The atmosphere of college football!:)
 

We drove to Valdosta State today to see BlazerCheer cheer and Ballerina dance at their football game against the U of West Alabama. What a wonderful place! The Blazers came back from a 24-7 deficit and won, there were delicious smells drifting all around the stadium, the stadium is surrounded by beautiful old live oaks draped with Spanish moss...I loved it all and didn't want the game to end!

This was my first non-Division I game ever and it was just as exciting as the SEC/SWC games of my past. Don't you just love college football?:)

You liked the VSU stadium? LOL Glad you did. Its sad its owned and used by the Valdosta Wildcats a high school team. VSU rents the staduim from them. Its old and need to be renovated. VSU wants Valdosta to sell it to them and VSU will pay the cost of building a new one. I doubt the high school team will agree to that. VSU will probably end up building their own. I really hope so we shouldn't have to share a stadium with a high school. I seen the drawings of what the stadium would look like and it would be great. It would have the same spanish mission style the school is built in. Maybe VSU will actually sell out some games then. I love VSU but they don't get much support from the locals. The high school never has any troubles selling the stadium out. VSU is undefeated and is a great team and usually wins the Gulf south title most years. They even won the national title back in 1995. Hal Mummey was the coach then, who later went to coach the University of Kentucky until he got the boot for NCAA violations.

Carnation,

I just couldn't agree with you more. Since the early 1970's I've had the opportunity to direct (for TV) football from high school to professional.

Fact is, I love the college game -- and not because of the athletics. I like the tailgate parties, the marching bands, the cheerleaders -- really everything about the it.

And, to be honest, I really like the smaller colleges and conferences the best. There isn't the "professional" tainting. Most of the players have no chance of going pro, and play for the love of the game instead of future riches.

One year I directed a series of ten service academy games. What a great season. Those guys (with a couple of notable exceptions like Staubach) are looking at four years of military service instead of pro glory. But the pagentry, the competion -- and finally the respect for themselves and their rivals is like nothing I've ever seen.

I was just back at homecoming in Athens at Ohio University a couple of weekends ago. That's in the Mid American Conference for those of you who don't know -- or have never heard of Ohio or the Conference. I got a very nice award for being the announcer for the Marching Band from 1966 to 1969. The band is a very big deal at O.U. It's part of the Saturday afternoon package along with the cannon, the victory bell et al., sitting in a small (20,000 seat) stadium with the changing fall colors on the trees in the hills behind the stadium.

Fantastic.

And unlike the professional "cheerleaders," these men and women are athletes -- not dancing sex symbols.

I also did University of Colorado football for many years in the days when they were national champions one year and contenders several others -- so I think I've seen both sides of the coin. I've directed professional games for NBC and been to several Super Bowls.

Well, to each his (her) own. The above is my opinion. Others love the "big time" nature of Ohio State/Michigan, Oklahoma/Texas, Auburn/Alabama. And that's fine, too. I just really like the simplicity of the smaller college game.

I loved football games in college!!! Pitt had this ancient, rundown, falling apart stadium with radioactive green-colored Astroturf. To top it off, it was perched on the top of what was fondly known as "Cardiac Hill"!

Sadly, Pitt Stadium is no more. It was torn down about 4 years ago and a convocation center is not on the site where it used to be. Pitt plays its home games at Heinz Field now, same place as the Steelers. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL stadium; no doubt of the best college football venues in the country. But STERILE! Antiseptic! Lacking warmth and charm! And the students have to take a bus or two to get there :(

I love the way you described the VSU game, Carnation! That to me is what college football should be, and that is how I remember it from back in "my" days :)

Iowa football rocks, can anyone say Pasadena?! :D We, uh, rolled over Michigan this weekend, which were supposed to be our big contenders since we haven't beat them since '90, but, we had them like 35-9 or something!

I agree!
 

It is a pretty special thing, the games where the kids are just playing for the love of the game. At my school, our athletic conference does not allow the granting of athletic scholarships, so the people who are playing or cheering are doing so because they want to. Our stadium is old and rickety, but it's got a lot of charm that a superstadium like Florida Field doesn't.

Don't get me wrong, I love my SEC, but there's definitely something special about going to one of my school's home games.

Go hawks!

Going to a game at Central Oklahoma is nothing compared to Oklahoma University's games. I guess the biggest difference is that I know EVERYONE in the stands. It's almost like highschool.

I prefer the big game environment. My personal favorite is the OU-TX game where the schools divide their ticket allottment down the 50 yard line of the stadium. Very cool game atmosphere.

Mr RedRoseSAI was beyond excited yesterday about his Hawks... :rolleyes: :D