Blue Jackets fan holds up Fantilli sign at 'College GameDay' on ESPN

Even with the biggest college football game of the week in town, Columbus is a hockey town.

During the Saturday morning broadcast of "College GameDay" on ESPN, hosted in Columbus, Ohio, ahead of the Ohio State-Penn State game, one Blue Jackets fan stood out from the crowd with his sign.

The sign read: "We drafted Adam Fantilli," alluding to the Blue Jackets' first round draft pick from this past year. As if the sign wasn’t good enough already, it was held up by a hockey stick to round out the hockey theme.

Holding up the sign was 21-year-old Matt Burke, a Columbus native, and it wasn't even his "College GameDay" debut. Last year, Burke made a sign that said, "We signed Johnny Hockey" (aka Johnny Gaudreau) which was also featured on the show.

"A couple people texted me the idea of, 'Hey you should do this again,' " Burke told NHL.com. "The response has been pretty fun. ... It's been kind of wild. I figured it would get some response but I didn't expect [this]."

The Blue Jackets tweeted about his sign, as well as a handful of sports reporters and most recently the University of Michigan hockey team -- where Fantilli played college hockey -- acknowledged the sign.

Fantilli, of course, went out and scored his first NHL goal Saturday night in Minnesota against the Wild.

Burke is in his second year at Columbus State Community College studying design, and is hoping to get into sports design in the future. He's a lifelong Blue Jackets and hockey fan and currently writes for a Blue Jackets blog called The Cannon. He is also part of the "Jersey Nerds" podcast, where he talks about hockey jersey designs among other things.

As an Ohio State fan, Burke acknowledged that his college fandom has made things a bit tricky. Three of his favorite players -- Fantilli, Nick Blankenburg and Zach Werenski -- all played for the University of Michigan, a rival of the Buckeyes.

But in the end they've all donned the Blue Jackets sweater.

"That's kind of a weird bit of dissonance that goes with it, but now that they're with the Jackets I don't really care, to be honest," Burke said. "It's a fun little element that this sign had."

Clearly the hockey fandom runs deep in Ohio.