For fans of college football, College GameDay is an institution. Every Saturday, the ESPN broadcast travels to the biggest game of the weekend to host a pre-game show. Students at the host school camp out starting in the middle of the night, often with cheeky posters as they compete for TV time. The hosts discuss the odds of the game, pick favorites to win and heckle each other over their choices. One lucky student even gets the chance to attempt a field goal, and if they make it, they win $25,000. Talk about U.S.A.
Despite the weekly presence of GameDay host “Stanford Steve” Couglin ’82, Stanford University has only hosted College GameDay once, back in November 2011, during a very different era of Stanford football. By and large, the show is an SEC and Big 10 event, with big names like Ohio State, Alabama and Florida topping the list for most frequent appearances.
But the world of college football is crazy and ever-changing. We’ve withstood and adapted to the birth of the transfer portal, the advent of NIL, and a geographically-blind conference realignment. Never count out the unexpected.
On Oct. 5, for the first time ever, College GameDay was to be hosted at the University of California, Berkeley for their matchup against (at the time) #8 Miami. It was an interesting choice. Were there no better games that weekend? But also, would there ever be a better time for me to go?
Oct. 5, — the first gameday of the academic year (the quarter system amazes me), and I had not one, but two games to see.
At 12:30 p.m., I would be in Stanford Stadium cheering on the Cardinal against Virginia Tech. At 7:30 p.m., I would be in the student section of California Memorial Stadium, parading as the enemy, watching the underdog Golden Bears take on the Hurricanes.
When it comes to school spirit, I don’t believe in modesty. I wholeheartedly believe that Stanford is the best university in the world. That being said, I am also not living under a rock — I never said we had the greatest football atmosphere in the country.
It’s hard for me to know what gamedays looked like during the Jim Harbaugh, Andrew Luck era at Stanford. Based on pictures of full stadiums under the lights, I have to imagine they were a bit more inspired than they’ve been during my time here. At the Virginia Tech game, which I had anticipated to be the liveliest home game we’d have all season (it was only Week 3 – there were no midterms to be used as excuses!), the student section was still nowhere near full. The rest of the stadium was positively empty. And it was a beautiful day! Virginia Tech fans had traveled out to our campus in impressive numbers to watch, what was for them, an away game, and it was as if no one at Stanford (besides the most dedicated members of Greek life) had gotten the memo. At the pregame tailgate on Ueland Field, there had been no music, which made me acutely aware of the lacking energy. Needless to say, when the Cardinal were down 14-0 at the half, people started to vacate the scene. The eventual score of 31-7 was both the result of poor play calling and a loss of what little home crowd advantage had been there to begin with.
When my team loses, I am usually too disappointed to have much to say. But that day I had places to be, so I changed out of my Stanford red and into neutral clothing (never blue) for the ride up to Berkeley. In the car, my friends buzzed about the gameday atmosphere, the parties we could hit before the game, and how excited they were. I was a little bit sad that they hadn’t shown the same enthusiasm for the Stanford game. But when we got to Berkeley, it was pretty obvious why they were excited.
With over three hours until kickoff, the row was filled with students dressed in blue and gold. Every house had a banner mocking UMiami — you can picture all the “Daddy’s money” jokes imaginable — and music was blaring out of closed-door parties. Students who had attended the pregame show had been up since 6 a.m. and were rallying like they’d just woken up. College GameDay had picked Cal as a wildcard destination, and they had absolutely risen to the occasion. Plus, they’re on the semester system, so they did have midterms, and they’d still shown up.
My only other visit to Berkeley had been for Big Game my freshman year, and I hadn’t gone to any parties. This time around, there was so much to notice and contrast with the Stanford gameday experience. There are things I don’t envy, like the exclusivity of their party culture, or the fact that they have to pay to attend home games. But I do envy how much they seem to care. We don’t have the student body size of Cal, nor do we have local restaurants or bars to grab a quick bite before the game. We don’t have as good of a sound system in the stadium, which allows for a dance party in between every play, or the firework show at halftime. The student body size and campus infrastructure might be out of our control, but surely better speakers can fit into our budget.
The game lasted for four hours, and I didn’t find myself bored for a single minute. Despite leading by nearly 20 at the half, Cal ended up losing to UMiami in a performance that solidified Cam Ward in my mind as a Heisman candidate. I wasn’t sure whether to be glad, since it was Berkeley, or sad, like everyone else around me who’d been excited to rush the field. Still, I had a great time, my friends and I ate Taco Bell a few blocks away from the stadium, and on the way home we all agreed that it was the most fun we’d had all year.
I’d like to point out something for the naysayers who claim that Stanford’s lack of school spirit comes from their lack of wins: Cal is 5-4 overall and 1-4 in conference play. They are not a ranked team! And yet their student body shows out for them in masses and treats gameday like a holiday. Never in a million years would I trade going to Stanford for crossing the Bay, but I think we can learn something from our rivals about energy and atmosphere. I promise we won’t lose anything academically by having a little more fun on Saturdays.
All this to say, especially with Big Game being hosted there this year: Beat Cal.