Syracuse Football: College GameDay in jeopardy after latest bombshell

Syracuse football will face the Clemson Tigers in Week 3 of the 2019 season. College GameDay may not be coming to host after the latest bombshell.

In one of the most anticipated Syracuse football seasons in history, there is one game that is circled on everyone’s calendars: Week 3 Orange vs the Clemson Tigers.

The game already has a ton of hype around it with Tim Green’s jersey retirement, home/ACC opener, homecoming weekend, primetime game (already set for 7:30 p.m.), and this could decide the power of balance in the entire conference.

For all of those reasons and more, many assume that ESPN’s College GameDay will grace the hill for the very first time in history to cover the Syracuse football squad.

In the wise words of Lee Corso, not so fast my friends.

An interesting nugget was dropped this week that may mean nothing but could be an indication of where ESPN is leaning this season.

Syracuse Alum Sean McDonough has been assigned the play-by-play duties for the huge game that will take place at the Dome on September 14 between the Clemson Tigers and the Syracuse Orange.

McDonough will be on campus the day before to receive an award from the University called the George Arents Award, which is given to an alum who has performed above and beyond in their respective professions.

On most Fridays in the fall, McDonough is on the road getting ready to announce a football game for ESPN the following day. However, because of McDonough receiving such a high honor from his Alma Mater on September 13, ESPN is making McDonough’s traveling schedule much easier and will put him on the game against Clemson the next day.

But is this a signal toward ESPN’s plans regarding College GameDay in Week 3?

Normally ESPN has Chris Fowler taking the play-by-play responsibilities for games that College GameDay is attending, with Kirk Herbstreit as the Color Analyst.

McDonough is someone who has announced tons of prime time football games in his career, including being the play-by-play man for Monday Night Football for two seasons.

Despite ESPN saying this decision will have no impact on whether College Gameday comes to Syracuse or not, it’s interesting that if College GameDay does come to Syracuse, ESPN will be breaking up a legendary broadcast team of Fowler and Herbstreit, even if it is just for one week.

Do I believe that McDonough on play-by-play for ‘Cuse vs Clemson means College GameDay is NOT coming? No.

However, this is information that shouldn’t be overlooked. I must say, I do feel a little less confident about the likelihood of College GameDay making their first career appearance at a SU football game because it isn’t Fowler on the call. However, A 2-0 start by both teams will make this information almost irrelevant. We’ll have to see how the season starts off.