Behind The Scenes

See the College GameDay ad featuring Aggies’ ‘Midnight Yell’ tradition

Back in April, thousands upon thousands of students logged votes at GameDayVote.com to bring ESPN’s College GameDay Built by The Home Depot crew to their campus for a commercial shoot this past summer.

During the contest, 124 FBS schools battled for the chance to bring the College GameDay commercial shoot to their campus.

Celebrities including Ndamukong Suh and Rico Rodriguez — a k a Manny from Modern Family — rallied their Twitter followers to vote as the contest came down to the University of Nebraska and Texas A&M. Nearly a million votes were tabulated during the 10-day contest, with Texas A&M emerging as the victor.

In July, ESPN made good on the promise and the entire crew – Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Lee Corso, Chris Fowler, Tom Rinaldi and Samantha Steele — journeyed to College Station to film the new commercial.

There they were joined by thousands of fans (despite 100 degree heat) who helped simulate the time honored A&M Midnight Yell tradition at Kyle Field only to awake the slumbering coach Corso. First-year Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin and mascot Reveille also star in the spot which debuts across ESPN networks on Monday, Sept. 3.

Take a look at the video:

GameDay is inherently interactive and the GameDay Vote contest was a natural way to energize college football fans in April,” said Michelle Berry, senior director, marketing.

“It’s a big first step for the franchise – one that captures the passion and pride of college football fans in a unique, new way.”

Though the GameDay Vote campaign was the first contest of its kind for the iconic franchise, a previous GameDay contest allowed students to pick the mascot in a GameDay commercial. Benny the Beaver from Oregon State won that one.

The Aggies welcome the Florida Gators to Kyle Field Sept. 8 on ESPN at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Below, be sure to check out Texas A&M’s behind the scenes video from the shoot.

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