I have to attend a wedding this weekend in one of my most hated cities (Columbus, OH) so don’t look for too much from me. I have a multi-part travel story I will share beginning Monday.
Daily Huddle 5-17-12
A collection of college football photos, stories and links from around the web.
Get your #MACTION shirt over at no2minutewarning.com
One of the coolest t-shirt ideas in a while, Kevin is selling #MACTION shirts over at no2minutewarning.com. They come in your favorite teams colors or you can customize it in any color design you want.
The hot topic of the day was how relegation would work in the NCAA with football. Not sure it fits the American sports culture, but here is the post by Bill Connelly (@SBN_BillC).
SMU has fired their athletic director, Steve Orsini, immediately and right now no one knows why.
Remember the Alabama fan who thought it would be funny to stick his junk in the face of a passed out LSU fan in New Orleans, then post the video on youtube? Well, now he is facing felony charges for sexual battery.
Clemson running back Mike Bellamy has been ruled academically ineligible.
Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione was very open in this interview about his views on a playoff and how to preserve the regular season.
Kameel Jackson may be suspended from the Oklahoma team, but he is not going to transfer.
A column by George Schroeder on the problems Rich Rodriguez is going to face at Arizona.
Robert Steeples has decided that he will play at Memphis after leaving Missouri last month.
The Notre Dame football team appears to have a drinking problem as wide receiver DeVaris Daniels was cited for consumption of alcohol as a minor.
Good news for Pitt as it appears that Ray Graham will be ready for fall camp. The injury happened right in front of me and it was non-contact and nasty looking. I’m happy to see Graham be on a fast recovery schedule.
Ray Graham lines up for what would be his final play in 2011
Ray Graham is tackled after falling down injured. You can see every player for both teams looking at him due to Graham immediately screaming in pain
A more zoomed in picture of the pile
USC linebacker Simione Vehikite has been ordered to spend a year in jail.
Michigan is going to get new uniforms again for 2012. I’ll reserve judgement till some pictures leak.
Arkansas is also getting new uniforms with gradient numbers. People always have to mess with good things and make them ugly.
A small photo of the new Arkansas uniforms
A horrible zoomed in version of the same photo
Stadium Capsule: ODU’s Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium
Since Old Dominion is joining Conference USA for the 2015 season in football, lets take a look at their football facilities and team history.
The full name of the stadium is Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium.
The field is named after Alvan Herbert Foreman. Foreman was a board of trustees member who helped secure the funds for multiple athletic facilities at the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary — later renamed Old Dominion University.
The field was dedicated on October 3, 1936 during a 7-0 defeat to the University of Virginia.
The school played football from 1930-41, compiling a 62-19-4 record.
Football was abandoned after the 1941 season and did not return to ODU until 2009, when the school restarted the team as a FCS Independent.
While ODU did not have football from 1942-2008, Foreman Field did host a variety of football games.
The most well-known game is the Oyster Bowl. The Oyster Bowl was first played in 1946 and was played annually from 1948 till 1995, all at Foreman Field.
A postcard of the 1946 Osyter Bowl
The Oyster Bowl is sponsored by the Shriners of Norfolk’s Khedive Temple to benefit crippled children.
A fun fact from the Oyster Bowl is that in the 1977 game between East Carolina and William & Mary, former East Carolina coach Jim Johnson came out of the stands to tackle a William & Mary player about to score the game-winning touchdown.
Some alumni of the Oyster Bowl include Fran Tarkenton, Roger Staubach, and Don Meredith.
The Oyster Bowl was not played from 1996-1999 and was moved to Hampton, Virginia from 2000-2010. The game returned the Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium in 2011 when ODU hosted James Madison.
Other games played at Foreman Field include Washington Redskins pre-season games in the 1960′s, the semi-pro Norfolk Neptunes during the 1960′s and 1970′s and the Virginia Ambassadors of the World Football League in 1974.
In 1981, aluminum seats and Astro-turf were added, but not much else had changed at the stadium since being built in 1936.
Finally, in 2007, ODU announced the return of their football program. They quickly began a massive $24.8 million remodeling project to Foreman Field.
The name of the stadium was also changed to Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium after S.B. Ballard Construction gave $2.5 million toward the project.
The construction added a really nice building in the end zone called the Ainslie Football Complex. The Ainslie building houses game day suites and concessions. They also added a new plaza entrance, called the Alcaraz-Weinstein Family Plaza.
The Ainslie Football Complex features 26 luxury suites, 390 loge seats and 100 mini boxes. Twelve of the suites have private patios overlooking the south plaza.
The project also brought the current seating capacity to 19,818.
It is being reported today that their are plans to further increase the seating at S.B. Ballard Stadium. Here is a rendering of the proposed changes.
A model of the proposed changes to Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium
I have been told that expected capacity will be around 40,000.
Meanwhile, ODU played the 2011 season, and will play the 2012 season, as a member of the Colonial Athletic Conference. In 2013 and 2014, ODU will begin the two year process of re-classifying from FCS to FBS before they join Conference USA as a full, bowl eligible football member in 2015.
