A herd of students covered the campus commons with tents, blankets, and sleeping bags Friday night as they awaited their opportunity to be a part of the experience that is College GameDay.

ESPN’s College GameDay has attended five previous TCU games. However, GameDay is a rare sight in Fort Worth as only one of the five games featured the Horned Frogs on campus in 2009.

That eight-year gap between home GameDay appearances is what drove many students to camp out in the commons the night before GameDay.

Trent Attyah, sophomore sports broadcasting major, described GameDay like Christmas Morning for college students.

“We haven’t been in this situation since 2009,” Attyah said. “We have no idea when we will have this opportunity again.”

Peter Middlemist, a senior finance major, said he’s happy the seniors get a chance to experience GameDay at least once in their time at TCU.

“As we were going through our four years here, we were worried we wouldn’t be able to see it,” Middlemist said. “GameDay’s a special thing, you don’t see it too often.

College GameDay also gives each university they visit a chance to promote their campus to a nationwide audience.

“It’s kind of like a three-hour commercial for our school,” Middlemist said. “Everybody around the country is going to see what TCU looks like, what TCU is to people.”

Middlemist said the first time he heard of TCU was when TCU played in the Rose Bowl in 2011, which was another one of TCU’s GameDay appearances.

“I was cheering for them, you know cheering for the underdog,” Middlemist said. “Then I looked them up afterward and that was my first way of noticing TCU.”