College Gameday's Miss on Montana
Brawl of the Wild, the annual matchup between Montana and Montana State, embodies college football rivalry — and thus, embodies the essence of college football.
The series dates back to 1897, and the 2021 meeting marks the 120th all-time between the programs. Plenty of history has been made in that time — and no shortage of animosity.
What’s more, the Grizzlies and Bobcats are consistently pretty damn good. This year in particular, the two head into the regular-season finale ranked in the top 10 and vying for seeding in the upcoming FCS Playoffs — hence Montana’s aggressive push to Gameday.
The school even had an AWESOME celebrity guest picker lined up!
And Gameday responded by…
Heading to Columbus for the record 21st time in the show’s history.
Sigh.
Beyond the following bullet-points, I will spare you a tired rant on the transformation of Gameday, lest I encroach on Abe Simpson “Old Man Yells at Cloud” territory.
A three-hour telecast is absurd.
Like other avenues of sports media in the last three years or so, it’s oversaturated with gambling talk. I miss the days of subtle wink-and-nod references.
The human interest stories, while sometimes quite well done and important, are jarring in contrast with the festive atmosphere on which Gameday was built. Rather than shoehorn those features into a program where they are ill-fitting in tone, why not repurpose some of the many hours during the week dedicated to repetitive hot takes for a news magazine show?
OK, now that I have gotten those notes out of the way, I feel less frustration with Gameday for going to Columbus than I do disappointment. And it has less to do with Gameday specifically than with the general direction college football’s being herded.
Former Central Michigan coach John Bonamego was the first person to ever invoke the front-porch metaphor to me, and it stuck with me because it’s such an apt description encapsulating what people love about college football.
They love football, sure, but they love college football specifically because of the ties to the universities. And as one of, if not the most outward-facing entity of the schools, the football programs are the proverbial front porch.
Football reflects both the schools and the communities of which they are part, in particular in a place like Missoula, Montana. College Gameday is an opportunity not just to show off a winning football team, but to introduce the nation to the traditions, customs and people that shape a community.
Emanating from on-location at the site of a great game has always been the M.O. of Gameday, but what constitutes greatness in this era seems to begin and end at the question, How does this impact the College Football Playoff?
It’s a myopic way of viewing the sport. When viewed through that lens, one misses out on so much beauty — like the majestic backdrop of Washington-Grizzly Stadium and the Brawl of the Wild.