Alabama enters the stadium wars, via Penn State

Penn State is by now used to the annual, if not fully year-round battle over which school has the "best" stadium. While Penn State usually wins the battles, but war never ends. Lions fans are familiar with the regulars in this war of seating capacity, scenery and atmosphere. Ohio State, Michigan, Tennessee, Florida, LSU, Oregon and a few others are well known to have great college football stadiums. But one school that's not usually involved is Alabama, mainly due to its one-trick show, Bear Bryant. That's all anyone thinks about when discussing the Crimson Tide, and their Bryant-Denny Stadium rarely breaks into the top-stadiums discussion. That could all change when Penn State travels to Tuscaloosa in 2010.

"Construction continues at a brisk pace on Bryant-Denny Stadium, and all indications are pointed in a positive direction for us having the finishing touches completed before we host Penn State in 2010. When completed, we will have more than 100,000 seats, and arguably, the most aesthetically attractive stadium in all of college football," Mal Moore, Alabama's athletic director said this week.

Alabama was within two games of the national title game last season. They have a headliner of a coach. And enough tradition to suffice any number of schools combined. But what has been missing from the Tide's impressive resume? A nationally-revered football stadium.

The process sort of got its start when coach Nick Saban made his debut in Alabama's spring game a few years a go, to a capacity crowd, sparking headlines across the college football nation. But later that season, the Tide lost a string of bad games, including the unthinkable "L" to Louisiana-Monroe. Yes, that's the Sun Belt's ULM. Any notoriety Bryant-Denny gained from the spring game was completely lost during the regular season.

Now, Moore wants to get that train back on the main line. There's frankly no better way to do so than open 2010 with the team that can boast the largest stadium in North America, Penn State.

There was some confusion about the implication that Penn State would be Alabama's target game for the final construction in 2010, as the date hasn't been changed from Sept. 11, the second game in the Tide's schedule. I don't think Penn State would be willing to move around its schedule, just so Alabama can be more flashy.

So I guess that kind of takes away from the mystique of the new Bryant-Denny's "grand opening." Don't let that fool anyone. You can bet your ass that GameDay will be there with all the bells and whistles, and about 10 hours of Bear Bryant-Joe Paterno segments.

Alabama wants this game to be a really, really big deal. Not that it needed much help, but this definitely won't hurt.