default-cbs-image

The algorithm for Pokemon Go, best I can tell, selects highly populated or culturally important places to drop characters for its growing number of users. Some schools have run into issues with students or fans trying to get inside their college football stadiums or facilities to obtain the most sought-after creatures in the alternate reality created by the GPS-focused cell phone application.

Ohio State had to issue an announcement to prevent fans from trying to get into The Shoe after initially using a Pokemon character to promote season ticket sales. At Alabama, there is apparently a Poke-stop by the school's copy of Mark Ingram's Heisman Trophy.


But some schools are embracing the opportunity to get fans in their modern day cathedrals of sport. Notre Dame used the allure of rare Pokemon to promote its stadium tours. At Nebraska and Texas A&M, there are open house hours where fans can enter the stadium to catch Pokemon on the field.


The Kyle Field experience was documented by ESPN.com's Sam Khan and backup quarterback Connor McQueen. According to ESPN, 1,604 fans showed up ready to catch them all.

"Frankly I'm shocked," Texas A&M official Jason Cook told ESPN. "We posted it on social media overnight, it's in the middle of summer in Aggieland, not a lot of students here, not a lot going on. I was thinking, 'Well, maybe we'll get a couple hundred.' We're well over 1,000. It just shows you what kind of cultural phenomenon this has become in a couple days and also how special Kyle Field is, too."