Some thoughts from the author of the piece:
—Saying the Hawks “will be pretty bad this year” as your reasoning that the CyHawk won’t get GameDay blissfully ignores all of the intricate factors that go into making those decisions. Just today, CBS Sports released its preseason top-25: Iowa State checked in at #18 and Iowa at #25. I'm more confident today that the CyHawk rivalry is the most likely matchup to get GameDay than I was when I originally wrote it. You are also ignoring the fact there are hardly any other relevant games to compete against in Week 3.
—I 100% want College GameDay to come to Ames, no matter the opponent. Playing the Hawks for ISU’s first GameDay experience is the worst-case (realistic) scenario. Both of these things can be true. You don’t have to be on one side or the other, you can accept both facts. I also recognize that a win against Iowa with College GameDay would trigger an all-time entertaining celebration in Ames and could be huge for momentum heading into the meat of the schedule. Again, everyone is on the same page here: GameDay would be awesome no matter what.
—GameDay nearly always sets up on a scenic, open part of campus—it’s very rare for them to set up in front of a stadium unless they have no choice. Central Campus in front of the campanile is *exactly* the type of location they want. Although I agree that there are some potentially cool areas around the stadium, it would directly impact traffic and/or existing tailgating spots, which would make it logistically impossible.
—As for guest picker, some of you are exposing the exact reason a CyHawk GameDay would suck: most of the suggestions here are either very neutral (Aquaman, American Pickers, etc.) or Hawkeye fans (Ashton Kutcher, Tom Arnold, Tom Brokaw, etc.). Unfortunately, ISU just doesn’t have many non-sports celebrities to flaunt, so if we truly want a biased picker, we have to narrow the search: Sage Rosenfels (probably most well-known ISU pro), Seneca Wallace (probably 2nd most well-known pro), Monte Morris (currently relevant in the NBA), Georges Niang (less relevant, but charismatic), or Royce White (infamous, controversial, and loves Iowa State). Unless you want a relative nobody (the ISU astronaut comes to mind as a cool-but-not-famous “celebrity”), we are likely looking at an athlete.