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We have seen an explosion of early-season neutral site games lately, which is great for the game because it gets us away from all those September cupcakes.
We’ve seen nice matchups the past few years in Atlanta and Dallas, and we get Ole Miss and Florida State in Orlando this September.
That’s all good. This year we even have a few unique events like LSU playing Wisconsin at venerable Lambeau Field, the iconic home of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers. The craziest event of them all, though, is Tennessee and Virginia Tech at Bristol Motor Speedway, a first for a major-college game to be played in the middle of a race track.
Those great events got us thinking. What can we do to top it?
Here are five dream games – and venues – that we’d love to see.
1. Alabama vs. Notre Dame at Indianapolis Motor Speedway: Like many racetracks, the powers-that-be at the world’s most famous race course are always very secretive about their attendance figures. A few years ago, Curt Cavin – a former colleague of mine at the Indianapolis Star – actually went out and counted every seat at IMS, a whopping 257,325 of them back in 2004. You’d certainly have to add a lot of massive videoboards because the 2.5-mile facility is so big, but it would be amazing to see a quarter million people in one venue to watch a football game. And with those two fan bases? They could fill the place for sure.
2. Florida State vs. any SEC team in Jacksonville: Two things that SEC fans love to do: Brag about their conference being the best in the country. That’s not disputable. Secondly, though, we love ripping anyone who threatens that debate, especially a school right in own footprint like Florida State. The ACC’s Seminoles won a national title in 2013, beating Auburn, and they’ve outshined the SEC these last few years. They met up with Alabama in 2007 for a 50-50 neutral site game in Jacksonville – Nick Saban’s first year – and FSU won 21-14 on what was a fun, fun day. That should happen all the time, FSU vs. a rotating SEC opponent. How good is FSU against the SEC? Well, since 2010 the Seminoles are 6-1 against SEC teams, beating Florida four times, Auburn and South Carolina once. (Full disclosure: Two kids with FSU degrees and former season ticket holder. #gonoles)
3. Texas A&M vs. Texas at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington: This great Lone Star State rivalry disappeared when the Aggies moved to the SEC in 2012 and that’s too bad. It’s one of the best rivalries in college football and there’s no doubt that these two fan bases hate each other with a passion. The best way to get them back on the field is to offer up a neutral site game at the massive Cowboys Stadium. You could name your price on tickets. Let’s get this one done.
4. Florida vs. Georgia in Athens and Gainesville: I love the annual Florida-Georgia cocktail party in Jacksonville. But half the fun of college football is the occasional road trip to a foe’s campus for a game. How about just once every 10 years or so play that rivalry game on campuses? It happened during the Gator Bowl renovation years and it was fun. Let’s make that happen again, just for a little change of pace.
BONUS
5. Ohio State vs. the NFL’s Cleveland Browns at Browns Stadium: That argument always rages on about how well the best college team could do against the worst NFL team and now is the perfect time to try out that theory. The Browns – thanks to some serious Johnny Manziel poisoning – are an absolute train wreck right now and Urban Meyer has Ohio State rolling as a perennial national title threat. Let’s pair them up right there in Cleveland and settle the debate.
Which games and venues would you like to see?
Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist and author who is covering SEC football for Saturday Down South.
