The stadium had Sunbelt stadiums for 2024 episode. Oh, the sports gambling podcast network is brought to you by underdog fantasy. You can win up to 325 times the amount of money you enter with their brand new pick eight. Yes. Sign up. And when you do sign up with the promo code T C E S G P N to claim your special pick plus first time to pause it off for up to $250 in bonus cash underdog fantasy.com promo code T C E S G P N. We're also brought to you by rhythm and get the best out of driven props and picks from rhythm. Uh, that's R I T H M M claim your free seven day trial period today by going to sports gambling podcast.com/rhythm once again, that is sports gambling podcast.com/rhythm. Hey, this is Eric Metcapp. You're listening to S G P N let it ride. The granddaddy of the mall, the fame Rose Bowl jammed with a color of over 100,000 fans for 67th renewal. And the weather here today and Notre Dame stadium in a word, it is cold, but it is football. Whether the temperature, 37 degrees humidity, 79 percent work as cloudy for the 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 on when we're watching the game when we got a waiter coming over to take our borders, right? And there's 20 million bathrooms close to us. That's not what makes a 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 a good stadium. That's what I mean when I said 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. Those cars, boxes up there, don't stay here. We don't need that right now. We're going to do the sunny, so the 52nd sun ball. And now this ancient facility is one of the great settings in all of college football. Leela is down. It's 87th year. That's what we are though. We are stadium heads. Welcome to the stadium heads podcast, son belt stadiums. You know, we love the fun belt. I'm excited to talk. I mean, I've been to a couple of these and yeah, I love one of these just I could talk about one of these year, year round, youtube.com hop on over there. You can watch the show. Highly recommend watching the show. My brother always reminds me each week. Hey, you got to continue to tell the fans to watch the show. Watch it. Look, it's great if you listen to it too. But if you watch it, you're going to see some of, you know, Michael's great photos and just you're going to get an overall feel, I think, for each college football stadium and what makes them so great. Folks, if you're wondering who the hell you're listening to, that's fair. My name is Colby Swiggett, database, Dan, AKA pick Dundee. 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. When Dundee happened, he was a superstar. Nobody knows nothing. Somebody knows double the price that no one touches Dundee. I can't wait to talk about these stadiums. All right? Double that price. All right? Double the price of the tickets. I'm still going to the game down there. Sunbelt action. Whatever the Sunbelt did in the past 20 years, because I once went to a Sunbelt game at Johnny Red Floyd Stadium in Merpiesboro, Tennessee, where the Idaho Vandals were playing in Middle Tennessee. No disrespect to those schools, but it made no sense. All right? It made no sense. So I'm glad the Sunbelt is all of a sudden taking this new direction and new teams came in, teams left. And I love the Sunbelt now. I am joined by my co-host. He is known to the universe as the most interesting man in college football. And there's also just this. They don't want to shout out Michael Parker. You can follow him on Twitter at CSV campus tour. This is his 84th college football game of the 2023 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. Just like the US Postal Service, I gave you a Michael Parker, a college football campus tour. How are you brother? Man, I'm great. I love the Sunbelt like you. And seeing that video, I'm juiced. I'm ready to get out there and the elements, you know, September is not going to be the rain is going to be a hundred degrees. But I'm ready for college football. We got some great Sunbelt stadiums. And you're reminded me of some trips in 2017. I went to Idaho at Troy. And then I went to the last FBS game for Idaho at the Sunbelt or at the kibby dome, which was also against coastal Carolina. And they got their first FBS roadwind at the kibby dome. So we've come a long way. And some of the decisions that have been made, Commissioner Gill made some great additions over the last couple of years. And it's, you know, it's honestly a blueprint for G5 conference football. Yeah. And what I love about this is in a way like, so growing up watching FCS football, you know, it was a hard to get eyes on it. You would catch, you would get the playoffs on ESPN, one of the ESPN's normally. So like Georgia, Southern app state instantly became like watching every game, right? We didn't have ESPN plus back then. So like, anytime you get those playoff games, a lot of times like them and Delaware and stuff, I know Delaware is not in the Sunbelt, but Georgia Southern app and then coastal came along, had a good FCS season. You know, the later in the, in the mid 2000s and stuff, but I lived in DC and I would look, I would get the local on my grandmother's black and white TV. This is the struggle back in the day. For some reason, DC with the bunny ears, you could pick up Marshall games, right? I think it was like channel 53. So we would watch Marshall. There we go. There's the herd, youtube.com/at stadium heads, S G P N, Michael decked out in a, in a awesome Marshall thundering herd t-shirt, but yeah. And like that was back when they had like Troy Brown, the Patriots wide receiver and stuff. So like then to see everything come full forward. Like I had already been like a Southern miss fan. You know, I already always appreciated their program. Troy was another one. You could catch on ESPN in the FCS playoffs. So to see all those come into the Sunbelt, I think in one conference, like Marshall should be rivals with, I know they were kind of rivals with that state back in the day, but not, not when I was really watching a little bit in the playoffs. But like, so I love what they're doing. James Madison coming in there now. What's your thoughts on the overall conference? I think it's unbelievable. You know, it's a, it's a crabs in a pot conference. It's hard to go undefeated to go all the way through. That's why I have a team like Liberty going undefeated and, you know, app is getting knocked off by somebody. Marshall's getting knocked off by somebody. But the regional rivalries you have, there's real hatred there. I mean, you go to these games. This is long lasting, long standing. I know a lot of people didn't like how coastal rose up so quickly. They felt like they didn't, they skipped steps. And, you know, there was the Louisiana coastal 2020 SBC championship game that got canceled one day before. And so that caused a lot of problems. But you love venom. You love viciousness. And you love it when people are really passionate about their team. And, you know, the AAC, they went for markets. They went for teams that, you know, Charlotte and some other schools while the, the Sunbelt added for great football powers of, you know, either G5 or FCS and really solidify their conference. Yeah, I'll be honest, as an EC fan, I think I'd write, I know the money's better than the AAC, but I think I'd rather be in the Sunbelt. Well, when they talk about expansion, they say, who would you want? And I mean, I think Liberty and ECU are two prime targets with, I went to the 2020 cure bowl and it was coastal undefeated versus Liberty. And they only allowed fans on one side of the field because of COVID. And that was the most heated stands that I ever been in. The Liberty blocked the field goal to win the game. And they just ran right over to the coastal bench and wave by doing. And as soon as I saw that, we got to get them in the Sunbelt. So, yeah, these, this is what you want. You want these little regional hatred longstanding rivalries. Yeah. And, and I mean, I, let me read an ad first, but I want to touch on that for a second. But folks, I want to tell you that you are listening to the stadium heads podcast part of the sports gambling podcast network. Make sure to check out the sports gambling podcast as they've started their top 10 fantasy football preview series. The quarterbacks and the tight end episodes are already live. Go check them out. It's never too early for the national football league. Uh, that's my Chris Berman and person, person nation there. But, uh, yes, terrible impersonation, but, um, so, um, I find it hilarious that they don't want Liberty in there because they're like, Oh, they're religious school. And I'm like, you're called the Sunbelt. It's like a play on the Bible belt, right? Like it's complicated. I mean, BYU was out of a conference for a long time. And now they're in the, you know, they're in the big 12. So, uh, you know, Liberty, it looks like they're going to dominate conference USA. Uh, I know their stadium, we'll talk about, uh, conference USA, probably here in the next week or two, their stadium is expandable to, you know, something like 60,000 seats. They have big ideas. And I think that if they go on a two or three year run, like they did last year in conference USA, they may want to get in the Sunbelt. And