College Football Bucket List

[SMU_Sox]

I am moving back to the Philly suburbs this summer and plan to see Penn State vs Michigan. It got me to thinking... if you made a college football team//stadium bucket list who would be on the list?

I know I want to see or have seen:

Notre Dame
USC
Ohio State
Penn State (will be checked off this year)
Michigan
Alabama
LSU
Georgia (check)

But what others do you think are special and warrant a trip?

It doesn't have to be a well-known or big program either. If you think a college team has a great stadium, crowd, atmosphere, or for whatever reason should be on the bucket list drop it here . Reasons why are always appreciated too.

 

[Humphrey]

West Point (check)
Michigan (check; what's crazy is you look at the outside of the place in some spots and it doesn't look that big; but then again, when you walk in, you are at Row 70 or something like that)
Rose Bowl (the game itself or maybe UCLA hosting USC)
Harvard/Yale (either place, both are relics of a bygone era modernized somewhat)
Tennessee
Florida State
Texas A&M

 

[Doug Beerabelli]

Army-Navy game (for game, not the stadium)

Agreed on Humphrey's suggestions.

This Leopard alum will add Lafayette-Lehigh - the Most Played College Football Rivalry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rivalry_(Lafayette–Lehigh)

They played twice a year in 1943 and 1944, didn't play in 1896, as well as 2020, but played the 2020 game in April of 2021 (and another Nov 2021). 150th was played at Yankee Stadium, which I went to. It's been played 158 times. Lafayette Leads the series: 81–72–5. Neither stadium is anything special, I'd say Lehigh's is better - more modern, more tailgate room. But it's one to experience, and likely within an hour or so drive from you to get to either school to see it.

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

I have not been to a ton of college football games in my lifetime, but the Apple Cup is a very fun rivalry. Husky Stadium in Seattle is one of the prettiest stadiums I've ever been to, with Lake Washington sitting right there. And going to a game in Pullman is awesome, especially because it is an out-of-the-way place with bad weather in the late fall. I was at the famous Snow Bowl in 1992 and that is top five of all sporting events I've been to in my lifetime.

 

[Ale Xander]

have been to very few

list in no particular order
Big House
The Shoe
Death Valley Louisiana
Death Valley Clemson
Rocky Top
Dooley
Atlanta for SEC Championship
Bryant Denny
The Grove
The Swamp
Jordan Hare
12th man
Fargodome
Doak Walker - Bowden
West Point
Autzen for civil war
Corvallis for civil war
Morgantown too yeah

 

[terrynever]

Morgantown during Mountaineer Week when students dress up like Jethro and Elly Mae and drink beer from moonshine jugs slung over their shoulder.

 

[MuzzyField]

Morgantown during Mountaineer Week when students dress up like Jethro and Elly Mae and drink beer from moonshine jugs slung over their shoulder.

When did they limit this to just a week?

 

[canderson]

Y’all need to add Red River Shootout to the list.

 

[SemperFidelisSox]

Rockin out to Enter Sandman as the Hokies run out on the field.

 

[luckiestman]

I have only seen FSU (but over 20x). It’s pretty good. I would like to go to ND and LSU. Clemson and Athens also look fun.

 

[Brand Name]

Pretty much every SEC stadium, a National Championship (doing this one next time it's in Atlanta), South Bend, Columbus...almost too many.

Atlanta for SEC Championship

Unchecked life hack for this game, as it's an annual tradition here: Book an Uber about 60-90 minutes before the game. You'll get there for about $20, gates will still be open. Try the beer brisket BBQ nachos, super nestled and hidden. They're only offered in one stand. Legit great. And then hang around WELL after the game. I got to stay like 90 minutes after the most recent version and was literally the last person out of the stadium last year, have a cool Stetson Bennett story as a result--let me know if you want this. Uber back to my place was like $15 with ZERO traffic. So I spent $35 to get to and from, I didn't have to deal with the traffic, and it's cheaper than the parking on site. Just sublime.

 

[terrynever]

When did they limit this to just a week?

