ESPN's College GameDay to Originate from USS San Diego on November 10

GameDay Joins ESPN's America's Heroes: A Salute to Our Veterans Initiative

College GameDay Built by The Home Depot will originate from the flight deck of the USS SAN DIEGO (LPD 22), currently homeported at Naval Base San Diego, on Saturday, Nov. 10, as part of ESPN's fourth annual America's Heroes: A Salute to Our Veterans. The five-day initiative, from Wednesday, Nov. 7 through Sunday, Nov. 11, will honor veterans and troops in programming across ESPN's U.S. media platforms.

College GameDay will air live at 9 a.m. ET on ESPNU and from 10 a.m.-noon on ESPN with host Chris Fowler, analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and David Pollack, and hosts/reporters Samantha Steele and Tom Rinaldi.

Servicemen and women, along with their families, from the Naval Base San Diego and nearby Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton will make up GameDay's live audience. Included in the early-morning telecast will be a feature by Rinaldi, who speaks with Clemson walk-on wide receiver Daniel Rodriguez, a decorated Afghanistan war veteran.

Additional telecast information will be revealed next week.

About College GameDay

In its 26th season and 20th of originating from a game, ESPN's College GameDay won the Sports Emmy in 2010, 2009 and 2007 for best weekly studio show and was the recipient of the 2006 Outstanding Contributor to Amateur Football Award, given by The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame Awards Committee. Hosted by Chris Fowler, GameDay analysts include two-time Sports Emmy winner (2010 & 2011) for best studio show analyst, Kirk Herbstreit, former coach and player Lee Corso, Heisman Trophy winner and Super Bowl MVP Desmond Howard, and former University of Georgia football All-American David Pollack. Samantha Steele and Tom Rinaldi serve as reporters with Steele also co-hosting the first hour of the show on ESPNU with Pollack.

About the USS SAN DIEGO

USS SAN DIEGO (LPD 22) is the sixth amphibious landing transport dock ship in the San Antonio class and is crewed by up 400 Sailors. Her primary mission is to transport up to 800 U.S. Marines and their vehicles and equipment and launch them for an amphibious landing on a beach anywhere around the world. SAN DIEGO is the fourth ship named for the beautiful California city, but the first to be homeported there. She is also currently the only ship in the Navy homeported in her namesake city. SAN DIEGO was built at Huntington Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. and delivered to the Navy Dec. 19, 2011. The ship arrived in San Diego in April 2012 and placed in service during her commissioning May 19, 2012 in downtown San Diego. She is currently preparing for final contract trails and will deploy in 2014.

About the Naval Base

As the Naval shore installation management headquarters for the Southwest region (California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico), Navy Region Southwest is the lead command in providing coordination of base operating support functions for operating forces in the largest fleet concentration area in the nation. This includes providing expertise and support in areas such as housing, environmental, energy, security, family services, port and air services, supply, medical and logistics for the hundreds of thousands of active-duty, reservists, retirees, and the families of military members in the Southwest. With a local annual economic impact of more than $30B and more than 350K jobs connected to the defense industry in San Diego (1 in 4), Navy Region Southwest serves as the premier provider to sustain the Fleet, enable the Fighter, and support the Family for the U.S. Navy.