What is the toughest college football stadium to play on? Bruce Feldman ranks No. 1 at LSU

EA Sports caused a lot of controversy when it did this revealed its classifications One of the toughest places to play in the upcoming College Football 25 video game. I have my own thoughts based on nearly 30 years of covering sports in which I’ve attended games and been on the sidelines in many of the most charged stadium atmospheres in the country.

The loudest and craziest place I’ve been to is the old Orange Bowl. When Miami had a huge game there — usually a visit to Florida State — there was nothing quite like it. The closest thing I’ve seen is LSU’s Tiger Stadium. My colleagues in The athlete They had their own thoughts on EA Sports’ roster, and now here’s my ranking of the 10 hardest places to play in college football.

1. LSU: Tiger Stadium

The place is just pure chaos, and it starts before kick-off. I’ve heard from many coaches over the years about how aggressively they treat their teams, from shaking their bus upon arrival to plying visitors with booze. Just seeing Mike the Tiger in person adds another layer of intimidation to this.

Mike Leach told me the story of the first time he went there when he was offensive coordinator at Kentucky.

“There were these little old ladies with their grandchildren getting off our bus,” Leach said. “Then as we got closer, they started shaking our bus!”

Count Leach is among those blown away by Mike the Tiger – and the whole experience.

I remember Being there in 2007 When Florida and Tim Tebow came to Death Valley on Saturday night to face off in the Top 10. Les Miles went for it five times in the fourth and his team – and his faithful – backed him every step of the way to pull out a come-from-behind 28-24 win. It was a then-record crowd of 92,910 people. It seemed like twice the number of people were crammed there into the stadium that now seats more than 100,000 people.

There was also the legendary Earthquake game in 1988. Technically, there were fewer than 80,000 fans there to watch LSU beat Auburn, 7-6. But the seismograph recorded an earthquake after Tommy Hodson connected on a TD pass on fourth down with less than two minutes to play.

I asked Derek Bonamski, a former LSU employee and longtime Louisiana media member, what was the loudest he had ever heard at a venue for a game, and he said it was in 2019 when another team from Florida, ranked No. 6, visited.

“That game was crazy from the second we got off the bus,” he said. “Ja’Marr (Chase’s) TD and our fourth-down stop in the red zone was almost as good as the Earthquake play or Rueben Randle’s catch and run in 2010 against Alabama. But that stadium was running on a jet engine for six hours. It was loud before they even got in The stadium. “College Gameday” on campus. It was electric.

If you meet someone who’s never been to college football but wants the full experience, there’s only one place they need to go to get the most out of it: Death Valley at LSU.

2. Alabama: Bryant-Denny Stadium

My favorite visit here was for the 2010 Iron Bowl — the Cam Newton game. There was a tremendous amount of drama surrounding Auburn and Newton that season based on the NCAA’s investigation into his recruitment.

In the wake of this game, Alabama employee let go Due to their decision to play the Steve Miller Band’s song “Take the Money and Run” over the stadium’s sound system during warm-ups. This only added to the buzzing energy in the building that day. The Tide jumped on the Tigers early, taking a 24-0 lead, but Newton was Superman that season. He led Auburn to a 28-27 victory, snapping a 20-game home winning streak for the Crimson Tide.

Bama also deserves a lot of credit for increasing the stadium’s energy with the lights and audio and video boards they have added over the years. It can seem like an overwhelmingly wonderful experience when they start rolling.

3. Penn State: Beaver Stadium

The Nittany Lions’ White Out games are deafening. Penn State typically saves it for the toughest game of the season, although given Fox’s recent “Big Noon” strategy that factored into Big Ten scheduling, sometimes it doesn’t end up that way.

The Nittany Lions have won six of their past seven primetime games, six of them against ranked opponents — including a 2016 win over No. 2 Ohio State. The only defeat was to No. 4 Ohio State by one point, 27-26, in 2018. Last year, Penn State beat No. 24 Iowa State, 31-0.

But I can speak from experience that it’s not just the White Outs team that makes this place special. The atmosphere last November when No. 3 Michigan visited Happy Valley was the loudest noon kickoff I can remember in the last decade — louder than any other “Big Noon” game I’ve attended — with nearly 111,000 people in attendance. Michigan, which had the most experienced team in the country in 2023, won that game by a score of 24-15.

4. Ohio State: Ohio Stadium

The Buckeyes have been the most dominant program in the Big Ten for a long time now, so anyone who emerges usually faces a team stacked with a more talented roster. However, the Horseshoe is a high-rise building that looks much different and more intimidating than the Big House in archrival Michigan. The crowd comes prepared to break their opponent early and seems shocked if there is anything other than a dominant Buckeyes display.

