Collegiate Stadiums

Collegiate Stadiums

NCAA FBS College Football Stadiums, Attendance, Stats, History & Travel Blog

Today’s Best

a photo of a young Todd Graham which ties in with the photo of the day below

This is my new daily post on the day’s best stories, photos and links, often with my take on the situation. I know that many people write articles on the same or similar subjects every day, these links are just the one’s I enjoyed the most.

 

Let’s start with my favorite story of the day, which is a rumor that I like to think that Mark Ennis, Michael Felder and myself started, at least one recruit believes that Mike Leach will replace Howard Schnellenberger at FAU after this season.

Next up is the Texas A&M situation. To be honest, I don’t know what or who to believe anymore, but this article by Spencer Hall of SBNation is probably the best out there. And, if you don’t like Spencer, try this one from Andy Staples or this one from Kirk Bohls who has been the guy breaking most of the news on twitter.. Reports have the Big 12 targeting Notre Dame or BYU first if the Aggies actually leave, but I think Houston is the most realistic option. However, unlike some people, I think Notre Dame is possible since they would always be a top 3 team in the league and they could still have their own TV contract.

Looks like the Baylor Bears are desperate to keep A&M around with this silly news release of the day… 

If you aren’t a fan of re-alignment, maybe compliance is for you. Here we find a story outlining how Miami is being investigated because some felon named Nevin Shapiro had his lawyer provide information to the NCAA. Some people seem to think that this will bring down multiple programs while I think it will only bring down Miami, but it is going to be big if the evidence is real. I would think something similar to the USC penalties will be coming. Not good if you are a Hurricanes fan. Here is a good breakdown by Bryan Fischer.

Staying on compliance, we have the full 136 page pdf of the new rules proposals for the coming year. The most interesting to me is proposal 2011-87, which starts on page 127, that calls for conferences without a title game to be allowed to have teams play in end of season invitational games. To me, isn’t that what a bowl game is? For what it’s worth, the proposal is by the Sun Belt, which I think is just looking for more TV money. The best proposal in the entire list would allow for schools to pay for an entire team to be at the funeral of a deceased teammate or visit a seriously hurt teammate at the hospital.

This article from Smart Football traces the roots of the one-back offense to Dennis Erickson.

Here we have ex-NCAA president Cedric Dempsey claiming that superconferences are coming and will break from the rest.

Toomer’s corner is still not looking good.

And finally, our picture of the day from Penni Graham. Alright, it is actually two pictures if you count the one above but I liked both of them.

Pitt head coach Todd Graham's bowl game ring collectiona photo of a young Todd Grahama photo of a young Todd Graham

Multiple Stadiums Updates

Since I am trying to get caught up on everything I need to, I am going to make a large post here with little nuggets of stadium information. Normally this will go in either the daily links section or a separate post.

At Conference USA Media Day, Larry Porter said “Facilities don’t win championships, players do. But facilities do win players.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

First up is an older story on Colorado and how they are looking for a corporate sponsor for their stadium due to financial issues in the athletic department.

Stanford is adding AT&T WiFi to their stadium this year. It says you can connect to the WiFi with any device but I have a feeling it will be faster for AT&T devices.

Cal is renovating their stadium and are going as far as having seismic experts check over the plans.

This story is about Penn State adding WiFi and new scoreboards, among other things, to Beaver Stadium over the next three to four year, but it is a few wrong statements in it. For one, Beaver stadium will not be the only or even the first college stadium with AT&T WiFi, just check the Stanford story above. Two, they took seats away to make room for the 101 ADA seats, lowering seating capacity in Beaver stadium to 106,572.

Staying with Penn State, here is a study from their FieldTurf research building that shows the new FieldTurf Revolution is by far the best turf in terms of wear. The report is huge and will teach you more than you could ever imagine about synthetic turf. Ironically, Beaver Stadium is grass and Penn State has the best turf grass management program in the country.

The final item from Penn State is this picture of upgrades to Lasch Building, their football only complex.

