Have you heard? Of course you heard. Ol' Crimson, the WSU Gameday flag, was supposedly lost in transit to Tuscon and wasn't going to make it in time for College Gameday tomorrow. That would break a streak of a 166-straight College Gamedays at which the flag has flown.
But fear not! ESPN is flying in an Ol' Crimson replica via "UPS Express Critical", as the video above details (link here as well).
ESPN's Scott Van Pelt interviews Gameday producer Lee Fitting in the spot. Fitting says he has been working on the show for 12 years, and wasn't about to let the streak end:
Every one of those shows that I've been a part of, the flag has flown. And we were joking in the meeting today that if the flag does not make it, they can hoist me up shirtless on a flag pole, and I will paint myself in the Washington State colors. They can wave me around for three hours.
Now, a small part of me wants "UPS Express Critical" to mess up so we can see Mr. Fitting flying free in the Tuscon wind (do they have wind in Tuscon?). But WSU fans can rest easy, knowing that the Cougar logo will be front and center once again on College Gameday in the morning with an assist from ESPN.
Oh, and if you didn't notice, this whole ordeal has Fitting thinking about booking travel plans to Pullman, going so far to say that a "shift in priorities" is needed to get Gameday to the Palouse.
Now, was this all a big show to set up a Pullman Gameday announcement that was already in the works? And if it is, does that even matter? Finally, how soon will these priorities change? If it's immediately, we could see Gameday at WSU as early as Oct. 17 for Homecoming against Oregon State.
That would certainly be a shift in priorities, as the Beavers and Cougs are favorites to battle for the Pac-12 North cellar. Even if that doesn't come to fruition, the fact that ESPN is paying all this attention to a WSU program that hasn't been relevant since the Gameday flag was in its infancy shows the efforts of Tom Pounds and company have not come in vain.