Ole Miss (SEC) 2010

College:  Ole Miss (SEC)

Year:    2010 (Egg Bowl)

Games:   Mississippi State 31 Ole Miss 23

Rating:   8 out of 10

Cost:  Moderate

Tickets:   Easy

Stadium:   Pretty damn good.  Also has the best name for a stadium if you are an English major:  Vaught-Hemingway.   Kind of rolls off the tongue. 

Description: In 2010 we did the Iron Bowl and Egg Bowl on the same weekend.  Now they change the schedule around every now and again so I’m not sure this trip is available every other year (when Alabama and Ole Miss are at home) but if it is it’s one of the best “killing two birds with one stone” trips out there.

Ole Miss itself is pretty much as advertised.  Alabama has some bullshit attempted rip off of the Grove that they call the Quad but it’s not 1/10 the tailgate the Grove is.  We hung around there for a few hours and had a “Hoddy Toddy” or two along the way.   

The game itself was excellent, we bought a couple of prime seats for maybe 20 bucks a piece.  We ended up sitting next to the user car king of Mississippi.  At first he was a bit upset that his daughter had essentially given away her tickets but when he found out where we were from and what we were doing he ended up getting us tickets to the catered skybox in the second half.  That was actually a pretty fun way to top off the weekend.  People generally warm up to you when you realize you have traveled a distance to see their team. 

This guy actually taught me a bit about Mississippi.  The national impression of MS is a backwards state that lags behind the rest of the country.  Obviously some of that reputation has been earned but when you hear about Mississippi and it’s statistics you have to keep in mind that 90% of the state is really pretty farmland.  It’s just the delta region is still impoverished and this regions drags the state downward from a statistical perspective. 

The night before we stayed in Tupelo, this was underwhelming and I would not bother with it.  

Don’t Miss:  The Grove, the square in Oxford
If you want to make it part of a larger trip: Memphis is only about an hour away, Starkville is a couple of hours, Tuscaloosa is three.

Avoid:    Tupelo, the murderous drive home from Oxford to Chicago in one day

Attendees:  Bones, Polychronopolus, Dave

Game Recap:  http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=303310145

Ole Miss Football Ticket

Alabama (SEC) 2009

College:  Alabama (SEC)

Year:    2010 (Iron Bowl)

Games:   Auburn 28 Alabama 27

Rating:   7 out of 10

Cost:  High

Tickets:   Difficult

Stadium:   I didn't like Bryant Denny Stadium.  I felt it was an oversized, ugly mass of concrete.  Seats are too far away, stadium is packed full of assholes. 

Description: For a place with as much tradition as Alabama I was disappointed in the game day experience.  The campus itself is well kept but it looks more like a government campus than a higher education..  They have a main area called “The Quad” and the tailgate there is decent but the campus oozes an elitist attitude at every turn.  I’ll never understand why people dress to the nines to attend a FOOTBALL GAME, nowhere is this more evident than at Alabama.  People looked like they were going to church.

The stadium itself looks like it was designed by a bunch of drunks.  It’s way too big, way too sterile. 

Now we did see what has to be one of the most legendary Iron Bowl games ever played.  The “Cam Newton” game where Alabama went up 24-0 and Newton led them back to a 28-27 win.  Great game made even sweeter by an Alabama loss!  On the way into the stadium I went into the pisser and on the way out noticed a group of mongos snapping pictures of some dude wearing an Auburn jacked.  It was Sir Chalres Barkley himself!  He was clearly sick of the attention. 

Post game drinking on University Ave was  excellent as was the shuttle service around campus.

Don’t Miss:  Postgame drinking scene downtown, Moe’s original BBQ
If you want to make it part of a larger trip:  Starkville is 90 minutes, Atlanta is three hours, Auburn is three hours.

Avoid:    Interacting with Alabama fans

Attendees:  Bones, Polychronopolis, Dave

Game Recap:  http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=303300333

Alabama Football Ticket

Patriots vs Pittsburgh (2010)

Year:   2010

Games:   Patrtiots 39 Pittsburgh 26

Rating:  7 out of 10

Cost:  Moderate

Tickets:  Expensive
Stadium:    Heinze Field is about as good as you're going to get for a pro stadium.  It's right on the river 

Description:  One of my favorite terms is "give credit where credit is due" and you have to give Pittsburgh credit in a couple of areas.  First, they love football there, they really do.  Second, the city itself is the most interesting one I've been too from a geographical perspective.  It's not really a city as much as it's a bunch of neighborhoods crammed into both mountains and a valley.  Every American should check out Pittsburgh for a few days in their life, you won't be disappointing.
                      It was also great watching the Patriots hammer the Steelers.  For all of you Patriots haters out there, and I know there are a lot and I understand the reasons why (even if I don't agree) give them credit where credit is due:  if it wasn't for Belichik and Brady Pittsburgh might have 8 Super Bowls.  We can all agree that nobody wants to see that, right?      
                        

