Lucy Rohden has spent the past few college football seasons visiting dozens of stadiums for some of the biggest games of the year. What has she learned about the sport through these travels? She joins Richard to talk about her-long road trip through the sport. In this episode:
1:34: What constitutes a college town, plus the critical nature of a college town being easily walkable (sorry, South Bend and College Station)
6:58: Lucy’s proprietary system for ranking 50 college towns
8:27: The gameday environments she’s found overrated and underrated, and which places are too quiet because of either stadium design or the people who pack into the building
12:22: The 50/50 proposition of getting a good meal on a game weekend in a college town, and how Auburn’s restaurant seen is like New York’s
13:58: Lucy’s most overrated stadium in the sport
18:43: The very different ways the Big Ten and SEC situate their most famous stadiums as compared to the rest of campus. Plus, the majesty of a nice Friday afternoon walk around a campus you’re visiting for a game
20:16: Hater’s guide to College Station plus the gentrification of a lot of these towns. (See some of our old work on this topic here.)
25:02: The majesty of the trees in Gainesville, Florida
34:32: The contradiction of perhaps the greatest game environment in the sport, LSU, not even really being in a college town
You can find Lucy all over the internet. Her YouTube channel is here. We appreciate her stopping by and sharing some of her lessons from the road!
Producer: Anthony Vito
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