the AAC stadium heads episode on the sports gambling podcast network is brought to you by underdog fantasy. You can wait up to 325 times your entry with their brand new pick eight sign up. And when you do sign up at the promo code TCE SGPN to claim your special pick plus first time to posit offer up to $250 in bonus cash underdog fantasy.com promo code TCE SGPN. We're also brought to you by rhythm. Get the best data driven props and picks from rhythm claim your free seven day trial period today by going to sports gambling podcast.com/rhythm. That's RITHMM that sports gambling podcast.com/rhythm. Hey everybody. Joe Fies with here. You're listening to SGPN. So do this. Let it ride. The granddaddy of the mall. The fame rose bowl jammed with a color of over 100,000 fans for a 67th renewal. And the weather here today in Notre Dame stadium in a word it is cold but it is football weather the temperature 77 degrees humidity 79 percent forecast cloudy front of light rain later on this afternoon. The average person doesn't know what a good stadium is. They might think they know what a good stadium is but they think just oh our seats are nice. It's so comfortable. We have a 10,000 inch screen. We can watch the replay all over watching the game when we got a waiter coming over to take our quarters right and there's 20 million bathrooms close to us. That's not what makes it good stadium. A good stadium is you know the look of it the feel of it the history of it the soul of it. That's what makes it good stadium. That's what I mean when I say we're stadium heads we are stadium heads. They get to run around. Now those people they shouldn't even be there. That doesn't even count. But you can't get out of the element shouldn't even go into the game. That's the worst thing. No cars, boxes up there. Don't say we don't need that, right? We don't need that. It's one of the great settings in all of College football. We live is now in its 87th year. That's what we are though. We are stadium heads. Welcome back to our stadium heads podcast AAC stadiums episode on the stadium heads podcast. And look get on over to youtube youtube.com/at stadium heads S G P N. I think you'll dig the visual side of this because I mean look if you're listening on the audio side that's fine too but the the visual side obviously we use all of all of Michael's photos. So if you're wondering just who the hell you're listening to well that's fair. My name is Colby Swig a database dad aka pick Don D that's not a pick. This is a pick. He was raised in the land down under where a man thinks on his feet speaks with his fists and lives by his wits. Don D happened. He was a superstar. Nobody knows nothing. Somebody knows double the price but no one touches Don D. AAC my beloved pirates are in this conference and this is like it's bittersweet in a way because it's like this conference has just been insane movement over the past few years. It started with UConn in their 2020 national championship but UConn was once in this conference. They had this rivalry called the Civil Conflict that was not a rivalry. It was horrible but I'd like to say UConn might have been the catalyst behind all this change in the AAC. I am joined by my co-host he is known as the most interesting man in college football and we even have a nice introduction from ESPN from him. They don't want to shout out Michael Barker. You can follow him on Twitter at CSB campus tour. This is his 84th college football game of the 2020 price season. He said he's going to end at 90 90 college football games. He's attended this year with the college football national title in Houston. And so again he's out there with everybody. He's like, well, they're also service. Rain, sleep, snow. Rain, sleep, snow. That is college football campus tour, AKA Michael Barker. How you doing brother? I'm doing great. I'm looking forward to talking about these stadiums. We'll hand it off to you when it comes to ECU. But this is good for me because right now I feel like the season is close but it's not quite there. You know, my analogy would be you're in prison and you got a calendar and you know your release date and you're just crossing off every day, getting closer. So I think I saw a tweet 55 days means we're under two months. Hopefully the show will bridge the gap for people before we get to have fun and start with the real thing. Yeah. And and obviously as the season heats up, Michael's travel schedule, folks, if you if you haven't, you know, maybe you didn't tune into his work over the past few years, it's absolutely insane. You weren't you're going to want to give him a follow on Twitter at CFP campus tour as much as we're going to cover his travel because no podcast has ever stayed like on a weekly format of following his travel. And I think it just is going to be great for entertainment and great for everything. But if you're a college football fan, I just aside from this podcast, which I want you to subscribe to in general, just give him a follow on Twitter and see if be campus tour. Because when I say the most interesting man in college football, yes, he's not staying at five star hotels, folks. He's not saying hotels. You know, I mean, not even one star hotels for the most part, I believe. But yeah, I mean, he's bouncing around. It's really insane. It's really, it's really something that I feel like that you should be featured in like the Guinness Book of World Records or something. But anyway, I did apply. I did apply. And I haven't heard back. The only category they had was football matches. And I think that means soccer says it takes three months to get back. I haven't heard anything yet. So sometimes you have to call your shot. So maybe if we're going to do more than 90 this year, maybe we can get back and touch to them and warn them and have them track it. But yeah, I mean, you're giving a shout on ESPN. I'll take that. Sorry, Guinness book unless you're going to give me the proper credit will where ESPN greater sign, Guinness Book of World Records fair, very fair. And right now right now I want to start the campaign for college game day to get you on the show. All right, because I don't even know if I'm first, but I'm jumping on the wagon. If not, all right, let's go. Let's get let's get Michael Barker, college football campus tour on college game day. I feel like people should tweet that at college game day, I believe on Twitter. Let's talk about the AAC. It's been a rotating chair, you know, just teams going in and out, you know, it hasn't been the as an ECU fan, I can say like, I don't know how excited I am about the AAC is at overall conference. Now I like some of the stadiums within the AAC, but it's just, I like steady rivalries. I like, you know, I don't know. I want to dive into the new teams and the new stadiums and the overall perception, but before I do that, I want to say that you are listening to the stadium heads podcast, part of the sports gambling podcast network. And look, our, you're going to want to check out the latest episode of the SGP stories podcast. It's out on our Patreon. The guys, myself, Sean Stack and the money green and Ryan real money Kramer do a forensic files style deep dive on the Bobby patrino motorcycle accident that cost him his job. And I, yeah, I might be wearing a neck brace with, with, with a sugar bowl hat on. And yeah, just we're doing a reenactment too. So jump on over there, check that out. Plus make sure to check out the WNBA gambling podcast as Terrell and Scott have started out red hot with their locks. And remember, as always folks too, let it ride. All right, back on the stadium heads, AAC stadium preview. And, you know, just continuing another chapter of our work as we've previewed, we just got done with the sun boat a week ago before that was the mountain west slash pack to all the power conferences are out there. So if you're listening to this for the first time and you're a Baylor fan, it's out there, any of the power schools, it's out there. So yeah, this one, it hits home for me because my team is the East Carolina pirates. And, you know, in general, aside from stadium, I know we're just here to talk stadiums. I am not, uh, I understand the AAC money is better than the sunbelt. You know, and I understand that that's supposed to be a win. But it's not like that money's in my account. All right. So I don't, uh, I so many times I'll bring up to friends of mine that, that I know from ECU or, you know, the ECU subreddit, um, they just think because we have this money that's invisible that never touches them that that's why we're better in the AAC than the sunbelt. And I disagree. I think fan interest, uh, we have long rivalries with Marshall and Southern Miss and stuff like that. So as much as like, okay, I like the new development of the Charlotte ECU series. I think that's fun. UAB and Charlotte or UAB and ECU have a little bit of history. But the conference has been changing so much that I have a hard time attaching myself to it. So overall, like, yes, there's some great stadiums and I'm excited to talk about them. There's also some stadiums that I can't wait for them to potentially get on campus. It just seems like kind of a mix of everything. What's your overall assessment of this conference? So I would say currently you got your finger on the pulse. That's what it is. It's a mixed bag of historic stadiums like Mikey Stadium and the Liberty Bowl. And then