Goal: To attend a game at all 130 FBS (Division-1) college football stadiums
The seal has been broken on the 2016 college football season, and Arkansas state is part of the jubilation that is exploding the lid. Jonesboro is one of those tiny college towns that comes alive on game day, and with Toledo in town, A-State fans were painting the town red.
A trip to Williams-Brice Stadium will satisfy all the elements of an electric SEC atmosphere. The energy that ripples through these stands is challenging to duplicate, and it can pulsate throughout Columbia on game day.
From possibility to instability – that’s the course taken this season by South Carolina. An opening win against North Carolina quickly turned turbulent with harsh SEC losses, the sudden retirement of their legendary coach, and an inexplicable defeat at the hands of the Citadel. Now, as the season came to a close, the Gamecocks hosted #1 Clemson – South Carolina’s bitter instate rival who is eyeing a national championship.
Georgia State’s football program is young. Both teams date back to the early 1900s or late 1800s. Georgia states inaugural season was 2010.
It was Bill Curry, former Kentucky and Alabama head coach, who chose to return to the sidelines to help build the foundation for this brand-new program. Georgia State certainly endured a healthy dose of growing pains, but with Bill Curry’s guidance he was able to pass the baton onto a new head coach who has since taken them to their first ever bowl game.
Georgia State has a chance for a bowl game. It’s somewhat tenuous, but still quite astonishing considering that the program has only been in existence for five years. The Panthers have not only taken on the adjustment to developing a football team, but doing so at the FBS (Division 1) level. So, being 4-6 and two wins from bowl eligibility is a notable accomplishment.
Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois is known as the “Wrigley Field” of college football. It doesn’t quite have the history of the Cubs, but boasts a very classic and old school stadium atmosphere. For a while now, NU has been calling themselves Chicago’s Big Ten Team. Attempts to market this slogan are popping up around the city, and the evidence is beginning to show with more rumps in the seats in Evanston. Perhaps because Chicagoans are slowly realizing that Northwestern is true Big Ten football. It’s the real deal, especially lately.
A cup of coffee and an el train ride separate Chicago’s northside from Evanston, Illinois where the venerable Ryan Field awaits its fans in purple. Fitting that the el train that takes passengers up to Northwestern University is the purple line. Filled with Wildcat fans and a few despondent Purdue fans, the el carried patrons ready for an early kickoff on a unseasonably warm November day.
For Wisconsin fans on Halloween, no amount of candy could possibly match the treat of runningback Corey Clement’s return to the field. He brings an entirely different element to the Badger offense – one that would serve more as a trick than a treat for Rutgers.
More than 74,000 visited Camp Randall Stadium today, but it was patchy amongst the bleachers. Halloween is an over-the-top event in Madison, and those festivities coupled with an annoyingly chilly rainfall colored the crowd with a more dispirited hue.
USC really drives the tradition of west coast football. With their first squad fielded in 1888, Southern Cal is a team that sets a standard for others not only near the Pacific, but nationally. USC is one of those places that define tradition. An illustrious history includes coaching legends, Heisman Trophy winners, national championships, and classic rivalries (Notre Dame and UCLA most notably).
In the past four weeks, the embattled USC program has suffered three crushing defeats and the dismissal of their head coach. So, why were they favored over #3 and undefeated Utah?
Talent.
Tradition.
The LA Coliseum.
USC always can boast these assets.