BTN Tailgate to host show Saturday from Ryan Field parking lot

Peter Warren/Daily Senior Staffer

A mannequin holds up a sign for BTN Tailgate. The television program will be broadcasting from a parking lot next to Ryan Field on Saturday.

Peter Warren, Sports Editor

In addition to the usual tailgates held every football Saturday in houses, backyards and parking lots across Evanston, there will be another option for football fans preparing for the game.

“BTN Tailgate” — the Big Ten Network’s Saturday morning college football preview show — is returning to Evanston on Saturday for Northwestern’s clash with No. 20 Wisconsin.

The program runs for two hours — from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. CDT — and will be broadcast from the north end of the parking lot immediately west of Ryan Field. The show was originally supposed to be held on Deering Meadow, but a change of location was announced yesterday.

This is the third year of the show and the second time the crew has visited the shores of Lake Michigan.

Last year, “BTN Tailgate” came to Evanston for the contest against No. 4 Penn State on Oct. 7. The show set up shop at Hutchinson Field right by the lake. However, since the game that day also started at 11 a.m., it was impossible for fans hoping to arrive to the game on time to stay for the whole event.

The show is the Big Ten Network’s version of the critically-acclaimed ESPN college football show “College GameDay,” which broadcasts from a different location every week. “GameDay” has been traveling across the country since 1993 and has visited a bevy of different college campuses. The Saturday-morning staple was in Evanston last when they infamously arrived in 2013 for an October matchup between undefeated Northwestern and undefeated Ohio State.

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