IU coach on ESPN 'College GameDay' idea: 'Wasted conversation'

UPDATE (7:48 p.m. Wednesday): The "College GameDay"-to-IU movement got a dousing of cold water from coach Kevin Wilson on Wednesday, during his weekly radio show.

Calling the idea "just a bunch of wasted conversation," Wilson dismissed the possibility.

Wilson said he doesn't believe his team's results (3-0 this season) would merit a GameDay visit, and that he doesn't want it affecting the focus of his team ahead of Saturday's trip to Wake Forest. Wilson pointed out the Hoosiers have had to come from behind in all three of their games this season, despite being a favorite in each.

"First, you've gotta fill your stadium, which we haven't played well enough to do," Wilson said. "We actually blew all that up, because it's a wasted conversation for our football team."

GameDay location assignments are typically announced six days to a week in advance, according to ESPN's Mike Humes. The weekly Saturday pregame show will be in Tucson, Ariz., this weekend.

Earlier

So, I'm not even totally sure what to do with this, but here goes ...

Indiana football has started the season 3-0 for the first time since 2010. It has a chance — perhaps a good one — to win this weekend, thus beginning the season 4-0 for the first time since 1990.

The last time IU started 3-0, it went 5-7 and missed bowl eligibility by the margin of one dropped pass. The last time IU started 4-0, it went to the Peach Bowl.

What began with a tweet from Dan Dakich has been spirited onward by Crimson Quarry, an SB Nation site dedicated to covering Indiana: a rapidly spreading effort to get ESPN's popular Saturday morning pregame show, "College GameDay," to Bloomington on Oct. 3 for the Hoosiers' Big Ten opener against defending national champion Ohio State.

Crimson Quarry's reasons are multiple, and its tone playful. And it has fueled a movement that, in IU's little corner of the social media spectrum, has taken off.

While it began with the above-linked tweet, this really took off when Lee Fitting, the show's producer, responded directly to a tweet about the idea:

Endorsements from prominent IU alumni — including those with ESPN connections — came Tuesday.

Dakich was already on board:

Sage Steele is too:

And so is former Ohio State basketball player and Brownsburg alumnus Mark Titus:

And finally, "College GameDay" itself acknowledged what has become a grassroots movement:

So you can understand the excitement.

Where does this actually stand? Well first, it should go without saying that a loss at Wake Forest this weekend would derail the whole enterprise. Indiana needs to be 4-0.

I reached out to Mike Humes from ESPN, who was kind enough to run through basic selection procedures.

"The primary factors that go into the decision on a 'GameDay' location are the records of the teams, quality of the matchup and compelling storylines of the teams in the game or the matchup itself," Humes said in an email.

Producers will have a working list to plan for future locations put together a few weeks out, but games can be added and subtracted from that list as necessary. Right now, IU-Ohio State would be looking at Alabama-Georgia and Notre Dame-Clemson, among others, as competition.

Is this all a little bit pie-in-the-sky? Probably, although the tweet from "College GameDay" raises an eyebrow.

Is it a welcome change in public perception for a program trying to turn an important corner in Kevin Wilson's fifth year? Without a doubt.

Follow Star reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.