When I first saw the headline on my iPhone, I thought it was from the widely known satire publication The Onion. Upon reading the initial story on ESPN, I learned it was no joke to the NCAA, Vol Nation and the Virginia Tech faithful.
In 2016, Tennessee and the Virginia Tech Hokies will play a football game in the middle of Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn., joining two things true Southerners can’t do without: college football and comical excess in the way of such. The NASCAR backstory fits in nicely as well.
This is not a slight to the game of college football at all, nor is it a dig at stock car racing. I’ve been to the infield at Talladega Superspeedway, and it was impressive. The thought that playing a college football game there would be a good idea, however, never crossed my mind.
The truth is, leaders from both universities expect a total of 160,000 live spectators to watch the contest, which was announced at a press conference Monday, complete with fireworks and confetti. If that kind of fanfare was at the press conference, all bets are officially off for the real deal.
It’s no surprise the NCAA is on board for this now. After almost all credibility for the institution has been eroded over the past several years, what could more garbage possibly do for the reputation of CEO Mark Emmert?
The fans who plan on attending had better bring binoculars, also. It’s assumed that makeshift stands will be brought in on both sides of the end zones to supplement the existing seating, but anyone else will have to strain to see the action.
The NCAA has a remedy for that problem, too: countless TVs. It made it clear nobody would miss the action.
That notion goes directly against what makes the best college football stadiums so accessible and enjoyable, though: that simply there is no bad place in such confines to view the game. Diehard fans will pride themselves on being able to say “there’s not a bad seat in (name your stadium).” This peculiar matchup at Bristol won’t be able to boast those standards.
It doesn’t sound like such a great deal for NASCAR fans, either. Over the next three years, slight alterations will be made to make way for the football matchup, including the removal of the huge four-way screen currently occupying the middle of the raceway. The TV screens, integral to any NASCAR race, will be sorely missed by fans on race day.
The game being on a neutral site is not the issue. More and more of those happen each year – how else will Jerry Jones pay off his goliath of a stadium? The problem is that well-intentioned events such as the one happening three years from now in Bristol will put a damper on college football and NASCAR fans alike.