maybe if the Sunbelt wants to expand and, you know, ECU has a 50,000 seat stadium, which would, is one of the biggest in G5 and you put Liberty in there in the same way that they added the four teams, uh, two years ago, they, those two programs could, you know, put a bow on the whole thing. So you don't know. But yeah, I hope that they're just not all the way against Liberty. Yeah, me too. And yeah, ECU already has a built in rival with Marshall and Southern Miss and App State. So it fits. But the problem is, I don't know if ECU would make that move without more money. And right now the AC makes more money. So I don't know. But look, dude, it's been a busy week for you. I saw you, you got up super early in the morning to do a little, uh, little guest appearance on all WGN, uh, Chicago news. Um, without no further ado, here is that I'm going to fast forward a tiny bit because I don't want us to get sued by Bob Marley. But let's go. I mean, I appreciate it. Absolutely. We appreciate joining us. So how did this get started here? Were you just at a stadium one day and think this is ridiculous? I want to show the world and you kept going. So I actually went to a game at Washington state in 2018. And I bought a ticket that was at a discount. And when I got there, there was a giant light pole in my way. And since then I've been going to games and during my course of the exploring the stadium looking for these bad seats and trying to warn people on social media. I want to talk about Wrigley field because I think a lot of people who've been to Wrigley are aware of this that they have these big steel poles where you they call like partially obstructed view. But in reality, it's full on obstructed view. Yes. And you know, these older stadiums, that's how they put the support beams in there to support the stands. But some stadiums don't advertise. There's obstructed view. Wrigley does. I assign a percentage zero to 100 as far as the visibility of the field that you can see. And when you get up right against that support beam at Wrigley field, that would be 0% visibility. So you focused on college football stadiums, correct? Mostly. Mostly. Okay, let's go through some of them here. Let's say what we're looking at right here is this University of Arizona. Oh, that's university of Arizona. That's the bar sole sports ball. And you only can see about 3% of the field, maybe the corner of the end zone right there. I just feel like in those seats, is everybody really hyped up because you got to kind of make your own party? Or is it people thinking, wow, these seats are really pretty terrible. I should have stayed home. Well, it's a combination. You have the band right there. So you can take in the full experience and listen, but not ideal if you're trying to track the whole game. Yeah. All right. Let's take another one here at Western Michigan. Western Michigan. And so we call this the makeout seat or the sit by yourself seat. There's a brick wall right there. And it's a two seat bleacher. It is a general mission ticket, but you can see right there. You only could see down the sideline very little. Right. USC. What is it? What's that stadium look like? So USC, they put a press box in there two years ago and they took out 15,000 seats, but they add or they left the seats next to the press box. And again, you only can see the very corner of the end zone. You get to see the nice parts of the Coliseum. It's an old classic stadium, but you don't get to see any of the field. Mike, how did you get to 90 games in one season? There's only so many college football weekends in a year. Yeah. So they play a lot of Tuesday, Wednesday night games up in the Midwest near you guys. They call it action with the Mac conference. And so you can do six games per week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then two on Saturday and a noon game and a seven game. So six in a week times four. That's 24 month. There's three months. So 24 times three 72 you add on the bowl games and the playoff games. That's how you get to 90. Wow. Some quick math there. Well, you can for more like on social media at CFP campus to listen to his podcast, stadium heads. Mike, thanks so much for joining us this morning. Oh, there we go. Shout out to WGN and shout out to the most interesting man at college football doing some prep. I love the fact you're explaining action all over Chicago, because just, you know, maybe they're, they're a pro town. I don't know. But, uh, uh, how was that? That was great. Right. That was fun. I mean, it was six 10 a.m. local time. So, you know, we had to get prepped. There was a little bit of a video delay. So I was just kind of going off what they were saying rather than the pictures, but it was cool. You know that one of their, all the hosts, Dan, his alma mater, one of them was Northwestern. So I was hoping maybe we could talk about the obstructive views at Northwestern. And then Lauren, her alma mater is Harvard and they have obstructive views there. So, you know, when you go on major TV to get, you know, three or three and a half minutes, you're grateful for everything. But it's cool. I joke that, you know, you'll have companies and they'll have all these conferences and meetings and they want to switch it up and they bring in a magician or someone. I'm like that change up guy on the show. So, the host seemed to enjoy it. They were laughing and, you know, it was fun to be able to, you know, talk about what I do and also mixing the obstructive views because it's a little bit of a phenomenon. Even a couple of days ago, there was a, uh, euro, a Europe soccer game and a guy posed in an obstructive UC just like me. So it's crazy to see how it goes. But I'm very appreciative to get a chance to talk on the, you know, a national channel like WGN. Oh, yeah, man, spread, spread the stadium heads too. Got a loving plug in fantastic work, my friend. Um, folks, look, we're going to talk a little bit more about, you know, some other, some other stuff that happened throughout the week before we get to these Sunbelt stages. But I want to tell you that the stadium heads podcast is brought to you by underdog fantasy. Right now, pick eight is live, create entries with up to eight picks and underdog automatically double flex entries so you can miss up the two picks and still win your entry with more picks to make and extra ways to win. The excitement is higher than ever. The best part is you can win up to 325 times, uh, your original mount. And yes, they do have college football. And I know it's the dog days of summer, but I've been playing college baseball. I've been playing CFL. So hop on over there. Don't miss your chance to try it out before it's gone with that promo. Uh, sign up. And when you do sign up with the promo code T C S G P N to claim your special pick plus first time deposit offer of up to $250 in bonus cash. Once again, underdog fantasy.com promo code T C E S G P N. We're also brought to you by the circa. Yes. In Las Vegas, their circa survivor and circa millions is back. All right. And with circa survivor and circa millions, they're giving away $16 million in guaranteed prizes. Of course, circa contest have no rake, uh, circa millions pick five NFL teams, ATS each week and compete for $6 million or survive. The NFL got lit to claim the $10 million prize. Uh, sign up in person at, at circus sports between now and September 7th and use a proxy to play from anywhere. Uh, we even have a deal with football contest, proxy.com to save you 50 bucks with the promo code SGP. So check that out. Uh, don't have a trip book for Las Vegas yet before football. Come on now. Ultimate contest weekend is a great time to go and hang out because my pals of the sports gambling podcast, Ryan and Sean will be out there and enjoy some of the, uh, open bar events at the greatest sports book in the world. They're at the circa in Las Vegas, August 22 through August 24th. Come on out there, grab a cocktail. All right. All that good stuff. And remember, as always, folks, to let it ride. All right. We are back. And look, this wasn't, this wasn't it. Before we get to the Sun Belt Stadiums, you this, and you could argue this might even be better than they go on national TV, depending on who you ask. Uh, I, I think, uh, there's a few, you know, maybe, uh, maybe Bobby Huggins or something would be down with this one. Um, look at what, look at what all the most interesting man in, uh, in college football was gifted. Now it wasn't, it was their competitor if you're playing on that commercial, but look at this. Look at this right here. Wow. That was gifted to, uh, our friend here, Michael Barker, a college football campus tour. And I mean, first off, that's a lot of beers. All right. I gotta, I don't even know if I can quickly do the math on that, but that's like, uh, a good, uh, definitely over 200 beers there, I think. Um, and, uh, yeah, gifted that. And then a nice little, uh, comment here, shout out to modello, because they say hi, Michael, as the official beer sponsor of the college football playoff, modellibus proud to recognize, uh, the fight of full time fans, those who take pride in tradition, put their passion on full display and show up weekend and week out regardless of the conditions or