Back in the 1970s, Mountaineer Week was Penn State every other year. But the real rivalry for them was Pittsburgh.

 

[smokin joe wood]

I've been to most of the major HBCU Classics and I would strongly encourage any college football fan to attend one in their life. It's a cultural experience I haven't seen matched at any FBS college game. I've seen 40 or 50 college football stadiums for work and there are redeeming qualities to most Saturday afternoon games. MACtion on the other hand...

 

[wonderland]

Back in the 1970s, Mountaineer Week was Penn State every other year. But the real rivalry for them was Pittsburgh.

I’d love to go to the first West Virginia - Penn State game since 1992 but my sister-in-law is getting married that day. Ugh. I’m going to try to catch the game next year in Morgantown.

The West Virginia - Pitt game this year on Sept. 16 would be worth checking out. First time Pitt will play in Morgantown in over a decade.

 

[tims4wins]

Having attended grad school at Michigan… blah. For 110K people it’s not that loud.

 

[grsharky7]

I’d love to go to the first West Virginia - Penn State game since 1992 but my sister-in-law is getting married that day. Ugh. I’m going to try to catch the game next year in Morgantown.

The West Virginia - Pitt game this year on Sept. 16 would be worth checking out. First time Pitt will play in Morgantown in over a decade.

If you come to Morgantown for any game let me know, you can swing by our tailgate.

 

[Kremlin Watcher]

Y’all need to add Red River Shootout to the list.

No one calls it that down here, man. It's just the Oklahoma game.

I'm such a CFB junkie. I'd go to every stadium in the country (except Pyle and Gooner Nation) if I could. But since I can't I would definitely want to go to the following:

- (Been to my spiritual home of DKR about a million times so no need to list it; surprisingly bland stadium though.)
- (Met my wife at the Cotton Bowl and proposed to her there after an Oklahoma game so that's also checked off the list.)
- The Big House (may do this one when the Horns go up to Ann Arbor).
- The Shoe.
- Death Valley West - Baton Rouge is absolutely nuts on Saturday nights.
- The Grover - they throw a hell of a party in Oxford.
- Notre Dame as much as it pains me to admit it.
- Any CFP final with Texas in it, if I live that long.

A surprisingly great place to watch a game is Jones Stadium in Lubbock. I was a young kid in Lubbock many, many years ago and my best friend's uncle had season tickets. 70s college football in west Texas was really something. I saw Darrell Royal coaching Earl Campbell.

 

[canderson]

No one calls it that down here, man. It's just the Oklahoma game.

I'm such a CFB junkie. I'd go to every stadium in the country (except Pyle and Gooner Nation) if I could. But since I can't I would definitely want to go to the following:

- (Been to my spiritual home of DKR about a million times so no need to list it; surprisingly bland stadium though.)
- (Met my wife at the Cotton Bowl and proposed to her there after an Oklahoma game so that's also checked off the list.)
- The Big House (may do this one when the Horns go up to Ann Arbor).
- The Shoe.
- Death Valley West - Baton Rouge is absolutely nuts on Saturday nights.
- The Grover - they throw a hell of a party in Oxford.
- Notre Dame as much as it pains me to admit it.
- Any CFP final with Texas in it, if I live that long.

A surprisingly great place to watch a game is Jones Stadium in Lubbock. I was a young kid in Lubbock many, many years ago and my best friend's uncle had season tickets. 70s college football in west Texas was really something. I saw Darrell Royal coaching Earl Campbell.

Well yea but it was called that around the country forever. Fuck OU.

 

[Kremlin Watcher]

Fuck OU.

It is always appropriate to say this. Always.

 

[Ale Xander]

Pretty much every SEC stadium, a National Championship (doing this one next time it's in Atlanta), South Bend, Columbus...almost too many.



