ESPN's College GameDay is headed to Columbus, Ohio on Saturday for Ohio State's showdown against Michigan State. GameDay opting to set its destination to Blacksburg over Columbus, Stillwater, or Norman—cities hosting games with more significant conference and playoff implications—was always a long shot. Most hail marry passes hush a game sleep, they don't wake the baby. In the end, GameDay's cast responded to Hokie Nation's impressive effort with a nice enough video, but actions speaks louder than words.
@VT_Football There won't be a #GameDay4Frank, but we've got nothing but love for Coach Beamer and the program.
https://t.co/rAMP2ewbLn— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) November 15, 2015
Even though #GameDay4Frank didn't convince ESPN's pregame show to travel to Blacksburg for Frank Beamer's final game in Lane Stadium, the campaign wasn't a failure. Hokie Nation's actions were felt.
Hokies showed up at both Tuscaloosa and Waco to support #GameDay4Frank.
Time for #HokieNation to rise up and get @CollegeGameDay at VT next week #GameDay4Frank pic.twitter.com/3gewVGVj9w— Trey Collins (@hokief86) November 14, 2015
Shane Beamer described the movement and support as "unreal" and "awesome".
At his retirement announcement press conference, Frank Beamer said about the timing of his decision, "The last thing I want is for Hokies to be divided, I want everyone to be in the same direction and I think its right in that regard and so I think this is the right time."
Hokie Nation came together for a cause and hammered GameDay's social media presence with thousands of tweets and Facebook messages in support of their legendary coach. This journey was more important than the destination, and everyone who participated deserves a pat on the back.
Comments
I'm glad they acknowledged our efforts. We knew it was, indeed, a long shot.. so I can't say that I'm all that surprised. Yet still, I hope we press forward and #winout4Frank. Show that we can keep our Hokie heads high, and send Frank, one of the classiest and well deserved men to ever do it, out on a high note.
I love being apart of Hokie Nation, I wouldn't have it any other way - and given the timeframe of my fandom, I attribute that specifically to Mr. Beamer and what he's done for this program and this university.
WE LOVE YA FRANK
Edit - the time spent and effort that you guys put in is overwhelming. Simply put, Hokie nation is the best! LET'S GO!!!!!!
HOKIES!!!
amen
This campaign was a hell of a lot of fun. I interacted with a whole bunch of people that I didn't know...and still actually don't but they follow me on Twitter now, so there's that. I got an excuse to make a bunch of memes, make a bunch of funny and sincere comments about a man I admire and a program I love. That was worth it.
Now let's beat the tar out of UNC. You see what I did there.
Completely agree! I communicated with people at other chapters that otherwise I would have never reached out to, and made new connections on LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Even though it was just a campaign, it is absolutely unreal how the Hokie Nation will come together for a cause to support Hokies.
Knew it was a long shot, still kinda pissed. That being said, I'll see ya Saturday in section U. Not sure how I'm gonna talk at work Sunday but I'll figure that out later.
I had a lot to drink last night and went off about their decision not to come to Blacksburg, now that I have had a day sober to collect my thoughts and rationalize I believe we can make them wish they were there by how crazy the crowd will be and UNC getting upset. It will be great with or without them. I just hope MSU enjoys their 3rd game this season with college game day, that just upsets me that they get so much attention it is making me dislike them.
Herbie looks like he's going to cry I'm that video. Let the tears flow Kirk. It's ok. We all shed a tear too.
Even though Gameday isn't coming, Hokie Nation, thanks to you Joe may have just added another selling point for Whit in hiring the next coach. Whit can now state that we have best fanbase in the country and use this to back it up. A thing like this could be the difference in Whit being able getting his guy, coaches love it when they know they have a huge fanbase that will back them up.
While I am as bummed out as the next person about College Gameday not coming to Blacksburg next week I think this (^) is a really good point. The passion Hokie Nation has shown in the past few weeks will have two important impacts on our search for a new head coach.
1. Solidification
Hokie Nation put it into overdrive for the #Gameday4Frank campaign. So much love and support has been pouring out and a coach that is successful here and respects the institution and culture in Blacksburg will get the same treatment. This is an extremely appealing quality. I can see it being key in locking in which ever coach Babs has lined up. You can sell the hell out of the fan support.
2. Elevation
I also think this could increase the pedigree of the program to prospective coaches. Hokie Nation grabbed national attention and I think that by doing so it raised the attractiveness of VT. I can see some of the high caliber coaches who are looking for a job being more interested now.
