best college baseball facilities

Best facilities I've seen based on following my son's team the past few years:

*UC Irvine: Best Infield grass playing surface
*San Diego State
*University of San Diego (New Facility)
*Pepperdine (view of Pacific Ocean, but the field was very average)
*Cal Poly SLO
*Oregon State 
*Oklahoma State (nice facility & great fans)
*University of Nebraska (see Oklahoma State)
*AMERITRADE PARK (No Brainer...and a capacity crowd of 24K vs. Texas was fun.)
*Didn't play, but visited these impressive stadiums this season...Wichita State, Texas, Oregon Ducks, & Oklahoma Sooners.
*2015 Season looking forward to Fresno St, Cal, & the new Minnesota Gophers facility.

I've only seen them on TV, but obviously the SEC schools are in a league of their own in terms of attendance & facilities.  Averaging 7-10K fans per game is insane

I'm partial to Hi Corbett Field, home of the Arizona Wildcats. I've been to half a dozen others, but none even come close.

hard to beat the setting at my Alma matter,  right in the middle of campus with gorgeous views, and recently upgraded facilities.   West Point and Doubleday field.

 

 

 

http://www.goarmysports.com/sp...base-facilities.html

My best field is the one my son is playing on an I can get there is see it.

I have been impressed with PK Park, home of the Oregon Ducks.  

Doug Kingsmore at Clemson is getting better.

 

https://clemsontigers.exposure...ball?DB_OEM_ID=28500

 

We did an unofficial at Clemson this past winter - it was really impressive before the new locker room upgrade.  UNC - Chapel Hill was outstanding as well.

Penn State has some really impressive facilities. The field is beautiful and modeled after PNC park.

Great facilities at Vanderbilt and Louisville. 

 

It's a shame that we don't see many great baseball facilities in the Northeast.

Fantastic facilities at the University of Arkansas including their new indoor facilty with a complete field (not a lot of outfield, though) and indoor track facility. Absolutely beautiful.

When I lived in Nashvill in the 90's Vandy's facilities were a dump. Really, they were non-existent. They played games on the football field, itself an old relic of a dump. It's good to see that they put some money into nice facilities in the past 20 years.

       
       


The football field still isn't what I would call great haha but the baseball field is awesome. Well unless your partial to foul territory because there isn't any lol. My son went to a camp there when he was 12 and I had to literally drag him away from that field everyday.

Do you mean like Boston College where they use the outfield as a parking lot for football tailgate parties? They have been claiming for years there's a new baseball/softball complex coming. This is as far as it's gone: "Boston College reaffirmed its commitment to building new playing fields," April 2014. Given they say the field should be built by 2018 when they've been trying to get it approved since 2009, I'll believe it when I see it. 

I mean exactly like BC's. Hard enough to compete in the ACC with the Boston weather, but with those facilities...

 

Penn State has a nice facility because it was done in conjunction with a minor league team. UMass Lowell shares a facility with the Lowell Spinners.

The best 2 that I have been to is Oregon, and North Carolina's Stadium is awesome!

This conversation can't happen without mention of UIC (U of Illinois-Chicago) and Curtis Granderson Stadium.  Hands down the best backdrop in all of baseball.

 

http://www.uicflames.com/view.gal?id=164692

 

http://youtu.be/H0PgrbZ6HTQ

 

Pepperdine has the best view.....Louisville is great and they have $1 beer nights....UVA is another nice one......also West Point is also very good for a lot of reasons.

ILIndians, I did a double-take when I saw the view from UIC's stadium, as it reminded me so much of that from Georgia Tech's Russ Chandler Stadium:

 

 

...and for those who haven't had an opportunity to see the breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean over Pepperdine's left field wall (Thanks to dad43 for the reference.), here's a glimpse of it:

 

 

 (What you can't quite see from Pepperdine's bleachers is the Malibu Little League's fields right at the beach! Their view is even better!)

       
I used to drive by Pepperdine on the way home from work. I looked at the dorms and student condos thinking they lived in homes with location and view they may never be able to afford once they graduate.

We visited Pepperdine when my son was in 8th grade got some great pics of hi. On the mound ant at first base........I remeber thinking what a great place to pitch in.....the batters view was of the Pacific Ocean over the centerfield wall....was thinking how in the heck could a hitter concentrate on hitting with that view!!!!

Does anyone know how Alabama ' pending renovation will stack up against other SEC schools?

The architect's rendering looks tremendous, and the fact that they're committing $35M to the project suggests that it will rival all but the very largest. As one who attended games there in 2006, I'm really glad to see them undertaking the extensive. renovation; although, I wish they'd done it sooner. Alabama's athletic coffers are too full and their prospects in baseball too full of potential to have delayed it this long.

 

A personal hope: that the extensive area beyond the right field wall be preserved for some of the best in-game tailgating available in college baseball.

Something to keep in mind: An opinion about a facility depends upon one's perspective. Those of us who are fans quite naturally tend to form our impressions from that perspective. We're impressed by such features as the size, sight lines, view, creature comforts, concession aspect, etc. After all, these are the attributes that are most important to us as fans.

 

On the other hand, if I were a recruit or his parent, I'd be equally if not more interested in the stadium's interior: its clubhouse, players' lounge, training room, weight facilities, video capabilities, and indoor hitting/bullpen areas to name a few.

 

All of the parks named in this thread pass the "fan test;" but, a review of their interiors might result in very different assessments.

A little off topjc,but I remember seeing a database for annual funding of all college baseball programs.  Not exactly sure how cost was calculated (whether it included imputed tuition for scholarships), but it made an impression on me as to the wide range of funding levels.  Anyone have any insight into program funding?

 

Doubleday Field at West Point,   Hudson in the background.  They have recently rebuilt and expanded the library out past right field. 

 

Doubleday's setting looks gorgeous!

 

Taking a page from the book at San Francisco's AT&T Park, do they call the shoreline area just beyond left field "MacArthur Cove?!!"

 

I'll be partial to Tony Gwynn Stadium soon!

South Carolina has a stadium any pro team would be proud of.

 

LSU's stadium is maybe not terribly special architecturally, but the overall experience of having 11,000 fans jammed in there can't be topped at the college level.

 

The surprising entrant in this has got to be Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA.  What you see as a fan is outstanding.  The team facilities underneath are unparalleled.  I was floored when I went there this past fall.

In the mid Atlantic I think the university of Delaware and Wagner college's stadiums stand out in the mid Atlantic region.

Above is twilight baseball at Liberty's new stadium.  You can't beat the Blueridge Mtns. for a background.  Liberty vs. U of Virginia.

My son's last High School swing almost cleared that bullpen in left field this summer. That was a pretty cool "post game trot" to recover the HR ball after the game.

I guess we will always be pretty partial to that beautiful Liberty field!!