Utah (PAC 12) 2014

College:  The University of Utah

Year:   2014

Game: Oregon 51 Utah 27

Rating: 7
Cost Index:  Moderate
Tickets:  Moderate

Stadium:  Rice Eccles Stadium

If you are looking for a small, clean and modern city you could do a lot worse than Salt Lake.  I took my wife here and it was perfect spot and kept both of us entertained. Salt Lake is easy to navigate, it has great public transportation and it's a pretty laid back scene.  We found pretty good food and a couple of brew pubs, it was a nice weekend.

The University of Utah is not far from downtown, it's built up the mountainside over looking the Salt Lake valley. If you do go here for a game you are most likely going to hang out downtown as there aren't many bars near campus (it's a dry campus, the drinking culture is not the same as other large state schools).

Rice-Eccles fits right in with the rest of Utah's campus.  It's a clean, modern design.  The stadium was built for the 2002 Olympics on the same site as the old Rice stadium.  Both the opening and closing ceremonies were held there.

As far as the game:  we got there about 30 minutes before kick off. It's about a 15 minute ride from downtown to the stadium on Utah Trax with a train stop right in front.   We didn't get a chance to check out the tail gate, I know from talking to people there is a tailgate lot further up the hill from the stadium.  My guess is that it's a decent tail gate but nothing to challenge the SEC.

This game will be remembered for the "fumble" at the goal line that turned into a 14 point swing for Oregon (see vid below). We had standing room seats but by a stroke of luck we were about 30 feet from the fumble when it happened, I noticed immediately that the refs did not signal a TD. The Utah bumble took the wind out of the stadium (Utah is pretty loud, not the loudest I've ever been too but close, especially considering it only seats about 48k) and stopped all of Utah's momentum.

Oregon was the better team overall and probably would've come back to win even if Utah goes up 14-0...but we'll never know what would have happened.  Utah has a very good defense, they gave Oregon problems for the first three quarters.  Oregon ended up pulling away at the end but this game was much closer than the final score indicates.

f you want to make it part of a larger trip:  BYU, Utah State

Don't Miss:  Downtown Salt Lake
Avoid:  Ogden and Provo

Attendees:  Bones, Wife of Bones

Game Recap:  http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=400548304

We were about 30 feet from this play:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11844727

Ohio State (Big 10) 2014

College:  The Ohio State University

Year:   2014

Game: Ohio State 55 Illinois 14

Rating: 8
Cost Index:  Moderate
Tickets:  Very Difficult, probably the most difficult in college football

Stadium:  Ohio Stadium (The Horseshoe)

I have long been an Ohio State hater, I've had bad experiences with their fans and their state in general. However I have to give credit where credit is due:  Columbus and particularly the Horseshoe are big time....I mean BIG TIME.  The Horseshoe might be the crown jewel of football stadiums.  The band is definitely the top level as well, easily the most interesting and most fun I have seen.  The Buckeye symbol looks a lot like a pot leaf.  

Originally we tried to get to to this game in 2010:

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=303170194

But I completely underestimated the ticket market and we whiffed.  This has happened to me a handful of times over the years -- spend a bunch of money to get to a place and then cheap out on the tickets.  Steps have been taken to ensure it doesn't happen again.   We end up spending a little more money for a lot more piece of mind.  

The game itself was nothing to write home about, Illinois does not field a competitive team.  However I will be making a return trip to Columbus in the future for a bigger game.  With any luck West Virginia will schedule a Thursday night game sometime over the next couple of years. 

