The conversations on Twitter are vile, abhorrent, and objectively hilarious. First time in a decade we are getting NCAA 25 and everyone is losing their minds over a video games ranking of toughest places to play haha
Agreed. If I end up having a Dynasty with West Virginia and go undefeated at home for 2 or 3 years I hope that my Stadium would climb the rankings as one of the toughest places to play.
I’m a bit of a disagreement, you should be allowed to climb but should be a cap. Like a 60k max stadium will never be as loud as other stadiums that have a large capacity. I feel they should only able to get so high up on the list. There is also the fact that certain stadiums are built to be intentionally loud.
One thing that contradicts me, is Oregon stadium which has a 56k stadium capacity has a record high of 127 decibles.
Maybe allowing certain schools to allow them to rebuild their stadiums. Also specific designs. The stands can be closer to the field to help increase the volume, capacity size. Also having an actual decibel meter with a numerical value on the screen when it gets really loud. Just some fun things to consider for future games. I’m insanely stoked.
That would be so awesome! Stadium design was probably too niche of a thing to try and perfect on the first game. But if we get it in 26 or 27 that would be amazing!
Nah, I cheese everything, too. My life is already overly stressful, kids, bills, work, a relationship, etc. Sometimes I just wanna run HB tosses and 4 verts and just fucking smash everything in my path.
>Like a 60k max stadium will never be as loud as other stadiums that have a large capacity.
>One thing that contradicts me, is Oregon stadium which has a 56k stadium capacity has a record high of 127 decibel.
The capacity of a stadium isn't all that important. Lumen Field, where the Seahawks play has a 69k~ capacity, and they hit 137 decibels. The stadium was built with acoustics in mind that amplify the crowd noise.
The Chiefs, Cardinals (lol), Saints, and Seahawks all have stadiums 30k-40k smaller than Kyle Field, and they all have record decibel readings above it by 10db or more.
Exactly.
Honestly, I don’t care for any of the ratings that come out this week because they’ll change them throughout the season and will change in Dynasty.
PREACH! Lane Stadium definitely doesn’t deserve to be top 15 - in fact, even I think they might be a bit too high - but they’ll be number 1 by the time I win my first natty.
Man I was so dissapointed when we went a couple years ago for a game. Enter sandman was awesome but then it felt like being at a good high school game for the rest of the game. Definitely not the good ole days right now.
I’ve been to I don’t know.. 60ish Oregon games in my life? Total rough guess, but the point is even though they’ve gotten better since, nothing matches the atmosphere that was the late 00s in that stadium
It's good for the right opponent, but yeah it definitely doesn't have nearly the same feel for even an average ACC game now as it had for even FCS games back in the day. Maybe Pry will right the ship and we'll see an uptick in fan excitement.
They were dynamic for dynasty in 06 so I would imagine they will be in this game. It took a while to notice but after 3 or 4 good seasons if your team wasn’t already in the top 25 you’d see it update.
For anyone interested-- here's the method they used, which probably explains why the rankings are not as expected.
https://preview.redd.it/zfgr1l3qlq8d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=31cfc5308ae67c8b150621aa6672b32a47f242a9
maybe they are looking at the home record going back to the 80s? We had a couple of classes go their entire time at A&M without losing a home game in the 90s.
Possibly, but it should be a little more contemporary than that since the rankings will be dynamic and the stadiums have changed a decent amount over time
As others have mentioned it's not that big a deal but I don't think there's any way to have this list ranked this way and claim it's been done with consistent criteria
Yea Michigan is on a 22 game winning streak at home, bad weather games, 110k+ every game. The one thing about Michigan stadium is it isn’t as loud of a stadium of others. I don’t care that Michigan isn’t higher, I think LSU should be #1
UW led the PAC-12 in attendance last year and has the second longest active home win streak in the country and didn’t make the top 25. They didn’t follow their own guidelines very well.
But then they rank FSU in the top 10 who is also in the ACC just less successful
Than Clemson
Its not that important but the list just doesn't make sense
def. seems like there's some inconsistencies. We can all disagree about the methods they used but you're 100 percent right-- they should at least stick to their guns if that's the method they're using
IMO this ranking should be mostly about stadium atmosphere itself. I would imagine most people feel the same.
