Baylor and Notre Dame will each play on new surfaces this fall, for different reasons. Notre Dame is switching from grass to an artificial surface because, well, it's pretty dang hard to keep a grass surface looking good in South Bend, Indiana through October and November. Baylor, of course, is moving across town to the brand spanking new McLane Stadium.
Notre Dame has announced it will auction off 5x2 pieces of the old Notre Dame Stadium grass for the low, low price of $149.95 a pop. Notre Dame can do this because, well, it's Notre Dame. The Irish are buoyed by a national fan base filled with many of moneyed people aching to get a piece of one of the most hallowed grounds in college football.
Baylor, however, is not.
Simply put, there aren't that many warm fuzzies connected to Floyd Casey Stadium, an off-campus monolith where the Bears did just as much losing as winning. So the Bears have done something smart with their old carpet: they turned it into a pretty unique tailgating venue. The green and gold faithful can now get their mind right for the day's contest by grilling their bratwurst at the exact spot Robert Griffin III threw his Heisman-clinching touchdown pass to Terrance Williams.
They won't turn the old rug into a money-maker, but it's a piece of Baylor history that the Bears' entire fan base can enjoy.