EA Sports sparked a lot of debate when it revealed its rankings of the hardest places to play for the upcoming video game College Football 25. I have my own thoughts based on some thirty years of covering the sport in which I have witnessed at games and been on the sidelines of many of the nation’s busiest stadium atmospheres.
The loudest, craziest place I’ve ever been to is the old Orange Bowl. When there was a huge Miami game there – usually a visit to Florida State – nothing looked like it. The closest thing I’ve seen is LSU’s Tiger Stadium. My colleagues from Athleticism they had their own ideas about EA Sports’ list, and now here is my ranking of the 10 hardest places to play college football.
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Toughest Places to Play in College Football 25: Debating the Rankings
1. LSU: Tiger Stadium
The place is pure chaos, and it starts well before kickoff. I’ve heard from many coaches over the years how hostile the treatment of their teams is, from shaking down their bus at the finish line to dousing visitors with alcohol. Just seeing Mike the Tiger in person adds an extra layer of intimidation to this situation.
Mike Leach told me the story of the first time he walked in there when he was offensive coordinator at Kentucky.
“There were these little old ladies with their grandkids getting off our bus,” Leach said. “Then, as we get closer, they start moving our bus!” »
Count Leach among those impressed by Mike the Tiger – and the whole experience.
I remember being there in 2007 when Florida and Tim Tebow arrived in Death Valley on a Saturday night for a top-10 showdown. Les Miles went for it five times on fourth down and his team – and his faithful – backed him every step of the way for a come-from-behind 28-24 victory. It was then a record attendance of 92,910 people. It seemed like there were twice as many people in a stadium that now holds more than 100,000.
There was also the legendary Earthquake Game in 1988. Technically, there were fewer than 80,000 fans to see LSU topple Auburn, 7-6. But a seismograph registered an earthquake after Tommy Hodson connected on a fourth-down pass with less than two minutes to play.
I asked Derek Ponamsky, former LSU staffer and longtime Louisiana media member, what the loudest venue he’d ever heard for a game was, and he said it was in 2019 when another team from Florida, ranked No. 6, came to visit.
“This game was crazy from the second we got off the bus,” he said. “Ja’Marr’s (Chase) TD and our fourth-down stop in the red zone was almost as good as the Earthquake Game or Rueben Randle’s catch and run in 2010 against Alabama. But this stadium ran like a jet engine for six hours. It was LOUD before they even took the field. “College Gameday” on campus. It was electric.
If you meet someone who has never participated in college football but wants the full experience, there is only one place they need to go to fully enjoy it: LSU’s Death Valley .
2. Alabama: Bryant-Denny Stadium
My favorite visit here was to the 2010 Iron Bowl – the Cam Newton game. There was a ton of drama surrounding Auburn and Newton that season, based on the NCAA’s investigation into his recruitment.
Following this game, an Alabama staff member was fired due to his decision to play the Steve Miller Band song “Take the Money and Run” on the stadium sound system during warmups. This only added to the noisy energy in the building that day. The Tide jumped all over the Tigers early on, going up 24-0, but Newton was Superman that season. He led Auburn to a 28-27 comeback victory, ending a 20-game home winning streak for the Crimson Tide.
Bama also deserves a lot of credit for increasing the energy of the stadium with the lights, audio and video boards they have added over the years. It can seem like a pretty disconcerting experience when they first get started.
3. Penn State: Beaver Stadium
The Nittany Lions’ White Out games are deafening. Penn State usually reserves it for the toughest game of the season, although with Fox’s recent “Big Noon” strategy taking into account the Big Ten schedule, sometimes it doesn’t end up that way.
The Nittany Lions have won six of their last seven prime-time White Outs, including six against ranked opponents – including the 2016 win over No. 2 Ohio State. The only loss was to No. 4 Ohio State by one point, 27-26, in 2018. Last year, Penn State shut out No. 24 Iowa, 31-0.
But I can say from experience that it’s not just the White Outs that make this place special. The atmosphere last November, when No. 3 Michigan visited Happy Valley, was the loudest noon kickoff game I can remember in the last decade – louder than any other game in “Big Noon” which I attended – with almost 111,000 people in attendance. Michigan, which had the most experienced team in the country in 2023, won that game, 24-15.
