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Updated: Aug. 21, 2006, 3:15 PM ET
College Football Favorites
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LSU's Tiger Stadium is Jim Caple's favorite in college football. (Steve Franz/LSU/Getty Images)
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By
Jim Caple
ESPN.com
When there are as many commercials for back-to-school supplies as there are for Cialis and Viagra, it can mean only one thing. The college football season is so close at hand they're going to have to bring in the chains to measure.
College football is superior to the NFL in almost every way, but especially in its venues. The NFL doesn't have stadiums so much as it has massive TV studios. And sitting through another TV timeout in one stadium is pretty much the same as sitting through a TV timeout in any other.
College stadiums are different. For one thing, they're old. Not in a "This dump doesn't have a Starbucks and it dares to call itself a big-time stadium?!'' way but in a "Bronko Nagurski clotheslined a running back near that goal line and Bear Bryant leaned on this goalpost" way. They're historic and distinct and as vital a part of the campus experience as a freshman gagging on a beer bong. More importantly, the college football experience is as varied as the states in which they're located. NFL stadiums are just locations. College stadiums are destinations.
By no means have I been to every college football stadium -- my apologies for missing way too many stadiums in the south and east -- but here are 10 experiences worth at least a 12-hour road trip when you really ought to be studying for your midterms:
1. Tiger Stadium, LSU
College football is just different in the south. The RVs start pulling into campus the Wednesday before the game and then it's party until kickoff (and after kickoff as well). And if there's a tailgate party more delicious than LSU's, it must be outside the Pearly Gates. There may be more food other places but there isn't any better food than at Death Valley, where ESPN's GameDay and the Food Network practically intersect. And a night game gives you plenty of time to enjoy it all. The football is pretty good, too. In fact, these fans get so fired up about their Tigers football that the LSU geology department seismograph registered a tremor during a big play in 1988. When the gumbo is boiling, Mike the Tiger is roaring and the Golden Band of Tigerland is blaring those first familiar notes of "Hold That Tiger,'' you'll have goosebumps the size of Mardi Gras beads.
If you go: There probably is a great campus hangout but why bother? Mingle among the tailgaters. I found most were willing to share a story -- along with gumbo, barbecue and more food than I could eat. Just be neighborly by bringing something to share yourself.
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2003: Jim Caple's visit to Death Valley
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