the outcome. Thank you for throwing that in there. They know real football, attending 90 college football games in a single season. There's no small feat, especially, uh, when combined with, uh, hashtag obstructed view alerts from each stadium, you've proven that you have the mark of a fighter, which is their slogan. Uh, this package is a reward for your fandom. And we hope, uh, you can take a moment to enjoy some medellos on us and raise a glass to your hard work before gearing up for another season. This is the gift that just keeps on giving. This is fantastic. How did this come to fruition? You just, you just came home one day and boom, it's there. No. Well, first of all, I mean, crazy, uh, you know, I customized a certificate right here. You know, they know, you know, they're paying attention because they're talking about the numbers of games and obstructive views and all that. So a very much an honor, but, you know, I'm, I'm mostly on Twitter, but it seems like the professional connections that I make are on Instagram. And so I got a message from modello and it was similar to what you see here on the certificate, which was, Hey, we like what you're doing. Uh, we want to send you some gear. Can we get your contact information? And this all happened very quickly. You know, they talked to me on a Friday. I think I had it in my hands on Wednesday. You know, eight cases of 24. I did the math as 192 beers and, uh, yeah, I'm, I'm already down like five cases because I've already gifted a bunch to people and, you know, eight cases of beer will go fast when people, you know, but I, uh, you know, I got one here. So we got one to go and, um, you know, hopefully they keep track, but they said they're going to keep track during the season would love a sponsorship possibly, but regardless to have a major company like that, send me this little care package. Pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. And Cajun killer says you're going to talk about the cheapest beer theme or on college football, Twitter this week we need to at some point because that was crazy. A lot of good entertainment with BYU milking the coldest chocolate milk in Provo. So, uh, I gotta, gotta love that. Uh, also shout out to cannabis campuses. That's my called WGN morning news. That's legit damn straight. Um, yeah. Uh, all right. Now, look, I mean, that's a great week of promo. That's just a great week of, of, of living life, my friend. Absolutely. Yeah. It's hard to top that. I mean, we got, you know, tomorrow is, uh, you know, almost two months exactly for the season and, you know, we're, we're in the dog days, but we could feel it in these kinds of little things where, you know, news appearance, a, uh, a swag package coming from a company. It makes you feel like we're getting close to football. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Uh, so it's time to jump in. Let's talk a little bit about these Sunbelt stadiums. Um, the first school, we're going to go alphabetically folks. If you haven't list those, if your first time lister, uh, first off, I highly recommend jumping over to youtube.com/stadiumheadssgpn. Um, but, uh, also wherever podcasts can be found. Um, the last time you visited, uh, these stadiums, but before I jump into Appalachia state, I'm just going to rattle off the pecking order of, uh, of, of alphabetically of the, of the last time you visited each stadium because Michael's been to every single FBS stadium in case you're wondering and majority of the FCS I feel like by now. Um, so Appalachia state the last time he was there was last season as coastal Carolina took on app state. Great rivalry game. The beach against the mountains. Uh, you were in Jonesboro, Arkansas, checking out Arkansas state in 2001 as Georgia state came in there. Uh, you were in Conway, South Carolina at Brook stadium, uh, coastal Carolina's home as once again, you caught the rivalry game app state came to coastal. I believe my brother was at that game too. And, uh, we didn't know that, uh, but he said he saw you and that next time you guys got to get up and have a beer. Um, uh, you were at, uh, Georgia Southern Statesboro for a wait. That was actually Georgia state at Georgia Southern. I messed that up. My bad. That's all right. And, uh, uh, yes, you were in Statesboro for that. And what year were you in there for that? That was the last year. Okay. Uh, you were in Atlanta at center park city of Georgia state as coastal Carolina came to Atlanta. Um, and then you were in Harrisonburg, Virginia for JMU taken on old dominion. Uh, got to love that. That's an old school rivalry. Uh, you were in Cajun field there, perhaps with Cajun killer 94 as, uh, Georgia Southern came into town in 2022. You were at the Joan in Huntington, West Virginia as JMU came in to take on Marshall. Uh, who won that game? JMU. Okay. Cause I know Marshall got in one of the years, um, that they jumped up, but, um, then you were, uh, down there at SB Ballard stadium there in Norfolk, Virginia as old dominion hosted Western Kentucky. Um, that was when they were in the C USA, I believe. And then you were in mobile Alabama, checking out South Alabama, Troy, that is a rivalry as well. Uh, you were at the rock. Uh, I know that's a, that's a conversation to have, but, uh, check it out Southern miss in Hattiesburg as the raging cadence of Louisiana came in in 2022. Uh, you were in San Marcos, Texas state during the COVID season. Uh, when the SMU Mustangs came in and you were in Troy, Alabama as middle Tennessee came in to check out the Trojans. We had a Troy fan, a little dirt there says Troy got the best stadium in the sun belt. That's the end of the podcast. A lot of, a lot of good shit talk. And then you were in Monroe at Malone stadium in 2020 as well, uh, checking out the rivalry game between Louisiana and U L M. Um, yeah. So I just messed up that one, but, uh, yeah, any, any planned for sure this year. So we always, the, the reason that I've gone through a lot of these recently is because we mentioned they play the fun belt weeknight game. So I'm always looking for those. So app state has one September 19th. That will be my sixth game at kid Brewer, which is the most anywhere. Uh, let's see who else JMU has a game October 10 versus coastal Carolina. I went there last year. So we'll go there. Uh, Old Dominion. I haven't been since 2019. They have a Thursday night game against Georgia Southern. I'm going to say October 24th. Uh, Texas state has a week three game. They get Arizona state at home, P five at home. So I'm going to go to that. And then October 4th. Troy has a fun belt, a weeknight game on a Thursday. And I, I went there for four straight years, 2017 to 2020. I haven't been there since then. So off the top of my head, that's five or six that I know I'm going through this year. There you go, folks. If you know you're going, like, make sure to hit up Michael at CFB campus tour. And maybe you know an obstructed view, or maybe you just want to meet the man, the myth, the legend. All right. Maybe you just want to share a beer. You know what I mean? Like, go get, get by my beer, something like that. Um, hit him up though at CFB campus tour because he's coming to your town. Um, let's jump into this because man, we're starting with the banger. Daquan, shout out to Daquan long time listener. Uh, kid, we were stating the best stadium in the Sunbelt mic drop. Um, I got married about five minutes from here. Wow. Uh, place called Beach Mountain. Um, yeah, I, Boone is awesome. Like, I mean, I went to an app state game. Uh, they, they destroyed ULM, but at stadium, man, I don't know if it gets much better than that. Uh, we're going to dive into the pictures here. I just got to get us paid one more time. Want to tell you where we're 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 in powering betters with smarter data driven decisions. Unlike other platforms, rhythms who combined advanced predictive analytics, uh, with an intuitive user experience making betting both easy and enjoyable rhythms, predictive models were born from the brains of MIT data scientists and quants with, uh, over three years of data that helped drive you to better AI backed betting decisions. So check it out. Claim your free seven day trial period today. If I go to sports gambling podcast.com/rhythm, that's RITHMM that's sportsgillingpodcast.com/rhythm. All right. We are back talking Sunbelt stadiums, kid, bro, we're stadium and just starting off with, hate to say this, but I'm just going to go. I think it's the top 10 stadium to me, uh, out of all of them, uh, out of all conferences. So Boone, North Carolina, 62 years old, his kid, Brewer stadium seats 30,000. And, uh, what game was this one at? Cause I know you've been there several times. So this was last year, the coastal Carolina app state game. It was a grudge match because in 2022 or 2021 coastal beat app in Boone. Um, and then the year after app beat coastal in Conway. And so this was the grudge match, the rubber match, but incredible. Every time you go there, it's incredible. Um, you know, this stadium holds 30,000 people. The, the record is 40,168. It's been happened twice. Uh, when they played North Carolina in 2022 and then it gets your boys ECU in 2023. It's the