I decided to put this outside of the Mack/SEC thread because it had turned into There was some discussion of facilities on there. I know a little about college facilities and here's a good synopsis of the SEC's. It's from the Columbia, South Carolina newspaper. The Link It basically describes what ******** the South Carolina athletic facilities are and how they're trying to fix them. Starting on page six, there's a description about Arkansas' facilities. They're pretty top notch. They're really ramped it up in the past 20 years. (So has Auburn. Both used to be awful.) However, starting on page 8, they go through the conference sport by sport and rank them. The football stadiums are nice. The top 7 are, anyway. After that, it's a drop off. Then it gets into the other sports. They're horrible. I don't know about every single Big 12 school but the Big 12 South is way superior top to bottom. The SEC just sinks all it's money into football.
Deadhorse, you make a valid point. It was I that originally drug that link to this board in the other thread. My argument was based on the overall facilities at Arkansas and the football stadiums of the rest of the SEC (To include Arkansas), which packed in a record 6.6 million last season. After reading your opinion, and rereading the article in closer detail, I would have to agree that outside of Arkansas and maybe Auburn, facilities are not as "grand" once you slide away from football. But, I would imagine that is par for the course at most BCS schools. The money is in football and unless you have success in other areas (Kentucky and Arkansas for example) the facilities do not measure up to those in football.
I assure you that Tennessee's basketball facilities have moved into the top 2 or 3 on the basketball list. The b-ball facilities were mediocre when I was a college student, but I made it back for the first home game after the renovations, and it is really something. I believe the Vols still have the 2nd largest on campus b-ball stadium behind Syracuse (who kills everyone in terms of size). The Vols built a separate, huge practice facility, with 2 full size practice courts (one for men and one for women), the basketball team has their own weight room, training room, film room, etc. Vols PRACTICE facility
Astro, I noticed that facility is on Phillip Fulmer Ave. What's the crime rate on that street? In all seriousness, the Tennessee facility has always been big but from what I gather, they've really improved on it lately with skyboxes and a practice facility. It's probably one of the few schools that sell lots of tickets for both men's and women's basketball so they'll probably get their money's worth. Couldn't resist the Fulmer joke, though.....
Oh, I've heard 'em all, but actually, the bigger joke among Vol fans is that Fulmer way is going to lead to the unemployment office unless an SEC championship is in our near future.
The fascination of the SEC bbs poste with facilities is one of the weirdest phenomena on the internet. As referred to above, we had the series of postes 5 or so years ago from HogsSmellGood that displayed pictures of every SEC stadium. I don't get it. Is it conference pride? I've certainly never felt like registering on a Tennessee board just to post about university endowments and memberships in the Association of American Universities.
They are rennovating the footballl stadium, yes? I remember seeing something about how they were going to redo the exterior. Same thing Michigan is doing I believe.
The new Alex Box is part of a brand new baseball/softball complex being built on the old back 9 of the golf course. The old Alex Box will be demolished to make way for more yet even more athletic admin parking. Students are now being asked to park across the river and take the ferry.
this is what i'm ******* talking about!!!!! smack talk about facilities f**k the boring *** NFL!!!!!!! (oh yea, Bama has the best one's in the SEC)