From UNC (1997) to Appalachian State (2022), ESPN’s GameDay Making Rare Visit To NC Soil

By David Glenn

When ESPN’s popular traveling circus known as College GameDay visits Appalachian State for its weekly live national broadcast on Saturday morning, it will be visiting the state of North Carolina for only the seventh time in its 30-year history as an on-site production.

Remarkably, this is only the second time that a North Carolina-based school was central to the inspiration for GameDay’s visit. Three times, games played in Charlotte involved only out-of-state programs. (See below.) Twice, the main attraction was an out-of-state team ranked at or near No. 1 nationally that happened to be visiting a North Carolina-based opponent.

The only two exceptions are a 1997 North Carolina squad that was one of the best in school history and the 2022 Mountaineers, whose 17-14 triumph at #6 Texas A&M last week captured the nation’s attention and ranks among the program’s all-time greatest victories.

“This is what we’ve been working for since we made the transition to FBS (in 2014),” App State athletic director Doug Gillin said. “This is a special opportunity to showcase our university, community and football program to a national audience.”

That national audience can be enormous. Last Saturday, when Rece Davis (host), Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee, David Pollack and friends were in Austin, Texas, setting the stage for #1 Alabama’s matchup against the Longhorns, the final hour of the 9 am-noon broadcast had an average audience of 2.7 million viewers on ESPN, ESPNU and the ESPN App. Only the highest-profile college football GAMES draw greater viewership than that.

While the state of North Carolina is famous for being the center of the college basketball universe, among many other sports accolades, it only rarely steps into the major college football spotlight, where its teams’ highlights historically have been much less prominent.

The College GameDay archives reflect this reality.

For example, many individual schools have hosted GameDay far more often than the entire state of North Carolina, which has seven teams (App State, Charlotte, Duke, East Carolina, UNC, NC State, Wake Forest) playing at the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level. College football superpowers Ohio State (21) and Alabama (16) lead that GameDay list, meaning the Buckeyes have hosted three times more often than all NC cities/schools combined.

Long-time UNC fans may remember GameDay’s first visit to the state of North Carolina. Coach Bobby Bowden and #2 Florida State (8-0) visited coach Mack Brown and #5 UNC (8-0) in Chapel Hill for a late-season tilt, with the ACC title (there was no conference championship game format back then) and national championship implications hanging in the balance.

Head-to-head matchups between top-five opponents don’t happen often, and this one ranked among the most anticipated regular-season football games in ACC history.

(Side note: In my 35 years of covering college sports, that 1997 Carolina team still ranks as the best NC-based football team I’ve seen, and that FSU-UNC game still ranks as the loudest I’ve ever heard Kenan Stadium. There was an overflow crowd of 62,000-plus, and the upper deck literally was vibrating from the noise.)

The Seminoles ended up celebrating Bowden’s 68th birthday with a 20-3 victory, in a game truly dominated by defense. FSU, which had joined the ACC in 1992, improved its all-time conference record to 46-1, the only loss coming in a nailbiter at Virginia in 1995.

The Tar Heels beat their other 11 opponents that season by an average score of 31-11, including a 42-3 annihilation of Virginia Tech in the Gator Bowl. No UNC football team has ever had a better combination of NFL talent (nine future first- or second-round picks), final record (11-1) and end-of-season national ranking (#4 coaches poll; #6 Associated Press).

Despite the disappointing result from Carolina’s perspective, the pre-game buzz, Franklin Street festivities, NFL-caliber talent (on both teams) and raucous Kenan Stadium atmosphere all ultimately lived up to the week-long GameDay hype.

Now it is App State’s turn, for the first time, to step into this famous college football spotlight. If the Mountaineers can create a carnival-style atmosphere on Saturday morning and then beat Troy on the field Saturday afternoon, they’ll be making history in more ways than one.

ESPN College GameDay Visits To North Carolina

All-Time Results (Date, City, Teams/Result)

  • Nov. 8, 1997, Chapel Hill, No. 2 Florida State 20, No. 5 North Carolina 3
  • Oct. 23, 2004, Raleigh, No. 3 Miami 45, NC State 31
  • Dec. 2, 2017, Charlotte, No. 1 Clemson 38, No. 7 Miami 3 (ACC championship game)
  • Sept. 12, 2020, Winston-Salem, No. 1 Clemson 37, Wake Forest 13
  • Dec. 19, 2020, Charlotte, No. 3 Clemson 34, No. 2 Notre Dame 10 (ACC championship game)
  • Sept. 4, 2021, Charlotte, No. 5 Georgia 10, No. 3 Clemson 3
  • Sept. 17, 2022, Boone, Troy at Appalachian State (Sat., 3:30 pm)

By NC City: Charlotte (3), Boone (1), Chapel Hill (1), Raleigh (1), Winston-Salem (1).

By NC School: Appalachian State (1), UNC (1), NC State (1), Wake Forest (1). Note: Three of the games played in North Carolina featured only out-of-state teams.

By Year: 2020 (2), 1997 (1), 2004 (1), 2017 (1), 2021 (1), 2022 (1).

(featured image via Associated Press/Sam Craft)

David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.

The founding editor and long-time owner of the ACC Sports Journal and ACCSports.com, he also has contributed to the Durham Herald-Sun, ESPN Radio, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Raycom Sports, SiriusXM and most recently The Athletic. From 1999-2020, he also hosted the David Glenn Show, which became the largest sports radio program in the history of the Carolinas, syndicated in more than 300 North Carolina cities and towns, plus parts of South Carolina and Virginia.

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our biweekly newsletter.

Related Stories
None