ESPN “College GameDay” Coming To Butler

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. -- ESPN’s “College GameDay” is coming to Butler!  The long-rumored possibility was confirmed on Wednesday, Aug. 8, when ESPN announced that it would begin this year’s show schedule at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Jan. 19 prior to Butler’s non-conference game against Gonzaga.

“We’ve known for a long time that this was potentially going to happen, and we thought it was the perfect arena to do so,” said Butler head coach Brad Stevens.  “With Butler, our tradition and Hinkle Fieldhouse, hosting Gonzaga, who has been as consistently good at a championship level as any team in the country for the past decade, we felt it would be a great opportunity to showcase this game on the biggest stage that January basketball can provide.”

College GameDay, featuring host Rece Davis and analysts Jay Bilas, Jalen Rose and Digger Phelps, will air live from Hinkle Fieldhouse at 10 a.m. (ET) and 8 p.m., followed by the Butler-Gonzaga game at 9 p.m.  It will be the first visit by College GameDay to historic Hinkle Fieldhouse.

The visit to Butler will kickoff eight weeks of College GameDay events.  The popular ESPN show will be in Raleigh, N.C., on Jan. 26, prior to the North Carolina-North Carolina State game, before heading back to Indiana on Feb. 2 for the Michigan-Indiana contest.  On Feb. 9, College GameDay will go either to South Bend for the Louisville-Notre Dame game or to Cincinnati, Ohio, for the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati tilt.  The GameDay crew will be in Lawrence, Kansas on Feb. 16 for the Texas-Kansas game and in Lexington, Ky., on Feb. 23 for the Missouri-Kentucky showdown.  On March 2, Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, Calif., will be the site for the Arizona-UCLA contest.

The College GameDay season will conclude with a doubleheader on March 9.  The day will begin in Washington, D.C., for the Syracuse-Georgetown game and will end in Chapel Hill, N.C., for the Duke-North Carolina contest.

Butler, heading into its first season in the Atlantic 10 Conference, will be meeting Gonzaga for only the third time.  The two teams met for the championship of the 2006 NIT Season Tip-Off and Butler prevailed, 79-71.  Gonzaga won a regular season match-up between the two teams in Spokane, Wash., last season, 71-55.  Both previous Butler-Gonzaga games were televised by ESPN.