you have some, uh, you know, school East Carolina, the biggest on campus G5 stadium. And then, you know, you have some newer programs, just newer programs in general, you know, FAU and UTSA and Charlotte. And so, uh, I think that if you crystallize what it is right now, it's definitely a mixed bag. But we have to give credit where credit is due, uh, UCF Cincinnati to lane what they have done in the past few years with big victories, playoff appearances, uh, you know, big bowl game wins like UCF over Auburn and the Peach Bowl. They have a big say in what happened with the realignment and the playoff bracket. And so, um, the conference is recovering. We don't like to think maybe it's a step up conference because we don't know what's going to happen. But they put out Houston and UCF and, uh, Cincinnati who accomplished a lot on the big stage and now they have to replenish. And let's hope that some of these new additions do that not just because their markets, not because they bring in TV contracts, because they're the next in line to make an impact in G5 football. Yeah, no, that's fair. And that's fair. And I think, uh, you know, we'll talk about some of the stadiums that potentially could be coming or are coming and then some of the classic stadiums that reside within this conference. I just, to me, like, you know, ECU, for me personally, for, you know, I'm just, I know I'm getting specific by talking about them, but there's not many historic rivalries in this. It's almost like, like, I have friends, I host my college basketball experience show with, uh, Ryan McIntyre, who's a West Virginia grad. And, you know, he hosts beside outside of the SGP and network. He does a West Virginia podcast and we always meet up. And he's always like, man, I just, I like being in the big 12, but it's like, because of our money, but I don't care about Baylor. Like, I don't care about Texas tech. You know what I mean? Like, so it's like, it's, you feel like a man without a country in a way, you know what I mean? Like, you're just like, so even in the AAC, like, I like the Charlotte one developing, but I sit there and I look around and I got like, who do I have any animosity towards or? It's like, I try to convince myself that, like, Memphis and Tulane, because they've been in the AAC conference USA so much. But really, it's, I feel like the Sunbelts blueprint has been, is, is more successful, even though they don't have the TV contract yet, that, you know, long term, I think that might end up with more TV money than the AAC. We'll see. But, anyway, there are some classic stadiums, folks, and you come to us for stadium talk, but we also love college football. So I did want to dive in on that a little bit. It's like, I hope, or I just hope these teams can stay there for a long enough amount of time that they build that. That would be fair, too. I do like the Army edition. Believe it or not, I think that's great, because they have Navy and they have some other, you know, affiliations with schools, ECU's played Army for a long time as well. So there is that. Let's jump into this, though, because the last time you visited, we're going to rattle off all the AAC teams currently. And the last time Michael, aka college football campus tour has been to the stadiums, youtube.com/at stadium heads SGPN. The last times that you, let me just drop that. The last time you were at Army and Mikey Stadium. Once again, they are brand new to the, to the AAC. You caught Miami, Ohio at Mikey Stadium there in West Point, New York. You were last season hanging out with Biff Poggi in the Charlotte 49ers as the Florida Atlantic Isles came into Charlotte, North Carolina. You have not been to ECU since 2021 when the South Florida Bulls went down to Greenville, North Carolina. COVID season for you and Boca Raton as UMass came into FAU. You were at the Liberty Bowl in 2022 as the Navy midshipman took on Memphis. I feel like that's always a week night game for the most part. You were at in Annapolis, Maryland as Marshall took on Navy in 2021. You were in Denton, Texas. Check it out, North Texas. The COVID year as well as the UTEP miners came in. The rice owls you were in Houston, Texas had rice stadium as Wake Forest came in in 2019. So that's the furthest stadium date wise that you haven't been back since is the rice owls. You were in Philadelphia at the link. Checking out the temple owls as UCF came in there in 2021. You were at Yeoman Stadium in New Orleans. Check it out, UCF to Lane in 2022. And you were at South Florida at Tulsa, H.H. Chapman Stadium in 2022 as well, as well as UAB, the the Flaming Libs of Liberty came into Birmingham that take on UAB in 2021. Tulsa at South Florida, Raymond Jane Stadium COVID season last time you were there. And then the Alamo Dome you were at last year as South Florida took on the road runners. You know, is there is so is my first question is, is rice and UCF, I'm sorry, not UCF, USF and North Texas high on the list as well as FAU. So yes, but the schedule dictates too. So I know USF has a Friday night game. I want to say in October, I know that who else? There is UTSA always has one. I know Charlotte plays on Halloween. I know ETS or East Carolina plays in I think November 8th. And so we're going to try to get back to some of those. FAU is playing on November 1st. I'm looking at this thing and I actually went to Memphis last year and I sent you 2022 instead of 2023. So we want to be able to to get to as many as possible with some of these. I'll give you North Texas rice. There are so many schools in Texas that we don't know the kick times yet, but those are big candidates for two for one. So take rice, for example, you got Houston, you got Houston Christian, you got Texas A&M, you got Lamar, you got Steven Austin. All of those are in there. So right now a couple of them are slotted. I would say ECU for sure, FAU for sure. And then we're going to try to find spots for the other ones as the as the season goes on. There we go, folks. Look at that travel though. I mean, it's all of them within for the most part. You know, if you exclude rice, all of them within the past three college football season. So you got to dig that. Look, before we dive into the two, the Army Black Knights, folks. First off, I see 480 people watching hit that like and subscribe button. Once again, YouTube.com/at stadium heads SGPN. I want to tell you folks that the stadium heads podcast is brought to you by underdog fantasy. Pick eight is now live. Create entries with up to eight picks. 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You can hang with my pals from the sports gambling podcast, Sean stack on the money green and Ryan real money Kramer and enjoy some of the open bar events at the greatest sports book in the world there August 22 to August 24th. And remember, as always, folks, to let it ride. All right, we're back on the stadium heads podcast, A A C stadiums. And let's just jump into the first stadium here. It is the Army Black Knights Mikey stadium. You know, I'm a, I'm a huge fan of history. And this one, 100 years old West Point, New York seats for just about 43,000 42,765. Tell me about your travels to Mikey because I can tell you this. I interviewed Randy. Well, I pretty much interviewed Randy Cross every couple months, but if you go listen to one of our Randy Cross interviews, he, uh, you know, he's a former San Francisco 49er, won a bunch of Super Bowls with Bill Walsh and played with Dick Vermeil at UCLA. He, uh, through CBS sports and covering, you know, he was with CBS for the NFL and then he switched down to college. And he covered a lot of Navy games, but in general, just, uh, a ton of CBS sports events. He loves Mikey stadium. He tells me the experience is unique. There's nothing like it in college football. He says, go there and autumn though. He says, don't go September, get there in October, November. He loves Mikey stadium. He thinks it's one of the more underrated stadiums in all of college football. Your thoughts, Michael? Well, I agree with them that it's a must visit. I'm not sure if it's underrated. I know that, uh, Sports Illustrated rated it the third, uh, best sports venue of the 20th century. So, uh, a lot of accolades for this place, you know, it's, it's a confluence of things. First of all, you know, it's on a military campus, uh, very unique. You can visit off times. You got to go through a background check. You got to have them search your vehicle. And when you tell them that you're not there to explore the whole campus and you're going in the football stadium, they kind of look at you cross side. But this photo right here is my second point, which is this was the epicenter of college football at one point. Now, you know, in the beginning of college football, it was the Ivy's dominated and then it branched out and it was the Notre Dame's and the, the armies and the navies. But when you go here, you really see the history. I mean, right there, you got three Heisman Trophy winners. They've, uh, you know, obviously one national championships, but this stadium has grown over time. It started at 16,000 seats. It's up 42,000, the location, uh, it backs to the Lusk Reservoir. And if you get high enough, it's, uh, you can see the Hudson River, but, uh, you know, neo gothic design is the architecture. It has, it's, it's, it's this intersection of what we love about college football mixed in with the military and it