ESPN's College GameDay Chooses Eugene Over Gators/Bama and Red River Rivalry.

This Saturday ESPN's venerable College GameDay program will be broadcasting live from Eugene, Oregon the morning of the No. 4 Duck's matchup with the No. 9 Stanford Cardinal.  

This will be the second week in row where the show will be at a game featuring an Oregon team (Beavers v. Boise last week in Idaho) and the fifth time the program has been to the University of Oregon.  The Ducks are 3-1 in matches when GameDay is in town with their one loss being a seven-point heartbreaker courtesy of the Cal Bears in 2007.

Weekly highlights of the GameDay show include the signs brought in by the crowd and the donning of the headgear by Lee Corso who in the show's final moments, puts on the headpiece of the mascot for the team he's predicted to win the day's game.  

It doesn't sound like a big deal, but people turn into total mental patients during the taping of GameDay, especially at the "moment of truth" when Corso prognosticates. This is what it looks like:

That's the reaction of the crowd after Corso picked Oregon to beat USC on Halloween last year and rode off on the motorcycle that traditionally brings Oregon's mascot, Puddles, onto the field right before kickoff.

As far as signs go, I think this one from the same game last year, is a tough act to follow:

This was one of the more "spirited" ones from the Saturday in 2007 when the eleventh-ranked Ducks lost to #6 California.  It was based on a slogan that caused some confusion on the UofO campus that year:

I will be leaving Portland, OR at 3:30 AM that morning to get to Eugene (a little over 100 miles) to photograph the festivities for Bleacher Report.  Check back Sunday for a complete photo essay with all the signs, sights, cheerleaders, and lunatics (and a few shots of the action on the field).

I will definitely try to catch this scene:

Go Ducks!  Yell-OOOOOO!!!!