A slice of ESPN coming to Pitt

The coverage of Pitt’s opening-day clash with rival Notre Dame continues to grow exponentially… The coverage of Pitt’s opening-day clash with rival Notre Dame continues to grow exponentially with the recent announcement that ESPN2’s “Cold Pizza” will be broadcast live from Heinz Field Friday morning.

For the first time ever, ESPN’s national weekday morning show will venture outside of its New York studio and will head to a different college campus every Friday for pre-game festivities surrounding that weekend’s marquee game. Live appearances from co-host Jay Crawford and revered sports columnists Woody Page and Skip Bayless will highlight the program, set to take place outside of Heinz Field on the Great Lawn.

“With the tremendous popularity of ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ and the significant ratings increase we’ve seen over the past six months on ESPN2’s ‘Cold Pizza,’ we thought these two franchises were perfect partners to celebrate another new season of college football,” said Norby Williamson, senior vice president and managing editor.

“Cold Pizza’s announcement comes on the heels of a similar one from ESPN’s College GameDay, a pre-game show that consists of a conglomeration of college football experts and originates from the host site of each Saturday’s feature game. Two years ago, GameDay ventured to Pittsburgh and saw a 31-28 come-from-behind Pitt victory in the game’s final moments.

Segments such as “1st and 10,” where Paige and Bayless trade barbs on their views on what is making headlines in sports, will be taped live and fed back to the main studios in New York. Those segments will re-air later in the day on ESPN’s “1st and 10” at 3:30 p.m.

Pitt will be the first of many stops for the duo of “Cold Pizza” and “College GameDay,” as the pair will venture to a different site every week with a similar schedule. Similar coverage will be presented at the Ohio State-Texas game next weekend.

The “Cold Pizza” live telecast on Friday is open to the public and is slated to begin at 8 a.m. It will be set up at the Southeast end of Heinz field by the intersection of Art Rooney Drive and North Shore Drive.