We just got off of Interstate 20 (we’re on Texas 49 Loop right now, starting our cut back towards Waco), and it’s been a lot of I-20. We got on last Monday, we spent significant time on it again that Tuesday and Wednesday, we hopped back on it yesterday to make our way home. It’s been a glorious ride—Fargo got to sniff so many places, most recently Airport High School in Bossier City, though that was admittedly off of 220 as we took a Chipotle detour—but also an educational one. It turns out you can see a lot of college football programs along I-20, and a lot of bowl game sites. Let’s see if we can identify them all, with help from maps and Wikipedia, two of our favorite things:
FBS Schools on I-20
I-20 only starts in West Texas (in between Fort Stockton and Van Horn), so it doesn’t hit an FBS town until the Metroplex, where we encounter both TCU and SMU, with Denton just a few miles too far to include North Texas, which I think means we’re counting it if I-20 passes through the city containing the school but not if it doesn’t.
From Dallas, you have to cover a few hours before you cross state lines, but once you do, Louisiana Tech and Louisiana-Monroe appear in quick succession in Ruston and, as ULM’s name suggests, Monroe. After that, you thread the needle in Mississippi, but you nail both Alabama and UAB in the Yellowhammer State, and you double up with Georgia State and Georgia Tech in Georgia.
Finally, you’ve got South Carolina in Columbia, but the road ends before you get to Myrtle Beach, so no Chanticleers on this route. Nine FBS schools in total. Not the most of any interstate, probably, but considering it only covers two time zones and doesn’t wobble more than a few inches north or south? A hotbed. A channel. And we haven’t even talked FCS.
FCS Schools on I-20
The FCS has a definite West Texas school (El Paso is kind of past West Texas, putting UTEP in West Texas purgatory“), and it’s Abilene Christian, practically on I-20’s front porch. The road passes a little too far north to pick up Tarleton and a little too far south to catch A&M-Commerce, but it does hit Grambling State in Louisiana, right next to Ruston, which will forever give me a good answer that helps no one when anyone asks if I know where Grambling is.
From Grambling, Ruston’s sister city, we could pretend I-20 hits Alcorn State, and those familiar with those shops in Vicksburg which accept the school’s ID-stored currency would buy it, but we’d be lying to ourselves and to you. I-20 does not pass through Lorman. Nothing passes through Lorman. It is a destination, not a thoroughfare.
I-20 does hit Jackson, and therefore Jackson State, and it picks up Samford in Birmingham, but it misses both Jacksonville and Kennesaw (and therefore their respective States), and it then misses both Clinton (where Presbyterian is) and Orangeburg (where S.C. State is). Which brings us on to bowls.
Bowl Games on I-20
This is what really got me on the I-20 train. You pass right by the Independence Bowl. You see it from the highway. You do the same with Protective Stadium, where the Birmingham Bowl is held. But we go west to east around these blog posts.
As it goes with the FBS schools, you hit Fort Worth and the Armed Forces Bowl first as you drive east, and you then get SMU copying things with the First Responders Bowl across towns. Next is the aforementioned Independence Bowl, followed a lot of hours later by the Birmingham Bowl. Finally, in Atlanta, you pick up the Peach Bowl and the Celebration Bowl in the same spot, which feels like cheating but isn’t because there should definitely be a bowl game in Vicksburg where Bret Bielema gets to beat up on the worst team in the SEC while Illinois puts Grant on its helmets and we start referring to Louisiana as “the west” again. The Key Bowl. If the Yazoo River was just a little bit bigger…
Why did we do all this? I’m not sure. I think I was just excited about seeing the Independence Bowl and the Birmingham Bowl location on back-to-back days, and then we passed Grambling this morning and I was sunk. Thanks for joining on whatever we just did. I’ll see you tomorrow when I’ve slept in my own bed and hopefully not had to send too many nasty emails to Fetch (as you might expect, they’ve reared their head again).
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Our itinerary:
9:00 PM EST: Xavier @ St. John’s (FS1)
What a Game of the NITe. Defending champions vs. the all-time leader in national championships. The former not far out of this year’s NIT picture. The latter at the epicenter of 2023 NIT action. History can have the Old Big East. I’ll take this new one.
7:00 PM EST: Duquesne @ Dayton (ESPN+)
11:00 PM EST: Wyoming @ Fresno State (CBSSN)
Two other contenders at play in the form of Dayton and Wyoming. Wyoming is not yet at the point where they have to turn everything around, but every time’s a good time, and winning tonight would push the deadline that much further in the rearview.
5:00 PM EST: Tennessee @ Mississippi (SECN)
7:00 PM EST: Wichita State @ UCF (ESPN+)
9:00 PM EST: Colorado State @ New Mexico (CBSSN)
10:00 PM EST: Boise State @ Nevada (MWN, I assume)
Seven other NIT hopefuls at play here, with Tennessee taking an aspirational field trip to our part of the world. Great night for the real mid-majors.
2:00 PM EST: Military Bowl (ESPN)
5:30 PM EST: Liberty Bowl (ESPN)
8:00 PM EST: Holiday Bowl (FOX)
9:00 PM EST: Texas Bowl (ESPN)
The Texas Bowl does not speak for Texas.
8:00 PM EST: Bucks @ Bulls (League Pass)
Among many offensive things the Bulls have done this season, falling completely flat against the Rockets right after our post-Christmas good cheer possessed us to think, “Hey, maybe an eight-seed with Lonzo Ball healthy could make some noise,” ranks near the top.
