Over the past week, a grassroots effort has sprung up on Facebook.com to get ESPN’s popular College GameDay show to cover the 116th Monon Bell Game next Saturday. The effort, first started by a DePauw student has quickly taken on a life of its own on the internet and has led to students, alumni, and friends of both schools to do whatever they can to make this a reality. While acknowledging that this effort is a long-shot, the group “Bring College GameDay to Monon” has made the following requests of its supporters:
1. Go to http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/contact?lang=EN&country=united%20states
2. Type a blurb about how much we deserve Gameday.
Unsurprisingly, rumors have been flying on the page and a few people claimed today that ESPN may have even made some initial overtures as a result of this effort. I have not been able to confirm that myself, but I thought this was a worthy cause regardless. In light of that, WabashStories.com has created an online petition to help those who are not on Facebook to join in. We will collecting as many signatures as we can for the rest of the week and then send the petition in this Saturday.
[...] A short trip on US 231 in Western Indiana connects the campuses of Wabash College and DePauw University, where this week the 116th meeting of the Monon Bell game, the oldest college football game west of the Allegheny mountains. Since 1890, these two institutions have not played each other only five times. Over the past few years, the game has been televised nationally on Mark Cuban’s HDNet channel, and is enjoyed at alumni watch parties across the nation. This year, there’s even been efforts to get Corso and friends to join the fun. [...]