Unchecked life hack for this game, as it's an annual tradition here: Book an Uber about 60-90 minutes before the game. You'll get there for about $20, gates will still be open. Try the beer brisket BBQ nachos, super nestled and hidden. They're only offered in one stand. Legit great. And then hang around WELL after the game. I got to stay like 90 minutes after the most recent version and was literally the last person out of the stadium last year, have a cool Stetson Bennett story as a result--let me know if you want this. Uber back to my place was like $15 with ZERO traffic. So I spent $35 to get to and from, I didn't have to deal with the traffic, and it's cheaper than the parking on site. Just sublime.

Thanks! I’d love a cool Stetson story
PS: no reason to go to Vandy, Mizzou, Lexington or Miss St (other then Egg Bowl)
Vandy is even worse than Duke or Stanford

Northwestern isn’t great but it beats the other three fake ivies just based on the Evanston walk

 

[Plantiers Wart]

LSU at night
The Grove
South Carolina for the cockaboose
Touchdown Jesus
Rocky Top

 

[Tangled Up In Red]

Can't believe seeing "The Blue" in Boise hasn't been mentioned. Field is a sight to behold and the stadium is on the Boise River in the shadow of downtown and the foothills.

 

[Senator Donut]

The Rose Bowl Game
Its reputation seems hyperbolic, but it is all it's cracked up to be. Pasadena is enough of its own entity from Los Angeles, that is almost feels like a college town. I was surprised by how much I liked the city itself. The stadium isn't much; truthfully it may have the fewest amenities in the power five, but the setting and the sunset are sublime experiences.

The only FBS campuses I've been to for a game are Notre Dame, Michigan, Cal, Boston College, and Syracuse. I can't really recommend the last three.

 

[RG33]

I would second the notion of “LSU game at night”.

I’ve had like 3 CFB junkie buddies of mine say that is the first SEC game that I should try and attend and that there is no experience that is better.

 

[Humphrey]

Army-Navy game (for game, not the stadium)

Agreed on Humphrey's suggestions.

This Leopard alum will add Lafayette-Lehigh - the Most Played College Football Rivalry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rivalry_(Lafayette–Lehigh)

They played twice a year in 1943 and 1944, didn't play in 1896, as well as 2020, but played the 2020 game in April of 2021 (and another Nov 2021). 150th was played at Yankee Stadium, which I went to. It's been played 158 times. Lafayette Leads the series: 81–72–5. Neither stadium is anything special, I'd say Lehigh's is better - more modern, more tailgate room. But it's one to experience, and likely within an hour or so drive from you to get to either school to see it.

Have seen games at Lehigh and Lafayette; in fact, saw a game at Lehigh's old place, a venue you'll most likely not see duplicated anytime soon, to wit: (1) the visitors' side stopped abruptly at the 40 yard line (2) there used to be a baseball field behind the open end of the stadium; after they got rid of it you could buy a parking space for that small parking lot, watch the game from there and never go in.

https://ballparks.smugmug.com/Lehigh-University-Taylor-Stadium-razed-Bethlehem-Pa/i-qHNBP69/A

One place I should have added to my list was the Ga/Fla game in Jacksonville. We spent a month on St. Simon's Island, Georgia; which is 75 miles from Jacksonville. People told me that you can't get any kind of rental there during that week because of the game. Savannah's another 75 miles from that, same story.

 

[B H Kim]

One place I should have added to my list was the Ga/Fla game in Jacksonville. We spent a month on St. Simon's Island, Georgia; which is 75 miles from Jacksonville. People told me that you can't get any kind of rental there during that week because of the game. Savannah's another 75 miles from that, same story.

My daughter (UF Class of 2023) has told me that, for students at least, the crowds at the Georgia games in Jacksonville were a lot less exuberant than at home games in the Swamp. I think that’s going to be the cases for any neutral sight college football games. I’d much rather go to an on-campus game in either Athens or Gainesville.

 

[Awesome Fossum]

I think Army/Navy in Philly would be #1, but it would be easier to list the ones I wouldn't be excited to go to at least once. There's nothing like a big college football game with a hot crowd.

I've been to most of the major HBCU Classics and I would strongly encourage any college football fan to attend one in their life. It's a cultural experience I haven't seen matched at any FBS college game.

That's awesome. Which was your favorite?