4. Ohio State: Ohio Stadium
The Buckeyes have long been the most dominant program in the Big Ten, so whoever shows up usually faces a team with a more talented roster. Still, the Horseshoe is an imposing building that seems much different and more intimidating than rival Michigan’s Big House. The crowd comes in ready to break their opponent down early and seems shocked if there is anything other than a dominant Buckeyes.
5. Virginia Tech: Lane Stadium*
The asterisk is here because I’m thinking about what this place was like in the past, not necessarily what it’s been like in recent years. I understand. Recent results indicate the opposite. As colleague Pete Sampson noted, 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 matchups between the Hokies and top 10 teams where the location is awesome. There’s a certain Tiger Stadium vibe, and there’s also something special.
It only takes the first two seconds of “Enter Sandman” to play and I get goosebumps. It happens every time, even over a decade later. This immediately brings me back to how Lane Stadium comes to life like no other venue, in a way that Camp Randall Stadium and “Jump Around” do not. It’s frantic; It’s more worrying.
It also fits their style of play perfectly. Based primarily on their vaunted special teams, but also their aggressive defense, the Hokies were college football’s premier sudden-change, quick-strike team. It often felt like they were one big move away from turning things around or blowing them up.
There was over a decade of Hokie magic from the late ’90s to the 2000s, during the era of Frank Beamer, where Lane was a chamber of horrors. In 1999, Virginia Tech faced three Top 25 teams – Syracuse, Miami and Boston College – and outscored them 143-24 at home. In 2002, Tech crushed Nick Saban’s No. 14 LSU team, 26-8. The following year, a top-10 Hokies team defeated No. 2 Miami, 31-7. In 2004, the Hokies beat No. 6 West Virginia. In 2005, they beat No. 15 Georgia Tech and No. 13 Boston College by a combined score of 81-17. In 2009, Lane Stadium hosted back-to-back top-20 victories over Nebraska and Miami.
If Brent Pry manages to revive the Hokies, Lane will become the opponent’s worst nightmare.
6. Florida: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
In my experience, The Swamp isn’t quite in the category with LSU and Bama, but it’s right up there with Tennessee and Georgia when it comes to a truly high-profile experience with the SEC heavyweights. Being there in the 90s, during the Steve Spurrier era, to see the Gators take on FSU and Bobby Bowden was fantastic.
7. Tennessee: Neyland Stadium
On my first trip to Knoxville, I saw Tennessee play Georgia in the late 90s. The Vols were really rolling at the time, and I got to be on the field in the zone goals behind the Dawgs offense when they were backed into 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 ended up there over the years when UT was in great shape. Georgia was No. 13 that day and lost to the Vols, 38-13.
Autzen Stadium punches above its weight in crowd noise. (Tom Hauck/Getty Images)
8. Oregon: Autzen Stadium
I remember a rival staff member telling me they needed to be loud in practice the week before playing the Ducks. It doesn’t seem like a place this size – seating 54,000 people – could be this loud. It just 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 in the same day. Oregon has been great there for a long time and has beaten 31 of its last 32 opponents in Autzen.
9. Georgia: Sanford Stadium
I remember seeing a good Boise State team come in there ranked 18th against 13th ranked Georgia in 2005. The Broncos simply lost and looked overwhelmed, losing 48-13. The score was 38-0 before the Broncos calmed down. Jared Zabransky, who was a very good QB for Boise State, had his first two passes intercepted and lost the ball six times in the first half.
It doesn’t seem to have gotten any easier for the visitors now that the Dawgs are even 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 great building that gets really, really loud, and opponents complain that their sidelines smell like horse manure. My first trip to a game was for Johnny Manziel’s debut against Florida. He was dynamic. The building shook. A&M lost, however. This is why Kyle Field isn’t higher on my list, even though he’s #1 in EA Sports’ rankings.
When A&M has been really good, the Aggies have still struggled more at home than they should. Manziel led them to a victory at Bryant-Denny Stadium in 2012, but the next year, as wild as it seemed at Kyle Field for the rematch, A&M lost.
(Top photo: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)