Rece Davis explains love of Texas State Fair venue for Red River, his other top scenes in CFB

The setting of the Red River Showdown, the annual rivalry matchup between Texas and Oklahoma, is unlike any other in the sport. Played at the Cotton Bowl at noon, the game is juxtaposed with the Texas State Fair.

And ESPN’s Rece Davis finds it to be among the quintessential college football destinations. He explained his love for the Red River venue while on the “Pat McAfee Show” on Friday afternoon ahead of the 2023 edition of the game.

“But the reason I love this, the stadium is split 50/50. You have the battle line with burnt orange one side, crimson and cream the other, and somebody lives and dies with every play. And that’s sort of nostalgic. There used to be a lot of games like this in the sport. Very few now. In fact, this is really the only one,” Davis said.

Fans of Georgia and Florida, who play annually in Jacksonville in a game dubbed the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” might beg to differ with Davis on the last point. The two teams play annually at a neutral site and mostly split up the stadium.

But there isn’t an actual state fair surrounding the game.

Beyond the Red River game, Davis noted two other places that he’s loved visiting when the teams are rolling: LSU and, to the chagrin of the gathered Texas fans, Texas A&M.

“I grew up on this Pat, so I love it. And I think there’s nothing like it. I would say that Saturday night in Baton Rouge when LSU is really good and as much as the Texas people won’t like this, if A&M is good, that’s a pretty wacky place, too. That’s a great spot,” Davis said.

Davis discussed the landscape in college football in 2023

Davis shared that he believes there is a ton of parity in college football at the moment.

“It felt like a foregone conclusion some years that as long as the teams at the top didn’t trip up, that we knew what it was going to look like in the playoff,” Davis said. “Everybody feels like they have a chance [now]. Like we were at Duke last week – Duke. And they were like, ‘Hey, if we get by Notre Dame here we’re going to get to that ACC Championship game and knock off Florida State and we’ve got a chance.’ So yea, I think that makes it different. It sort of energizes everybody.”

There are no teams that appear to be locks to reach the College Football Playoff at this point.

Each conference has multiple contenders who could come out on top. Davis feels that this college football season is shaping up to be special. With that said, he also expects some schools to be frustrated because they are left out at the end of the year.

“There will be really good teams left out this year, because I think in past years, there’s been a gulf – not just a gap but a gulf between Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson most years, Georgia and everybody else,” Davis said.

“Everybody else has been a pretty significant step back. Whoever you deem as the best teams this year, I don’t think there’s this big step down. And so I think you have probably eight to 12 teams who are kind of all together. And it’s going to come down to which game do you lose, do you lose badly, do you get knocked out of your conference championship?”