ESPN's 'GameDay' will cast Temple, Philadelphia in a favorable light

Lee Fitting, the senior coordinator producer for ESPN's wildly popular College GameDay, is always asked how he picks the site for his show, one that has rolled into town and will be live on Saturday from 9 a.m until noon from Independence Mall.

"Our mantra isn't to go to the game of the day, most fans have a skewed view of that," Fitting said Friday afternoon outside the GameDay set in the middle of Market Street. "We go where the best story is and there is a difference between the best story and best game."

It appears that Fitting and his crew have the best of both worlds, the top game and No. 1 story.

The nationally televised game, as most know, has No. 21 Temple (7-0) hosting No. 9 Notre Dame (6-1) Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field. In preparation for GameDay, ESPN broadcast College Football Live, along with SportsCenter hits from the location on Friday.

If social media is any indication, there seems almost as much excitement for GameDay from a Temple perspective, as the game itself and for good reason.

This will be like a three-hour infomercial for Temple and the city of Philadelphia. ESPN, according to Fitting, has produced an all-access piece from Temple's practice.

Coach Matt Rhule will appear on the show sometime between 9:30 and 10.

Temple will be portrayed in the best of lights. Then again, so will Rhule, and don't think rival schools looking for a coach won't be watching, but that's a story for another day.

"If people across the country can see a three-hour commercial for our university, I think that is outstanding," Rhule said earlier this week.

What is interesting is that this game means more to Notre Dame, which remains in realistic running for one of the four coveted playoff spots.

And there will be plenty of coverage on the show about the Fighting Irish.

Yet, it will also be a way to introduce Temple to a large segment of the country that doesn't know an awful lot about the Owls.

And there is still the suspense of who will be the celebrity picker, the person who comes on at the end of the show and picks all the big games.

"I can confirm attempts to get [Sylvester] Stallone were not fruitful," GameDay host Rece Davis said. "I don't know if I am supposed to say that, but I just did."

No doubt, the picker will have some Temple/Philadelphia ties.

Most of all, it will be interesting how Temple is viewed.

"When you come and do a show in a place like this, you try to take a step back and put things in perspective and you think that it was just a decade ago that the Big East basically kicked them out for bad football," Davis said about Temple. "And now they are one of the 12 teams undefeated."

And for one Saturday, the Owls are part of the No. 1 story and game in college football.

mnarducci@phillynews.com

@sjnard