Fan support is paramount to the success of a program and VT sure has a lot of it. Southwest Virginia has known that for a while but now the entire country knows.
Babs go work some magic!
Pretty dag on disappointed in their decision not to be there, mainly because Frank deserves all the accolades, so Hokienation will rise up to honor the man, the coach, the legend. Maybe that's how it should end, the way it began, with a man who loved VT and believed in the program when many didn't, to be sent out by all who truly believed in him! Thanks Frank for your dedication and love to VT.
The consensus is that it was a long shot but that's not how it felt to me as it was happening. At the beginning, I thought it would be more than likely Gameday would go somewhere else. I even made a thread about it before the #Gameday4Frank stuff started stating that.
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2015/november/1/virginia-techs-college...
But as we went along, it sure didn't feel like a long shot to me. It felt like we were really doing it. It felt like we were winning them over. We had Buzz in on it, the entire team was in on it...reporters were asking Frank himself about it. The way Gameday would retweet our stuff and Rece Davis was commenting on our instagram videos and David Pollack saying Beamer was the only coach he'd taken a picture with. I was thinking, "I think we got them, there is no way they would be teasing us like that if we didn't have a great shot." Somewhere along the way it stopped feeling like a longshot for me. I guess I should have had the perspective that y'all did.
It's not the end of the world or anything, it just felt like a giant tease to me.
Me too I was almost convinced we had gameday the way we were trending with #GameDay4Frank. I was crushed when I found out, it was a feeling similar to getting turned down while asking out the person you have a crush on.
I guess I have a different perspective on this, since I have been studying 'buzz marketing' and what makes topics go viral for several years. Corporate decision makers aren't swayed by petitions when far more attractive options exist. I had no expectations other than 1) Frank's retirement was going to get a whole lot more attention than it otherwise would and 2) TKP would get a lot of positive publicity, more Twitter followers and Facebook likes. That's how viral marketing works. You ride the surf of a trending topic and give it more life, then let the chips fall where they may.
Each crew member seemed sincere in the video, but the way it was edited seemed to take the emotion out of it. I wouldn't be surprised if their hearts wanted to oblige, but didn't want to set the precedent of letting fan demand sway the location.
Be awesome if Hokie fans flooded the msu-osu game day scene anyway and over took it.
How awesome and powerful would it be to hear the "lets go hokies" chant on turf that isn't even ours during their broadcast.
As awesome as that would be, I hope every able-bodied Hokie is in Blacksburg this weekend giving Beamer a proper send off.
fwiw actions speak louder than words.
#hokienation took words and turned it into actions. Collegegameday...again, actions speak louder than words.
Shane made a good point that there will always be anOSU-MSU type of hype game year after year. This was a golden opportunity to honor a living legendary coach and future hall of famer at the place of his last home game. It's a mastercard moment: PRICELESS! ESPN had a chance to capitalize and showcase it. That's documenting history as it happens. Will college football care who won anOSU-MSU on 11/21 next year? How about five years from now? What about 10? Hell No!! There will ALWAYS be another hyped college football game every year...there is only ONE Frank Beamer and he only has ONE last game to coach at Lane stadium. The end....there are no repeat showings, no do over, no re-runs. This is it...
But hindsight is 20/20 and luckily #hokienation is ahead of magic 8-ball. This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment with a once-in-a-lifetime type of coach.
Bitter, sure but all is forgiven ESPN. But the gesture won't be forgotten. It's ESPN's loss, not ours...just saying
#realtalk
#legendsretireonce
#hypegameshappenallthetime
#winout4frank
#rankingsdontmatterwhenlegendsretire
#dorkmagicovereverything
#ourtearsareforfrankandnotESPN
#theresonlyonefrankbeamer
#fowlerevensaidcollegegamedaywouldntbewhatitistodaywithoutthesupportoffrankbeamer
#itsalrightbecausewegotthis
#dontsayyouwerentinvitedbecauseyouwas
Ok, I get it. Ohio State vs Michigan is a staple rivalry for college football. It's a legendary game. But, the GameDay staff could send "two maybe three" guys to come report things in Blacksburg. Just a small crew. Show 80% OSU vs Mich, and 20% for Coach Beame, maybe even 10%...SOMETHING!
Hopefully Coach Beamer can just get a little more face time on that day than any other game. Oh well, it doesn't make or break the program. The response was cool though.
