What A Weekend!

Throughout the week it was hard to focus with all the buzz and excitement around campus for the upcoming game vs. Notre Dame, everyone was so excited! I was excited of course about the game, but to make it even more exciting I was given the opportunity to record my forecast for OU Nightly (OU's college station) and have it on the jumbotron on Saturday before the game!

Friday after my classes, I met one of my friends, Kathleen, to walk around campus... ESPN's College Gameday had arrived Thursday night and began to set up for the weekend's show. It was the first time the show had been to Norman since the 2008 season, therefore it was the first time since I've been in college. It was really exciting to see just how much work goes into getting the entire set and everything ready to go for the show! Kathleen and I were of course taking pictures of everything. I'm still not sure how we got so lucky… but we were taking a picture by the College Gameday bus and happened to meet a member of the staff. We talked with him for a while and then he offered to give us a tour of the set! I'm not sure Kathleen or I either one could believe it was happening… but it did! We got to take pictures at the desk, as you can see to the right, and met a lot of the people who work behind the scenes to make the entire show work!

After the tour of the set, our new friend asked if we would be attending the show in the morning. We said yes, and then he asked if we would like to be backstage! Could this day get any more exciting? He gave us guest passes for the show Saturday morning! So while lots of my friends had to bear the cold and campout for the night to get to see the show in the morning, Kathleen and I were the lucky ones who got to get a good night's rest and still have the awesome experience of the College Gameday show!

Ok so back to Friday... as all of this was going on I was continually checking my watch to see what time it was. Why you might ask? Remember the first exciting opportunity I told you about? The one with OU Nightly… yeah, I had to record my forecast Friday afternoon! So as soon as our tour was over I ran to the OU Nightly set, tried to calm down a little from all the excitement of the day, and then recorded my forecast!

Saturday morning we went to campus bright and early and got to stand right behind the cameras for the entire show! Such an amazing opportunity! Then after the show was over we got to take a tour of the bus! The bus is where the talent for the show gets ready and where they hang out during their downtime! Let me tell you about how cool this bus is! I would guess there were 10-15 TV's in there… they said if there is a football game on TV that it is on inside the bus! The celebrity guest for this week's show was Nathan Followill, the drummer for the band Kings of Leon, and he was on the bus! We were able to meet him and joke about how Lee Corso disagreed with all of his picks this week. Unfortunately, there were no pictures allowed on the bus… but what fun!

And then to top it all off, my forecast was on the jumbotron in front of a packed stadium Saturday night at the game. I guess it's time to say that college life is pretty awesome! And a HUGE thanks to everyone who made all of this possible!

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