UA Hosts ESPN College Game Day

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — One of the most popular college sports shows on television is coming to the University of Arkansas this weekend. Sports network ESPN will broadcast its College Game Day live from Fayetteville on Saturday, Nov. 11, just hours before the start of the Arkansas-Tennessee football game.

Production crews from ESPN will arrive on campus Thursday morning to begin building a television “village” on the east side of university parking Lot 44, also known as “The Pit.”

University Parking and Transit Director Gary Smith said that the east half of the Faculty/Staff parking area of Lot 44 will be barricaded at 5 p.m. Wednesday, with an exit available. Any vehicles still in the east section of the lot will be towed to another parking area, but the vehicle owner will not be charged. The west half of the Faculty/Staff section will still be available for parking on Thursday and Friday, along with the Reserved and Student sections and the Faculty/Staff section at the northwest corner of the lot.

“If you have a Faculty/Staff permit and cannot find parking in the Faculty/Staff or Student section of Lot 44 on Thursday or Friday, we recommend you park in Lots 72, 73 or 73A, west of Razorback Stadium and the football practice field,” said Smith.

ESPN will produce two programs from the College Game Day set. Friday afternoon it will videotape program segments from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. College Game Day will be broadcast live from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday morning. Fans who want to attend either program will be admitted to the Game Day “corral” about an hour and a half before each broadcast begins. Tickets are not required to attend any Game Day events. Fans will be accommodated on a first-come first-serve basis.

University police may restrict traffic on Stadium Drive during the taping event on Friday and the live broadcast on Saturday. The College Game Day broadcast will only affect scholarship parking in Lot 44 on Saturday. All other scholarship lots will be “reserved only scholarship parking” for those who have the appropriate parking passes. Scholarship parking in Lot 44 will be available to those who have the appropriate permit, but only in the west part of the lot until the ESPN crew members have cleared away their equipment. They have promised to have the lot clear by 3:45 p.m. at the latest.

Once that part of Lot 44 is clear, it will be open for scholarship parking. Tailgating in the east section of Lot 44 can begin once the ESPN crew is finished moving out.

In addition to the College Game Day program, ESPN 2 will be broadcasting the Arkansas-Tennessee game Saturday night, starting at 6 p.m. The broadcast set will be located in the northeast corner of Donald W. Reynolds Razorback stadium, and ESPN announcers will do pre- and post-game shows from this set. Fans will be allowed to remain in the stadium for the post game show, which is expected to begin about 45 minutes after the game ends. Seating will be restricted to the east stands, and fans will be ushered to the appropriate sections about 30 minutes after the game ends. University officials said that fans will not be allowed on the field. No one who leaves the stadium will be allowed to return for the post-game broadcast.

General public parking will not be available on Saturday around the stadium. Football game day parking restrictions will be in place starting at midnight Friday. Fans are encouraged to park in the free parking that is made available for the football games. Fans should visit www.hogwired.com and click on game day central to locate free parking sites. The university will provide a free shuttle service from the East Baum Stadium parking area starting at 7 a.m. on Saturday and service will be available for fans to return to Baum Stadium by using the regular game-day shuttle service.