Big Ten Roundup (Aug. 27): Wisconsin, Illinois Stadiums Aiming to be Preserved by Congressional Group

A bipartisan congressional group announced on Friday that it wants to upgrade and preserve 18 historic college football stadiums, and included in the list were Wisconsin's Camp Randall Stadium, Illinois's Memorial Stadium and Penn State's Beaver Stadium.

One of the biggest pieces behind the mystique and tradition of college football is the stadiums.

Particularly in a conference like the Big Ten, many of the venues are older and seat far more people than any NFL stadium nearby. Both people inside the stadiums on Saturdays, and those watching from afar on their TV's and laptops appreciate the visible majesty of places from the Rose Bowl to the Horseshoe. 

On Friday, a bipartisan congressional group announced an initiative to upgrade 18 college football stadiums around the country that were deemed to have significant historical impact to their communities. Among those 18 were three Big Ten football stadiums — Wisconsin's Camp Randall Stadium, Illinois's Memorial Stadium and Penn State's Beaver Stadium.

Here's everything you need to know in today's Big Ten Roundup:

Big Ten Stadiums Named by Congressional Group

As evidenced by the bipartisan backing of this plan within congress, one of the few things most people can agree on is that college football stadiums are awesome.

Representatives Garret Graves (R-La.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) announced their plan on Friday to preserve 18 historic stadiums throughout the country, including those belonging to Wisconsin, Illinois and Penn State.  

A Congressional group aims to preserve 18 historic college football stadiums https://t.co/D6Ki0NOMFj

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) August 25, 2023

Camp Randall Stadium and Memorial Stadium are two of the oldest venues in the sport, having opened all the way back in 1917 and 1923, respectively. 

Beaver Stadium in Happy Valley, though, is the youngest site on the list of 18 by a wide margin. It was first opened back in 1960, but given the historic significance of Penn State football over the past half century, as well as the legendary white outs and home crowds it produces, it's an unsurprising appearance on the list. 

Overall, the congressional group would like to, "Target security enhancements, technological upgrades and create infrastructure upgrades for the stadiums, some of which are more than 120 years old."

Which is a complicated way of saying they want to spend money to update those important stadiums, and make sure that they all stick around for the foreseeable future.

Camp Randall, Memorial and Beaver Stadium will all host season opening games on Saturday, Sept. 2. Wisconsin kicks off the Luke Fickell era by welcoming Buffalo to Madison, Illinois is playing Toledo in a 7:30 p.m. ET night game and Penn State has a big time regional matchup with West Virginia in Happy Valley.

To find out what other games will be played at these three historic stadiums throughout the rest of the 2023 college football season, CLICK HERE.

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