4. The Jack Trice element
Big 12 is home to some of the toughest venues in college football, Memorial Stadium in Norman and DKR-Memorial in Austin are two that come to mind immediately. But a stadium that doesn’t get enough credit is Jack Trice Stadium.
It may not be scary like a ‘white out’ at Penn State or a top-five night game at Iowa, but it can be very intimidating for a lot of opponents in Ames with over 60,000 fans in cardinal and gold bearing down on you.
In recent years, with the expansion of the stadium, it has seen some momentous upsets. Perhaps the biggest is still the Cyclones upset of then #2 Oklahoma State in 2011 that threw the BCS into utter chaos. Last year’s win over then No. 4 TCU is still fondly remembered for Cyclone fans as well. The Cyclones definitely do a great job of defending their home turf, especially against better competition.
Across the way from Jack Trice is Hilton Coliseum, which has been known for “Hilton Magic”. Perhaps the Hilton gods can leak some magic over to Jack Trice Stadium to help engineer an Iowa State upset as this is West Virginia’s biggest road test to date this season.