Collegiate Stadiums

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

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

My Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award Ballot

On December 15th, the Football Writers Association of America will announce the winner of the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award. Since I am a member of the FWAA, I have a vote in this award. I thought I would post my ballot and explain why I put ranked the candidates in the order that I did.

 

Now I know no matter what order I put these five coaches in, I am bound to attract all sorts of comments, but I tried to put decent rationalization behind by vote, along with some help from @CFBZ and @sportingpuma.

Bill Snyder: Snyder got #1 on my ballot because he managed to win consistently with inferior talent. To go 10-2 in the Big 12 is a tough accomplishment with a loaded team. To do it with a lack of talent is just incredible.

 

Les Miles: I went back and forth between Miles and Mike Gundy for second on my ballot before making a final decision. The deciding factor here was how Miles was able to handle multiple issues from losing is offensive coordinator right before the season, to losing key players due to bar stompings and smoking weed (allegedly).

 

Mike Gundy: Now that isn’t to say Gundy didn’t have to get his team to handle adversity, but the one major issue that faced Oklahoma State did not directly involve the football team. While much more of a travesty versus anything LSU faced, I couldn’t overlook the fact that Oklahoma State blew a 24-7 lead against Iowa State. Iowa State is a team that I saw play in person and well, the Cyclones just were not a good football team.

 

Brady Hoke: Fourth on my ballot was Hoke. A good coach who seems to have quickly turned the culture at Michigan back to its traditional roots, but the overall body of work this season just wasn’t as impressive as some of the other candidates. The major wins by Hoke, over Ohio State and Notre Dame came during down years for those programs and just were not as impressive as they would be most years.

 

Dabo Swinney: Last on my ballot was Swinney. Clemson had a great year, but they also had a few consecutive games where they just flat were out-coached and outplayed, particularly against North Carolina State. To me, that is not the hallmark of a team coached by the national coach of the year, so I put Swinney fifth.

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.

 

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