Rece Davis on the set of College GameDay Built by the Home Depot (Photo by Allen Kee / ESPN Images)

What had already promised to be one of the most exciting weeks in a long time – if not ever – in the history of college football in Philadelphia got bigger when ESPN’s College GameDay announced plans to broadcast the popular pregame show from the city in honor of the game Saturday night between Temple and Notre Dame.

The game features a battle of the unbeaten Owls, who are 7-0 for the first time in school history and ranked for the first time since the end of the 1979 season, and the Fighting Irish. Once-beaten Notre Dame brings a top-10 ranking, hope for an appearance in the College Football Playoffs and the fact that they’re Notre Dame.

Now, it’s the eve of the game and GameDay is, indeed, in Philadelphia (for just the second time ever) and set up on Market St with Independence Hall as a back drop.

“I think it’s a beautiful setting,” said GameDay host Rece Davis, who spoke about the game, the setting and the show on Friday afternoon, “it’s historic, it’s picturesque. We try to capture good places for the show that give you a real sense of place. Certainly, there are few places in the country that do that better than right in front of Independence Hall.”

Philadelphia is a great sports city but it’s a pro sports town and an Eagles town when it comes to football but that doesn’t stop college sports from occasionally stepping up and capturing the attention of the populous. Many are calling this the biggest college football game in the history of the city.

“Maybe that ’63 Army-Navy game with the circumstance surrounding Kennedy might have more of a dramatic impact long term,” said Davis, who is in his first season as host of the show, “but I think for a Philadelphia team, at least in the modern era of college football, it’s a pretty easy designation to have.”

This week, Philadelphia beat out Pullman, WA, home of Washington State University, to host the show. Senior coordinating producer for ESPN’s college studio shows, Lee Fitting, said the fact that both teams are ranked swung things in Philadelphia’s favor.

“Our mantra isn’t to go to the game of the day,” said Fitting, a graduate of last week’s host James Madison University, “most fans have a skewed view on that. We go where the best story is and there’s a difference between best story and best game. We sort of go where we think is right and there’s not set criteria.”

The location doesn’t hurt

“This is awesome,” Fitting said about the setting. “The City of Philadelphia and the federal government went really above and beyond in a short amount of time. We got a ton of cooperation from both parties.”

College football junkies everywhere live vicariously through Davis, who said the show is as fun as it looks.

“We have a great team here,” said the Alabama grad, who replaced longtime host Chris Fowler so that he can concentrate on play-by-play duties. “All of these guys, both on camera and behind the scenes, know exactly what they’re doing. They’ve made my transition really easy.

“I like all sports but I love two of them college football and college basketball and I love nothing more than college football. To be able to do this has been an absolute blast. It’s said a lot but it doesn’t feel like work to me, it’s a lot of fun.”

Email Rock Hoffman at Rock@footballstories.com