The Bobcat Nation

Here's a site with a photo of every I-AA football stadium. Some may surprise you. www.eteamz.com/I-AAfootball/locations

Does anyone else think that Tennessee State and Yale might not have a real intimate gameday atmospheres? Tenn. St. definitely has the nicest home stadium in I-AA, though.

I agree BAC. Griz fans have a lot to strive for if they want to claim that they have the nicest stadium in all of IAA.

Tenn. State's field puts Dennis Washington Stadium to utter shame.

http://www.eteamz.com/admin/sitez/thumb ... &width=450

You're right about the not-so-intimate feel of the games. That picture above was actually taken during halftime of Tenn. State's '03 homecoming game!



p.s. sorry about all of the edits... my browser seems to be having troubles!

How about worst stadiums in 1-AA???

Aside from the litter box and the ice rink south end zone seats, my vote goes to Weber State and their clump turf, followed by the high school stadium at Eastern Washington...

How many people have been to more than, say, 10 1-AA stadiums in their lives? I'm sure there are lots of pretty bad ones out there, and I'm also sure that most of the BSC stadiums probably hold their own pretty well on a national level.

As an aside, not related directly to this thread so far, what are people going to do now that we can't live vicariously through Tony Moss' opinions about 1-AA culture outside of the BSC? Was he the only guy in history who actually travelled around the country passionately following 1-AA football? Who will we be able to reference about the top 10 status of our respective stadiums? We'll have to go back to lobbing insults or heaping gratuitous praise (expecting reciprocity, of course) on our 1-AA brethren from other conferences without knowing a thing about them, and certainly never seeing a game on their turf except for a rare playoff or nonconference clash.

Bay Area Cat wrote:How many people have been to more than, say, 10 1-AA stadiums in their lives? I'm sure there are lots of pretty bad ones out there, and I'm also sure that most of the BSC stadiums probably hold their own pretty well on a national level.

As an aside, not related directly to this thread so far, what are people going to do now that we can't live vicariously through Tony Moss' opinions about 1-AA culture outside of the BSC? Was he the only guy in history who actually travelled around the country passionately following 1-AA football? Who will we be able to reference about the top 10 status of our respective stadiums? We'll have to go back to lobbing insults or heaping gratuitous praise (expecting reciprocity, of course) on our 1-AA brethren from other conferences without knowing a thing about them, and certainly never seeing a game on their turf except for a rare playoff or nonconference clash.

Plus I did read an article where Moss said MSU's stadium was top 10 in 1-AA now with the new expansion (and we aren't even done yet boys .

Tony wasn't sliding all over the place walking to his seat in the south endzone when he made that statement...

Look at Lehigh, fans are 3 miles back starting at row 1 Not very intimate of game setting at all.

Is it a coincidence that griz fans whine and the south endzone remains uncomfortable?

Is it a coincidence that you don't sell out your games and the great stadium renovation has been going since I was in the 6th grade. How hard could it be to fix, the Griz added 4,000 seats in one offseason.

jagur1 wrote:Is it a coincidence that you don't sell out your games and the great stadium renovation has been going since I was in the 6th grade. How hard could it be to fix, the Griz added 4,000 seats in one offseason.

So Jaeger ... your now a Senior in high school now? Remember .. STAY IN SCHOOL!

Your a dude or you're a dude? Cardiac.

Take it to the smack board please, yet another good thread idea is quickly being ruined... we know the south end zone bleachers suck and need to be replaced.

I have only been to 8 1-AA stadiums, including all the current Big Sky schools except for Sac St. and PSU (which seems to be a baseball stadium from what I've seen on TV). From what I can tell from the pictures, the Big Sky does seem to stack up pretty well as a whole against the rest of 1-AA. I'm not exactly sure what they're doing at EWU but hopefully their renovation will be a significant improvement.

Since Tennessee State gets the great stadium due to geographic accident, I think they need a DQ on the best stadiums list. Ditto for the Ivies, since they seem to get decent attendence once a year.
PSU is a baseball stadium. I remember seeing punting practice on the outfield in the middle of the game. It has a great backdrop of Portland, but is a terrible atmosphere for football.
I doubt EWU could make the stadium any worse. I have seen better high school fields, in fact they used to play the Montana teams on a better high school field in Spokane.

I love PSU's stadium. It's got great old stadium architecture, lots of cool wooden superstructure, an intimate setting wedged in the middle of downtown Portland, and... most importantly... THEY SELL BEER IN THE STADIUM!!!!

There's a bit of open space on the outfield side of the field that sucks away from the atmosphere a bit, but I thought the view of the field was really good, and there's nothing like going to a game in an urban setting. You leave the stadium, and then decide which bar or restaurant you want to mosey on to. Or, hop on the lightrail and go anywhere you want in Portland.

It's different than the typical campus stadium, but that offers a lot of advantages as well.