If you want to make it part of a larger trip:  West Virginia, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Louisville

Don't Miss:  The Horseshoe and the halftime show
Avoid:  Nothing really

Attendees:  Bones

Game Recap:  http://espn.go.com/chicago/ncf/recap?gameId=400547912

Top Stadiums

Top Level:   The Horseshoe, South Carolina, Auburn, Camp Randall, Notre Dame, Penn State, West Virginia, Iowa State, Cal, Georgia, Oregon, Oklahoma State, Florida State, AT&T in Dallas, Arrowhead, Folsom,

Next Level:  The Glass Bowl, Nippert, Scott, Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon State, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Kansas State, Utah

Replace it:  Purdue, The Swamp

Florida State (ACC) 2014

College:  Florida State University

Year:   2014

Game: Florida State 31 Notre Dame 27

Rating: 9
Cost Index:  High
Tickets:  Difficult but there were some available outside the stadium before the game

Stadium:  Doak Campbell Stadium

Description:  Where do we start with this one?  I suppose a preface would be that this is yet another area of the US that isn't easy to stumble across. We've been wanting to get to this one since the beginning but it's been a while since FSU was really good so we put it on the back burner.  When we looked at the schedule this year and saw the defending National Champion playing with the reigning Heisman Trophy winner hosting Notre Dame we figured the time was ripe. We figured Notre Dame would be decent, we did not think they would be undefeated or that this would be one of the better games of the year.

We flew in and out of Pensacola, which was surprisingly nice.  It was much nicer than Panama City and Destin which looked a lot more like tourist traps.  The whole region is pretty laid back, not over developed.  We spent Friday driving from Pensacola over to the Apalachicola National Forest.  We finally found a proper camp ground at Camel Lake which is in the Apalachicola Forest.  It was an hour away from Tallahassee but for 10 bucks a night you can't beat the price.  The gentleman running the campground's name was Dennis and he claimed to play Linebacker for LSU from 1958 to 1962.  He also claimed to be the Louisiana wrestling champion and he said that he played for the Dallas Cowboys after impressing Tom Landry with a once handed catch in open tryouts.  I choose to believe all of Dennis's stories.

On Saturday we made our way to Tallahassee about noon time.  It took us a while to find parking but we eventually found a lot that happened to be right near Voodoo Dog.  Voodoo Dog is one of those good burger/hot dog joints you find in a lot of college towns.  Fairly priced food, focus isn't on health but the offerings were creative and tasty.  Tallahassee was getting crowded so we found some seats at the The Brass Tap and hung out there for the next few hours. We had our share of drinks and watched the end of the noon games and most of the 3:30 slate.  Really good day for football.  K-State upset Oklahoma.  TCU dominated Oklahoma State.

About 90 minute before game time we started our trek through the tail gate lots to Doak Campbell (pics below). The tail gate was very, very good but not in the top echelon of your better SEC and Big 10 tail gates.  I will say that FSU treats the concept of the Native American mascot about as well as possible.  They do their best to honor it, though I did learn that a Seminole was not a tribe per se, rather a term for Native Americans s who fought back against the white settlers.  I honestly don't know what to think of Native American mascots at this point but the pomp and circumstance around the Seminole seems sincere.

During pregame we wondered why Florida State didn't seem to have a lot of the traditions of other schools.  No conference championships from the early part of the century, no ring of honor or anything along those lines.  We were also wondering who Doak Campbell was and why he had such a huge presence.  As it turns out FSU was all women until the 50s. They didn't field a football team until 1954 and weren't any good until Bobby Bowden got there in the mid 70s.

Doak Campbell is one of those best of both world stadiums in that it's older but has recently been renovated.  It is not quite as loud as the top level loudest venues (Oregon, Penn State) but it is a very good home field advantage.  Crowd was hospitable, not obnoxious at all.  My only complaint: the video boards were horrible. Given all the money they have they should upgrade that part of the experience.

The game itself was a heavyweight slugfest.   Notre Dame dominated the line of scrimmage in the first half.  Florida State made just enough plays to stay in it (down 17-10 at halftime).  Florida State came out and took control in the third quarter.  Both teams traded body shots until Notre Dame got the ball back with about 3 minutes left and made their way down the field.  Evert Golson (who has balls the size of my head) converted a 4th and 18 to keep the drive alive.  It looked like Notre Dame was going to score in the final 30 seconds and win but Florida State does what Florida does best this year and hung on for the win. Just a great, great game. The whole reason why we spend our time and money going to these games was validated in a great 12 hour experience.