elevation is 3,333 feet, which is the highest in the FBS east of the Mississippi river. Their record is 263, 77 and five history wise at KBS. A lot of that domination in the FBS or FCS, but I call this place field of dreams. You know, you talked about getting married five, uh, minutes away. We talked in the mountain west episode about Wyoming and, and app kind of being comps and it is, it's true, but this place field of dreams, uh, it's, it, I don't know how to say it, but this is what's right about college football. Like this is the field and the stadium has grown and started out at 10,000 and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. So, um, app state fans are incredible. We've done the, uh, best G five stadium tournament on Twitter. Uh, they've won it the last two years. So, fan base stadium, great team tradition. What do you want? What else could you ask for? Yeah, little dirt saying high school stadium, just beautiful scenery. See, I disagree. I think this is just a beautiful scenery is a big part of making a stadium great. I think the stadium, every aspect of it is great to me. Um, uh, I love the fact also that it's right in downtown. You can just like walk like two blocks, like two blocks and you're at the bar. Um, one, one of the state, a few stadiums. It's kind of like kneeling in that regard where you can actually just like walk to a bar. We're like right there. So, um, but, uh, I, I think the stadium, I mean, look at this. It's in the middle of a fucking forest, man. And you got the hill. Everything about this is awesome. To me, it's like, like I said, I think this is a top 10 college football stadium in general. Like I'll put this up against some of the big boys. Yeah. And that's where, you know, feel and boots on the ground will even solidify this further. So if you look at that, you know, I've heard that high school stadium thing. Well, what are the negatives of the stadium? It's not a bowl. Uh, you know, there's no place on the corner where you can get high. Uh, I have found a way up a hill and gotten permission to take it from above. Uh, you know, it's, uh, kind of Frankenstein together a little bit. You have a lot of students in the berm. So ideally, you know, visually just looking at the, the stands, it's not what we would consider, you know, the, the prototype stadium, but that's where when you walk in and you get that feeling and you see those trees and you know, you're surrounded by the mountains, uh, it will change your mind. And you know, I, I've, this is one of the first places where it made me start to think like this is what I want to do. I want to be around college football all the time. And, um, for people who are just looking at pictures of the stadiums, I highly recommend trying to get a game in there and it might change your mind. Yeah. I mean, I, I just think it's, it's perfect. You can't, can't draw up a bit like this is, to me, I've, if college football really wanted to nail it and do like the, like get rid of these trash NFL stadiums and, and, and the playoffs and stuff. I mean, I would prefer just play at home for all the games, except the championship game. But if not, if you're going to do neutral, they should just listen to this show and follow the, follow the, follow the, uh, the, the, the guidance of us because this is one would be awesome. Absolutely. Awesome. Um, they do have a expansion in mind. So we mentioned, uh, you know, it holds 30,000, but there have been crowds of over 40,000 in 2022. They had like six of their top 10 biggest crowds ever. So that's on the way. Um, and you know, you talked about liberty going up app state. We never know what's going to happen with maybe the ACC having some troubles and them being proximate. So, uh, you know, dominated in the FCS have done really good as a G5 and, you know, typically the, the top of the, the Sunbelt and they have the environment, they have the crowd. I mean, the town of Boone is only like 18,000 people and they get 35,000 people at games and it's not like it's an easy place to access. So it's what you want. It's what you want in college football. Uh, you know, I call it field of dreams because in the movie, there's a, uh, a baseball field and a cornfield. It's not supposed to be there. This is the same thing. How can you have this beautiful stadium up in the mountains and the, in the woods? So again, boots on the ground. Don't take my word for it. Don't take Colby's word for it. Go as a stadium head, go check it out yourself and, and see what you think. We think you'll love it. Yeah. 100%. I mean, it's just, look at that, man. Just go see the black bear just coming out of that thing. Uh, but, uh, just, I mean, look at the, and that's what you want to be in that crowd. So I mentioned this is the shot. There's a, there's like an A carved in the grass. Go the, go the second one, the next one. Okay. Um, yeah. So you want to be above like, first of all, you want to walk with those students, but then this is the shot you want. And what I'm excited about for the, um, the game on September 19th, I've never been there when the game has started where it's sunny. So one of the first photos you showed was like a pregame shot and it looks awesome, but I've never got to take a photo at kid Brewer while the sun was still out. So I'm just thinking of that photo right there, you know, with the, the light out sunset, you know, hopefully a sold out crowd again. And, uh, you know, this is what you live for. You live for these moments. Yeah. I'm, I was in the rain, which I thought we made it even better in a way. Um, but yeah, this stage was perfect, man. Look at that. And obstructive view alert, obstructive view alert in Boone, even though it's a great stadium, we do have an obstructive view, which is always to me, a lot of, a lot of the great stadiums do. And when the renovation comes, this will disappear. So there's like a caveat on the obstructive views, because this was when we were kind of like still treading the waters of, is it okay to call out these obstructive views. They were very concerned that I was going to point them out, but there was an obstructive view, even in a great stadium, like kid Brewer, however, in a couple of years, this will not exist. There we go. Maybe it's because we called it out. I think that's what it is. So there. That's probably why you got that you already affected their scheduling. You know what I mean? You got them playing Boise state next year. We think that was you behind the scenes. I'm just, uh, reporting that. Well, my hope is that when I go there, um, on the 19th of September, I want to get some awards made up for winning the polls, you know, because they did a press release, they did a bunch of stuff. So hey, let's reward people and, you know, it's not going to go next to the so-con championships or whatever, you know, FCS championships, but we want to, you know, it's a reciprocal relationship. We want to thank them for being so, uh, you know, participating so much. So I'm hoping to get some little awards made up that I can deliver to Boone, uh, when I go. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Love that stadium. Uh, let's jump on over to, uh, Arkansas state Jonesboro. Uh, you see, I called this ASU stadium because that's what it used to be called. Um, uh, it's, it's still ASU stadium in my mind. 50 years old seats 30,406. I heard rumors that Jonesboro used to be a, I think I've told you this, but it used to be a dry county, but I think, I think I asked you or someone that, uh, I know that does a horse racing podcast. It's an ASU grad, uh, about this. And he's like, no, they got, they got bars all over that thing now. Um, tell me about your travels to Jonesboro. So I've been to three games at, uh, Jonesboro, you know, it was Indian stadium when it started and then it was ASU stadium and now it's named after a bank, which we don't like, but this stadium has improved a lot. Uh, even in, you know, in 2014, 2015, there was a major renovation and I've done these, uh, transformation tweets showing the progression and the last 10 years, the stadium has really changed and become a remarkable stadium. The press box looks really nice. They have the waterfalls in the corner of the in zone. One of the bleachers or the, the in zone bleachers right there, they've turned into it's almost like a bar. You stand and you can get drinks delivered there and to the right, there's that little covered area and they, you can go get, uh, you know, drinks and have them delivered there. So, um, there's a sports clips has used this stadium in their commercials. And so the profile of this stadium has grown a lot and I've been to a couple of games there. You put up the scoreboard from a high scoring game. It was 59 52. They beat Georgia State. So 111 points. That's the definition of fun belt. But, um, yeah, it's a, it's a fun place to go. They haven't got a fun belt weeknight game for the last couple of years, which is disappointing, but all these photos are pretty much from 2021. Yeah. And they were terrible that year. I believe if memory should be correct, right? I think they were. I think it was probably the, the year before Bush Jones, if I can remember. So probably, okay, but 59 52. I mean, I'll go watch two Oh and 10 teams put up 111 points. I don't care. I was like, is that basketball? Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, look, I dig, I like the waterfall angle. All right. One college football team should do it. The Royals do it in baseball. I like it and same with the angels, but, uh, yeah, I mean, it, and if you have excess seats, you accentuate your stadium, you know, so what there, what we have a trend of going in college football right now is remove quantity and put in more premium seating and then charge more. Well, you know, if you're going to do that in a smaller stadium, then it's not going to work out. But this place they can still fill it out. They could still pack it with the reasonably priced tickets. And then they can do things like waterfall and, and, you know, private area suites or outdoor suites in the end zone. So I like what they've done. And again, I recommend anybody go, go look at the stadium photos from like 2012, 2013. It, it, it looks like night and day what they've done. Yeah. Um, and you know, that's, they weren't ever allowed. They actually had like legislation that said they could never play Arkansas. That ended. And next year, they're going to play Arkansas for the first time. And I think it might be a home and home or maybe a two for one. Maybe it's they might be playing a war memorial. I think that would be awesome. That would be awesome. I think they're playing there. Yeah. Yeah. Glad to see that game on the schedule. Cause come on, college football is about regionality. You should be playing little brother, you know, that's part of the fun. Um, let's jump over to Conway, South Carolina, Brooks stadium, uh, 21 years old. Obviously the teal turf, they took it out page out of Boise State. And I think they snuck it in because I thought they changed the rule of Boise State's turf at one point. Cajun killer already getting in there, talking as trash about this one, but you're going to get down to Myrtle Beach, you know, I mean, Conway, South Carolina is like on the outskirts of Myrtle Beach, a eastbound and down style. Go see your, get, go get your Kenny powers on. But, uh, this was the game you were at with my brother, I believe, because, uh, this was like a top 25 matchup. I remember you certainly correct, right? Yeah. And it was a sellout. You know, you can see the, the yellow shirts, right? And the foreground of the photo app fans came and traveled. And again, the year before coastal beat them in, uh, in Boone. And so this was a, we're going to travel and revenge game. And I think at the time it was the biggest crowd they ever had, uh, in Conway. Yeah. I mean, this, and I believe they stormed the field, right? That is. So it happened on both, uh, both, you know, opposite years it did. And, uh, you know, what's really cool about this stadium is, first of all, it started out with 6,000 seats. Uh, now it's up to 21. Obviously it had grass until 2014. They put the teal turf in 2015. I got a, I got a trivia question for you. Do you know who the Brooks is behind the name Brooks Stadium? I feel like I do know this, but I'm like, I feel like you might have told me last year on the preview, but well, you might have been in a few of his establishments. Let's say that. Oh no, I do know. It's, uh, that dude. This is even funny. It's, uh, the guy who created Hooters, founder of Hooters, Robert Brooks. So it's technically named after his children, but they use the Brooks. But, uh, that's a little factoid right there for Myrtle Beach. But, uh, that's perfect. By the way, it's perfect. It's perfect. You know, all the beach when they played, uh, when they played BYU in the COVID year was the Mormons versus the mullets. And so, you know, but I will tell you that 2019 I went to a game at coastal and I think they were losing to Louisiana. I want to say it was like 56 to nothing. And they scored a touchdown at the end and make it 56 to seven. Go back the next year and, you know, they go undefeated and they win it Louisiana. And then the year after that, they have Kansas, they, during the COVID year, they beat Kansas in Kansas. Then the next year they had, uh, Kansas at home and they won that. And the baby, why you, member? They be BYU. And so the, the leap that they've made made in a short amount of time. I mean, Coach Chadwell obviously had a lot to do with it. But this went from a program who was FCS with a grass field with 6,400 seats in less than 10 years, you know, 21,000 seats stadium ranked in the top 25, defeating, uh, you know, P5 teams home and road. So, uh, you know, last year, it wasn't as successful as the previous years, but they have become a legit G5 program in a short amount of time. And, you know, if you can make it happen at Conway, South Carolina, you can make it happen in a lot of places. So I think people should be inspired by what they've done down there in Conway. Okay. I got, I got a lot to say about this one. It's perfect for Myrtle Beach. Right. And now my only demand would be their cheerleaders should all be Hooters Waitresses and have John Daly on the sideline signing autographs. All right. Because when they say that can be arranged, I believe I was at a Hooters in Daytona Beach, completely hung over 20 years ago. And some guy comes up to me and asks if I want to buy one of his gloves, right, as signed gloves, and I'm like completely hung over. And then it takes me a minute to realize because I'm like, no, like, who the fuck are you going to get out of here? Right. And then the waitress comes over and says, Oh, John, John's drunk again. And she goes, you know who that is, right? And I go, no, who's that? That's John Daly. And I'm like, get the fuck out of here. But he had to deal with them. He had some type of deal with them, at least a Daytona Beach, according to this waitress, or, uh, where, you know, he could just sit in there and drink and eat for free because he had commercial. So he was like bothering everybody, selling his autographs. But, uh, yeah, so get him on the sidelines and come, you know, one of my favorite moments, uh, they used to have a coach. So it was Jamie Chadwell, before that was where you're going. Yeah. Before that was Joe Moglia, who, and before that was, I believe David Bennett, I believe was his name. And he gave us this gem. And this was not that long ago, folks. This was like within the past 10, 15 years trying to get our two boys ready to carry them to golf tournament for practice, right? 12 cats live across the road. Our doors open, screens broke. We need to get a new screen door, but the screens broke. So you can come in through the screen, but you can't get back out of it. I turn and look, there's a little kitty cat in our, in our kitchen. So I said, what are you doing in here, little kitty cat? By that time, cat turns, tries to get back out. That screen won't go that way. Cat starts going, all crazy. And I told our players, we need more dogs. Bo's barking in the back. I have to go shut, bow up. Mel's like, what's going on? I said, it's a cat in the house. I said, yeah, it is a cat in the house. So I told our players, I tried to let it out the front door, cat's still going crazy in there. And I told our players, you need to be more like a dog. Can you imagine you're getting ready to play a game? And that's what he tells you. I'd be like, what? What the fuck are we talking about here? What it was? Bo? Who's Bo? I got no idea. You got a cat in the house. What the hell? Terrible analogy, hilarious post game or presser from David Bennett. We need to get him back on the sidelines. I think he's at like a community college right now. But everything about, ever since him, because he was when they were in the FCS, every, everything about this school is hilarious. It's just, it's just perfect. It's like the east bounded down of college football. And you know that inadvertently he inspired that, you know, you got that dog and we want dogs, right? He kind of emphasized that, because that's all you hear now is you want dogs. So yeah, it's, it's fun. I, you know, I have a lot of friends at Coastal got to hang out with the students there. And it's, it's, you know, they call it ball at the beach, even though it's about 15 miles from the beach from Myrtle Beach. But it's exactly what you're talking about. And, you know, for a program that just started in 2003, I mean, we're only talking about 20 years of football history, look what they've done. And they're proud of it. So, you know, they, you talked about Arkansas, not playing Arkansas state. I think obviously talent wise, South Carolina and Clemson have superior talent, but they're not, you know, calling up coastal and say, hey, come play in our stadium, you know, so, but yeah, I agree that the vibe matches the town for sure. They should get that be more like a dog, right? As on the sound drop of the stadium on like a third down, they should just play that be more like a dog. And the fans get all crazy. Come on, talk to me, or when they play Georgia state, have them do the, or the cat meows there for the Panthers, like we need to do that. Yeah. So I'm saying, hey, whoever's in charge of the athletic department there, dial 1 800 picked on D. I got you covered. This crowd is awesome, though. This is a, it looks like maybe they have a bar or something up there. I haven't been to the stadium, and I got to get there. So that's a field house there. It's that named after Josh Norman, who, you know, Washington Redskins defensive back, Carolina Panthers. So it's, he was an alum there, you know, way before we knew about him, the, you know, the program and the FBS world. But they added a second deck on the visitor side to expand it even in the last couple of years. So this was a blackout. You can see all the students were in black shirts there. You know, they got the teal color. And one of their other colors is bronze, which people don't know. But you can see the in zone there has got like a bronze color. But, you know, we have some different color turfs and college football. You mentioned Boise. We got the Inferno at Eastern Washington, the red. We got the stripes that central Arkansas. So you want to bring attention. You want to do something unique. This is what it looks like. And Eastern Michigan, one of my favorites in the the Greyfield too. So yeah, there's a space for this in college football. We don't want all our fields like this, but we can have a couple. