As all Oklahoma State football fans know by now, the next time they catch a game inside Boone Pickens Stadium, they’ll have the luxury of catching replays on one of the biggest video boards in college football.
From what we’ve seen so far, the new 110-foot video board going to be REALLY sweet.
A little preview of the new board! Who else is ready for football season?? @BP_State @OKStateProbs @BarstoolOKST pic.twitter.com/4rg6nV8Wvc
— Jevin Riven (@JevinRiven) August 9, 2018
Basketball pictures on the new board. It looks good! pic.twitter.com/6kE8skCqnK
— Oklahoma State 247 (@OKState247) August 9, 2018
The $5 million screen will be the third-largest in the Big 12, behind only OU and Texas. But what will set it apart from even those monstrous boards, is its proximity to the field. Coach Gundy talked about just that during an appearance on the Doug Gottlieb radio show last week.
“I think that there’s maybe six video boards bigger in college football,” said Gundy. “but if you take — and I’m not smart enough to do this — but if you take how close it is to the field, and the size, and get some kind of per-capita, middle-of-the-road, type of measurement off that, it’s by far the biggest in the country. it’s like sitting in your living room in a man cave watching the TV.”
The thing is going to be unlike any other video board in the country. In fact, it’s one that players are going to have to adjust to. You can’t tell me if you were marching down the field in the video board’s direction, you wouldn’t have a hard time being distracted by it.
It’s something Oklahoma State coaches are very aware of, and are preparing for.
“Were going to practice six times in the next three weeks on the field, at different times of the day, with the video board running, just to try to figure out what kind of distraction it is, if any at all, and get adjusted to it,” said Gundy.
Like anything else, players will need some in-game experience to get past it. Luckily, with the Cowboys opening up against Missouri State on August 30th, it’s a perfect opportunity.
But it also raises the question, how will it affect other teams? On the positive, if it’s a distraction for OSU players who are more used to it, how will teams not used to seeing themselves right in front of them, going to handle it. Could it be an advantage to OSU or have no effect at all?
It will be interesting to see after the season what players have to say about it, and if the new video board falls in line with the paddle people and the fans’ close proximity to the field, as things that play in favor of OSU and make BPS one of the toughest places to play in the Big 12.