An Early Morning, Hilarious Signs & $600k To Hurricane Helene Victims: The Best Of GameDay At Cal

ESPN’s College GameDay often brings out the best of whatever fanbase and campus they visit, and today’s visit to University of California-Berkeley was no different.

The crew is there to cover the Cal Golden Bears-Miami Hurricanes game. Ya know, your standard ACC conference matchup between a team near the Pacific Ocean and a team from Florida (which is actually on the Atlantic coast - make it make sense). It’s certainly an odd matchup, but don’t think that the oddity of the matchup at all inhibited the students embracing Gameday first visit to their campus. 

Since the school is on the West Coast, game day had to start at 6 a.m. local time to keep in line with the East Coast broadcast schedule. However, the early start time for the segment did not intimidate fans at all. In fact, fans showed up literally last night to get in line (the gates officially opened at 3:30 a.m).

I say "get in line" loosely, because once midnight struck on Friday evening, all the fans just poured into the stadium, overwhelming security. 

It basically looked like one of the 7 billion protests that have happened on that campus in the past five years, but this time all the running and commotion was for a good cause. 

With the torrential onslaught of fans came an uncanny amount of hilarious signs. Here are some of the best.

This one is my personal favorite. You gotta love the self-deprecating humor on live TV.

Who knew that a school of engineers, mathematicians, and overall geniuses would be so funny - or this passionate about football? Yes, they are also incredibly woke, but the largely steered clear of that today. All of that was was noted by Pat McAfee when he had his first chance to speak during the segment.

Later on in the day (when the sun was actually shining), McAfee and Kirk Herbstreit teamed up to do the "Pat McAfee Kicking Contest," and a kid named Daniel showed up to try to win some big bucks. Herbstreit would not stop throwing shade at Daniel’s Vans, but the student impressed so much with his first kick attempt that they gave him a second one - which he nailed.

Not only did he earn himself $100,000, he also increased GameDay’s $500,000 donation to Hurricane Helene victims by another $100k. It can’t get any better than that.

That kicking field would turn into a drag strip not long after, where guest picker and Cal legend Marshawn Lynch recreated his viral injury cart moment from 2006. 

Of course, when it came time to pick who would win, Lynch stuck with his hometown Golden Bears. But even though Nick Saban picked the Hurricanes, he had a hysterical moment with Lynch.

If only Pete Carroll thought the same way 10 years ago (not that I'm complaining, I'm a Patriots fan).

Talk about an electric first GameDay on campus. ESPN should visit more schools for the first time in the future.