Wichita State makes plans for ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’

Wichita State is planning for ESPN’s “College GameDay” to visit Koch Arena on Feb. 28 for its basketball game against 11th-ranked Northern Iowa.

The athletic department is planning for a big crowd. It knows where on the court the stage will sit. It is planning to run shuttles.

The announcement comes on Saturday during ESPN’s broadcast from Arizona, where the Wildcats will play UCLA. The program starts at 10 a.m. Until then, associate athletic director John Brewer can’t reveal more than that he likes the way things look for a visit by host Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Jay Williams and Seth Greenberg.

“I feel confident,” Brewer said. “I think our league deserves this. This is set up nicely for two teams playing well.”

In the fall, ESPN told the Missouri Valley Conference it would consider the UNI-WSU game along with Texas at Kansas and two other games of likely national interest, perhaps Syracuse at Duke and Arizona at Utah. All four are scheduled for ESPN on Feb. 28, beginning with No. 13 WSU’s game at 1 p.m.

Of those possibilities, WSU’s game and No. 7 Arizona at No. 9 Utah are the only two matching ranked teams. Featuring Arizona in back-to-back shows seems unlikely.

“I feel very good about this,” Brewer said.

So does coach Gregg Marshall. In 2008, “GameDay” originated from SIU Arena for a Creighton-Southern Illinois game, the only time for MVC schools to appear.

“They generally go to the game that has a lot of national appeal,” he said. “It would be tremendous.”

Brewer’s goal will be to fill Koch Arena. Plans includes opening the doors at 8:15 a.m. to get fans in — admission will be free — in time for the 10 a.m. live portion of the show. Brewer said Kentucky is only school to present ESPN with a full arena for “GameDay” and he wants to match that.

“Let’s pack our building,” he said. “We’re going to want 10,500 in the building.”

At 11 a.m., WSU would need to clear the arena to begin seating for the game. Normal parking permits apply and Brewer said shuttles would run for “GameDay.” “College GameDay” starts on ESPNU at 9 a.m. with a recorded hour before switching to ESPN for the live segment.

“We’ll require a ton of preparation if we’re awarded the site,” he said. “It will require all hands on deck.”

In October, Brewer daydreamed about the possibility and theorized that the Shockers and Panthers needed to be atop the MVC and in the national rankings. The MVC set up its schedule to showcase the game. With one week to go, those plans by WSU and the MVC look prophetic.

WSU will end the regular season at home in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2005 and 2006, a situation helped by ESPN’s desire to show this game from Koch Arena. Last season’s finale against Missouri State, also on ESPN, showed the Shockers finishing a perfect regular season.

“The first two games we put on the (schedule) this year was Wichita State and Northern Iowa,” MVC associate commissioner Jack Watkins said. “ESPN has a lot of input on site selection. They told us, ‘We’d like to go back to Wichita State’ and they would consider it for ‘GameDay.’”

This story was originally published February 20, 2015 at 2:43 PM with the headline "Wichita State makes plans for ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’."