Tiger Stadium caught fire yesterday, and it looks to be arson, perpetuated by a bunch of pre-teens. In any event, it appears to have been much more bark than bite, and the blood pressure of Baton Rouge is back to normal - or rather, as normal as it really can be 12 days prior to kickoff.
Burnt Orange Nation managed to snag a interview with ESPN's Bruce Feldman. Nice quick read there.
Welcome Corn Nation, follower of all things Nebraska, to SB Nation.
ESPN's Jim Caple anoints Death Valley one of the best places (the best?) in the land to watch college football. His recap of a 2003 visit to Tiger Stadium remains a great read. I'll add the following about stadiums I've visited:
- UW's Husky Stadium has hands down the most gorgeous view I've ever seen at any sports venue. My seats were about 15 rows from the top of the North side, and my view to the east was Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains, while to the west we could see all the way across to the Olympic peninsula. Just spectacular.
- I was at Michigan for the 2003 Ohio State game, and I must say I was unimpressed at the general noise level there. Bowls just don't have the right acoustics to really compete with the best stadiums in the land.
- Sun Devil Stadium? Allow me to dissent. You tell me - does this look like a stadium full of energy to you, given the Sun Devils were welcoming one of the top teams in the country to campus (LSU) last year? (Picture taken just prior to kickoff, and I guarantee you the scene in the fourth quarter was no better):
Dawg Sports has a poll up asking which SEC team has the biggest home field advantage. You know how I voted, and I'm not alone - LSU leads with 40% of the 75 votes cast thus far. Also be sure to read his overview of Maxwell Pundit - an eclectic group of bloggers who will vote throughout the season on the best player in college football, given that the Heisman, as Kyle notes, is "the most overrated award in all of sports." No arguments here. And by "eclectic group," I do mean it - they've got a couple USC bloggers, Bruins Nation, two of the better Georgia bloggers including Kyle, the good Gator folks over at Every Day Should Be Saturday, Big 10, Big 12, and Notre Dame coverage.