#4 in the Big 12

[huskrplaya]

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/big12/0-2-183/T...d-rankings.html

 

Best game-day experiences...

 

 

1. Texas A&M - Unmatched atmosphere from fans. Kyle Field reeks of tradition and it's always been that way -whether the Aggies were good or not.

 

2. Texas - The best of everything in press box accommodations and other creature comforts.

 

3. Oklahoma - What they are missing in plushness, the Sooners' stellar sports information office makes up for the rest with their dedication.

 

4. Nebraska - Memorial Stadium has the best "big-game feel" in the conference. The excitement is palpable in a walk around the stadium before the game. And I also loved the grilled sausages sold by the vendors outside the stadium. Kind of reminds me of walking into a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park.

 

5. Colorado - While I might struggle getting used to altitude getting to it, Folsom Field has a picturesque quality apart from most stadiums.

 

6. Texas Tech - It's the only game in town and you can tell it with the excitement generated by Mike Leach's recent success. The Tech athletic people also make you feel like a long-lost friend when you arrive.

 

7. Oklahoma State - You never know what will happen in the interview room afte the game here.

 

 

8. Kansas State - The best tailgating in the league and a nice comfortable press box. Who could ask for more?

 

9. Missouri - After a couple of early trips there a few years ago, I wondered if Faurot Field could ever be exciting. Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin are changing those perceptions pretty quickly. But I don't like driving there - from either St. Louis or Kansas City.

 

 

10. Baylor - One of the most hospitable places to watch a game - at least when the press box is closed rather than open for a hot summer afternoon. Sportswriters will always vote for cool air over football pageantry any day.

 

11. Kansas - Mark Mangino has pumped more life into Memorial Stadium than I ever could have imagined. But it still feels a little sterile at times.

 

12. Iowa State - The smell of brats and hamburgers wafting from the tailgaters makes Jack Trice Stadium's press box the most appetizing place. Now if Gene Chizik could only develop a competitive, contending program.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Damn ISU can't get any breaks can they?

[SkullandBones]

Damn ISU can't get any breaks can they?

 

don't worry about it, I'd MOVE to Ames before I went to a CU game!

[hskrfan4life]

This is good. I'm glad to see this guy know what he's talking about. Texas A&M should be first with all their tradition

[Cy the Cyclone]

Bah...this thing should have been entitled

 

"The Stadiums Where the Athletic Departments Kiss My Ass and Give Me The Most Free Food and Presents"

 

Hey Griffen...you have to pay for your stuff up here in Ames just like all the common fans do...we ain't impressed with your ESPN credentials round here....

[Bugeater23]

not having NU #1 on this list is a joke

[Apathy]

not having NU #1 on this list is a joke

 

We don't have to be #1 on everything

[HuskerFan505]

not having NU #1 on this list is a joke

 

Its okay, I believe he's going off of press box accomidations and outside the stadium. Being "in the sea of red" is a whole different experience. GBR!!!

[Cy the Cyclone]

If you want a REAL idea of what schools provide the best game day experience, you don’t ask a writer since the only thing they ever played at college was Dungeons & Dragons with their other nerd friends who couldn’t find dates on Friday night...you ask a guy who has actually experienced game day from a player’s point of view. So…without further adieu…here is Cy’s real game day experience ranking (as experienced from about 25 years ago anyway….)

 

12. Texas A&M. Never played here. Never even been to College Station and have never had a desire to go there. Sounds like a stop on the railroad way out in the middle of nowhere where some crazed hermit on bad peyote decided they damn well needed a college. Since they stopped the traditional burning of the students in the bonfire, I can’t think of a good thing to say about the place

 

11. Texas Tech. Never played here either. Been through Lubbock once…and that was enough. They haven’t killed any of their fans yet (either intentionally or not) so that puts it a tick above A&M on crappy places to go to…thought College Station does have a tree, something that Lubbock is sorely lacking.

 

10. Colorado. If you ever want to experience “game day” in Boulder, go to the local bar and have the patrons there pour bottles of beer on you as you run in and out the door and once the bottles are empty have them throw them at you. For good measure, do it while holding your breath since only deformed people can actually breathe correctly at that altitude.

 

9. Kansas. Remember the old movies where the hero would ride into a desert town in the old west…there would be nobody around, doors creaking in the wind…maybe a tumbleweed blowing down the street. That was Kansas. Sure, it wasn’t like ISU was a big draw or anything but still…two old couples in section C??? The game felt more like a scrimmage.

 

8. Baylor. Never played here either but I’m kind of amused by the name Waco (pronounced Wacko up there…) and the fact that at some point David Koresh and some of his goofy followers may have been season ticket holders…or at least attened a game or contributed to the athletic department.

