ESPN's Gameday came to Blacksburg as one of their first on-site destinations. Herbstreit and Fowler have mentioned many times over the years that fans in Blacksburg showed up in droves and really helped build up the Gameday brand through many early Blacksburg appearances. Nowadays Gameday has changed a lot and is not the big deal it once was. Classic example of being in the waning, downward phase of the product life cycle (remember your marketing class you business and MBA grads?).

Similarly, back in the 1990s VT had a lot of Thursday night games (TNF), and Tech became ESPN's darling. I think this was actually part of the reason Gameday showed up in Backsburg a lot in its early years. To add to the success of TNF in Blacksburg and typically sellouts (including the 2003 aTm hurricane game) Tech was pretty much unbeatable in TNF, which you know Vegas had to love. As a matter of fact, IIRC, VT was at one point 14-0 in TNF. The nighttime atmosphere of football in Blacksburg was at one tine an extremely tough venue for visitors.

So my question is: which is better, TNF or Gameday? Both draw attention to VT and Blacksburg when the TV cameras show up here, and there have been some classic games. But personally IMHO, TNF is the only game nationwide for the week night, and the night atmosphere of a rip-roaring Lane crowd will always get my juices flowing more than Gameday. Not that Gameday is not welcome in the 'Burg. There's no such thing as bad pub in such matters as college football.