 

[terrynever]

I enjoyed Boston College‘s occasional home games in Foxboro. Only been to their home stadium once.

 

[Doug Beerabelli]

Humprhey, I just missed the old Lehigh stadium. I did see the "dying of the going for post," a two part miniseries. 1) Last year of wooden goalposts, at Lafayette: The battles to get a piece up the hill to a frat house, or onto the bus for a ride back to Lehigh, were epic, drunken, and often bloody. 2) The first year of no wood goal posts at Goodman, where a sort of "what do we do?" vibe had the fraternities surrounding the goalposts, the Lehigh Brownies in a circle protecting the posts, and as the mob drew closer, break out mace and spray it to disperse the pending n'er do wells. I avoided being in the fray, but had some good views.

The schools would have regular metal goalposts throughout the year, but for this one game, would replace them with old school wooden ones. "Going for Post" looked like this:




It was a source of pride for a fraternity to have a piece of post hanging on the wall in their barroom, which would include painting on the year of the game.

Anyhew, the mace thing worked, and this tradition was quashed. Probably for the better.

 

[canderson]

I'd like to attend the Civil War.

I've been to OSU's stadium but not to a game. When Texas is there in a few years, I'll go.

 

[h8mfy]

Humprhey, I just missed the old Lehigh stadium. I did see the "dying of the going for post," a two part miniseries. 1) Last year of wooden goalposts, at Lafayette: The battles to get a piece up the hill to a frat house, or onto the bus for a ride back to Lehigh, were epic, drunken, and often bloody. 2) The first year of no wood goal posts at Goodman, where a sort of "what do we do?" vibe had the fraternities surrounding the goalposts, the Lehigh Brownies in a circle protecting the posts, and as the mob drew closer, break out mace and spray it to disperse the pending n'er do wells. I avoided being in the fray, but had some good views.

The schools would have regular metal goalposts throughout the year, but for this one game, would replace them with old school wooden ones. "Going for Post" looked like this:

View attachment 64544


It was a source of pride for a fraternity to have a piece of post hanging on the wall in their barroom, which would include painting on the year of the game.

Anyhew, the mace thing worked, and this tradition was quashed. Probably for the better.

Thanks for this pic and memory. My HS buddy was a 'pard and I visited and helped get the post back to Chi Phi Rho in probably 1985, and went to Lehigh the following year for the game. Those were some ugly weekends, especially the drink-offs between the chapters of the Lehigh/Lafayette frats on the Thursday before the game.

My son was a grad student at ND so I got the South Bend experience in 2019, and my daughter is at UW so we visited Camp Randall last year (before the team collapsed, poor Bucky had to do hundreds of pushups when New Mexico was overmatched.)

No game, but as a kid in 1972 or so, I was on the field at the big house one summer day, trying to kick a field goal.

 

[SMU_Sox]

Damn all I can think of is I hope I live long enough and can convince my partner to take a bunch of weekend trips! Thank you, everyone. What a list so far.

I’d love to meet up with folks too before some games.

 

[Humphrey]

I enjoyed Boston College‘s occasional home games in Foxboro. Only been to their home stadium once.

Gillette (haven't been too many BC games there) or Schafer/Sullivan/Foxboro ?

 

[Ale Xander]

The Rose Bowl Game
Its reputation seems hyperbolic, but it is all it's cracked up to be. Pasadena is enough of its own entity from Los Angeles, that is almost feels like a college town. I was surprised by how much I liked the city itself. The stadium isn't much; truthfully it may have the fewest amenities in the power five, but the setting and the sunset are sublime experiences.

The only FBS campuses I've been to for a game are Notre Dame, Michigan, Cal, Boston College, and Syracuse. I can't really recommend the last three.

It’s 100% all it’s cracked it out to be
Fantastic venue
Best of the college football venues I’ve seen by far

 

[grsharky7]

My Bucket List:
-Go to the Rose Bowl (I did the Sugar, Fiesta and Orange when WVU was in them)
-Go to a game at Alabama (doing this in 2027 when WVU goes there)
-Death Valley at night
-OSU/Michigan
-Army/Navy Game

 

[yeahlunchbox]

Y’all need to add Red River Shootout to the list.