Upgrades to Lasch Building

A photo of a trial version of the Kansas Touchdown Club

And here is a link for the full story on Kansas trying to build a club for big boosters. Note that season tickets in the club are coming down as the team continues to be bad after their magical BCS run. 

Here’s a good story behind how Boone Pickens decided to donate $165 million to Oklahoma State athletics.

Oklahoma State is adding a huge flag poll to Boone Pickens Stadium

I’ve linked this story before, but to me it just outlines how desperate some schools are to try and keep up in the money race of BCS and FBS football. Washington is begging you for money and will let you sponsor or name just about any park of their stadium.

A nice video of the scoreboard update at Arizona.

Vanderbilt replaced their grass field this summer for the first time since 1999!Photo of the grass being laid at Dudley Field

Story to go with the Vanderbilt picture, or if you want a video, try this link.

The new "vintage" scoreboard that has been added to the Rose Bowl

Picture of workers installing seats in the UNC Blue Zone

UNC added the Blue Zone, which cost ticket holders a large donation per seat, then they fired Butch Davis, which might lead to a lawsuit as I linked earlier today. At least it looks good in this picture. The picture below is of the scoreboard going on top of the blue zone seats. Here is another take on the scandal and renovation.

Scoreboard on top of the Blue Zone seats

Part of a two year process at Nebraska to expand Memorial Stadium

Nebraska also has a time lapse video of the construction. And a link for the construction details, explaining the completion date of fall of 2013 and capacity of approximately 92,000 fans.

The newest official photo from Kansas State of Bill Snyder Family Stadium

I’m assuming the picture is to show off the new AstroTurf GameDay 3D360 grass for which they sent out this video

 Skip Holtz wants USF to build an on-campus stadium. This story outlines why on-campus stadiums help, which is probably what sparked the Holtz quotes.

I’m not sure what was so great about this except Washington State was excited to see the sun out at Martin Stadium, so they sent this picture.

OMG, sun in Washington!

 OK, in all seriousness, Washington State does have a cool program, just like a few other schools such as Army and North Texas where they have movie nights in their stadiums during the summer. I think it is a great way to bring out fans and to use the stadium in a non-traditional way, especially with drive-in theaters dying off so quickly.

Georgia added an HD scoreboard to Sanford Stadium

Michigan will now allow you to say “I do” at Michigan Stadium for the right price. Thankfully they added lights and a scoreboard this summer to enhance the experience.

A photo of the new scoreboard at Michigan Stadium

A photo of the TCU Stadium construction

This is just a general story about planned facility upgrades at South Carolina. 

A photo of the field at Bobby Dodd Stadium

 LSU provided this picture of the window upgrade project. And a full gallery of photos here.

Photo of the LSU window project

Also, LSU has raised the capacity of their stadium to 92,542 seats this year according to a trivia contest they ran on twitter. 

The Chick-fil-A kickoff game wants you to have this info if you are attending the game.

Baseball playoffs might make the Cal-USC game move according to ESPN. Remember that Cal is renovating their stadium so they are playing in AT& T Park this year.

Davis Wade Stadium is getting ribbon boards. Hard to see in this picture but you get the idea.

Here is a rendering of planned upgrades and a full story.

A nice rendering of planned upgrades to Davis Wade StadiumUSC Coliseum is getting a new scoreboard

Lost Letterman ranked his 10 worst stadiums. Sorry, I can only rank places I have been which I will do at a later date

Here is a look at the value of home field advantage and features a heavy dose of Penn State.

Corn Nation is afraid that booing will return to Memorial Stadium at Nebraska this fall.

Rutgers wants everyone to know that they are enhancing game day festivities. Pretty much a fluff piece but worth the read if you are a VIP ticket holder.

Wisconsin has been informed that Soldier Field will have new turf installed in time for the Northern Illinois game according to Brett Bielema.

Boise State may not be able to remove the track in Bronco Stadium due to state board inaction.

Cincinnati has changed up the tailgating areas. Here is the full story.