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just everything about this one is hilarious and fun to me. Like their whole football program is hilarious and fun. I know Cajun killer hates them, but they even that makes it fun. Like to me, from a guy that just covers it nationally, you know, that's like, hey, that makes it fun to me. It's a fun place to go. Yeah. Absolutely. And man, now this stadium, I would like to see, I know you've been doing this series on your Twitter at CFB campus tour where you do the before and after I think you did Oklahoma earlier today. I would like to see what this stadium looked like say 15 years ago compared to to now. So I have one from a couple months ago. Maybe I can put it back out, but it, you know, when you just, it's just the home side and just those bleachers and a little bit on the small on the, on the roadside and his grass and, you know, it's, it's really changed. But we could put that on Twitter. We can either retweet it or refresh to put it back out there. Yeah. We'll do that because I find that's a baseball stadium. They have a great baseball program. They won a national championship not that long ago. 2016. Yeah. Right there. Conway, South Carolina. Get yourself over there. I love it. So you got to go on the turf. I take it there. Yeah. I'm always trying to, you know, bring everybody the, the, you know, the inside stuff. And so coastal, you know, they, they always take care of me down there. Joe Cashin, play by play guy just retired this year. So happy retirement to Joe. But, you know, the Sunbell, you know, I've said that the G five football is the sweet spot of college football. They, they do play some big time ball, but they also appreciate the coverage. And they know that you can shed a positive light on their program. So, you know, app is taking care of me. A state follows me on Twitter. A coastal follows me on Twitter. They take care of me. So you want to have fun. You're mentioning not just fun in Conway, but if you want to have a fun college football experience, the, the fun belt. I mean, it really personifies that name. Yeah. Yeah. For absolutely fantastic stuff. Folks, I see seven, almost 700 people watching this thing live. If you can hit that like and subscribe button, we'd be very grateful. YouTube.com/at stadium heads S G P N. Cause I got it out on like three or four different feeds right now, just cause it's just, you know, we just started this podcast. Eventually we're going to veer off all those feeds and just be our own. So hop on over there, subscribe, please tell a friend if you can stadium heads podcast available wherever you get podcasts. But obviously the visual side, I think is, is, is, is the better way to, to listen to it or view it. But yeah, anyway, I love what they're doing here. And let's move along to Paulson stadium. I want to shout out my guy Kaleil does the listener on the college football experience podcast that I host that does the first down chains there for them at home game. So if you ever see them get a questionable call, I can direct the hate to, to this guy's Twitter account. Um, but no, uh, Statesboro, Georgia, Paulson stadium. It's been there 40 years seats, 25,000. Tell me about your travels to Statesboro because man, for a while, man, when it was Paul Johnson, I just did a deep dive on Paul Johnson stuff. I was previewing Hawaii and, you know, he was the OC of Hawaii for a while. When it had some great years, man, I think in 92, there were 11 and two had beat like four or five power five schools. And then, uh, the year after that, I believe he left for Georgia Southern, where he had this amazing run with the other Adrian Peterson running back and FCS national championships. But then after that, it was Jeff Monke and was now at army and then, you know, Chad Lunsford and, and it was just a, uh, I, they were, they were fucking up teams, man. They want, they beat Florida without throwing a pass in the swamp and they almost beat Georgia, took Georgia to overtime in Athens. Uh, tell me about your travels here, man. So I love Statesboro. They are another city school that have treated me very well. Uh, I went there. Well, first of all, you know, the irk Russell just founded this whole school, that he was the defensive coordinator in 1980 Georgia and he had an opportunity, made this place out of nothing. Uh, you know, they founded in 1984. Uh, the nickname of this place is the prettiest little stadium in America. Uh, you know, he created the lore of Eagle Creek, where the students go in and he had a jug of water from Eagle Creek that he would pour on the goal line. And say that other teams couldn't cross it. You know, they're school buses. They had just public school buses donated to them in the beginning. And that's how they found it. So, uh, but what they've done is they've made this a dump. There's a school bus right there. Those are from the, the very, to remind her of the, the humble beginnings of the program, but 193 and 41 is their all-time record is this place playoff record at home, 33 and three. You mentioned Paul Johnson with a couple national championships, irk, I believe had three or four, you know, he's not eligible for the Hall of Fame because he only coached eight years. Yeah, yeah. So I went to the Hall of Fame last year and I snuck in a photo and, uh, my friend, Daryl Lynn, she mailed it to me. Uh, and so I went in there and I took a photo and I said this, you know, I, in the Hall of Fame, I said, this guy needs to be in the Hall of Fame. But that being said, I went there last year. They played Georgia State. That's a hated rivalry. You know, it's Southern not state and all that. And they had a great crowd and they had a huge victory that night. And all these photos are from that game. Well, they have a big history too with the Appalachia state. I think they call that one deeper than hate because they were rivals back in the so-con. But, um, I love the school bus thing. It makes me think like Adrian Peterson or Tracy Ham, their old quarterback back in the eighties. Uh, I could just, it's almost like the, the happy Gilmore thing. Oh, meet me on the night. Go ahead. No, so say, meet me on the 19th hole. I don't, I don't want to, I don't want to know what's happened to the back of that school bus, but I bet you, I bet you some things have happened. What were you going to say? Well, they have a tradition. And I know when coach Lunsford was there that they would drive through the tailgates with the players and the coaches on the bus on the way to the game. And it was just a cool thing to be able to greet them and, you know, they wave at you if they recognize you. And so, um, yeah, I mean, another fun place we talked about so much about Conway and Coastal Carolina is another fun place that you wouldn't think Statesboro, but it's a lot of fun down there. Yeah. And what are this? Look, it's always good to have a grassy know, if you don't, if you don't assassinate a president, but I mean, it, it's just, it looks good. It looks, I dig the fact that it's like, you know, because sometimes you take your family, you got to look, I have a son, you know, he's not at the point yet where he's interested in football. So it's cool that you can still go enjoy the game and he could do some somersaults on the ground. Yeah. They got that, you know, they got that occasion field. There's a couple of places where they have it too. So I agree. You know, you want to, yes, you're intense and you want to watch the game, but having a little bit of room to walk around is pretty cool. And the stadium is easy to navigate, you know, throughout and, you know, it's, it's changed a lot too. Both of the, there's like an athletic complex, a one in zone. There's a suite that they've added in the other in zone. They've added a second level. So if you go another one where I would say it's a theme for this whole episode, if you go look at some of these photos of the stadiums in the beginning, they look nothing like this. So yes, they're 25,000. Yes, they're 30,000. But before they were 6,000 and 12,000. So, but this is, it's a fun place to go. Great