Don’t Miss:   Tail gate and bars around the stadium are excellent. Can I get two Pickets to Tittsburgh?   Take the incline up to Mount Washington. Ride through the Fort Pitt tunnel.
If you want to make it part of a bigger trip:  Morgantown is about 90 minutes south, State College 2 hours east, Columbus is 3 hours west.

Avoid:    Interacting with Pittsburgh fans.  

Attendees:  Bones,  Polychronopoulus, Park League

Game Recap:  http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=301114023

Purdue (BIG 10) 2010

College:  Purdue (Big 10)

Year:    2010

Games:   Wisconsin 34 Purdue 13

Rating:   4 out of 10

Cost:  Moderate

Tickets:   Moderate

Stadium:  Ross-Ade: Average at best

Description: Another engineering school, another boring set up.  Boring Big 10 football in a boring state with a boring stadium.  I digress here for a minute but does the style of a given conference indicate the economic state of its region?  Right now the PAC-12 has the most diverse offensive football systems in place.  Teams like Stanford and Oregon are winning and winning big.  The SEC has the best suite of defenses in the country in a conservative area with a growing population base.  My shitty theory just got debunked by the Big 12 as they have dynamic offenses and are mainly located in economic wastelands.  Moving on…

There should be a conference devoted to boring engineering schools with boring football programs.  It would consist of Virginia Tech, Illinois and Purdue so far.  I haven’t been to Georgia Tech or Stanford so I can’t say whether or not they would be in this conference.  Maybe we should expand this conference to include schools where football is supposed to be “big” but it just doesn’t live up to it.  Let’s add Northwestern and BC.  Maybe Syracuse. This could actually work….

Back to Purdue:  They do get up at 6AM and go to bars to party before a noon kick.  Now I know this is unique, so they get points for that, but just because it’s unique doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile.  Drew Brees must have given Purdue a lot of money because everything is named after him down there.

Don’t Miss:  Getting up at 6AM to go to a bar….I guess
If you want to make this part of a larger trip:  Chicago is 2 hours away, Indy is an hour (though why would anyone want to go there is beyond me), South Bend is 2 hours. There is also a Wolf Sanctuary near Lafayette where you can either observe or interact with these proud, beautiful and intimidating creatures.

Avoid:    Big 10 Football

Attendees:  Bones, Polychronopous, Col Hans Landa

Game Recap: http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=303102509

Michigan (BIG 10) 2010

College:  Michigan (Big 10)

Year:    2010

Games:   Michigan 42 UMass 37

Rating:   7 out of 10

Cost:  Moderate

Tickets:   Moderate

Stadium:   Excellent

Description: Admittedly this was not a big game. Admittedly I am biased against Michigan by living in the Chicago for the past 8 years and dealing with arrogant and elitist Michigan graduates (before anyone at Ohio State celebrate:  you are just as bad, possibly worse).  Michigan was decent, but not great.  The stadium renovation was righteous.  Ann Arbor is a nice, if very white, city.  A bit boring.  We probably should go back but probably won’t (well, maybe for a hockey game). 

We had a lot of fun at the game mainly because UMass (1-AA at the time) almost won.  Boy was Michigan's defense horrible.   The people were very nice there, I have to give them that.  I was cheering for UMass and some little pussy gave me a "UMass fucking sucks!" and security made the little worm apologize.    After the game we witnessed some road rage when a 22 year old kicked a car for some reason.  
Sorry to say it but Michigan State is much better experience. 

Don’t Miss:  The city of Ann Arbor, Ann Arbors brewpub
If you want to make this part of a bigger trip:  You can start with the west coast of Michigan, which is one of the nicest areas of the United States.  Granted it's not that close to Ann Arbour (between a 3 and 5 hour drive depending where you are going) but there are coastal resort towns all up and down, Sleeping Bear Dunes is up near Traverse City, Mackinak island is up near there and if you are really into nature you could check out Pictured Rocks up on the UP (Upper Penninsula).  Closer by is Detroit, which despite it's national reputation is a cool city to visit, espeically with Windsor right across the border.  

Avoid:    Big 10 Football

Attendees:  Bones, Polychronopolus, Dave

Game Recap:  http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=302610130