Wazzu Rise ‘n Grind – Stadium Check-ins Edition

Happy Humpday Cougs, as we wish all the best to you and yours.  And per the latest webcam pic of the Cougar Football Project, it looks like another beautiful morning on the Palouse!  As you can see, the construction continues to hum along on the new $60+ million dollar Football Ops building, which we’ve harped on enough as to what an asset this thing should ultimately become for the entire football program.

Speaking of stadiums and all that, yesterday WSU released some updated renderings of the Football Ops building.  Here are a few new ones for your viewing pleasure :

From the Stadium Way side endzone

Better close-up of the new structure

From Rogers Field – practice field view

You can see the rest of the updated renderings here, but so far so good.

But of course, we are not alone in the Pac-12 when it comes to updated facilities and spending money to spruce things up in order to compete for talent.  But who is doing what, exactly, right now?  Let’s take a look…

ARIZONA:  The Wildcats have been working for the last year or two on their stadium, and things are starting to finish up, and should actually be done next month (July 2013).  Arizona created their own endzone structure, which will feature luxury seating, as well as a structure for team facilities.  Here’s an updated look per their own webcam, but the sun glare might distort it a bit?:

Here is a rendering of what it should look like this season:

They also laid down brand spankin’ new FieldTurf, which I have to admit looks pretty sharp (note the “Bear Down” in the turf as well as the painted endzones):

ARIZONA STATE:  No construction yet, but a major renovation is on the way.  ASU is going to turn Sun Devil Stadium into some kind of covered facility, while maintaining an open-air type setting in the $300-million range.

Per a recent article, it might not be until the 2016 season however, a scenario which could see ASU playing in the D-Backs home of Chase Field for 2015.  It should be nice though and a welcome upgrade to the existing Sun Devil Stadium structure.

COLORADO:  The Buffs have big plans for Folsom Field, including $170 million in renovations to the existing stadium.  They aren’t quite there yet though, as they are looking for about $50 million in donations to get things rolling along.  They did install new video boards last summer.

OREGON:  While not exactly stadium renovations to an already-fantastic set of facilities, there is work going on at Oregon.  They are planting trees around Autzen’s north side in order to green it up a bit:

Apparently Phil Knight donated about $5 million to create “Zen North” for Oregon.  Nice, if you have the millions to drop on something like that.

OREGON STATE:  The Beavs to their credit have been ahead of the curve in regards to football facilities.  They upgraded to luxury seating several years ago, built their own endzone football facilities as well as a new scoreboard, new FieldTurf, etc.  Reser is a nice place to check out a game, but they aren’t sitting still.  Currently there is a study going on to decide if more expansion is needed, but it wouldn’t likely happen until later this decade (2019 perhaps?).

While not football-related, but the Beavs just opened a new 34,000-square foot basketball facility yesterday.

While Reser looks great, now the Beavs have spent some new Pac-12 money on hoops as well.  Good for them.

UCLA:  The Bruins got new FieldTurf for their practice facility last year, but the Rose Bowl renovations have been going on in phases since 2011.  All renovations in the near-$200 million project should be done in January of 2014.

USC:  Opened the amazing John McKay center last year, a 110,000-square foot team facility last summer, to the tune of $70 million.

It’s not like SC needs more advantages when in comes to recruiting, but this new football-only facility is tremendous!  It’s hard to tell from that image but if you click through and look at some of the pics on their site, you’ll see what I mean.

UTAH:  The Utes have big expansion plans (like everyone else), but so far they just have a rendering of what they want to see at Rice-Eccles:

Per BlockU.com, they are looking at adding 10,000 seats, which would eventually raise the capacity to about 55K or something close to that.

Finally, UW:  The thing is nearly complete, as the new FieldTurf installation is currently ongoing.  It’s pretty much a brand new facility throughout and even we can agree that it looks great so far in the $300 million-or-so overhaul.

NOTE – Stanford and Cal are already in the clubhouse, with new complete stadiums and facilities in the last few years.  The Bay area schools are DONE (for now!).

So there you have it, a quick look around the Pac-12 and the facilities as they continue to evolve.  I love how much of a change we’re seeing in Pullman, but, we are definitely not alone as we try to keep pace with the rest!

Some other stuff out there:

The APR was released yesterday, and it was an improvement for WSU.  No penalties, etc, so that’s definitely good news.  I remember feeling a little uneasy when the APR was going to be announced, but with the improvement in regards to academics it isn’t such a bad feeling anymore.  Good work Cougs!

Per Cougcenter, NCAA Football 14 team ratings have been revealed.  The Cougs were the 11th-best team in the conference, just ahead of Colorado.  Based on a leaked video of the game from yesterday’s E3, it looks like they have really improved things like in-game physics and the read-option looks like a legit play this year.

All for now. RISE AND GRIND, and of course, GO COUGS!