My son and I wanted to attend a game that we had no rooting interest in. So we looked thru the schedule a few weeks ago and picked the Ohio State - Penn State game. We wanted to go to and SEC game but the Georgia-Florida game wasn't on campus. We wanted to see what big time college football really is.
I have been a CU fan since the mid 70's and my son went to school there. I was a season ticket holder for 15 years back in the mid 90's until 2010.
The gameday in Columbus was incredible. We showed up on Campus 9 hours before the game started and the amount of people already tailgating was astounding. The flagpoles that folks had we're the American Flag, the Ohio State flag and then whoever Michigan is playing. Everyone had the Michigan and Michigan State game on the cheering anytime State did something good was really funny. The fact the CU has no rival after playing football for 130 years is such a shame,.
Then is was off to the old basketball arena for the entrance of the band. The players then come in. Once the coach, players and the band is on the court. They bring the recruits in that they are hosting. They had around 25 kids and everyone one of them looked like they could play that day. One of the captains speaks to the crowd, which was probably 8-10 thousand people and then the Coach gives a speech. The band then gives you a preview of the halftime show.
Then it's off to the stadium. Pretty impressive being in a place that can hold 109,000 folks. Attendance for this game was just shy of 103,000. Student sections on both ends of the stadium. The scoreboard, the PA system, the music blaring just showed how rinky dink things are at Folsom. The band playing all game and the fact I didn't have to hear the same Ozzy Osbourne song that our band has been playing for what seems like decades. I'm not into bands but what we have is the junior varsity compared to what we saw Saturday night. On top of that it was a very entertaining game.
If you wanted a beer, you walk up to a cooler, grab your two beers and then pay. Just take the cans right up to your seats. No removing the caps on water bottles, no pouring it in a cup. It's been a couple of years since I've been to a game in Folsom so maybe this is the way it is now.
I wore CU gear just to see if I would get any reactions. I only received a few comments, which told me we are just not on anyone's radar. Pretty disappointing.
A trip to Columbus just showed me how far, far we are away from being at this level. Big time football is awesome and I just don't see this ever happening again in Boulder.