Can confirm. Unfortunately this is the only bucket list type game I've gone to but it was a phenomenal experience.

 

[terrynever]

Gillette (haven't been too many BC games there) or Schafer/Sullivan/Foxboro ?

1983 game at the old stadium.

 

[Humphrey]

1983 game at the old stadium.

Those were the days! Alabama in the rain/snow storm, including a power failure. Penn State. UNC on national tv at night. And so on and so forth.

 

[smokin joe wood]

I think Army/Navy in Philly would be #1, but it would be easier to list the ones I wouldn't be excited to go to at least once. There's nothing like a big college football game with a hot crowd.



That's awesome. Which was your favorite?

Magic City Classic is the standard right now. Southern Heritage and Florida Classic were both really fun. Although not officially a classic, I walked through the tailgate at the Jackson State @ Southern game a couple years ago and it was the most vibrant, loudest, and best-smelling tailgate I've ever been to in my life.

 

[Ale Xander]

Magic City Classic is the standard right now. Southern Heritage and Florida Classic were both really fun. Although not officially a classic, I walked through the tailgate at the Jackson State @ Southern game a couple years ago and it was the most vibrant, loudest, and best-smelling tailgate I've ever been to in my life.

Any shrimp gumbo?

 

[patinorange]

Those were the days! Alabama in the rain/snow storm, including a power failure. Penn State. UNC on national tv at night. And so on and so forth.

I had Pat's season tickets for years at Schafer Stadium. That Alabama- BC rain/snowstorm game was the coldest I have ever been in my life. The rain was literally freezing us to our seats.
I developed an affinity for Alabama fans that day who took pity on us pregame. We showed up in my shitbox car with a sixpack wearing windbreakers. Some Alabama fans with a huge RV, barbecues, a waterproof canvas tent, Bourbon, heaters, and all kinds of food invited us over.
It was awesome. I would love to go to an Alabama game. One of the very few games I left early. When the power went out, that was it.

 

[Was (Not Wasdin)]

Went to the natty in 1988 (Miami vs. Oklahoma at the Orange Bowl). Face value of the tickets was 25 or 30 dollars, and we paid 10 or 15 bucks to park on someone’s lawn about half a mile away.

 

[smokin joe wood]

Any shrimp gumbo?

Oh yes. Just about everything in a boil. BBQ, turkey legs and a whole hell of a lot of R&B . I'm white and walking through an HBCU tailgate you'll get offered more food and liquor than any other tailgate in the country. The Southern tailgate was a religious experience.

Sidenote - I saw a jumbalaya bowl so big at a Louisiana-Lafayette tailgate they were stirring it with a snow shovel. People in the deep south know how to get down.

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

fyi
I've got a spare bedroom in Athens, if that's helpful for anyone.

 

[canderson]

Oh yes. Just about everything in a boil. BBQ, turkey legs and a whole hell of a lot of R&B . I'm white and walking through an HBCU tailgate you'll get offered more food and liquor than any other tailgate in the country. The Southern tailgate was a religious experience.

Sidenote - I saw a jumbalaya bowl so big at a Louisiana-Lafayette tailgate they were stirring it with a snow shovel. People in the deep south know how to get down.

In college we played all the Cajun schools - Nicholls, McNeese, UL-L. Best road trips ever.

 

[VORP Speed]

Oh yes. Just about everything in a boil. BBQ, turkey legs and a whole hell of a lot of R&B . I'm white and walking through an HBCU tailgate you'll get offered more food and liquor than any other tailgate in the country. The Southern tailgate was a religious experience.

Sidenote - I saw a jumbalaya bowl so big at a Louisiana-Lafayette tailgate they were stirring it with a snow shovel. People in the deep south know how to get down.

My favorite games at The Swamp were when LSU rolled into town. Raised everyone’s game. The cooking contraptions those crazy Cajuns would tow behind their RVs were awe-inspiring.