As this year’s college football season gets underway, coaches and players aren’t the only ones burning the midnight oil to get ready for kickoff.

Dozens of schools across the United States are unveiling stadium expansions and renovations as well as new training facilities that are expected to help lure top talent and ultimately generate more ticket revenue. Athletic departments are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new facilities, funded through a combination of private donations, student activity fees, state funds and lucrative media contracts.

The facility facelifts, providing increasing revenue to construction and architecture firms, come as the college football world goes through big changes. Conferences that historically were arranged by geographic area have cast aside regional rivalries in the rush to expand and secure distributions from media contracts. Consider that the University of Oregon and the University of Maryland will soon be conference mates in the Big Ten.

At stake are media rights valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. For example, if Stanford University, Southern Methodist University and the University of California, Berkeley join the Atlantic Coast Conference, ESPN will boost the media rights fee it pays the conference by 30% to $312 million, according to athletics publication Front Office Sports.

The Southeastern Conference is even more valuable. It agreed to a 10-year media rights deal with ESPN starting in 2024 worth $3 billion, according to SportsPro.

No wonder collegiate athletic departments are racing to build new facilities. Some projects, such as the $162 million renovation of Reser Stadium at Oregon State University in Corvallis, involve adding seats and amenities such as higher-end food options to generate more ticket revenue.

Other schools are building larger, nicer training facilities with the latest exercise and fitness equipment to try to recruit the best athletes. When this year’s football season is over, the University of Houston, which joined the Big 12 Conference this year, plans to start work on a $140 million training facility next to TDECU Stadium. The Houston Cougars' stadium was built in 2014 and has views of downtown Houston's skyline.

Universities are also building stadiums and arenas from scratch. San Diego State University last year opened the $310 million Snapdragon Stadium for its Aztecs football team. The University of Texas and a group of private-sector partners developed the $375 million Moody Center in Austin for the Longhorns' basketball teams.

Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, is spending $300 million to renovate its athletic facilities, including its football stadium. Vanderbilt has posted live video feeds on its athletic department website of the ongoing stadium construction.

One of the most unusual projects is the recently completed $70 million Spartan Athletic Center at San Jose State University in California. Architecture firm HOK designed a 55,000-square-foot athletic facility next to CEFCU Stadium, home of the Spartans’ football and soccer teams. The university removed the entire stadium on that side of the field to make room for the new structure, removing about 9,000 seats.

San Jose State wanted the new facility to be integrated into the stadium to provide athletes easier access to the field, said Shannon Bartch, regional leader of the sports, recreation and entertainment practice at HOK. It also provides the athletic department with more indoor space that can be used during games.

"Meeting rooms can be converted to suites, the dining area functions as a game-day club space and the view from the outdoor deck to the playing field is one of the best views in the stadium," Bartch told CoStar News.

"The football team lounge has a window system [inside the athletic facility] that can be opened to the exterior to allow an indoor-outdoor experience for the players," she said. "It will create a unique game day experience for spectators as well."

San Jose State kept the balustrades along the field and included lawn and lifestyle seating for families to watch games, she said. The Spartans athletic department can add seating back to the east side of the stadium at a later date as demand and funding dictates, Bartch said.

Like most major college athletic programs, San Jose State is trying to recruit the best athletes, Bartch said. Facilities are one of the top factors that high school students cite for choosing a college sports program.

San Jose State's facility includes the training room, "which promotes the student-athletes’ health, safety and recovery," she said. HOK's design also included a room called "Beyond Sparta," where students have access to study rooms and can receive academic assistance and career planning advice.

The Spartan Athletic Center "provides a home on campus where athletes can study, meet with fellow student athletes, train and eat meals together," she said. "These facilities play a key role in recruitment and retention of student-athletes."

HOK was the design architect for the Spartan Athletics Center. Webcor was the general contractor and Forell/Elsesser was the structural engineering firm. SRG Partnership is the architect for Oregon State's football stadium renovation.