Dual locations...plot twist.
But really, just have the guys covering the game broadcast cover everything...the walk, Hokie village, live coach/player interviews, pre-game, etc. That would be acknowledgement enough
One thing to consider - to Hokie fans, Frank's 'last game' is the UNC game because it's home. For the rest of the college football world, his last game is the UVA game.
We'd have had a much better shot if his actual last game was also his last home game.
To be fair, Scott Stadium really should've been renamed Lane Stadium - North Annex a while back. :)
UVA fans were not buying tickets to this game because they know that there will be way too many Hokies there, and they didn't want to be around that many Hokies.
Good. More tickets for us.
Except that it's Ohio State/Michigan State this week.
Ohio State at Michigan is next weekend, and if they send anyone to report from Blacksburg, it'll be pretty empty.
Know what else would be cool? If Bill Roth would come back to call the last game.
All right. Let me just say, I had a feeling this would happen, and while I'm very disheartened by the decision, I am not surprised. ESPN has turned college football into something larger than it has ever been before. In the process, they are also robbing it of its identity. I am not a purist, but historically, college football has been a different animal than pro football. Not so much anymore. With its coast to coast coverage, ESPN has actually turned college ball into a more national affair than the NFL. Typically speaking, you see the pro team either closest to you geographically or the most dominant within your television footprint. Hence the ongoing thread tracking who will be able to watch Tyrod play for the Bills. Yet ESPN will show the same college game from Maine to California.
ESPN cornered the market on college football a long time ago, and they've done a hell of a lot to promote it. It's way more lucrative now than it's ever been. But the coverage is also now 100% focused on the CFP and who will win the playoffs. While I agree that this is a step forward from the BCS, it's important to remember that for decades, any national championships in college football were purely mythical things. For a long stretch of history, it was the rivalries and the storylines that drove college football. There was a time when the retirement of a hall of fame coach like Bear Bryant or Bo Schembechler would have been THE headline in college football coverage, regardless of what the standings or the polls looked like. But we live in a different world now. The twilight of Frank Beamer's career will take second fiddle in coverage to the race for the playoffs, because in nationalizing college football, ESPN has turned it into basically every other sport.
This is not a lament. I believe what ESPN has done for college football is a net positive. But it has diminished some of the characteristics that have driven college football since the day Rutgers first played Princeton. On Saturday, it's up to us to remember what the most important storyline is in college football. Because ESPN just doesn't get it. They never have, and they never will.
Don't forget that College Gameday is a fan fest for entertainment in the morning before the games begin and doesnt really have an impact on the game. The Today Show has no effect on NBC Nightly News.
So thankful, have you watched a B1G 10/Big 12 game on Fox. It's awful. O and don't forget for Fox's non primetime games they aren't even sending out reporters to the games any more. Matt Lienert calls the game from the Studio in LA.
I wouldn't say ESPN has changed or robbed College FB, It was always going to grew larger. Is Miami Nebraska a local rivalry. Look at the world today everything is global. College football grew to be larger in premiere games but conference games are still rivalries. Look at the Big 10, its all about rivalries and there 15 or 20 trophy games. In fact Gameday is at OSU-MSU for the reason of rivalries.
Want to blame someone...BLAME THE ACC. The acc has never created a pregame show like that. The ACC forced ND to give up their Rivalry game against Michigan. The ACC stayed focused on Basketball, and the ACC has spread the conference out. Or Blame the team that Didn't make this a close game for standings in the ACC or NCG.
Or blame the fans. UVA has announced the VT game is sold out but Lane has not announced a Sellout yet.
And ESPN did the Best they could by giving us the spot after Gameday so everyone watching Gameday can watch as Beamer takes the field at LANE
Maybe UNC's allotment isn't sold yet?
That is correct. VT has sold all the tickets (minus a luxury box) that they have to sell.
Where did you see the ACC forced ND to give up their rivalry games?
Multiple news outlets. but the easiest is Wikipedia
It's not like the ACC told Notre Dame, "you must suspend rivalries to halfway join us."
The ACC provided Notre Dame with five guaranteed games a year. It was up to Notre Dame to figure out how to fill out the other 7 games on their schedule, and they had to determine which teams they wanted to play.
Neither did ESPN. I know we all hate ESPN but it's not responsible for everything
Also it's hard to say college football is all about rivalries and regional play when VT plays Western Michigan over ODU, wonder why we lost the 757. When VT hasn't played half of it's rivalry games in a decade. when vt plays ECU every year and not Marshall. Tenn was a rebuilding team for years and we never played them instead of ECU or Purdue.
