I made it to all of the Dixie State home games in the spring and fall. They all start at 7:30 which is 9:30 eastern time, so very little overlap with the Big Ten slate. There may have been a time or two that I only went for the second half because OSU was playing at night or whatever, but I made it to at least the second half of every home game.
It was their first two seasons in FCS after moving up from D2, so it's the opposite end of the D1 spectrum than OSU. But they are far more "big time" than any of the D2/D3 Columbus schools that I would occasionally go to, so it wasn't a big culture shock or anything. It was also their final two seasons as "Dixie St" as they are being rebranded next year as "Utah Tech." Utah Tech is what you call your school if Utah, Utah State and even Southern Utah are already taken. Puke.
On the field they were bad. Really bad. They only won two home games, one in the spring and one in the fall, both against Fort Lewis. Not only is Ft Lewis a team from their old D2 Conference, they were the worst team from their old D2 Conference. So they completely smoked them on both occasions.
There only other win during that time period was on the road vs Tarleton St when they were ranked. They also lost to them twice at home while they were unranked, so there's that.
Technically this was the first year of WAC football's triumphant return, although it was not a full interlocking schedule quite yet.
Dixie played 8 ranked FCS teams this fall and really took their lumps. I got to see Bobby Petrino on Saturday, as he brought his Missouri State Bears or whatever out here for a tune up before the playoffs. So that was kind of cool.
So far their best showing at the D1 level has been a 7 point loss to FBS New Mexico St last spring. Although that becomes a lot less impressive when you look at how NMSU actually did last spring.
The stadium was cool. There's a walkway all the way around the perimeter of the track, so you can get right down behind the endzone for goal line plays, and listen to the pads pop.
