Lots of TVs has players watching

ARLINGTON, Texas — You can’t walk anywhere in Cowboys Stadium — except maybe a bathroom — without seeing a TV. That includes the hallway connecting the Texas locker room and the field.

An hour before kickoff, a herd of Longhorns were making the walk to the turf and noticed the Alabama-Florida game on the TV.

“Ooooh, 32-13!” one player said.

Texas, of course, had a vested interest in that game. The Longhorns, with their 13-12 win against Nebraska, will face Alabama in the national title game.

Scalpers like matchup

Among those happy to see Nebraska and Texas in the Big 12 championship game: scalpers.

They peddled tickets for hefty profits Saturday afternoon. Even the worst seats in Cowboys Stadium were going for $200 or more.

Said one scalper in a Texas hat, who wished not to be named: “Beats Texas Tech-Kansas State.”

Attention shoppers

Peer out to the north of the new Cowboys Stadium and it’s hard to miss the well-known establishment sitting across the street.

It’s a Walmart. And it’s been there for four years.

But now that there’s a billion-dollar stadium next door, the discount store’s rumored only to be a placeholder for some mammoth parking structure or luxury hotel complex. Those are just rumors, though.

Until then, the Walmart appears to serve as an odd, but convenient, pit stop for football fans as they prepare themselves for the game.

Three hours before Saturday’s kickoff, it was rare to see a Walmart patron not dressed in Husker red or Longhorn orange. The entryway to the supercenter was lined with relevant displays, containing T-shirts and hats. Even a 10-foot-tall, inflatable Bevo was on sale for $50.

No surprise what aisle had the most traffic, considering many tailgating fans were stationed just a 90-second walk away. Alcohol purchases were common Saturday afternoon.

And why not? A 24-pack of beer was on sale for $18.97.

Big board

Texas fans outnumbered Nebraska’s by a 3-to-1 margin Saturday. But for all in attendance, it was difficult to stop watching the giant four-sided scoreboard that hangs above the field.

The 60-yard long Mitsubishi screens feature a crisp picture and clearly distracts fans from watching the game in front of them. It was built and installed for $40 million — a fraction, of course, of the $1.2 billion required to construct the new stadium.

The scoreboard is suspended 90 feet above the field. Several players tried unsuccessfully to kick balls into the scoreboard.

Sign of the times

Recreating the ESPN acronym has become a common strategy for sign-makers hoping to receive some TV time.

There were some of those signs in the stands on Saturday, even though the game was technically being shown on ABC.

One clever TCU supporter got some early face time on the Cowboys Stadium hanging big screen for his work. The sign: “Every TCU Student Praying for Nebraska.”

Iconic Cowboy

Outside of Memorial Stadium, Nebraska fans stop before home games to see the life-sized statue of former Husker coach Tom Osborne and the late Brook Berringer. It has been a popular place for photographs since it was placed at the main entrance to the Osborne Complex in 2006.

NU fans snapped pictures of a different icon Saturday before the Big 12 championship game.

A 9-foot bronze statue of former Dallas coach Tom Landry sits on the east side of Cowboys Stadium. Inscribed under “Thomas Wade Landry’’ are his years as Cowboys coach (1960-1988), career record (270-178-6) and Super Bowl championships (1971, 1977).

The statue of Landry — in his trademark fedora and holding a play sheet — was first positioned outside Texas Stadium in Irving in 2001 (Landry died in 2000). After briefly going to storage, it was brought to Arlington in September.

Say cheese

Wanted to capture your moment at Cowboys Stadium but forgot your camera? Just look for the guys in the yellow vests.

About 10 people with “official photographer’’ for “Cowboys Stadium fan photos’’ roamed outside before the game and inside during it. Shaun Gates of Dallas was one of them, stopping both Husker and Lonhorn fans a few hours before kickoff and getting them to pose with the futuristic stadium in the background.

Gates then would hand folks a card that he scanned, and they later could go to cowboysstadiumphotos.com, enter a code and see if they wanted to purchase the picture. Gates said the photographers, who work for Kodak, usually number about 20 for NFL games and other events.

— Dirk Chatelain, Rich Kaipust and Jon Nyatawa

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