WSU Football: Will ESPN College Game Day Become A Private Party?
By Lew Wright
Sept. 29, 2012; Seattle, WA, USA; Washington State Cougars mascot Butch brings out the flag before a game against the Oregon Ducks during the first half at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-USA TODAY Sports
Even for a writer, there is a certain flow to the college football season.
Pac-12 games warrant coverage from a number of angles. One angle I never anticipated rising to a level edging toward lunacy is the weekly tradition of ESPN’s College Game Day broadcast.
If you follow Washington State athletics you’re fully aware of the unique tradition of seeing Ol’ Crimson and Ol’ Gray flying amidst the campus crowd behind the intrepid ESPN College Game Day broadcast team of Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit.
In the normal course of events, virtually everyone has fun as a result of a dedicated group of Cougs spearheaded by the Ol’ Crimson Booster Club. Heck, Ol’ Crimson and Ol’ Gray have been behind the ESPN campus set for 138-consecutive weeks dating back to October 18, 2003.
Approaching a 10-year anniversary of linking WSU to Game Day on a national level, there is a buzz on Twitter, Facebook and numerous UW and WSU message boards whipping fans into a frenzy.
What’s the big deal?
This coming Saturday, College Game Day will bring their weekly show to Seattle recognizing the significant matchup between No. 2 Oregon and No. 16 Washington. No question this Pac-12 contest pits two of the best football teams in the country against one another.
It seems there is a very small but very vocal segment of the Husky fanbase who think it would be clever to disrupt a WSU tradition.
One of the more visible vocal UW personalities is a radio broadcaster who actually issued a statement offering $100 to anyone who pulls down the WSU flags.
It’s easy enough to extrapolate this fractious sentiment into some sort of turf war.
Rather than exhibit pride in a football program finally returning to national relevance, a group of Husky fans seem to suggest that ESPN’s College Game Day should become their private party.
One voice of Game Day will not tolerate such immature actions.
"Chris Fowler tweeted: “…flag carriers will be protected if needed! It’s a tradition. WSU flag(s) will be there.”"
Some people get it and some just don’t.
The long standing tradition of waving the WSU flag at every Game Day broadcast has nothing to do with any school other than Washington State University. Wave the Flag is simply an expression of Cougar Pride.
For reasons which defy rational thought, The Dawg Pack (claiming to be the best student section in the Pac-12) is attempting to rally their lemmings to “obscure” the WSU flags via Twitter.
Fortunately there are rational people handling the logistics involved in presenting Game Day from Seattle. The demented vision of those who express unfounded self-importance won’t see the light of day.
The temptation to sink to a level of those with misguided motivations shouldn’t become a blip on the radar of Cougar Nation.
As fans of Washington State, let’s focus on the future.
For Cougar football, that means looking ahead to a week of celebration leading to Dad’s Weekend and another Pac-12 game against the Oregon State Beavers.
And for this writer, I’ll return to bringing you a view of Coach Mike Leach’s presser…which is how things should flow.
GO COUGS!!!
*For what should be a representative WSU view chiming in on this topic, check out Jeff Nusser’s essay: ESPN Game Day At Washington