ESPN College GameDay A Success In Seattle

SEATTLE - A festive crowd of around 1,500 gathered in Bank of America Arena for ESPN College GameDay Powered by State Farm on Saturday morning. The doors opened to the arena around 6:30 this morning and Dawg fans were ready to show the nation their undying enthusiasm.

Digger Phelps - the unofficial warm up act - revved up the crowd and prepped them for the show. His enthusiasm was infectuous and he did a great job of making sure that the Dawg Pack was ready to go.

Before the show got going, there was a donut eating contest and an appearance by Captain Husky and the fish throwers from Pike Place Market - plenty of action before the real action even got going.

At about 7:30, ESPN did a live look-in at BOA and the crowd made it feel like there were 10,000 fans in the stands with their decibal levels. It was pretty evident that by 8:00, they were going to rock the joint.

Sure enough, when the actual College GameDay show started rolling live, it felt like we had just hit a buzzer beater. It was raucous and you could barely hear the broadcast going on in the forefront. The Dawg Pack did a great job of keeping the energy rolling throughout the entire show.

A couple light moments: The Dawg Pack was determined to get Rece Davis to wear a Husky snuggie during the broadcast and Harry the Husky approached Digger to plead with him to wear a purple tie. Both requests were politely declined by the talent!

All-in-all, the morning was a resounding success. Now, the trick will be to make sure that the Husky fans who had the early wake up call are ready to rock-and-roll tonight.