gives you that appreciation. And, you know, they have, uh, all the cadets lined up there on the roadside. And so it's, it's pageantry, it's history, it's location, and it's all accessible to college football fans, you know, five or six Saturdays, uh, uh, season. So I think it's a great addition to the conference and, uh, fans of the AAC, if you get an opportunity to check a real game out, definitely you gotta go. Yeah, I'm excited about this one. And you know, ECU is going to be playing there. I think this year, but I don't know about this year, but in the future, I do want to get up there for a game was preferably when he sees it, but if not, just whatever. Yeah. Love that. You got the Hudson River there. Now they're doing some type of construction on this. I saw a video on their Twitter account, I guess, or maybe if not their Twitter account, then someone that, uh, a beat writer that covers them that I follow. Uh, I saw recently they took down, is it the one right across from this photo right now? So I'm not, I'm not sure what the status is. I know that they want to do it. Uh, it's no, they went down, but they destroyed it. I saw the photos of something in the past, like a couple months has been. So it's supposed to be the road. Yeah, it's supposed to be the roadside bleachers there. So where you see the, the, the cadets lined up right there, that's supposed to all come down. They're going to make it much taller. It's going to be, you know, the classic, the sweets, the premium seating. And on the one hand, it's going to give you great back views of the reservoir and the, the trees back there, but it's going to be much taller and it's going to block a lot of the view from the, uh, upper part of the, the home side, but this is what they want. You know, this is 42,000 seats. Uh, they're not always getting 42,000 and they want to provide that comfort. And if you're paying for premium seats and you can look in one direction and see army football and you can look in the other direction and you can see a reservoir and trees and mountains. I mean, that's what you want. So, uh, I didn't know that it started, but I know that it's been in the works for a couple of years. Yeah, I saw, I saw a video just recently, past couple of weeks of, uh, it being knocked down and the rubble and then, you know, like, whoever was covering it was saying that they're working on the progress on, on it. But, uh, you know, it's definitely not going to be ready. It's definitely not going to be ready for the season if they knocked it down. So this would be a construction zone. Um, it's going to take at least two years whenever they start. Yeah. So FYI, if you're planning to go, you might want to wait. Um, that, well, this is something that I find interesting about in general, in this conference, and I know I don't want to go down too much of a rabbit hole here, but we have this thing. There's 12 team playoff looming on the sport, which I think is going to be like steroids to, to the sport. I think you're going to find fan bases in the group of five, comma October that, you know, all of a sudden they're in the race. Now that could be army. Monkins had really good years there. I wonder if, because I can tell you, man, I, as someone that is an ECU fan, we have a passionate fan base, but I remember conversations with people on campus when I go back and visit and tailgate. And I'd say sometimes there would be some guys tailgate that didn't even go to the game. They're just there to get drunk. And they were kind of just saying, Oh, college football has flaws because you can't, we can't go anywhere. You know, we can't, we, you know, we can't go anywhere. Now you can. And I wonder long term, does that build up these, these fan bases in the group of five that maybe, you know, even if you're playing on an NFL stadium or so, I know army's not that case, but South Florida or something or, or UTSA playing at the old Spurs stadium. Um, I wonder if that becomes, you know, if that ignites the fan bases and you gain more fans that aren't accustomed to it, they see, they see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Now before it was like, no, you need like a million things. It's like, you know, I wonder if that could be a thing that could bring in like, uh, I haven't been to West Point, New York, I've never been to West Point, New York, but I wonder if the local community, if say they're nine, you know, uh, eight and one on Halloween weekend, are they starting to buy in saying we could, we could make the playoffs. Let's get out to a game. What do you think? Well, I think you're, you're bringing it up with the perfect school because army has been independent forever. And unless you're Notre Dame, you're not playing for anything as an independent, you know, and you're trying to get the most lucrative games. You're trying to get home games. You're trying to fill out your schedule and post season stuff. Hopefully you make a bowl, but you're right. That could, it's, it's the moralizing in some sense. And so army joining our conference automatically gets them in the competitive standings. Okay, we'd do this well and we're going to be there. That's number one. Uh, maybe not, you know, in the, in the next two or three years of college football playoff for army, but the AAC plays their conference championship game at home of the best team. And so, you know, in your scenario where they start off eight and one, somebody tweeted this out today and it just, I saw it. It's like, imagine the AAC championship at Mikey Stadium is, you know, the first week of December. They've never had football the first week of December at West Point. And so, uh, you get a team that has been in independent purgatory for years. All of a sudden they join a conference. You get some of the big hitters exiting the conference. There's that opportunity. Uh, you know, they always play on a Friday night. And this year it's the, uh, C USA, Mountain West and AAC play on that Friday night. Mikey Stadium hosting the championship. That's almost must see TV right there. So I agree. I think that the playoff in, in the long term for some of these schools, yeah, incentivize you to get a path to the playoff, but in the short term, somebody like army man, imagine hosting the AAC championship. Yeah. And then them and temple and Navy about the only teams in really cold weather. Maybe you can sell me on Tulsa. Um, but, uh, yeah, I think I'll be a fan of my ass in Tulsa. So yes, I will agree. Yeah. I think Tulsa sneaky, sneaky. You think like, hey, it's Oklahoma. That shit gets cold. Um, man, uh, this day, especially when he's in the car. That's a bad right there. Yeah. I got my cold face going already. Yeah. Folks give him a follow. The guy sleeping in his car outside of a, I don't even outside of it. The only thing I can think of in like Arkansas or Oklahoma is Walmart. So it's like quick trip, quick trip. That's my right there. Oh, yeah. All right. Let's move on. This stadium is beautiful though, man. Like in this shot right here, fire, absolute fire and, uh, this right here. Now, where are you at right here for this? So you're right behind the first shot where you showed the back of Mikey Stadium. This is looking in the other direction. And you know, you're, you mentioned Randy Cross. Say, you know, don't go in September. Go in the well, I went in. This was actually the week after the 20th anniversary of 9/11. And so they played Western Kentucky on the anniversary. I really wanted to go, but I just couldn't figure out a way to, to double it up. And so this next week, I went to, uh, a game at army at noon and then I went to a game at Marist College at 6 p.m. But, you know, yes, we want the elements. But look at the beauty is beautiful out there. And so part of going to Mikey Stadium, you want to go to the home side, go all the way to the top so you can overlook the stands and look at it. And then you also want to go behind the roadside and you want to walk around along the reservoir because, you know, we see these stadium photos where there's a body of water nearby or there's a mountain nearby. This body of water is, you know, 50 feet from the back of the stadium. And you can stand there the whole time. So, uh, the scenery is actually a part of the stadium and not something that's nearby or in the background. Yeah, it's beautiful, man. Look at that. It's like, you got like a forest slash a hill. It, you know, in certain ways, it reminds me of abstate in certain ways. It does. Yeah. And when you, and when you think about the old stadium, so a lot, the original stadium, locked the top off that first, you know, so the second level didn't exist, the press box did exist, and the roadside didn't exist. So it was this little U shape all looking out at the water. And of course, when you have a good thing, you're going to expand on it. It is what it is. Obviously, they made the visitor side lower so it doesn't take up the view of the home side. But part of the, you know, my personal trepidation about the tension on the roadside is they're going to block some of the views. So we'll see how it turns out. But yeah, this is, this is the history of college football exists right here. And it is living and breathing. You can go back and check it out and learn and catch quality football. And some of the history there, like Vince Lombardi coached on this field. You know what I mean? You can do a deep dive on. That's