winning tradition, great fans. And there was a photo that you had, which was the new outdoor right there. So they got this new practice facility there. And there are little suites that people can buy and pre-aim before the game right inside the practice arena. They host recruits there and it's right across like 50 feet from the stadium. So another addition for a G5 program trying to, you know, raise their profile. And I want to mention that those are, that's, that's awesome. And, and, you know, if you're inspired by Michael's travels, I mean, I have a thing with my, my brothers, I've been doing for years of just going to random, my brother and my friends and other other people I grew up with, we go to random college football games, scattered through America. We don't do it like Michael, but we'd like to because he's, that's why, you know, he's a fucking rock stars because he can go to 90 games of the season. But if you're just trying to maybe say, hey, you know, besides my own team that I always show up to, whether I'm an LSU fan or whoever, I'm going to start, you know, pick at some spots where I want to go to games. I haven't been to the stadium, but I can tell you this, I, what we do with my brother and stuff, a lot of times we try to pair it with where we could spend a couple other days. So like, we went to Boise, right? And we, we enjoyed the Boise game and then we went to Sun Valley for a couple of days, right? Savannah, Georgia, I believe is like 45 minutes from Statesboro. And that is a very cool drinking town and just, it's just a cool town to go to. So you can pair that with both and be perfectly fine there. So make sure, make sure you think I'll pick Dundee here for that little advice. But there's a bunch, there's a bunch of those scattered throughout college football that I would highly recommend. These photos, by the way, I dig them, I dig. Is that, and I see some trees back there, always great to have some shrubbery with your stadium. Yeah, and it was, you know, I went there in 2020 during the COVID year and, you know, there wasn't much of a crowd because of obviously the restrictions. So this was a Thursday night game and we've talked on, you know, about other conferences when you play a week night game, expect a smaller crowd. This was sold out. I mean, look at this crowd and they came out on Thursday. Yes, it was a rivalry game, but all the excuses in the world to not be there for, oh, I got to work and I got all this other stuff. So they showed out, and they show you that even a weeknight game, you can sell out a G5 stadium, which was very impressive. Yeah. And a nice little water tower going on. Yeah, just with the clouds in the sun setting. So just that's kind of what the campus tour element of the travels is. Go, you know, go to a game. Like you said, stick around, go to some, you know, some of the tour stops around and the tourist attractions and just cruise a college campus. Nothing better than that. Let's go. Let's go. Let's talk about those rivals though. Center Park Stadium, wait. That's where Terry Pendleton and Fred McGriff and Dale Murphy used to hit Dingers. Georgia State. Once again, there, what I dig is starting up a football program. You've seen UTSA, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, out of the blue Charlotte, another one. I dig it now. Originally, they were playing in the Georgia Dome, which I thought was horrible. I thought it was just like, you know, glad to see they got their own stadium, even though it's, it's kind of, you know, an old baseball stadium, even though they made it its own. It's 28 years old seats, 24,333 people. Tell me about your travels to Atlanta for Georgia State football. So I've been there for two games. One was the COVID year. They played ULM. That was a two for one. I also had a South Carolina game at night in Columbia is about two hour and 40 minute drive. And then two years ago, they had a weeknight game against Coastal Carolina. I went to the history of the stadium. It was very interesting. You know, you mentioned that it was where the Braves played. This was originally centennial Olympic stadium. So they built it for the Olympics and it held 85,000 fans. That's what it did. And then after the Olympics were done, they turned it into Turner Field and they reduced it from 85,000 to 49,000. And the Georgia State played in the Georgia Dome from 2010. That's when they founded their program to 2016. They moved over to the stadium in 2017. And now they own it on their own. What's really cool about this place is you can see the Atlanta downtown skyline in the background, which makes for great photos. Those roadside bleachers right there, those little, they're set inside the outfield wall and right field. Those things are right on top of the stadium. You can kind of still see the outline for where home plate was in there. So the downside is they tarp off the entire upper deck. So you can't go there. I got up there just because I had a credential. So is it ideal for a program? It's not on campus stadium, it's converted baseball stadium. No, it's not ideal, but what they've accomplished in a short time, 2010, founding your program. At this point, I think they're making strides in the right direction. Yeah, they got couches. Yeah, I mean, there was nobody sitting there. And I think these are one of the upgrade seats. So we'll take a break and go sit in a leather in zone suite if we can. Here's my one thing I'll say is that they need someone now. Sean Elliott was their coach. He left to be South Carolina's tight end coach this year. I had lobbied before Dion went to Colorado. I didn't know that a P5 would take a shot on Dion with such a short resume, but I thought I thought everyone should personally. I thought, you know, any, I mean, maybe not Alabama or something, but I thought a lot of schools should have took a shot on Dion Sanders. Georgia State was the one that I mentioned when he, I think it was done with year one or two at Jackson State. And I was like, Georgia State should go for him, man, because he's got the history in Atlanta. You know, he would just be exactly what they need to ignite that program. I still think, you know, obviously, you know, that that's not going to happen, but I'm saying like, if they if someone can just ignite this to me, if the city's big enough to they would support it, it just has to be ignited. You know what I mean? Like it's just sitting there. I know a lot of the games. They don't draw a big crowd right now, but all it takes is one coach. You're in Georgia. There's so much in state talent. I don't know, man. I just think there could be a sleeping giant. No, definitely. And you know, the, the Mercedes been stadium, which we don't like, but there's giant games that are played there all the time and went to the celebration bowl. You know, fam, you beat Howard for the HBCU national championship. The week zero, they usually host a opener game. I think, you know, I can't remember who's playing in the opener here, but they do host some big games and Atlanta is football crazy. They're crazy. And so to be able to recruit in a major city like this and have now own your own ballpark, if you get the right personnel, players, coach, like you're talking about, they can make some giant leaps forward. I don't think that the possibility of a on-campus stadium or something closer, it's not completely far-fetched. But in the meantime, to build this thing up and make it a place that people don't want to play as far as an opponent, that's what someone could do with the right hire like you're talking about. Yeah, right there in Atlanta, I just, there's, there's enough people that they would feel the thing. All they need is a reason. It's like Miami before Schnellenberger came in. You know what I mean? It's like, all they need is a reason. Ignite it. Ignite. Find the right guy to ignite it. Yeah. And you can see the old baseball stadium effect here. Yeah, that's home plate right there. That's what that would be right behind a home plate, which is kind of cool to see that. Yeah, I dig it. And then what is this right here? I was wondering, that's Hank Aaron. So they got the, I think they preserved, you know, the 714 statue. And they have that behind the outfield wall there. So we don't want to forget what, you know, Willie may has just passed away a couple of days ago. So if you got history in a place, even if it's not football, you still want to honor it. Yeah, 100%. And the fact that, you know, this was an MLB stadium at once. So I like that history to it. Yeah. Cage and killer says, who does Atlanta better Georgia State or Georgia Tech? It's Georgia Tech right now. But I mean, the potential is there. Like I said, state's program is only like 20 year. I think it's less than 20 years old. I think it's 2010. Yeah. Yeah. So it could. Bobby Dodd is more is in Midtown is more, you know, located within the city there. So, but you know, we are talking P five or P four versus G five. So, but they play each other in the opener, Georgia State at Georgia Tech. So we'll get a little measuring state game, a stick game right off the bat. Love it. Love it. Let's hop on over and talk about my, my cohost on my college football experience podcast. Patty sees on my