By: Justin Walker | WV Sports Chat
Popular content creator, John Kurtz, talked with nearly 30 players at Big 12 Media Days in Frisco, Texas two weeks ago. Kurtz was able to get candid responses on everything from who the players think will win the league to the toughest place to play, the best quarterback, wild portal offers, and more.
In the recent edition of his Open for Business newsletter, John shared the survey results regarding the best and worst road locker rooms in the Big 12. According to the players who responded to the survey, they overwhelmingly chose Baylor’s McLane Stadium as having the best road locker room. Eight of the 15 respondents chose McLane, mainly due to its large size.
The players were much more split on which Big 12 stadium has the worst road locker room. Eight different schools received at least one vote.
The winner – or loser – of this survey was the West Virginia locker room inside Milan Puskar Stadium. Three of the respondents chose WVU’s visiting locker room as the worst in the league. Once again, the size of the locker room was a major factor.
“West Virginia is the worst,” said one player. “That locker room is tiny. That locker room was probably made in the nineties.”
Another anonymous player said, “At West Virginia, to get taped and all that stuff, you have to go outside.”
“West Virginia has big lockers, but it’s just weird. They have big lockers, but it’s just not roomy in there,” said another player.
It’s clear that locker room size is really important for players. They like having plenty of room to move around.
From the WVU perspective, is it really a bad thing for visiting players to be uncomfortable in their locker room? It’s not uncommon for schools to purposely have smaller locker rooms for their visiting opponents. Does it actually give the home team an advantage? One of the players surveyed by Kurtz doesn’t think so. “Most colleges, they try to get in your head, try to make it small and all that. I’m just like, they ain’t really doing anything.”