After the game Polychronopolis and I spent a couple of days meandering around the Florida coast. We found a great little town called Apalachacola and an even better state park right on the beach:  St. Joseph's Pennisula State Park.  We spent a couple of days drinking Oyster City beer and eating at the Owl Cafe. 

If you want to make it part of a larger trip: Maybe Gainsville, New Orleans or Jacksonville but it's a stretch.  This campus is pretty isolated.

Don't Miss:  Voodoo Dog, Pregame rituals before kickofff
Avoid:  

Attendees:  Bones, Polychronopolis

Game Recap:  http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=400547767

Missouri (SEC) 2014

College:  University of Missouri

Year:   2014

Game: Georgia 34 Missouri 0

Rating: 4
Cost Index:  Mid

Tickets:  Moderate

Stadium:  Faurot Field

Description:  One word can describe this particular trip:  Disappointing.   It's disappointing that Missouri is part of the SEC, it's a bad fit and the atmosphere just wasn't there.  The game itself was disappointing as Missouri did not show up to play at all.  It was disappointing not to see Todd Gurley play because of a bullshit NCAA rule that Georgia clearly didn't have to over react to (see: Johnny Manziel in 2013).  The people of central Missouri are somewhat disappointing with their silly accents and bad haircuts.  Farout Field was a bit disappointing as was the student section and the crown in general.

I was down here last year to try and see the Texas A&M game and I thought Columbia was boring but had potential.  I admit that the crowd for that game had to have been a lot better and the stadium a lot louder but the fact that this was easily their biggest home game of the year, playing the team they will be battling for the SEC East title....there should have been a better home field advantage.  I know it was an early game (11AM kick) but I can guarantee had this game been at Georgia there would have been a better response over the first quarter.  When the Tigers needed the crowd to help them from letting the game slip away they weren't there.  The SEC will be better off when Tennessee and Florida get back to where they need to be and Missouri can fall down to the lower half of the division and play the role of spoiler.

On the positive side, we did have a great day of biking on the M-K-T Trail and we had excellent BBQ at Shotgun Pete's.  However, I don't see a return trip to COMO in my future.

If you want to make it part of a larger trip: Kansas City, St. Louis

Don't Miss:  BBQ at Shotgun Pete's, M-K-T Bike Trail

Avoid:  Sitting in front of red neck dummies 

Attendees:  Bones, B.S.

  

Game Recap:  http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=400548370

Kansas City Chiefs (NFL) 2014

College: Kansas  City Chiefs

Year:   2014

Game: Kansas City 41 New England 14

Rating: 9
Cost Index:  Moderate

Tickets:  Difficult

Stadium:  Arrowhead Stadium

Description:  Arrowhead is one of the few remaining NFL stadiums deemed worthy of a trip, and it did not disappoint. Easily the loudest stadium I've ever been in. They set the record for noise in an outdoor stadium (142 decibels).  They also have a fantastic tail gate, 7 or 8 huge lots. Arrowhead shares a parking lot with Kaufmann Stadium hence the massive tail gate.

The game itself was a disaster.  One of the least competitive games I've ever attended, it was an ass kicking from the first snap.  Worse than last year's Super Bowl.

Overall it was a lot of fun. We had a group of 25 year old's in front of us who started out a bit obnoxious (as most 25 year olds will be, including myself at that age) but then came around and stopped being assholes in the second quarter. The place was rocking through the third quarter.

The home field advantage there is real, to the point where it's amazing that they ever lose there but the crowd may have been a bit crazier than usual because of the night game.  We did see Jimmy Garropolo's first career TD pass!!!

If you want to make it part of a larger trip: Missouri, Iowa State, Kansas, K-State
Don't Miss:  Tail gating, Oklahoma Joes, Jack's Stack

Avoid:  NFL fans under the age of 35

Attendees:  Bones, Dr. John Thackery, Polychronopolis

Game Recap:  http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=400554325