We'll find out Saturday night or sometime on Sunday whether ESPN College GameDay will make an appearance on Nov. 23, prior to the Minnesota vs. Wisconsin game at TCF Bank Stadium.
At least there's a chance.
"Minnesota is on the short list for next week, along with six or seven other possibilities," an ESPN spokesperson said on Thursday.
College GameDay travels on-site to the best game of the day. Last week, for example, they were in Tuscaloosa for the Alabama-LSU showdown.
The three-hour show has an 8 a.m. start. The first hour is on ESPNU and the final two hours move to ESPN.
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It is hosted by Chris Fowler, along with contributors Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, David Pollack and Samantha Ponder, wife of Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder.
The show first aired in 1987 with Tim Brando as host and Corso and Beano Cook as commentators. It started incorporating live broadcasts in 1993.
The show is known for its prediction segment, with Corso, Herbstreit and an invited guest, usually a celebrity, prominent athlete or media personality associated with the host university of school.
Minnesota, which has a bye this week, is 8-2 overall and 4-2 in the Legends Division of the Big Ten. The Gophers are on a four-game Big Ten winning streak and two games in back of Michigan State.
Wisconsin is 7-2 overall and 4-1 in the Leaders Division of the Big Ten, a game behind Ohio State.
Both teams have legitimate shots at a major bowl and with a little luck, there's an outside chance for the Gophers to go to the Rose Bowl.
That's a sentence one would never have printed when the season began.
The main competition for GameDay's location on Nov. 23 figures to be the Baylor at Oklahoma State game, which will be televised that night on ABC. Baylor is 8-0 and Oklahoma State is 8-1.
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Other strong possibilities are Texas A&M vs. LSU, Missouri vs. Mississippi and even Harvard vs. Yale.
So far this year, College GameDay has visited Clemson (Aug. 31), East Lansing (Sept. 7), College Station (Sept. 14), Fargo (Sept. 21), Athens, Ga. (Sept. 28), Evanston (Oct. 5), Seattle (Oct. 12), Clemson (Oct. 19), Eugene (Oct. 26), Tallahassee (Nov. 2) and Tuscalossa.
This week GameDay is at USC for the Trojans vs. Stanford.
For the Gophers, at least there's a chance. Only those thinking delusional thoughts would have considered that a possibility a couple of weeks ago.
State semifinals live
You can watch all of the state high school football semifinals from the Metrodome live online by calling up www.prep45.com
The Grand Meadow vs. Kittson Country Central Nine-Man game kicked off at 9 a.m. and the Chatfield and Hawley game in Class AA has an 11:30 a.m. start, also today.
Lourdes meets New London-Spicer at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in Class AAA.
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The Lourdes game will also be broadcast on KFAN-AM (1270).
Point After
A special playoff edition of KFAN's Point After, with sports director Greg Henn and P-B reporter Donny Henn, will be broadcast at noon Sunday.
Sunday flex
Sunday's game between 9-0 Kansas City at 8-1 Denver has been flexed to a 7:30 p.m. kickoff on NBC.
The Packers and Giants were scheduled in that slot, but flexed out to a 3:25 p.m. start.
However, that game will not be televised locally, because the Vikings at Seattle game also airs at 3:25 and both games are on Fox.
NBC now has the option to flex any game for the rest of the season. It has already announced that Nov. 24 will remain as is, with Denver playing at New England, making two straight weeks for the Broncos.
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The Thanksgving night game with Pittsburgh at Baltimore cannot be moved, however.
The remainder of the NBC Sunday Night schedule looks like this: Dec. 1, New York Giants at Washington; Dec. 8, Atlanta at Green Bay; Dec. 15, Cincinnati at Pittsburgh; Dec. 22, New England at Baltimore and Dec. 29, TBA.
Several of those games could move and most likely, the Atlanta at Green Bay game.
Sunday's Chiefs-Broncos game marks the first time in 44 years that clubs with records of 9-0 and 8-1 or better have faced each other.
"I really think if they're (Chiefs) are going to win the game, they're going to have to win it on their terms. That's with their pass rush, probably knocking Peyton (Manning) down…and they're capable of doing that. This is a team that can get pressure off the edge,'' said game analyst Cris Collinsworth.
NBC is averaging 21.5 million viewers per NFL regular-season telecast, the network's best 10-week start since acquiring the SNF package in 2006.
