30 bucket list items college football fans need to experience

24. The Blue: Boise State’s Albertsons Stadium

Perhaps a little more on the radar given the program’s great success over the past two decades, Boise State’s 34,387-seat Albertsons Stadium (previously known as Bronco Stadium) is one of the most well known venues among non-power conferences programs for the (once) unique blue turf.

A successful small college football program for the majority of its existence, Boise State won a Junior College national championship in 1958 and captured the Division I-A crown in 1980, both of which occurred before installing the trademark blue turf. The Broncos first played on The Blue, also nicknamed “Smurf Turf” in 1986, when the stadium capacity was just 20,000. In 1994, the season before the program transitioned to the Division I-A level, Boise State marched to the National Championship Game. The stadium was expanded to 30,000 for the move up, and has been expanded three times since, most recently in 2012, to its current capacity.

Other college football programs across the country have chosen to follow Boise State’s lead and adopt a non-green playing surface. The University of New Haven Chargers began playing on a blue field when it re-launched its football program in 2009, and FBS power Eastern Washington installed red turf at Roos Field in 2010, earning the nickname The Inferno. Central Arkansas, Lindenwood University and Eastern Michigan (whose gray playing surface is the only other non-green field at the FBS level) all installed non-traditional turf.

Don’t expect the NFL to follow suit, however. In 2011, the league mandated all playing surfaces must be green, citing Boise State in the rule.