Why disqualify the Ivies again? They have more tradition in one section of one stadium than our entire conference has collectively. Just because they don't draw well (due mostly to their own self-imposed limitations on athletics in favor of academics -- they don't fall all over themselves to scoop up I-A players who flunk out or get suspended, for instance) shouldn't count against them.

As for TSU... if that's their home stadium, that's their home stadium. Pitt plays in Heinz, Miami plays in the Orange Bowl, and UCLA plays at the Rose Bowl. Do we say that those aren't their home stadiums simply because they don't own them? Of course, 8,000 people at a game at Adelphia has to look pretty funny. It can't be much of a home field advantage, but I bet the players love the facilities.

Not positive, but I believe I've been to every BSC stadium there ever was. Personal observation ranking:

1. Makay Stadium, Reno.... Stadium build-out to about 30,000, great game day atmosphere, neat food court at one end of stadium.
2. Washington-griz Best game-day atmosphere I've ever seen in this conference. Too many seats in the endzones for a 23,000 seat stadium.
3. Bobcat Stadium/Reno H. Sales
4. Idaho States old "Spud Bowl". Predated the dome. It was small and old fashioned, but had great atmosphere and was a great place to watch a game.
5. Bronco Stadium, Boise. I would have rated it right up there, but I'll never buy in to the blue carpet.
6. Walk-up Sky dome NAU.....it's a dome
7. Wildcat Stadium. I believe it sits on the same ground as the original field, just recently updated. Classic erector set.
8. Sac State- Once the home of a World Football team franchise, it's not great, but it's outdoors.
8. Kibbie Dome@ Idaho...it's a dome
9. Portland State. It is a baseball park and I have not been there since the revovation. Great location, fun pregame atmosphere. Horrible seating for the visitors.
10. Dorenblazer @MSU-UM. Actually a great place to play. When wet the playing surface turned to a rich black muck!
11. Old Bronco Stadium. Sits where the new one is located. Classic clapboard. Sat maybe 6,000.
12. Old Vandal Stadium. Sat where Kibbie Dome now located. Much like Dorenblazer.
13. EWU-Cheney. The renovation will do wonders and may move it up to as high as #6.
14. Holt Arena-ISU It was a novality in '68. It's pretty sterile in there...it's a dome and a bad one.
15. Gatton Field MSC-MSU. Probably a neat little facility in the mid 1920's, but as time went by it truly turned into the "abortion bowl".
15. The "Field" at Cal State Northridge. The highschool facility in Three Forks is as good, maybe better, seriously. They had a new replacement on the drawing board when football folded. The local residence were up in arms about potential traffic problems and night lights.
I'm not going to defend my list, these are just my quick observations.

Bay Area Cat wrote:... what are people going to do now that we can't live vicariously through Tony Moss' opinions about 1-AA culture outside of the BSC? Was he the only guy in history who actually travelled around the country passionately following 1-AA football? Who will we be able to reference about the top 10 status of our respective stadiums? We'll have to go back to lobbing insults or heaping gratuitous praise (expecting reciprocity, of course) on our 1-AA brethren from other conferences without knowing a thing about them, and certainly never seeing a game on their turf except for a rare playoff or nonconference clash.

Bay Area Cat,
I-AA.org has been on nearly 4/5 of all I-AA fields and is at least equally passionate about our subclassification. So the answer to your questions are:
1. Read other informed I-AA Columnists.
2. No.
3. Read other informed I-AA Columnists.

This is I-AA.org's fourth year (and 26th year for Senior Columnist David Coulson).

Just giving pointers.

Ralph: Thanks for the pointers, and that is good advice. I personally should do more of that. I was mostly being tongue in cheek about Tony as so many (and there are many) of these "stadium" discussions lead to a UM person citing Tony Moss saying something positive about UM's stadium (almost always accompanied by the poster's personal jab at MSU's stadium), countered by an MSU person noting that Tony said that MSU's stadium was among the top ten in the country in I-AA.

So, to reciprocate in terms of advice, have someone from I-AA.org make some gratuitous comments about how great UM and MSU are (or just MSU, if you have to choose) in terms of stadium and fans, and the subreferences to that writer will live on forever in the chatrooms dedicated to Montana college sports. It's the closest thing to immortality that we have the power to bestow.

Bay Area Cat wrote:... So, to reciprocate in terms of advice, have someone from I-AA.org make some gratuitous comments about how great UM and MSU are (or just MSU, if you have to choose) in terms of stadium and fans, and the subreferences to that writer will live on forever in the chatrooms dedicated to Montana college sports...

Ok, I understand. Unfortunately for some, I-AA.org is more than a one-person operation so the praise is more spread out than any other I-AA staff. Be sure to check out the upcoming annual I-AA.org Magazine Preview this year though...



It may indeed look graciously on the Bobcat program.

The Cheney and Ogden stadiums look quite nice from television. And they're on grass!