Rece Davis says College GameDay doesn\u2019t root for teams, but he\u2019d make an exception for North Dakota State.<\/p>\n
On the College GameDay Podcast, Davis floated the possibility<\/a> of bringing ESPN\u2019s flagship pregame show to Albuquerque for New Mexico\u2019s Oct. 24 home game against the Bison. GameDay has never set up shop in New Mexico, and by Davis\u2019 account, only a couple more wins from each team stand between the show and Albuquerque.<\/p>\n \u201cI need North Dakota State to win this game,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe don\u2019t root. We don\u2019t root for teams. Pete [Thamel] says this often. We root for the story. They got a game in New Mexico in a couple of weeks. That could be really, really attractive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time Davis has rooted for a result with GameDay\u2019s travel plans in mind. On the show\u2019s podcast late last month, he admitted he wanted Iowa to beat Michigan,<\/a> stressing that it had nothing to do with wanting the Wolverines to lose or with any fondness for the Hawkeyes. He simply roots for the show. Iowa delivered, as quarterback Hank Brown hit Reece Vander Zee on a back-shoulder throw on the final play for a 20-19 win. That set up a top-15 showdown with Ohio State and sent GameDay to Kinnick Stadium for the first time since 2006, ending a four-week run of SEC campus visits.<\/p>\n College GameDay drew 2.9 million viewers from Iowa City on Saturday, with the final hour climbing to 3.7 million. Ohio State then pulled away for a 31-14 win in a game that averaged nearly 6 million viewers. That gave CBS, not ESPN, its first college football weekend ratings win since 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n Davis would like to see that happen again.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not saying GameDay is going there, but I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s not,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I need North Dakota State to win this game. Need New Mexico to keep winning.\u201d<\/p>\n New Mexico\u2019s Jason Eck, meanwhile, is in no hurry to join the lobbying effort, even with his program within reach of the biggest pregame spotlight in college football. Asked at his weekly press conference whether he planned to cut \u201cwrestling style promos\u201d to lure the show to town, the second-year coach, who spent six seasons as an assistant at North Dakota State\u2019s archrival, South Dakota State, kept his attention on the Lobos\u2019 upcoming trip to Hawaii.<\/p>\n \u201cI appreciate you guys doing that behind the scenes, but I want to make sure myself, our staff, and our players stay focused on Hawaii, because I know the quickest way to make sure that doesn\u2019t happen would be for us to go lose to Hawaii,\u201d said Eck, sporting his best Tony Soprano look<\/a>. \u201cSo we\u2019re going to stay focused on the task at hand, but I encourage you guys to, you know, write Kirk Herbstreit a letter or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re gonna stay focused on the task at hand, but I encourage you guys to write Kirk Herbstreit a letter or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n (\ud83d\udcf9 via @UNMLOBOS) https:\/\/t.co\/hbJgNN0srQ<\/p>\n