what I love about college football is like, you're just getting a ton of history with it too. You know what I mean? Like, they haven't they've protected this. This is the same field that Vince Lombardi coached on. This is and that's not the only one. There's a slew of coaches that Bobby Ross and just a lot of just a lineage of great play, you know, players and coaches, Tom Landry has been on this field. You know what I mean? Like that. I love that. And it should be protected almost like our national parks. I feel like this is our, that's our duty. Michael is to say, Hey, this is a, you know, we got to protect this thing. I think it's so cool. I was doing a deep dive recently on, you know, just coaches and when, where they're part, Bill Parcels coached, he was an assistant here. You know what I mean? Like that you had the energy of these, I haven't been to this place. So I'm just saying, but the energy of a lot of these places that you know this history, I think it's just phenomenal that they're still playing at the same place for a hundred years. Folks, uh, look, before we jump along, I want to say also that the stadium heads pockets is brought to you by rhythm. If you're betting on player props, then you need to download rhythm. Rhythm is the go to sports betting tool that transforms complex data into actionable insights, empowering betters and smarter data driven decisions. Uh, unlike other platforms, rhythm combines advanced predictive analytics with an intuitive user experience making betting, both easy and enjoyable. And rhythms predictive models were born from the brains of MIT data scientists and quants with over three years of data that helped drive you to better AI back betting decisions. So what do you do at folks claim your free seven day trial period today? Go to sports gambling podcast.com/rhythm. That's our ITHMM that sports gambling podcast.com/rhythm. Uh, yeah, the stadium just awesome, awesome. Next up though, we are going to Jerry Richardson Stadium. I'm sorry. I, I gotta laugh for a second. One of my favorite stories, uh, not even stories. No one covered it. I feel like except, except, uh, I feel like me and, and Sean and Ryan on the SGP show. So the MeToo movement started and Jerry Richardson sold the Carolina Panthers in about five minutes. I've never seen a team get sold so fast and no one covered it. It was like over the weekend, right? He, I know he had some, you know he had some shady shit going on because like the MeToo movement was going on and like all I saw was like Carolina Panthers up for sale as of like Friday by Monday. That team was gone. You know what I mean? He didn't know that thing, but he still has a statue at the, at the Bank of America stadium. And then he, obviously still a factor in Charlotte, North Carolina because this is Jerry Richardson stadium for the Charlotte 49ers in Charlotte, North Carolina 11 years old. One thing I will say about the AAC is they got these new stadiums. You know, you look at UAB, you look at Tulane, you look at Charlotte and we got South Florida coming. That's exciting to me is, is you do have new stadiums. I know of Biff Poggi, the head coach of Charlotte was talking about building onto this thing a season ago. So, you know, the seats, 15,314 people. Charlotte didn't have a program 20 years ago. So to me, it's still encouraging. Tell me about your travels to Jerry Richardson stadium. So I've been to three games this Charlotte. I went to a COVID game 2020. I went to a game in 2022. It was part of my only triple header ever. So, Gardener web 11 a.m. Charlotte 4 p.m. Wake Forest 8 p.m. So, and then last year they had a week night game and most of these, all the night photos you're seeing here, they're all from that game. You know, this, this is a interesting stadium because it was designed to expand. So, you mentioned it has 15,000 seats now. That was the minimum when it was built to be an FBS school. They started in FCS for one or two years, but part of the plan was to jump up right away. It is expandable from up to 40,000 seats and renovation to get it to 30,000 is pretty much imminent. What they're going to do is that that small press box that you see there, they're going to knock it down and they're going to put in a bigger press box. But when you look at the aerial view of this photo, the whole upper, the above the stands is all flat and it was designed for the increase. So, as you're mentioning in this conference, there's a lot of newer programs and newer stadiums. Therefore, we're thinking and crazy football state like North Carolina having a program in a giant city like Charlotte. It makes sense if they can get a few things going, then they can expand the stadium. So, you know, we take it for what it is right now. And, you know, last year, they hosted the famous toastery bowl, which was the Bahamas bowl, but they were doing stadium renovations in the Bahamas. So, I've made a one-year appearance here. So, there's a lot of progress. There's a lot of hope here. And with the big teams vacating the conference the last couple of years, there's definitely opportunity for Charlotte as well as a lot of teams in the conference. I think they're a sleeping giant. I mean, I know we're talking stadium, but I like the look of it. I know it's small, but I kind of dig the look of it. I feel like the fan base is starting to get ignited. And Charlotte's a growing city. We just talked about the looming 12 team playoff, which, like I said, I also think they'll expand that thing because of the money. But why can't it be Charlotte? You're close to everything. You know what I mean? North Carolina is a great underrated high school football state. And then you're not even that far from Atlanta when you're in Charlotte, Georgia has got a ton of talent. You know what I mean? Tennessee's got a ton of talent. South Carolina's got it. You're right next to South Carolina. So, I think they have a very bright future. I wish more universities would take that approach that didn't have. I can remember a time 20 years ago where I would say, I'm surprised Charlotte doesn't have a football team. What are they doing? Why do they not have a football program? I would say Long Beach State. You know, a lot of schools out there that to me, their head scratchers, when you think like, why don't they have a football program? Charlotte was one of those that acknowledge that. And then, you know, I like the look of it too. I think the look of it is kind of cool, man. I, I, that brick building to me. Yeah. So that's cool. Yeah. It's a football. It's a football center. It's 46,000 square feet. It's got that brick facade, which matches really well. You know, this, you could see that retaining wall going around the whole thing. It's, it's pretty close to the sideline. You know, we're not filling in an old track or anything. The bleachers are very close. You get close in the end zone. And it's, especially with the flat upper level is very easy to navigate. And I agree with you. You know, one, this is not even a stadium thing, but they changed their logo a couple of years ago, and they went to that sea with the pick in it. And it looks great. It's great on logos. And, and so, there, there's a lot of opportunity there. I don't know if there's, I sent you a couple other photos. I don't know if you put, that's what I want to talk about. So this was very interesting. So this is called the Niner Club, and it's above the visitor's side. And what this is is like a, like a bar, and they construct it, and it's portable. And they put it up there during the football season. There's couches. They're serving alcohol. There's a couple, like three rows of seats in front of it that are attached. You have to have a bracelet. I think it's like $100 a game, which is not crazy. And this thing is portable. So after the football season, they move it over to the basketball arena. And I posted this tweet with these photos on Twitter. And, you know, things spark ideas. And, and I'm guessing there's going to be some copycats going forward. But this is again, while your same is not the 30,000 stadium, you know, seat capacity that you want it to be yet, because you're in progress, do this, put some unique things there. And, and this was very positively received on, on social media. Hell yeah. I mean, anytime you add a bar to the mix, that's what, I mean, I think every stadium should, I still can't believe sometimes they do announcements, like, oh, they're going to be selling alcohol at the stadium. What? They didn't before. And I see the mo, mo, the modello logo there, shout out to modello who hooked up Michael last, last week with a bunch. And they're the sponsor of the college football playoff this year. Check out modello. If you're going to go out there, get a beer grab a modello. Um, but yeah, I mean, I, I was shocked, like, you know, I think with that, when Colorado hired Dion Sanders, they're like, this year we're going to sell alcohol. I'm like, I don't understand how universities can steal money and so other, so many other avenues and then just be that dumb. Like a textbook. I was, I didn't use CLA screenwriting, right? I, uh, I remember buying a textbook for, uh, you know, whatever price it was, it was like $75 or something, $50, something like that. First day of class, the, uh, the writer of, uh, bold Durham, Ron Sheldon tells me, hey, uh, well, I don't, I don't buy into that, uh, that, that book. We're not going