossible at some point in the future. It would definitely need to be a big "name" opponent that could fit it in the schedule to play at Wichita in the middle of what would normally be the in-conference part of each team's schedule. Also would probably need to be played at Koch instead of Intrust. Gameday wants the on-campus experience.

[Veritas]

Loyola Chicago has the most recent men's NCAA national championship of all Valley schools. I know Volleyball is a small and growing sport, but still their athletics department deserves some credit for a national championship.

I wouldn't be surprised with their history and momentum to see them as a perennial top-three competitor in men's basketball in the MVC in the next decade (I know, that timeline SUCKS for us). Moser has a very young roster this year, so his leash is probably three more years long. But if he doesn't produce big time in the next three years, we will see how serious LoyChi is about men's basketball.

I think there are about 18 NCAA teams that play D1 Volleyball for men of which only 4 teams are invited to the NCAA tournament.

[Rlh04d]

Again, if ESPN wants it, it will happen. If they don't, it won't happen. Personally, I think that showing off something different would be refreshing rather than showing the annual Tobacco Road match-up, Phog, Rupp, or tired subjects like that for the tenth time.

ESPN isn't interested in being refreshing or fair or anything else. ESPN is interested in ratings.

Wichita State beating up on some unknown Valley team by 40 points isn't going to get ratings. So no, it's not going to happen. The MVC is an albatross around our neck: there are very few games that are intriguing from a national TV standpoint beyond just "here's your chance to watch WSU!", and we've been so successful lately that ESPN has to think any time they're going to broadcast a conference game we're going to win running away by halftime.

Memphis was our only chance for Gameday.

[shockerfan34]

If ESPN hosted their football gameday at North Dakota St. for their game against Delaware St. I see no reason they couldn't host in Wichita for a random MVC game. Not that I think it's extremely likely, but it isn't an unreasonable idea

[Cdizzle]

I think there are about 18 NCAA teams that play D1 Volleyball for men of which only 4 teams are invited to the NCAA tournament.

I'm all for Loyola's men's volleyball prowess, and I hope they continue it. But I'm pretty sure the WSU bowling titles of the past decades have been more competitively meaningful.

[MoValley John]

If ESPN hosted their football gameday at North Dakota St. for their game against Delaware St. I see no reason they couldn't host in Wichita for a random MVC game. Not that I think it's extremely likely, but it isn't an unreasonable idea

Football is a different animal than basketball, so you really can't compare ESPN decisions made for football and try to apply them to basketball. Basketball GameDay will be aired almost exclusively, on campuses of blue blood programs. Americans, in general, don't spend an entire Saturday watching college basketball. Americans watch the game they are interested in and maybe another. Conversely, Americans will watch football all day Saturday. GameDay works outside of the blue bloods in football, not so well in basketball.

All that said, FCS (Pop Warner) football is completely irrelevant on the national stage, if you don't go to the school, are not an alum of the school, don't live in the small town of the school, don't have a friend, relative, boyfriend on the team, you don't care. The decision to air GameDay in Fargo had little to do with the game. Instead, NDSU has become a curiosity of sorts in football. (My nephew starts on the NDSU football team.) Being a curiosity, GameDay had 14 hours to tell the story. People were curious about NDSU and ESPN simply told the story. Nobody cared who won. (My nephew's team won, yeah!!!!)

[ripemupshocks]

Football is a different animal than basketball, so you really can't compare ESPN decisions made for football and try to apply them to basketball. Basketball GameDay will be aired almost exclusively, on campuses of blue blood programs. Americans, in general, don't spend an entire Saturday watching college basketball. Americans watch the game they are interested in and maybe another. Conversely, Americans will watch football all day Saturday. GameDay works outside of the blue bloods in football, not so well in basketball.

A few non-blueblood ESPN College GameDays.


Jan 18, 2014: Temple at La Salle.

Jan 19, 2013: Gonzaga at Butler

Jan 28, 2012: Washington at Arizona

Jan 15, 2011: Vanderbilt at Tennessee

Feb 7, 2009: Memphis at Gonzaga

Jan 26, 2008: Creighton at Southern Illinois

Feb 11, 2006: Stanford at Gonzaga

Agree with Rlh04d. Memphis would have been our best shot at GameDay this season, but only if it was a home game. GameDay wants a shat load of loud, crazy arse fans behind them.

[WuShock Reaper]

So do any of these dates and opponents entice ESPN enough to provide coverage for GameDay?

Saturday, January 17, 2015 - at Evansville
Saturday, January 31, 2015 - at Northern Iowa
Saturday, February 07, 2015 - vs. Missouri State
Saturday, February 14, 2015 - at Illinois State
Saturday, February 28, 2015 - vs. Northern Iowa

If WSU is to host the event, then it has to be against UNI on 02/28/15. If not in Wichita, maybe in Cedar Falls against UNI on 01/31/15.