ESPN’s College Gameday came to East Lansing Saturday morning. For eight weeks of basketball season, ESPN’s flagship show travels to the site of a marquee game to preview the slate of Saturday games. For this week, the show picked tonight’s Michigan State-Indiana matchup. Despite the frosty relationship between ESPN and segments of the Michigan State fan base owing to reports from their newsmagazine show, Outside the Lines, Saturday’s show appeared to go off without a hitch.
The band played loud, the crowd brought signs — some of which were confiscated if they weren’t considered appropriate for a television audience — and the entire thing was a well-orchestrated success. The State News caught up with a few students in attendance after the show to ask them their thoughts on the show, and on ESPN in general.
“I love College Gameday. I was here I think the last time we had it, and I watch it every weekend, so it’s pretty cool that they brought it here,” junior human capital and society major David Wallace said.
Junior physics major Kevin Raju was asked if the Outside the Lines controversy affected his mindset towards ESPN or towards the show.
“That’s a present thing. But the thing is, it’s a year since of all that happened,” Raju said. “We’ve moved forward through it. I think the good thing is the fans that are here represent the good part of MSU. Yes, what happened was a bad thing. But, that’s a few bad people, no matter how much you tarnish. There’s more people that are good, and I think the fans today represented MSU.”
Outside the Lines recently released a federal report detailing the university’s “serious violations” of the Clery Act, a 1990 law that requires colleges and universities that receive federal aid to report safety and crime statistics. The report says that the university consistently under-reported those statistics.
While some members of Michigan State’s fanbase have taken to Twitter since the announcement of ESPN coming to town to voice their displeasure, those in attendance seemed unaffected.
“I feel like people who go (to Gameday) are the ones who are like super true, and can put that stuff behind them,” junior pre-nursing major Megan Wielfaert said.
The three analysts on the show, former Duke players Jay Williams and Jay Bilas, along with former Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg, all picked No. 6 Michigan State to defeat Indiana. The Spartans are favored by 15.5 points and the game tips off at 6 p.m.
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