to use that. And I go, oh, okay. Well, I, right after class, I, I go to the bookstore. I said, I haven't even used this. It didn't even open it. And I bought it yesterday. You can see my receipt. It's right here. That'll be, uh, oh no. And you know what? You know what? I'm sorry. That was $70. I bought it for 300. They, they charged 70 to get it back. And I was like, wait a second. I never read the book. This hasn't been open. This has been sitting here for 24 hours. I have the receipt. But they, they don't have a bar? Come on. That's where you can really make your money. All right. You stop, stop jacking up students books. All right. Um, and that's like, uh, that's like Seinfeld where George took the book in the bathroom and then he couldn't return it. You remember that? Yeah, I do. Yeah. You're giving me the same vibes. You should have got your money. I never even took it into the bathroom. I would understand it a little bit more if I had done that. They didn't believe you. They saw your face and they're like, this is going to be a bathroom. That's what they think. So I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah. Nothing like sitting on a couch. Uh, you know, this is a creative, what they're doing here, a couch area to, uh, I don't even know. Can you even view the game from the couch there though? So if you see, if you see on the right side of the photo, you see all the people looking the other way. So they're watching the game. So this is, you know, in what we hope for is that you access this before the game and at half time. And then you take your drink and you either go back to your seat and you stand there. But, um, you know, when we look at concessions, they're mo- how many concessions have a view of the field? They don't, right? You have to leave your seat. You have to miss the game to go to concessions. Some stadiums that are going to deliver to you and a lot of G5s, they don't have that. So this is kind of that, that middle ground here where you're offering these close to the action. You don't have to leave. And if you're paying the $100 a seat, which is not crazy, you can be a part of this the whole game. And if you're, you know, you're not missing the game. So, it's a unique idea. And I think that as, again, I think this was really, uh, sparked some ideas and maybe we'll see a couple more of these, uh, this fall. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, agreed. I dig it. Oh, oh, what do we got next? Doudy, Fickland Stadium. Yeah. Doudy, Fickland Stadium, ECU, East Carolina, the pirates. Um, we got to saw it. Well, we got a couple of things. Uh, I will, uh, lead in with, uh, with former East Carolina pirate coach, Steve Logan, because when you're in East Carolina, you go for it every time. Or you don't coach in East Carolina. You don't come to East Carolina. You don't play at East Carolina with a weak heart. Write it. We believe in the fires. In the spirit of ECU. We believe every moment. There was nothing that they couldn't do. We said, I'll defend not me. And now we'll never be the same. Now that is from our 1991 season with that fire music that is available on YouTube for anyone out there in the universe that wants to grab that. Um, uh, in 91 had it been this current year, we would have been in the playoffs because we won the peach bowl. We beat NC state, the pussy pack. I like to call them. Uh, and, uh, we, we, you know, handle business. We had Jeff Blake, a quarterback. I love my experiences at East Carolina, uh, especially, especially go into college football games. Now my only thing I will say is I feel like through talking to you, Michael, you went, you went, uh, your first year's traveling to Greensville, to Greenville. I believe we're the Scotty Montgomery years, which I have, I have long said was a, he was a spy. He was a mole, because we were dominating Duke NC state and UNC. If you look up historically for like 20 years, we were dominating them. And Duke sent in their offensive coordinator, Scotty Montgomery, to ruin this, to ruin our program. And I mean, when I say ruin, like, maybe you put up 76 points against ECU, you know what I mean? Like there was some dark, dark days. Uh, and you happen to catch the back end of those dark days. And I gotta be honest, I was so mad that we fired Ruffin McNeil because it was a double entonja. It was like, I didn't understand Scotty Montgomery being a thing at Duke. It's not, I didn't think he was killing it. So I was confused by the hire, but I was confused by the firing of a former East Carolina pirate himself, Ruffin McNeil, who, oh, I had Lincoln Riley. He was smart enough to bring Lincoln Riley with him. Former Mike Leach guy, you know, had done wonders for our program, but some athletic director stepped in and said, no, I want my guy brought Scotty Montgomery in. And we've been struggling ever since now. Mike Houston comes over from Jamie. You kind of got us out of that mix. I know Phil Steele, if you got his magazine, he, there is a number one, most improved team in the, in the nation. He thinks that they're actually a contender in the AAC. We'll see. Cause Mike Houston to me, I'm still on the fence. I know he's way better than Scotty Montgomery, but I think I could have been better than Scotty Montgomery. But let me tell folks, this stadium, and I know what, what game is this you're at, because that, this is pathetic in my opinion. So this was a 2021 versus USF on a Thursday night, and it rained like hell the second half, but this was a first half photo. And it was, it was not a full crowd, as you can tell. I think our fan base is a bit shell shocked, but it, it terrifies me like that this is, you know, this now though, that was one year removed from Scotty Montgomery. We did have an eight wind season, two years ago, but in my, you know, there was articles, I, I wish I could, I should have done a deep dive and pulled this up. I remember before I even went to, to ECU, I remember sports illustrated doing a story about how the SEC should add ECU. Cause they're passionate fan base, they're football success. Cause we had Pat die in the eighties with Ernest Biner and everything. And then in the nineties, you know, we had really, really good seasons, you know, the Miami hurricane, some, some of their years where they only had one loss were, were against ECU. So we had this thing really rolling. And what David Guard and stuff, that era, that's when like, man, tailgating here was like, this was everything when I was at, and I, I'm embarrassed by this. When I see this photo, I'm embarrassed by it. But I also think the AAC, once again, to bring it back home from before, I think this, when we play rice, we don't care about rice. All right, we don't care about North Texas. UTSA, we slightly care about because they're good, but it's like, that's just because you tell us they're good. When I think of the Sunbelt and Southern Miss, there's a long historic rivalry with ECU and Southern Miss. There's Marshall. There's App State within conference. I don't know. I just feel like, and look, you're seeing some of the rich history we have, Jeff Blake, Chris Jotzen. I mean, Robert Jones, who won a bunch of Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys, the peach bowl there. I don't understand how we're not back at that, you know, era. I like, we own Virginia Tech for a little bit there. We were, like, that was their hardest game of the year was playing ECU. So I've disappointed in your travel, like, not your travels, but that that was what you saw. I want to take you back to Dowdy, get rowdy at the Dowdy, like, the way it should be. But has every time you've been there been weak? A weeknight? Like, week or just the crowd just didn't show up. Oh, yeah. No, yeah. It's, you know, so, yes. And I got to say a couple things. First of all, this, you talk about, like, being jealous of travels. I'm jealous that you have an alma mater that has football. Okay. I went to UC San Diego, who had one football team in 1968. They went 0 and 7. They voted, the students voted if they should bring the team back and the students said no, and there goes football. Okay. So, but what you're talking about is having this, this, you know, the social media presence of ECU fans are great. Every time I do, you know, a stadium hole that they were in the final two years ago, they always are there. They, they talk about the same thing that you're talking about. So, both times I've been there. It has been weak. And they have a game. It's November 8th. It's a Thursday night. It's against FAU. And the next night is Wake Forest playing at home on a Friday. So, that's an easy two for back to back. I will be at that game. I know you're mentioning that, you know, certain teams are not a rival. And I know that FAU is not a rival. But my hope is that they get off to a good start for, from a selfish perspective, not, not just because I'm your friend. But I want them to get off to a good start. And maybe that game will mean a lot because FAU is good too. So, I'm open-minded. I'm not going to pigeonhole, you know, what I've seen. I've been there in the empty stadium. And I love the stadium. But the student section even is filling it up, even in this, you know, weeknight sparse crowd. I would love to be there for a vibe because it's the largest on-campus G5 stadium that we have. We don't have 50,000 seat stadiums in the, in the G5 last month or last week we did the Sunbelt. Most