5. Virginia Tech: Lane Stadium*

The asterisk is here because I think about what this place was like in the past, not necessarily what it has been like in recent years. I get it. Recent results suggest otherwise. As fellow Pete Sampson pointed out, the Hokies are 2-10 at home against top-25 teams over the past decade, but when the Hokies play well, this place is unique. I’ve been here for a few Hokies that have beaten top-10 teams where the place has been great. It has some Tiger Stadium vibes, and there’s something special about it, too.

“Enter Sandman” only takes the first two seconds to play and I get goosebumps. This happens every time, even after more than a decade. It immediately brings me back to the way Lane Stadium comes alive like nowhere else, and in a way that’s different from Camp Randall and “jumping around.” This is rabid. This is more dangerous.

It also fits perfectly with their playing style. Relying primarily on their vaunted special teams, but also on their aggressive defense, the Hokies have been the preeminent turnover/snapback team in college football. It often seemed like they were one big step away from turning or opening the game.

There was more than a decade of hockey magic from the late 1990s to the 2000s in Frank Beamer’s heyday where Lane was a room of horrors. In 1999, Virginia Tech faced three top-25 teams — Syracuse, Miami and Boston College — and outscored them by a combined score of 143-24 at home. In 2002, Tech crushed No. 14 LSU led by Nick Sabin, 26-8. The following year, a top-10 ranked Hawkeyes crushed No. 2 seed Miami, 31-7. In 2004, the Hokies defeated No. 6 seed West Virginia. In 2005, they beat No. 15 seed Georgia Tech and No. 13 seed Boston College by a combined score of 81-17. In 2009, Lane Stadium hosted back-to-back wins by Top 20 teams over Nebraska and Miami.

If Brent Bray can make a hockey team again, Laine will become an opponent’s worst nightmare.

6. Florida: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium

In my experience, the Swamp isn’t quite in the league of LSU and Bama, but it’s right up there with Tennessee and Georgia when it comes to the true big heavyweight experiences the SEC has to offer. Being there in the 90s in the Steve Spurrier days to watch the Gators take on FSU and Bobby Bowden was cool.

7. Tennessee: Neyland Stadium

On my first trip to Knoxville, I watched Tennessee play Georgia in the late 1990s. The Vols were really shining at the time, and were able to get down the field in the end zone behind the Dawgs’ offense when they were trapped inside their own 10. I couldn’t even hear the person next to me. It was a sea of ​​orange, and it’s easy to see why so many top-25 teams were defeated there over the years when Tennessee was in its prime. Georgia was ranked 13th that day and lost to the Vols by a score of 38-13.

Autzen Stadium exceeds all expectations in terms of crowd noise. (Tom Hauck/Getty Images)

8. Oregon: Autzen Stadium

I remember one of the opposing employees telling me they had to pump up the hype at practice the week before they faced the Ducks. It doesn’t seem like a venue of this size – seating 54,000 people – could be that loud. It didn’t make sense to him. But in a matchup between top 10 teams, the Ducks beat their visitors by nearly three touchdowns.

Autzen Stadium is also a place where you can see almost every type of weather imaginable on the same day. Oregon State has been great there for a long time and has defeated 31 of its previous 32 opponents in Autzen.

9. Georgia: Sanford Stadium

I remember seeing a good Boise State team come in there ranked No. 18 against No. 13 Georgia in 2005. The Broncos came out unglued and looked overwhelmed, losing 48-13. It was 38-0 before the Broncos settled. Jared Zabransky, who was a really good player at Boise State, had his first two passes intercepted and turned them over six times in the first half.

It doesn’t look any easier for the visitors now that the Dawgs are more talented. UGA has won 13 straight games against Top 25 opponents at Sanford Stadium.

10. Texas A&M: Kyle Field

I was there when the press box shook. Kyle Field is a magnificent building that is so noisy, opponents complain that their sidelines smell like horse manure. My first trip to the game was Johnny Manziel’s debut against Florida. It was dynamic. The building shook. But A&M lost. That’s why Kyle Field isn’t at the top of my list, even if he is #1 in the EA Sports rankings.

When A&M was really good, the Aggies were still struggling at home more than they should have. Manziel led them to a win at Bryant-Denny Stadium in 2012, but the next year, as bad as it felt at Kyle Field in the rematch, A&M lost.

(Top image: Jonathan Bachmann/Getty Images)