[model photo via @KirkNawrotzky]
[post card photo via wikipedia.com]
[all other photos via ODUsports.com]
Old Dominion Joins Conference USA for 2013-14 Season
The day is finally here and Old Dominion and Conference USA have announced their official union starting for the 2013-14 season (football in 2015).
Here is the full press release from C-USA:
IRVING, Texas – Conference USA has entered into a membership agreement with Old Dominion University beginning in July 2013, Commissioner Britton Banowsky announced today.
“We are extremely pleased to add Old Dominion to Conference USA,” Banowsky said. “They are a tremendous university with, not only a great tradition in athletics, but an extremely bright future. Their leadership team has a bold vision for the University, which fits well with our plan for the future of the Conference.”
2:30p ET/1:30p CT – Old Dominion’s LIVE Press Conference
Located in Norfolk, Va., Old Dominion features an enrollment of 24,753 students and sponsors 16 NCAA Division I sports. ODU will join Conference USA for all sports in 2013-14, with the exception of football, which will move up to the Football Bowl Series (FBS) level for conference competition in the 2015 season. The Old Dominion football program has sold out every game since the program was reinstated in 2009. The school is located in the No. 43 media market in the country. (More Info on Old Dominion)
Earlier this month, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte), Florida International University (FIU), Louisiana Tech University, University of North Texas and University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) finalized comprehensive membership agreements to begin competition in Conference USA for 2013 as well. Current C-USA members that will remain in the league in 2013-14 include East Carolina University, Marshall University, Rice University, University of Southern Mississippi, Tulane University, The University of Tulsa, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and University of Texas El Paso (UTEP). The metro area population of these 14 schools is nearly 19 million.
“Our new 14-member model will significantly expand the Conference’s market penetration and enable us to continue to stage our championship game,” Banowsky added. “Moreover, we will be able to compete in two divisions that are geographically balanced, fan-friendly and sensitive to the needs of our student-athletes.”
“The Presidents and Chancellors of Conference USA universities are pleased to include Old Dominion in our future plans,” said Dr. Scott Cowen, Tulane University president and Chair of Conference USA’s Board of Directors. “They possess all the attributes of a tremendous University and will make a great addition to our Conference. With the six new members in place, we are stable and poised for great things in the future.”
Watch the official announcement here at 2:30pm est.
[UPDATE]
It will cost ODU $2 million to join C-USA.
Also, here is a good story by Kyle Kensing (@Kensing45) with quotes from the ODU press conference.
Clemson Adding Cell Phone Signal Boosters to Memorial Stadium
A photo of the cell phone signal boosters being added to Memorial Stadium
We’ve all been there. You are at a sporting event but you want to check the score of your rivals game. The stadium scoreboard only gives you out of town scores once every quarter. So, you pull out your cell phone to check the score and you have no bars.
Ok no problem, you’ll just try the WiFi. Your phone connects and nothing. The WiFi is overloaded and useless. Guess you will have to wait till you make it to the bar after the game to get that score you wanted. Heck, working WiFi in a press box is often iffy at best.
Such is normal life at live sporting events in the US. Teams continue to wonder why attendance keeps dropping, yet they have left important technological features out of their stadiums. With the ability to watch almost every college football game on TV or the Internet, live game attendance is less important than ever for fans to see the action.
Staying at home and enjoying a cold beverage while flipping between multiple games is the preferred viewing method of most these days. Add in the lack of ability to use a cell phone in a stadium and that can often be the final straw, especially when it means being cut off from interactive tools such as twitter.
Now, obviously my site is all about going to live football games, and I can come up with 50 reasons why they are better in person. For simplicity, I will give you one simple story.
Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) was suppose to come down to Happy Valley for the Illinois at Penn State game last fall. Due to the projected weather and working on his book, The Unlikeliest Champion, he declined. Little did any of us know it would be the final game ever coached by Joe Paterno.
That’s the only point I need to make. Would you rather tell you people, ‘yeah, I saw that on TV,’ or ‘yeah, I was there!’ Get to games, you never know what you are going to see.
In fact, that is why I am starting a series here today that will showcase some of my travel stories, the things I have witnessed in person, and reasons why you should attend games. Look for it to run over the next month or so.
Well back on topic a bit here. Honestly, just about every stadium I have been to that has over 30,000 fans in attendance, cell phone coverage is a huge problem. It is frankly silly and it some cases dangerous to not have cell service throughout stadiums.
For example, almost every stadium has a text message system to report out-of-control patrons and other emergencies. How can you use the system if you can’t send or receive a text message?
Thankfully, some schools are finally correcting this issue, such as Clemson, who is reportedly adding cell phone signal boosters to the north end zone of Memorial Stadium.
Hopefully, some day teams will realize that to continue strong attendance, those at the game need to, at a minimum, have the same luxuries as at home; and preferably, access to stats, streaming post-game press conferences and other things that you can’t get while sitting on the couch.
[photo via @ITPAYinfo]