You act like these other schools don't get a say. That the VT AD just tells these others schools
and it just happens.
I'm pretty sure that's exactly how it works with a few other details. It's been harder for VT because we did that to ECU but added on a 10 year term.
Or maybe thats the problem the ACC told VT Raycom would handle their scheduling. I mean if we aren't searching out other school to play and waiting on someone else that's a big problem in the Admin.
Not really at all. The other school gets a say, with medium sized schools and up many want home and home games. This means you have to figure out mutually workable open dates.mthen add in the fact that some schools don't want to play even a one time game. Whit can't just call up any school and tell them we want to play and this is the date you will be here to play us.
That's not a fair comparison. By the time ODU got their football program going, we already had our FCS schools worked out for a while. ODU made the jump to FBS so fast that we never had a chance to schedule them as an FCS team. As soon as they announced the jump to FBS, we got that series set up.
Looking up VT's rivalry games, I get a list of BC, GT, Miami, UVA, and WVU. Four of those are in conference, and we play every year. Even if you want to narrow it down to the traditional two (UVA and WVU), then yes, we haven't played half our rivalry games in a decade. But that's one series against a school that didn't want to play. Once we got through that first couple of transition years into ACC, the schedules were set for VT and WVU. And then WVU went to the Big 12, where they went from 7 conference games to 9.
Because each school agreed to a certain series. We can't twist their arm to play more games than they want to. But I'm not sure why Marshall gets preference here. We've played them 5 times since 2002, and prior to that, we hadn't played them since 1953. ECU has been at least a semi-regular on the VT schedule since the late 1980s. Either way, both are B-team schools in adjoining states.
First of all, it goes back to a two way road to want to play the game. Tennessee had to want to play us as well. And why would they schedule a surging ACC team while they were a meddling SEC team? They needed all the help they could get to pad out their record. And really, Purdue? We played them for the first time ever this year, and I'm pretty sure a large part of that was helping them fill a hole in their schedule and our new president came from there.
Exactly ND could have played Mich instead of UMASS this year, Miami of Ohio next and Army the year after.
I'd like to add a few things to the above comments about college football no longer being regional:
Very much agree. What make college football special is all the unique traditions. ESPN is aware of this - For example, they almost always make a point to discuss/televise Enter Sandman during our games. Some people think College Gameday has lost its touch, but it still makes me feel nostalgic about college - which is the goal of the show. I do wish they cut out at least one of the Tom Rinoldi/Gene Wojciechowski 'Feel-good' stories (and by feel good, I actually mean feel like shit stories) and replaced them with stories about cool traditions, cool things about the campus, or something like that.
I wouldn't say its immediate gratification/what-have-you-done-for-me-lately. It's a Pregame show about the Best games of the week...and other football headlines... that's it, it want's to be at the most hyped game every-week
Because the ACC refused to accept them and WVU saw the coming power schools to move on, and no ACC meant it was Big 12. Wonder if it was VT that blocked them. or if it was Carolina wanting Louisville for the Basketball
So should there have been a #gameday4pinkel. Teams that aren't the hyped game don't get gameday.
He didn't stay at one school but has the same criteria,
Or what about a Mack Brown gameday.
He won a NCG, current leader in wins, but Texas was mediocre Football struggling to stay in the Top 30
Plan B: Bring back "Stick It In" for Frank's last (home) game #StickItIn4Frank
I didn't initially see the "4" in the hashtag (#StickItInFrank). I wasn't really on board, but I was like, "Well, if that is what Frank wants."
Where is SportsCenter on Campus being broadcast from this week?
My biggest regret about not getting Game Day was that I did not get to post this photo with the caption "DEAL WITH IT" to all the haters of the movement.
Seriously, I was really looking forward to it.
That said, it was always going to be an uphill climb and the truth was we were probably never really in the running. What the movement really did was to show, not only Coach Beamer, but the college football world, how much he meant to us. In the end, the voice was loud enough that the Game Day crew had no option but to acknowledge the fan base and for that, everyone deserves credit.
Do you think we could get Frank to request that they play Stick It In? I mean, he requested the jerseys, he should be able to request Stick It In?
Edit: Actually - we need to get the players on board and have the players ask Frank.
I just hope to see the guys pull out a W and carry Frank off the field for his last game in Lane.
Gatorade bath