The Texas Stagg Bowl bid

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COPPELL, Texas — By an unusual coincidence in my work for Verizon, I am in the Dallas area this week and took the opportunity to do a walk-through of the stadium in the bidding against Salem Stadium for future Stagg Bowls. (Not for 2007, which is in Salem.)

Shockingly, like a typical Texas high school football stadium, Buddy Echols Stadium Google map is big. It is listed at 12,000 capacity, though I actually thought it seated more.

They are in the midst of installing artificial turf — the grass was all out and the playing surface was stripped down to dirt. There’s certainly plenty of parking. It’s less than 10 miles from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Those are the positives. The negatives are that the D-III crowd will get swallowed up in a stadium that size, unless an ASC team makes the Stagg Bowl every year. How many Mount Union fans are making the 19-hour drive to Coppell? (Or, how many are paying through the nose for plane tickets on short notice?) Even if they draw 8,000 fans, how many empty seats does that leave? Who in the local market cares one bit about the Division III championship game while the Texas high school football playoffs are going on? Would the game generate even a blip on the local news radar, as opposed to the minutes upon minutes of coverage it receives in Salem? And who will pick up the mantle from Stone Station, which has been the Division III welcome wagon (photos) in Salem the past couple of seasons? Will those fans make the 1,200-mile drive? Will the Division III community come out in force the way it has the past couple of seasons?

The scoreboard is sufficient, though not as new as Salem’s, and the press box accommodations don’t appear to fulfill the need I have seen at recent Stagg Bowls. There’s a box on one side that seats 15-18 people across, six partitioned booths on the other side of the stadium, but not a space similar to Salem for television to build out of.

But these concerns are secondary to the location and the size. I just don’t think the Stagg Bowl works here. But I’m glad I got to see it to make sure.


Recruit Recap: Long road begins

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In a couple months thousands of students will head to Division III schools for the first time with the hopes of playing college football. Many will have very interesting stories, but few will have a longer trip than Brock Graziadei.

Graziadei played quarterback for Lathrop High School in Fairbanks, Alaska, graduating from the far northern outpost in 2004. It has taken three years, four states and more miles than Mapquest can calculate but Graziadei’s long journey south ends in Pineville, Louisiana where he’ll play for Louisiana College. The Fairbanks Daily News Miner has Graziadei’s story.

For Brandon Griffin the road to college is much shorter, but no less meaningful. Griffin put up great numbers as a receiver at Campbell County (Alexandria, Ky.) High School, but not enough to generate a Division II scholarship. So he’ll play his college ball less than an hour away at Mount St. Joseph according to the Cincinnati Post.

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Welcome, freshmen!

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It’s that time of year — where high school seniors take their final final exams, graduate and turn their attention full-time onto their college football career.

Hopefully onto their academic future as well.

But if you were a star in high school, do not rest on your laurels. You are guaranteed nothing at this level. In many places, your coach may be dissing Division III, saying that if it’s not scholarship, it’s not real football, that it’s just an extension of high school. That’s bull—-, ill-informed rhetoric from people who might well be looking to pad their own resume rather than toward your future.

So when you come to Division III, don’t do what this player did in an e-mail to D3football.com:

Look out for me next year im planning to do be things next year. My name is (player’s name here) I will be attend (D-III school name here) next year. So just keep a heads up and you should be hearing about me soon.

Let me just say this: Division III football is not just an extension of high school. Yes, there are a few hundred programs that are allegedly and have some talent, but that doesn’t mean Division III is devoid of talent and that you can just step in and expect to “do be things next year” — whatever that means.

I removed the player’s name and school’s name to protect the innocent, though I did not fix any grammar, obviously. That is an actual e-mail we received here at D3football.com within the past week.

To the young man who e-mailed — it’s a good thing it was e-mail and not the message board. Your conference’s posters would eat you alive. And with every sack you take over the next four years — though there was a sophomore who started at your position at your school last year, so expect some clipboard-holding — you’d get an earful from the stands.

To freshmen — welcome aboard, to both Division III football and to D3football.com. But be prepared to work. It does not get handed to you. No matter what you did in high school.