monitor. He played a JMU bridge fourth stadium Harrison Berg Virginia. I think Patty see will tell you they've come a long way, because when he played there in what that 2001 or something, same, same did not look like what it looks like now. 39 years old seats 24,877. They do have a good history. Charles Haley, Gary Clark, Scott Norwood. They've been good at football for quite a while, but tell me about your travels to Harrison Berg. So JMU is one of the teams that joined the Sunbelt in 2022. And man, talk about success immediately. You know, they haven't been eligible for the the championship game or bowls. And so, that set them back. But what you're talking about with the stadium is in 2009, they did a big renovation. So that first photo you showed, if you can go back to that, that is the original home side right there. So there's a little press box there. Then in 2009 and go to the next photo, they did that whole West side and they added, you know, they added stands with a $62 million renovation. And a stadium that started out is 5,200 seats in 1975 is now up to 25,000. And the game I went to, I went to an FCS playoff game in the spring season 2021 versus North Dakota, you know, sparse crowd, obviously. And so this is one that I wanted to get to. And so, I did a two for one last year. It was William and Mary at noon. And then JMU at the night game, they played Old Dominion, and it was the record crowd. So that 26,239 holds 25,000. And this place was lit. I mean, great crowd, great game, great energy. And, you know, if it wasn't for the rules that prohibited them from going to the conference championship game, they would have been there two years in a row. And so I made a lot of great connections with some JMU fans and just to see their success in a short amount of time. Like the FCS guy and me did not want him to go up, but look what they're doing at the FBS level is very impressive. And it's all sports too. Their basketball team made the NCAA tournament this year. They were great all year. They lost it. They got waxed by Duke, but still they look the part. And same with baseball, they had a good baseball year. Like they're going all in on sports. And I think it's great for Virginia, you know, they're only two hours from DC. And I grew up in Northern Virginia and DC and Maryland and majority of it in Northern Virginia. And with the Redskins and everything that happened there, they, it's a football town, but they're out. They're not on board with, you know, the commanders, they're not on board. So like their look, I always said George Mason is one of the biggest, uh, unbelievable, like they have George Mason has like a 40,000 people, uh, you know, enrollment, geez, I almost said endowment, but, uh, and they, uh, it's amazing. They don't have a football team because like you, you could steal that that town between dance night or between the name change between all the stuff that's happened with the stadium. Everyone's out for the most part, you know, like my buddies that I grew up with and stuff that were died that were die hard skins fans and stuff. They're just like, uh, so JMU is two hours away. So it's a big school. I think some of their steel and some of that crowd that you would think would just looking for a football team they want to root for. Um, my brother went to the App State game last year. He said it was awesome. The App State JMU game was phenomenal game. App State ended up upsetting him, but over time game, but yeah, this shot is awesome. By the way, this is the ODU game last year right here. Yeah, it's the ODU game. So this one, you know, with the band, they, you know, they have a tradition of throwing these ribbons after they score. So, you know, I got to do that. Uh, a member of the band gave me a, you know, a hat and a couple other things. Um, you know, like, like a band hat and some swag, which was cool, but this whole, you know, the whole, you know, you mentioned, um, his experience. You go there and, you know, the sleeping giant, we hate to use that, but they are legitimately jumping levels like very quickly. They want to FCS championship and now they're finally eligible this year to play in the conference championship game. And, you know, I think that most people would agree that if JMU went 11 and one and won the Sunbelt and Liberty went undefeated and won the conference USA, they would probably put JMU over because they have a harder schedule. So, um, a lot of opportunity there and they have a ton of momentum. And, uh, you know, I'm excited to go back there. Uh, if the schedule holds for October 10th, JMU versus coastal. Hell, yeah, man. I mean, look at what they've done to say. That's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Canvas Kappa with a great, uh, Patty seed joke there. Patty C had a, uh, a problem with the position coach who gave, or the head coach, I think, or position coach. I'm not sure. I forget which one. Uh, I gave him shit for eating a burrito in the middle of a game on the sidelines. So, it's a classic story there about, uh, eventually it inspired him to, uh, to, to leave the team A plus B equals C, but, uh, nothing like, uh, deciding to end your football career over a burrito on the sidelines. Um, uh, got priorities. I mean, what can you say? And obstructed view alert. Let's go right here. Oh, this one was hilarious because I had people, I had somebody on, on social media tell me that I made it up. Like it didn't exist. And there's, yeah, there's people. So I don't know if I, there was also a side photo. I don't know if you have that one up there, maybe not, but, uh, there you go. So I had to like prove that there was a seat number and it exists because someone accused me of making it up. And there's actually, so this happened in 2009, they did this edition. So this is not like a, you know, a, a renovation that happened 45 years ago. This is recent and they did that. So there were people who were JMU fans who reached out to me and they said, I didn't even know that existed. So, that guy with the, the puffy hair right there, I asked him to take my photo and he helped me out and it was, you know, he had no idea who I was or what obstructive use, but he took the photo, it was helpful. But, you know, this is one that we assign a percentage to how much of the field you can see. You could probably see about 18% of the field, not very much. So, but they sell it, it's got a seat number and we got a, we got a document at the stadium. Absolutely hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. Folks, uh, look, before we get to the next Sunbelt team, uh, if you're, if you're on YouTube, stay put, everything's fine. If you are on the audio side, we're going to conclude this episode, but check out the B side where we're talking about all the other teams. Uh, I know Cajun Killers in there. He wants to know about Cajun Field, Lafayette, Louisiana, Monroe Stadium with ULM. Uh, you know, the Joan in Huntington, West Virginia, we're going to talk about all the rest of the Sunbelt stadiums, the Rock and Hattiesburg, Texas State, all that good stuff. Check it all out on the other episode. Uh, but make sure you subscribe to the stadium heads podcast. And once again, I, wherever podcasts can be found, and if you can jump over to YouTube, YouTube.com, uh, slash at stadium heads S GPN and make sure to give Michael Barker a follow on Twitter at CFB campus tour. I'm also on Twitter at the Colby D. This is the stadium heads podcast. A side you better start thinking about yours and we out of here.
The Stadium Heads podcast on the Sports Gambling Podcast Network releases their Sun Belt Stadiums episode breaking down all the Sun Belt College Football Stadiums and keying in on which ones are the best. Pick Dundee aka (@TheColbyD) & Michael Barker (@CFBcampustour) break down every single stadium in the Sun Belt and highlight the stadiums history and the future expectations with each team and stadium. Do the Appalachian State Mountaineers have one of the premier football stadiums in America with Kidd-Brewer Stadium in Boone, North Carolina?
Is the real "Swamp" located in Lafayette, Louisiana at Cajun Field? Is Coastal Carolina's Brooks Stadium perfect for what they have built in Conway, South Carolina? Has James Madison done an unbelievable job at building up Bridgeforth Stadium in Harrisonburg, Virginia? Is the original "The Rock" stadium located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with the Southern Miss Golden Eagles? Have recent stadium renovations at Troy and Texas State led to their programs rise? Do the South Alabama Jaguars have one of the most underrated stadiums in America with Hancock Whitney Stadium?
What do we make of Paulsen Stadium in Statesboro, Georgia and Centre Park Stadium in Atlanta with Georgia Southern and Georgia State? Has Old Dominion done a great job in keeping the history at S.B. Ballard Stadium in Norfolk, Virginia? Do the Marshall Thundering Herd have a gem with the Joan Edwards Stadium in Huntington, West Virginia? How would one grade Malone Stadium in Monroe, Louisiana and is it underrated perhaps? Has Arkansas State done a great job with their home stadium there in Jonesboro, Arkansas? We talk it all and more on this Sun Belt edition of The Stadium Heads podcast.