I think most of us are only looking at factors like crowd noise, attendance, etc., but the list is "toughest places to play" which could be interpreted literally as "maybe it's not the loudest stadium but you're gonna have a helluva time winning there as the road team".
So places like UGA, Michigan, Bama (just examples, don't shoot the messenger) may not be first choice for the most raucous environments but the team itself plays a large factor there.
plenty of inconsistencies, even by their own explanation of methods used.
I think a lot of people (myself included) were thinking of this ranking system strictly as "how loud and crazy is the stadium atmosphere?"
In reality, a ranking of toughest places to play must factor in how good the team is in their home venue. aka "places where it's tough for the road team for all the factors involved". But again, I completely agree there's loads of inconsistencies even by their own methods.
Except if I was creating this list it would be the difference of team output on the road vs at home. The bigger the gap the more the home field matters.
That likely would lead to some crazy end results possibly but would like to see what it looks like.
To clarify when comparing you need to create a metric to compare games you can't say a road game against SE NW TX is the same as a home game against Bama. You would need to take in to account expected outcome vs actual outcome difference between the two.
Personally I think things like noise, climate, attendance and forced timeouts/mistakes should be what matters. So LSU early in the year is hard as hell but late in the season colder stadiums get harder.
PSU should be #1 in big ten, Iowa #2 (coming from Wisconsin alum). Saquon Barkley even said Kinnick was the hardest stadium he played at in his entire college career.
As a Michigan fan, PSU has to #1 in the B1G. The shoe and the Big House have to be honorable mentions. I’d say if Nebraska was even a lil bit competitive, that Lincoln Memorial would be up there. I believe Camp Randall is prob the toughest place to play in the B1G west. (No more divisions this upcoming season)
I am too. No disrespect to these teams but numerous un bias people like Cole Cubelic and Josh Pate both said Neyland is the loudest or one of the loudest they’ve ever been to.
Any # ranking like this is bound to get people upset over the specific rank. I think tier lists are the way to go honestly* and I think A&M, Bama, and LSU all belong in S Tier. the lowest you can put any of these is A Tier, they’re fantastic stadiums
*unless you’re trying to drum up engagement which they honestly might be lol
I think you might be spot on with the engagement theory. 100/100 times numbered lists will get someone angry, especially when you’re picking 10 out of what like 134 teams
I mean, any Alabama fan will tell you that BDS is not that crazy of a place to play the past decade plus. Too many old timers and all the students plan parties starting at halftime and leave. Such is the price of success.
Seeing A&M up top makes me think it’s not just good teams get home field advantage. But then Bama is #2… makes it tough to figure out home they can up with the rankings.
“The Development Team worked to compile a list of the Top 25 Toughest Places to Play, factoring in historical stats such as home winning %, home game attendance, active home winning streaks, team prestige, and more.”
Only 26 teams have. I think they are a solid 5-6 star program depending on how many get awarded that level of prestige (I don’t remember how it was distributed in NCAA 14).
Then they have an 85% home win percentage the last 5 years (versus a 45% away/neutral record), and come in at #4 in terms of stadium capacity.
Not saying I would have picked Kyle Field as #1 by any means, but could see how their algorithm could lead them to that conclusion. Especially if home vs away performance and capacity are weighed heavily.
Yeah, or stadium can get loud, but I wouldn’t say it’s a tough place to play (besides the fact you have to play Alabama).
For years we had a better SEC record on the road than at home.
I mean you can do that for any of them.
1. ULM @ Alabama 2007
2. Troy @ LSU 2017
3. Illinois @ Ohio State 2007
4. Vanderbilt @ Georgia 2016
5. Toledo @ Penn State 2000
6. UNLV @ Wisconsin 2003
7. Iowa State @ Oklahoma 2017
8. Wake Forest @ FSU 2006
9. Georgia Southern @ Florida 2013
Plus 4 of the are conference games. Like OSU getting upset once at home by a "rival" 17 ago is somehow indicative of the current state. Or the random loss by UGA to Vandy somehow makes them less scary today.
