Goal: To thoroughly experience gameday at every FBS college football stadium. STADIUM COUNT: 113/134
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.
Doyt L. Perry Stadium, fondly named “The Doyt,” is the home of Bowling Green football. The construction is rather typical for a Middle American Conference arena. It’s small, yet cozy and certainly comes with devoted fans, making this place uninviting for visitors. In 2007, they tore out the north grandstand and made room for the modern and impressive Sebo Athletic Center, which houses offices, locker rooms, band seating and luxury suites. This newer addition clashes somewhat with the original structure that completes the rest of the stadium. But, the charm of “The Doyt” still remains.
One of the hot topics of the 2014 football season has been the collapse of the Big Ten conference. No team was able to win the marquee games of the nonconference season, and worse yet, they have been losing games that should have been walks in the park. Last week for instance, two Mid-American Conference foes upset Big Ten teams when Northern Illinois toppled Northwestern and Central Michigan clobbered Purdue.
Surely, this week would be better, right?
The College Football Tour tailgate was surrounded by hues of Husky red and Wildcat purple…and swarms of bees. If NU was playing Georgia Tech, we could chalk it up to irony. Instead, it was plain annoying. However, it didn’t sting our enthusiasm on this gorgeous day in Evanston for the battle of “Who’s the best in Illinois?” With the Fighting Illini struggling for relevancy and the Wildcats scrambling to crawl out of the losing-streak quicksand they put themselves into last year, Northern Illinois has surfaced at the top with an opportunity today to make it official.
Continue reading “Game 217: Northern Illinois @ Northwestern”
Riding the red line in Chicago on this day took an entirely different meaning. Badger fans who crossed the state line, and alums living in Chicago who had yanked their favorite Wisconsin tee off the hanger, all packed the el train with red as it zipped its way downtown and unloaded a steady red stream at the Roosevelt stop. Fans from both sides began to merge near Grant Park and banter back and forth while walking under Lake Shire Drive to get to Soldier Field. This home to the Chicago Bears became “Huskie Country” for the day.
Continue reading “Game 185 – #7 Wisconsin vs. Northern Illinois”
Finding Yager Stadium turned out to be a strange trek though woods and farmland (see post on Yager Stadium), but it ended in a pleasing result. The first quarter saw Kent State take control with a 14-3 lead under gray skies. The second quarter saw the skies open releasing cold rain on the Redhawk fans that came to watch their team.
A new stadium just christened last week with a victory and a Big Ten team coming in this week has injected new life into an Akron program that could use a lift. It appeared that any kinks in the new setting have been ironed out. The Akron band marched in the main quad toward the stadium and stopped to salute the fans with the fight song and other festive tunes.
Early evening summer kickoff in Madison = perfect day. The day begins with a stop around the Capitol to experience one of the Midwest’s finest and largest farmer’s markets. Fans draped in red herd over to the terrace to enjoy a beverage by the lake and take in a peaceful afternoon. From here, your choice of tailgates are endless finishing with the pregame band concert near Camp Randall Stadium.
The space between Cleveland and Pittsburgh is awfully quiet, but there is some life in the otherwise sleepy town of Kent when gameday arrives. Kent State University is located ten miles outside of Akron, making the Zips their most heated rival. The Golden Flashes have their home in Dix Stadium. It very recently was renovated with an impressive press box, jumbotron, and training facilities.
Akron and Kent State lie only ten miles apart which makes for a heated rivalry between the two. However, with struggling seasons, attendance numbers were not exactly exploding off the charts, but the enthusiasm for winning the Wagon Wheel Trophy is as real as any trophy rivalry across the country…