 

7. Kansas State University. There was one fan here both years we played here who was the loudest SOB in all of the Big 8. Guy sounded like he had a bullhorn permanently attached to his mouth. Guy was someplace behind our bench and yelled out garbage from the minute we hit the field…some of the stuff he yelled would have made a sailor blush. Had trouble finding the guy in the crowd and was very surprised to find out it was some middle aged woman…

 

6. Texas. Never played here either but stopped in Austin one time to say “Hey” to Mack Brown and see if he remembered me from the old Iowa State days. He didn’t. But he did give me a free Coke and a Longhorn hat (which came in handy when I stopped at the rest area and discovered my stall was out of toilet paper).

 

5. Oklahoma State University. Always had a lot of success at Stillwater…and the fans seemed to be very passive. Oh sure, they cheered at the right times and whined at the right times but they never seemed to get really excited about the fact that they were attending a college football game. The fans are kind of like the university itself…just there.

 

4. Missouri. Totally opposite of the OK-State fans, the people here had absolutely no clue about what was going on during the game but seemed determined to make as much noise as possible at all times. They would boo the marching band, the refs…hell they even screamed bloody murder when they lost the coin toss. Good fans…stupid…but good fans.

 

3. Oklahoma. One of the many places where Cy has never experienced victory. Norman can be very intimidating for visiting players…first, the town is named Norman but nobody has burned it down yet…must be a tough place to have survived with such a stupid name…and it’s loud….and it was always packed! Then there was the “we are going to beat you so bad!” attitude, which we couldn’t really complain about since it was more a declaration than a threat….

 

2. Nebraska. Again…one of many places where Cy has never experienced victory (seeing a pattern here?) Standing on the field in Lincoln is like standing at the bottom of a big hole surrounded by huge hills of red dirt and just waiting for someone to shovel it in on top of you. It was the only place I can remember where I actually wondered what would happen if the stands suddenly collapsed onto the field. Okay, the fans were a little patronizing…(“look at those sweet little boys from Ames getting off that bus Matilda…ain’t they cute, all dressed up like the older children) and the turf was crappy (learned from my many hours spent laying face down on it). But, for a guy from the smallest school in the Big 8…Lincoln was Big Time football.

 

1. Iowa State. I know all the girls who would put out, knew all the clerks who would sell beer to kids without an ID and had a pretty good map of where all the best ditch weed grew wild out in the country. None of that had much to do with the actual game day experience, but in Ames, I was more concerned with the “after the game” day experience anyway.

 

By the way…San Antonio (home of the author of the ESPN blog) is my least favorite city in the world because I once got lost there, dropped my camera in the canal and had to walk a million blocks from the convention center to get a pack of cigarettes…the only good thing about San Antonio was my hotel room faced the police station and it was fun watching the cops haul drunks, hookers and other low-life types in at all hours of the night.

[Ohio Pete]

4. Missouri. Totally opposite of the OK-State fans, the people here had absolutely no clue about what was going on during the game but seemed determined to make as much noise as possible at all times. They would boo the marching band, the refs…hell they even screamed bloody murder when they lost the coin toss. Good fans…stupid…but good fans.

 

Sort of reminds me of the fans at the Wisconsin at Fresno State game. Loud as can be but it sure seemed like half the fans had never actually seen a football game. Bit of a surprise given the program's level of success.

[papersun87]

Apparently a stadium that sits empty for eleven out of twelve games does nothing to diminish the wonderful atmosphere in Boulder. The weed must help.

[VA Husker Fan]

not having NU #1 on this list is a joke

 

Its okay, I believe he's going off of press box accomidations and outside the stadium. Being "in the sea of red" is a whole different experience. GBR!!!

Yeah, it seems like that's what he did. You'd think he'd have the sense to answer the question from a fan's perspective, but I guess not. It's pretty useless information to the rest of us.

 

I can't put my finger on it but I wasn't impressed the times I've been at UT. For all the talk they do, they don't really seem to be into the game. Nothing like A&M, OU, and Nebraska. Tech is the only other Big 12 stadium I've been to, and I seem to have purged that game from a few years ago from my memory. Seems like we lost, didn't we? Oh yeah, and Baylor, which belongs towards the bottom.

 

Nebraska loses points for limited butt room and really limited leg room. Personally, of course, I put it at #1, but I can see how an unbiased fan would choose Kyle Field.

[papersun87]

I'd love to visit College Station or Norman.

[Blackshirtsguru]

When I used to live in Texas, I traveled to the Husker/Aggies game with my two boys. I have been to a lot of stadiums, but I have never been to any that were as loud as Kyle Field was. They aren't pooping when they say "Home of the 12th man". The best thing about this paticular game that I went to was when Purify caught the game winning TD in the final minutes of the game. That really shut the "12th Man" up that day!

[huskerguy]

There is such a big drop off from 4 to 5 though... I would say the top 4 are all pretty even but then after that theres nothing close.