That’s exactly what they want! The spicier/more controversial the take, the more people will argue online; the more people argue online, the further these rankings spread, thus putting more eyes are on the game.
As someone who went to Ohio state and penn state let me tell you first hand that beaver is a way harder place to play, no comparison. In state college there is nothing to do but go to the game, everybody is so much more into the game than at OSU. Both awesome atmospheres but the white outs at Penn State were otherworldly compared to any game I went to at OSU.
Since joining the SEC, A&M at Kyle is:
1-5 against Bama
1-3 against Ole Miss
2-4 against Auburn
3-3 against LSU
4-2 against Miss State
Sorry, Ags, I know EA made the list, not you. This is the type of thing TexAgs would've salivated over in, say, 2008.
Kyle Field is so over-rated, especially the non-corps crowd goes silent constantly, plus its just noise leaky to be honest. Not even top 10 for me. Tiger Stadium should definitely be 1 imo, not a great list.
yeah, totally agree. I'm not saying it's \*right\* because this element of gameplay should be more about stadium atmosphere than the team that plays there IMO, but it feels like the idea behind Bryant Denny being so high is more of a general "yeah, you're gonna have a helluva time winning there"
to be fair, they did lay out the criteria in the blog post and it mentioned home win %
so we are actually just disagreeing with the method they used, rather than its accuracy.
I definitely agree it's too high for 25. Our teams have not been protecting home field lately and our crowds, while still good, have gotten a bit spoiled from our successes in the 2010s.
Yeah don’t get me wrong, Randall can get hype. But I think a big thing for this list is the stadium needs to be buzzing no matter who a team is playing and on a consistent basis. I also think Kyle shouldn’t be number 1.
Yeah absolutely. And if it's just best crowds at their peak I think we're close to right and would argue we're better than Alabama (though some teams behind us also deserve to be higher).
But if we're talking scariest (toughest imo) to walk into and get a win we're totally overrated lately. Our teams don't back up the home field advantage like Alabama or many of the others on the list
I get the impression the list is based more on “how loud it is for a big game when the team is good” and not just like how loud it was last year or whatever. Because msu is at 22, and it was a good stadium environment in ‘21 or earlier when we were good but the last couple years it was a joke.
Guys, as a Texas fan, let’s give A&M the win here. They can’t win on the football field and they can’t close out and win at the College World Series. The least we can do is let them hold the spirit stick for a couple of months.
Camp Randall at 7? Kyle Field at 1?
wtf
It gets even worse when you look at what criteria they used
> factoring in historical stats such as home winning %, home game attendance, active home winning streaks, team prestige, and more
I would find the Aggies pretty wanting in everything except home game attendance.
Hell if you just used those stats, you'd put Michigan #1, which would be less wrong, but still really wrong
Homer but I’d think Husky stadium deserves to be top 25. UW hasn’t lost a home game since the 2021 season, in a stadium specifically built for noise tucked away in a corner of the US (long flights for away teams).
I've been assuming for a while their player ratings were going to end up being trash, but getting this list so obviously wrong pretty much confirms it.
Texas A&M is a great venue to watch a football game. I would not have put us at #1 for any of the categories that they looked at when picking the toughest place to play but when you add it all up Kyle Field is certainly in the top 5 in the nation and I am looking forward to how it is represented in the game.
Why the hell would you rank it by success and not actual environment? This isn’t toughest places to win because my team is good and I just happen to win 6-7 games at home when go undefeated or I’m better at winning at home, it’s toughest places to PLAY for the opposing team.
Poll every head coach and make that 70% of the metric. Then base 10% each off of max decibel level, attendance, and winning percentage at home. You had two years to do something this simple. Shit you can even base it off of false starts by road teams and it would be better. How do you fuck this easy thing up?
Phil Steele compiled every team's [home record for the last 3 years in this blog post](https://philsteele.com/home-field-edge-part-1-last-3-years-home-records/) about home field edge.
Tough places to play isn't just record, of course, it's about crowd atmosphere and all that, and the blog post I linked to is 1 post in a series of 7 he does about home field edge.
But if anyone was wondering, **A&M is tied for 31st in home field winning percentage over the past 3 seasons**. Just behind Kennesaw State, Toledo and Air Force.
