For a minute, I thought I was teleported back to third-century Rome. But instead of being in the Roman Coliseum, I was standing on the roof of Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

On the boring drive west, I scoffed at the thought of atmosphere and tradition affecting a football game. A stadium is just a mass of concrete to house fans, nothing more. I was wrong.

Memorial Stadium gives the Huskers at least a touchdown advantage. Iowa State would have won Saturday’s game by 10 points if it was in Jack Trice.

I was intimidated walking into the place at 10:30 in the morning, when no one was in the stadium. When Iowa State had the ball in overtime, I felt like Rafael Palmeiro in a room full of drug-testers. I could barely breathe. I can’t imagine how Bret Meyer was even able to function with the “Black Shirts” surrounded by a sea of red in his vision.

What’s the point, you say? The point is, the Cyclones have very little of that same home field advantage. New ISU Athletic Director Jamie Pollard said recently he would like to “bowl in” the south end of Jack Trice Stadium and add several thousand seats. I couldn’t agree more. Let’s face it, staring at a bunch of foliage and butterflies in Reiman Gardens doesn’t fluster the opposition.

Jack Trice is a pleasant place to watch a football game, but the atmosphere in the stadium could use some work. Imagine a closed in end zone where sound reverberates and opposing quarterbacks panic in the face of Hilton-like noise.

Anyone remember when Brian Boddicker, an 85 percent free-throw shooter from Texas, lost control of his bowels and missed two game-winning free throws two years ago? You can thank the magic for those misses.

Jack Trice lacks that same power. Iowa State has great tailgaiting prowess, but for whatever reason the spirit doesn’t carry over to game time. More wins and success will help the cause, but enclosing the stadium and adding seats would have a huge impact. The only other BCS schools with smaller stadiums than Iowa State are Duke, Vanderbilt, Washington State, Oregon State, Wake Forest and Rutgers. Notice a trend among those teams? Yep. Zero national championships.

Cynics will say you need to fill your current stadium before you expand. Stadium expansion, however, would create more interest, more money, more wins and more fans (cue Kevin Costner: “If you build it, they will come.”)

Iowa State has enough of a base to fill at least 10,000 to 15,000 more seats. When you have 26,000 students and millions of alumni, filling the stadium shouldn’t be an issue. In fact, Iowa State has 5,000 more students than Nebraska, yet 30,000 less seats.

But, maybe we ISU fans are content to tailgate with passion, leave at halftime, beat Iowa, go 6-5, play in the Independence Bowl and wait for basketball season. Here’s hoping Jamie Pollard changes that.

– Brent Blum is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.