Collegiate Stadiums

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

Daily Huddle 4-16-12

College football stories, links and photos from around the web.

A group of Ohio State players trolling Florida by tebowing at the 2012 Gator Bowl

I didn’t have a photo for today, then I found this photo I took at this years Gator Bowl and realized that the Ohio State players were “tebowing.”

A great story by Andy Staples on how Jessica Dorrell just hurt all women in collegiate athletics.

ESPN has acquired the rights to broadcast USC games nationally on the radio. Expect a full on media blitz to make USC the #1 team in the country from ESPN.

The Ohio Bobcats are looking for season ticket holders and are willing to sell tickets for just $4.50 each!

Boise State head coach Chris Petersen just got a raise, to $11.75 million over the next 5 years. The deal includes more money for the school from Nike.

Kevin McGuire (@KevinOnCFB) just wrote a great article outlining why Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald is such a “breath of fresh air.”

More on the Texas A&M Kyle Field renovation plans that may involve building an entirely new stadium.

Colorado State is hosting a public input session for a new on-campus stadium.

Top 25 Poll

I’ve been voting in a top 25 poll at College Football Universe the past few weeks so I figure I should share my vote each week here. Of course feel free to debate where I am stupid or why I suck as you see fit.

Alabama
LSU
Oklahoma
Boise State
Wisconsin
Oklahoma State
Stanford
Clemson
Oregon
Michigan
Arkansas
Georgia Tech
West Virginia
Illinois
Kansas State
Nebraska
South Carolina
Arizona State
Baylor
Michigan State
Florida
Texas
Houston
Penn State
Texas A&M

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.

 

Boise State Where the New Blue is Grey

Boise State "hiding" in all blue uniforms on a blue field

Word filtered out tonight from Chadd Cripe (via @murphsturph) that part of the deal with Boise State moving to the Mountain West was that they could not wear blue uniforms at home for conference games. That reminded me of a old, hidden Pink Floyd song called “Green is the colour” with the first two lines that go:

Heavy hung the canopy of blue
Shade my eyes and I can see you

For years, opponents have come up with all sorts of excuses as to why Boise State has been able to win so many games at home, with the most popular reason being that the all blue uniforms on the blue field is blinding to the eyes. I think that is exactly the type of advantage that Boise is trying to gain — a mental one — and they have succeeded for so long that the “urban legend” of it being too hard to see the players all-blue-on-blue that it is now spouted as fact.

Personally I find the blue, or red, or purple and grey fields to be eye-sores, but I just don’t see how all-blue-on-blue is any different then all-green-on-green that teams like Michigan State and Colorado State have worn. It isn’t like Boise State is painting their legs and arms in blue trying to blend in and be all camouflage against the field.

Colorado State in all-green uniforms on a green field versus Boise State in all-blue uniforms on a blue field

But, while I find the Mountain West request that Boise State change their field to green, a move that was declined by the school, and subsequent requirement that Boise State not wear blue at home to be petty; please remember that it is something that Boise State agreed to. Sometimes to move ahead, such as getting out of the quickly dying WAC, you have to make concessions to help your program in the long run. Just like Nebraska being willing to forgo their full share of B1G money until 2017, Boise State willingly traded their home blue uniforms for grey (according to @tbhawkes) during Mountain West conference games. So, Boise State gets more money and a more stable conference in exchange for buying and wearing a different colored uniform a few times a week. Doesn’t sound so bad to me if I am a fan.

Note: The above referenced article has plenty of quotes from Boise State coach Chris Petersen so please give it a click, but this quote pretty much sums up my thoughts in one sentence.

“I thought it was ridiculous,” Petersen said of his reaction. “… That’s our colors. That’s who we are. That’s who our fans have wanted us to be since I’ve been at Boise State. That’s what it’s been through and through.”

Note 2: The grey uniforms will not look like the one’s worn against Virginia Tech last year according to reports.

Uniform Update: 2011 Nike Pro Combat System of Dress Uniforms

So Nike found 9 teams willing to give up tradition and wear the special Combat uniforms this season.

According to Nike, the uniforms are good for the teams because:

The fully integrated uniform system, which the University of Oregon debuted during the 2010 BCS National Championship Game, incorporates the latest in performance innovation and design from the world’s most renowned athletic outfitter. The redesigned base layer facilitates the uniform’s overall innovation, delivering the ultimate in breathable protection for maximum speed. Strategically placed seams, pads and cooling zones also help minimize distraction and optimize protection.

Personally, I find most of the designs to be ugly and nothing but an attention grabbing ploy. We will not know how this years uniforms look for a few more weeks, but we do know the teams that will be wearing them, and when.

Oregon: All year with extra flare for the LSU game

LSU: The Oct 22nd game versus Auburn

Michigan State: Oct 15th versus Michigan

Ohio State: Oct 29th against Wisconsin

Boise State & Georgia: versus each other in the season opening Chick-fil-A kickoff game

Stanford: Nov 27th against Notre Dame

Army & Navy: against each other on Dec 10th at FedEx Field