of them are between 25 and 30,000. This is double. So, I want to, I want to experience what you're talking about. Yeah. And I have a shot on my wall here. I know you can't see it. That's hung up from a game. And I'm going to add a photo that you did not take in a minute to what I'm talking about. And there's a reason why that stadium is that big is because we were packing crowds for that long. We've gone through some dark days, but the blueprint is still there. And like, I think we're a sleeping, you know, sleeping giant from that regard. Like, I, I was in Cabo. And I walked into an ECU bar. The fan base is there. You know what I mean? Like the fan base is there. And to me, it's just, regionality matters in college football. I really, I really buy into that. You know, ECU was an independent for a lot of those years I talk about when they had great success. We played South Carolina every year. You know, we played Virginia Tech every year. Those are all within like four or five NC State almost every other year or North Carolina or Duke or Wake. I do believe when we joined the conference USA that it still had enough at the time. It had enough where you were still playing some local teams. Like, but at the same time, it started that break off to me. And then that translated to the AAC. Now, I still believe like the fans are there. The dynamite is there. You just have to light it. A perfect example. This was not that long ago. This shot right here, which I know you did not take, but this was, I believe against North Carolina. And this was a couple of years removed. This was, this is just, I think Scottie Montgomery's first year. So it's not that long ago. This is like in the past seven, eight years. It's there. We care about regionality though. We don't give a shit about plant rice. You know what I mean? Like, so I, I, we got to get it back to that. I got it. I got looking. I'm probably going to move over there. So I mean, I'm going to be at games. So we're going to have to make this work. We're going to have to make this work. So come on out, folks. This shot's fire. But yeah, what's up? So we've spent a lot of time, especially in G five's talking about if these programs can have a couple of things happen, right? The higher the right guy or make a stadium improvement or wherever, then they can pop. ECU just needs to win. Because they got everything else. They got the stadium. They got the tradition. They got the fan base. And, you know, we talked about army coming in from an independent, well, they have less rivals in the conference than ECU. And if they catch fire, it could be a good place. So again, same thing applies to ECU. I'm thinking of the AAC championship in Greenville with 50,000. Good luck to whoever's coming to there. So, you know, there's teams that we, we root for, I mean, we root for everybody. But in particular, when you see one that is just missing the wins, do it. Let's go, you know? And I mean, I know everyone's trying, but that's all they need. And I feel like during the skipholtz era, you know, like he did great with us. But you know, there were, he would have a year where we'd go five and seven or something occasionally. But we still bought in a Scottie Montgomery. We would lose so bad. Like every, like you go look at some of those seasons, every game was by 40 points. We were one of the bottom five worst teams out of a hundred. And that depleted the fan base. To me, like that was like, good God. Mike Houston's been picking it up, but it's there. Just got to ignite that thing. I think if Mike Houston doesn't get it done this year, they're probably going to can them. And then it becomes really interesting because you have a slew of candidates. You know, Lincoln Riley was here with his brothers, brothers, the offensive coordinator of Clemson. I think he might be interested in the job. I also think Rich Rodriguez could be interested with the job, but it's there. It's there. I'm not wishing failure on Mike Houston. I'm just saying he's got to prove it to me this year. But yeah, it's got to get back to where it is, or where it was, you know what I mean? So anyway, moving along, let's go to Boca Raton, Florida Atlantic, the owls, FAU stadium, AKA, they also call it Howard Schnellenberger field, which I love 13 years old. This is another one that I dig the fact that it's new. They have their own stadium seats, 29,571. Tell me about your experiences down to book Raton. So I've been to two games there. This shot is from the COVID year. It was a game made like three weeks before against UMass on either a Thursday or Friday night. No one there, final score, 21 to two, which is not easy to do. And FAU won, but when we were, you know, at the time during COVID year, there was only certain teams even allowing fans. So to get a new stadium on a weeknight, I was very happy to do that. Last year, I went to the actual Boca Raton table. And that was between Syracuse and USF. And there was a pretty good crowd there. And I got to explore the stadium. You know, you mentioned that Howard Schnellenberger field, the original coach for the program, they played their first year in 2001 at pro player stadium, which became hard rock. Then they played for nine years at a stadium called Lockhart Stadium. And then this was built on campus in 2011. It's a beautiful stadium. I'm 30,000 seats. It's, you know, you saw those palm trees out there. It's a very unique setup. It buys into the whole vibe and Boca Raton. They always talk about the, the university is 1.8 miles from the beach. So these shots from the Boca Raton Bowl, they, you know, they were a little bit better representation of what you might get at a FAU game. And they have a game November 1st, man. There's a San Diego state game. There's a Boise state game. And there's a FAU game all in the same day. And right now, I want to replace the COVID photos. And so FAU is the leader in the clubhouse for me to go there on November 1st. Yeah, I must say that I love what they're doing. Now, South Florida is getting a stadium on campus, but I'm still reluctant. Like the image that they, last year, they had a revealed these uniforms with a palm tree on their helmet that I thought were fantastic. I thought, you know, say, you know, I know it sounds crazy to bring up just, Hey, this is why I like the look of the state of the uniforms. But I believe there's something to playing to the, to your identity. And they think they call this the beach. You know, I know Dusty made their basketball coach who just left for, you know, the Michigan job he had, he had biked to, he would bike to the stadium, the basketball stadium. I know they take a lot of pride in it being so close to the beach. I like that. I think that gives it personality. When you're just a school in Florida, there's a lot of schools in Florida, first off, but anywhere, you got to make it your own. You got to stand out from the rest. And I think Danny White did such a good job with turning central Florida into UCF and claiming that national championship and keeping their name in the, in the, in the press, essentially, that you create the bounce house, stuff like that. Now you look at what FAU can do. I think they're, they're one that actually might even have a leg up on USF from that, maybe not on the field performance, but as far as they have an identity. And I like leaning into that. I really do. And I think they might have something going continuing to use those palm trees, continue to own the beach, come to the beach, play ball at the beach. I think that's the recruiting pitch. As you see it hashtag on their, on their Twitter page, but yeah, I really like it. Oh, they got an obstructed viewpoint, youtube.com/at stadium heads SGP and love that. This is the bowl game I take it or the COVID game. Yeah. So this is a bowl game. And these are two funny photos to me. And you know, obviously they obstructed view photo. We're always going to try to get that there's a camera well there blocks part of the field. So we got a photo. The other photo is so last week we had fun with the Eastern Michigan bowl game at South Alabama 59 to three. So you can't really tell, but at this point, it's about 13 minute, what does that say? 14 29 in the fourth quarter and USF is up 38 to nothing over Syracuse. And they got the cleaning crew going through the stands with four minutes left in the fourth quarter. And so, you know, I'm still exploring the stadium. I'm still doing my thing. And people are like, Hey, we're just going to clean up and we're going to do it. Try to get out of here. Try to catch try to catch the newest episode. They want to be they want to be done cleaning when the gun goes off. Like that's what they want. They want to leave with everybody else. But you know, there's some there's some symmetry between what Eastern Michigan fans experienced at the 68 ventures bowl and Syracuse fans experienced at the Boca Raton Bowl. But again, you know, I I'm with you. The whole vibe is cool. And they do a great job of marketing. And and this photo on the left, that's a that's a statue of Howard Schnellenberger. And then there's a what are they said, there's a whole ass subway inside a FAU stadium. And I never seen that random random, but, uh, hey, I mean, uh, what I said was that what I said was they were trying to build the stadium and they got they bought out everybody, but subway wouldn't be bought out. So they just built the stadium around the subway, like they encompassed it. But, you know, you'll you'll see places that have concessions or subway nearby. How many times can you get a subway in there? And so I put this, uh, this on Twitter and it went pretty crazy during the Boca Raton Bowl. So, um, and we want to get back in, uh, like I said, November 1st, I'm really hopeful to get that non-COVID game there. Uh, Coach Lunsford, I know him. I interviewed him back in the day and obviously coach Herman. So, they got some great things going there. And it's fun. Uh, and I think everybody should hopefully come join me on November 1st. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Canvas Cabrissade subway at a stadium sounds legit. You're right. If you're, if you've had a few cocktails too, like you're just looking for something, I'm big mass of food to fill that void so you can stay in the game and, and, and make sure you're not passed out. You know what I mean? So, uh, that you can check when you're in your seat and you see somebody walk by and they got a whole subway sandwich. That's when you get jealous immediate, like, you know, envy is right there. So, you can get all your cravings fulfilled at FAU stadium queue up the happy Gilmore. That's why I love my cold cut combo. Uh, there you go. Um, let's talk about sacred ground here. The Memphis Tigers play at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee, 59 years old seats, 58,325. Look, I talked about Mikey Stadium. I love Mikey Stadium. I talked about Dowdy Fickland, which I think is one of the more underrated stadiums of not just because I went to, you know, ECU, but, um, the Liberty Bowl is one. It depends what date you catch me because I have been in arguments about this. There's only a few stadiums. I would say that I've been in arguments about. I feel like that's been like the Rose Bowl, the Sun Bowl, LA Coliseum, Sam Boyd, and probably probably this stadium, I think, and Kid Brewer maybe. Uh, I love the Liberty Bowl. I think, and I know they're doing like a renovation soon, but you want to talk about personality. This stadium's got personality, man. And it's got history, you know, Jerry Glanville left two tickets for Elvis here a long time ago. All right. Shout out to Jerry Glanville. I've been on the show. I've been on my, my, uh, SGP show a long time, uh, or several times. Um, but there's just a lot of great history here, man. Uh, a lot of teams have played here. Big time bowl games, big time games, Tennessee Titans played here one year. The Oilers, they think they were the Oilers then still, but, uh, this stadium I'll put over a lot of stadiums. And I feel like people sleep on this stadium. You want to talk about underrated? This is, to me, the definition of underrated. Your thoughts on the Liberty Bowl. I mean, you took the words right out of my mouth. I love the Liberty Bowl. Uh, everything about it, you know, built 1965 58,000 seats. So it's bigger, bigger than daddy fickling, but it's not on campus about three miles away. Uh, the university has acquired it, uh, officially. And now they're working on that renovation. So that press box you see with the lit up American flag that looks amazing in this photo right behind the band with the sunset. That's going to be replaced. So, uh, you know, you got a 60 year old stadium and you're going to reinvest in it, which is awesome. But this place, you know, so you can name the list of tenants that they've had, which is lengthy. Anytime somebody's thinking about another football league, one of the places they always think about going as Memphis, I like this little factoid. So in 19, I believe it was 1975, they played a baseball exhibition there and the Braves played and Hank Aaron was there. And the because of the configuration, which you can see is not much movable or not, not like a multi-purpose stadium, the right field, uh, foul poll was 174 feet from home plate and Hank Aaron popped the ball up and he hit it out and they measured it at 200 feet. That was a home run. So, um, at most places, that's going to hit right behind the infield. But this, I've been to multiple games here. I look forward to going a game at the Liberty Bowl every time. And I, you know, you've mentioned in previous episodes about on campus, bowl games and big games and part of the rotation for the college football playoff. Major city got the capacity has got the tradition. The university owns it now. This should be a candidate. So you're getting an argument. So over the ones that you mentioned, this is one that I will, you know, I will get an argument over as well. It is flawless. And it's got history and the fact they're building it up. I'm so glad they didn't decide to build a stadium. This, I've seen the, you've seen the early looks that it looks awesome that they're going to do it. They used to be Memphis state, by the way, they do have obstructed point of view. Once again, YouTube.com/at stadium heads SGP. I, I, I'm curious if this will stay or go. But either way, this will stay. Yes. Yes. They're doing the other side. And so this is, this is one of the top five most, I'm going to use the word famous obstructed view photos out there, just because of the comedy. But this is going to stay because it supports the, the visitor side press box that is up there. Uh, it's just perfect. I mean, look, and just because you have an obstructed view does not mean that's a terrible stadium. I can't hammer that out. A lot of people think Lucas oil is a great stadium. I think it's terrible personally, but they have an obstructed viewpoint. And that's a, that's a recent stadium. Um, I, I, I love the Liberty Bull, man. I think, I, I, yeah, if you put me in charge of college football, our final four, and we had to play neutral psych games because I love on campus. My final four every year would be Rose Bowl, Sun Bowl, Liberty Bowl, and probably that's where the fourth one would get, would probably get the rotating chair, you know what I mean, between a bunch of other stadiums. But those are the three would be in that mix. So maybe, maybe Sun Devil stadium. I'm not sure. But, uh, it's flawless to me. And Memphis just got a 25 million dollar check from, uh, from, from FedEx, the, the Scott, you know, penny of hardaways, the basketball programs going good, the football program, a lot of people have them projected as the team to get the 12 team playoff this year. The sky is the limit for, for this program, in my opinion. And they're also a candidate for a P five or P four conference. And that's part of the reason they're the urgency to get the stadium done is because, you know, maybe the one or two remaining criticisms of Memphis is, Hey, the Liberty Bowl's old. Well, um, you know, you mentioned that all the stadiums named bowl that you love, which I agree with. But I think part of the, you know, first acquiring the ownership of the stadium, they got that down. Now they're working on that. And it's to line up for a breakthrough like UCF or breakthrough like Houston and breakthrough like Cincinnati. So major city, huge stadium, great football fans, just take care of upgrades. And they may be the next one up in realignment. Yeah. And, and there are another one though that, um, the tradition is there, you know, whether it's recent Memphis players or I just was doing a deep dive. I mentioned Bill Parcel's coaching at, uh, at army. He, uh, he's coaching the stadium too. You know, I mean, like the, the history, uh, I was doing a deep dive on Vanderbilt and Memphis playing, uh, their rivalries. And they, they had a lot of big time matchups. Well, between the two, uh, in state battles, uh, they would play every year for a long time there. And, uh, Coach Parcels was with Vanderbilt, but that not only that, I mean, I could name a million coaches, but I'm saying like, I just think the energy, when it's, when you say old, I think that's to its credit. Like I said, we want a feel to it. Oh, I agree. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's not a knock at all. It's not a knock at all. It's just the perception of, Hey, upgrade that stadium. Okay. We're going to do that. Now what, what is left on your checklist to criticize? Because we took care of that. Amen. Amen. Uh, and look at that skyline, man. And downtown Memphis, that's what I'm saying. You're right with your, your potential to host a playoff game or something. You know, downtown Memphis is, is a fun town. I know people will say, Oh, it's dangerous. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that you go, I live in LA. I could drive 10 miles and it's dangerous. All right. Uh, not even 10 miles, like 10 minutes. Um, but, uh, you know, downtown Memphis is awesome, man. Go down there, stay at the P body. Catch a game with Liberty Bowl. This is great man. Catch the history of. Yeah. Yeah. They, they, you know, the Liberty Bowl was a bowl game that originated in Philadelphia and they didn't do well. You know, Liberty Bell, Liberty Bowl and it ended up in Memphis. And that bowl game has been going on since 1965 and it's usually packed out and they do great. There's the Southern Heritage Classic, which is HBCU game that's always played there. That's happened since 1990. So this place is accustomed to hosting big events too. So, um, er, no one is above criticism, but when you look at this from a football perspective, a, uh, hosting a big event perspective and then, uh, dumping the money into upgrade facilities, I mean, what else could you ask for for a G five? And again, they're positioning themselves for some big opportunities, possibly. I can't wait, can't wait excited to see the new stadium too. Uh, let's jump over to Navy Memorial Stadium. There are Annapolis, Maryland, 66 years old, 38,303 people. It seats currently. The first thing that jumps to mind of something that is 66 years old is Roger Stalbeck. Um, because he was one of the greatest football players ever. And he played at this stadium and I first off, big fan of checkered enzymes. Um, there's only a few teams. I feel like Tennessee, Fresno State, and maybe one or two others, but, uh, they do it right to me. And I, I'm a fan of the stadium. And, uh, you know, one of the things I'm disappointed with with Notre Dame and Navy have had this longstanding rivalry with the player of a year. Patty C shout out to Patty C that did a deep dive on this was telling me they've been playing for like a hundred some years. They've never once played in Annapolis. I mean, come on. That's disappointing, but this stadium is, is, is awesome. I'm excited for Brian Newberry to, uh, potentially get this program rolling again. And here's something for you. If you had the 12 team playoff over the past 15 years, Navy would have went to the playoffs twice under Ken Nehemontalolo. So all of a sudden it's breathing life into this program. Tell me about your travels to Annapolis. So I've been to one game there in 2021. They played Marshall and then I went to the Armed Forces Bowl last year. Uh, I want to, I want to kind of jump off what you said about Notre Dame never playing here. Um, you know, the Notre Dame's playing army and it's going to be a Yankee stadium this year. And, uh, we get it. We get it with Notre Dame, but Army Navy doesn't even play in their own stadium. And I know that some of this is blasphemous talk and I don't really care. Okay. Army has played Navy twice at Mikey Stadium. Never here. One was 1943 during World War II and one was during COVID. And so when we talk about not having rivalries and not having, you know, in this conference, we got army and Navy together and you believe the best rivalry in the history of the sport. Thank you. And they're not going to play in either of their stadiums. And what are they going to get at home? You know, uh, Navy is going to get north Texas and they're going to get too late and they're going to get all this stuff. And so I've never been to army, Navy. And do I want to go? Yes. But it's been in Lincoln financial field the last couple of years. I've already been to a temple game and it just doesn't, it doesn't do it. It also falls on the weekend of the, uh, you know, the FCS semifinals, usually, but that being said, when we talk about atmospheres and we talk about crowd dynamic, just think about army coming in to this stadium with some of their fans, you would net, you know, you see the, the, the games where the crowd are yelling back and forth each other. You would never see so much pride from a fan base than those two people going at each other. So I get it, right? If you go to the link and it's 70,000 people, you make more money. I get it. But look, that's all the midshipmen right there. It's all white. And when we looked at the army and we saw that cadets there, they were in their uniforms. Imagine the overhead view of a stadium where half the home side is packed out and white. The other one is hacked, packed out as the cadets, let people line up on the grass, overfill this thing, do it, whatever. So, um, just what you mentioned about Notre Dame never playing here. I get that and I get that there's more money in the army navy at a neutral site. But that's the, when they join army, join this conference. That's the first thing they came to mind is we're never going to get army navy on campus. And to me, that's disappointing. It is. They're very much so is. I know it's at FedEx this year. I might even go to it, but, um, you know, it sounds crazy. I'm curious about the newberry thing. If it doesn't work this year, they might pull the plug on him over the next, you know, 12 months. Um, Bill Belichick grew up at Bill Belichick's what? 71 years old, probably 70 something like that. I don't know. Um, Bill Belichick's dad coached at Navy. He takes a lot of pride in Navy football. He's made that known. You know, I can't help but think his son is like a defensive coordinator. I think the defensive backs, linebackers coach of Washington. Can you imagine if they got the Bella checks to coach Navy next year or the like that would just put college football? Oh, I know I'm getting way ahead of myself, but I love this stadium. I love the tradition. Army Navy Air Force are college football. I can't, I can't. I don't even know that I can suggest a team more than army and Navy for the history of college football. And what did what, what, what to me would, if I had to tell aliens about college football, that'd probably be one of the first examples that I would do. Um, yeah, I got it. I gotta say, this, this stadium has approved a ton. If you go back and look at older photos, I've done the the progression tweets. It looks nothing like it. I mean, there's a major renovation in 2005. You mentioned the checkered in zones. Everything is closer. It's upgraded. They have names of famous battles all over the inside of the stadium. You mentioned Roger Staubach. They got, you know, plaques and up on display for all Americans. So on the left, you got the, you got the mascot statue there. That's in one end zone. And then on the right, that's a plaque to Iwo Jima. But they got, you know, all the battles played everywhere. And it's, it's like a upgraded Mikey, just not on the water. And so I went there for the military bowl. And that thing, that's actually where the, the clip that we play for me at the game was, this is the spot I was standing when I was getting rained on and Tulane in Virginia Tech, they packed that place out a whole 38,000. It was a gigantic crowd despite the rain. So I love this stadium, not just for what it is, but what is transformed into hell? Yeah. Hell yeah. Folks. Uh, yeah. And look, folks, I see, um, I see 870 people watching this now, please hit that like and subscribe button, youtube.com slash the call slash at stadium heads S G P N. Also wherever you get your podcast at iTunes, bonafire, wherever Stitcher type in stadium heads, we need you to subscribe to that because we know we're putting this out on like 10 feeds. But we're going to eventually break off to one feed. And you're going to wonder, Hey, what happened to that cool, that cool stadium college football stadium podcast? So do that, folks. It helps us too. If you can, I'll also hop over to, to iTunes, give us a five star review. If you're watching on YouTube right now, if you're one of the 870 people watching, stay put. We're not going anywhere. But if you're on the audio side, make sure you check out the B side where we talk about the rest of the American athletic conference and all the, the other teams that have been, uh, you know, either brand new to the conference somewhat, one year old, or a been a long stay in this conference. So check out the stadium heads. Make sure you give Michael a follow on Twitter at CFB campus tour. I'm on Twitter at the Colby D. So check out that. And, uh, yeah, stay put on the stadium heads podcast. [BLANK_AUDIO]
The Stadium Heads Podcast on the Sports Gambling Podcast Network continues its conference stadium preview series with the AAC Conference Stadiums. Pick Dundee aka (@TheColbyD) & Michael Barker (@CFBcampustour) break down each and every stadium in the brand new AAC Conference for 2024 and key in on the best college football stadiums in the conference and what needs to change within the conference. Are the Army Black Knights playing at one of the best college football stadiums in the country with Michie Stadium in West Point, New York? Should the College Football Playoff consider the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee as one of its destinations?
When will the Temple Owls wise up and start playing their football games somewhere other than Lincoln Financial Park? Can the East Carolina Pirates get back to the rowdy times at Dowdy Ficklen Stadium and is it one of the most underrated stadiums in the country? Will the South Florida Bulls benefit perhaps the most in the conference with them building a home stadium on campus? Is H.A. Chapman one of the most underrated stadiums in the group of 5 and can Tulsa get their football program back on track? Will the Navy Midshipmen get back to playoff contention talk and will the 12 team college football playoff help attendance in Annapolis, Maryland?
What will it take for the UTSA Roadrunners to get an outdoor stadium on campus in San Antonio? Is Yulman Stadium with the Tulane Green Wave and Protective Stadium with UAB two of the better examples of great new college football stadiums? Will Rice Stadium renovate but keep the classic look like so many Stadium Heads want? Can Howard Schnellenberger Field be one of the best home atmospheres in the AAC moving forward? Did the Charlotte 49ers strike gold with starting up their football program and getting Jerry Richardson Stadium built? What will it take for the George Mason Patriots or the Vermont Catamounts to get their college football program rolling? We talk it all and more on this AAC Stadiums edition of The Stadium Heads podcast.