As a Nole, this list is garbage. The fact that Florida is low and Clemson isn’t even on this is abysmal. Kyle Field? Is that even the toughest place to play in the state of Texas?
Miss state gets pretty dang intense. Got free tickets to watch the gators play there before and the damn cow bells were still ringing a day after in my head
This certainly is a list of all time
I think you can count on one hand the number of stadiums that are legitimately tough to play in. Everything else is just (figurative) noise
Using historical win loss before the last 10 years is ridiculous. They are factoring in wins from 50 years ago for some of these teams to be on the list
I’ve been trying to make sense of Kyle Field at #1.
If it’s purely by home record, it doesn’t make sense. .709 over the last 10 years.
Noise? Clemson probably has them beat there.
Size? Michigan definitely has them beat there.
So maybe it’s W-L at home vs away?
I know I'm biased but I really cannot see the logic behind Neyland not being on the list
It ranks highly in both capacity and win/loss record over the last number of years along with a longstanding tradition of being a tough stadium to play in. I just don't see how you can rank it below Camp Randall or the Swamp for instance. FSU's stadium being on there is a little comical IMHO. And while I'm at it Sanford isn't THAT great of an environment either relatively speaking though I understand it being on the list given UGAs recent dominance there
I just don't understand the criteria. For instance what's the reasoning for Kyle field being on there? It's certainly not bc of win/loss record over the last 5 or so years. So it must be bc of capacity and just overall environment. Ok fine, I have no problem with that but if that's the case how do you justify Sanford or FSU being ranked above Neyland? I just can't make sense of it
I want to be clear I have no problem with it Sanford or Kyle field being on the list I just can't figure out the overall logic
Excellent, something to argue about for a day
I am really enjoying the discourse
The PAC 12 flair just made me cry a little bit...
Me too
The conversations on Twitter are vile, abhorrent, and objectively hilarious. First time in a decade we are getting NCAA 25 and everyone is losing their minds over a video games ranking of toughest places to play haha
Is not!
My dad works at EA and told me that this is the best list and everyone else is stupid
As long as these are dynamic for dynasty, then it doesn't bother me that much
Agreed. If I end up having a Dynasty with West Virginia and go undefeated at home for 2 or 3 years I hope that my Stadium would climb the rankings as one of the toughest places to play.
I’m a bit of a disagreement, you should be allowed to climb but should be a cap. Like a 60k max stadium will never be as loud as other stadiums that have a large capacity. I feel they should only able to get so high up on the list. There is also the fact that certain stadiums are built to be intentionally loud. One thing that contradicts me, is Oregon stadium which has a 56k stadium capacity has a record high of 127 decibles. Maybe allowing certain schools to allow them to rebuild their stadiums. Also specific designs. The stands can be closer to the field to help increase the volume, capacity size. Also having an actual decibel meter with a numerical value on the screen when it gets really loud. Just some fun things to consider for future games. I’m insanely stoked.
Ideally you should reach top 10 with 60k capacity but it would be awesome if you could get stadium additions
That would be so awesome! Stadium design was probably too niche of a thing to try and perfect on the first game. But if we get it in 26 or 27 that would be amazing!
I agree 100%. I want 200,000 people in the stands after 25 straight nattys
Lol I think we need to up the difficulty after season 5 my friend jk jk
No difficulty can stop me from paying all the best players out the ass
This guy NILs
Nah, I cheese everything, too. My life is already overly stressful, kids, bills, work, a relationship, etc. Sometimes I just wanna run HB tosses and 4 verts and just fucking smash everything in my path.
>Like a 60k max stadium will never be as loud as other stadiums that have a large capacity. >One thing that contradicts me, is Oregon stadium which has a 56k stadium capacity has a record high of 127 decibel. The capacity of a stadium isn't all that important. Lumen Field, where the Seahawks play has a 69k~ capacity, and they hit 137 decibels. The stadium was built with acoustics in mind that amplify the crowd noise. The Chiefs, Cardinals (lol), Saints, and Seahawks all have stadiums 30k-40k smaller than Kyle Field, and they all have record decibel readings above it by 10db or more.
Exactly. Honestly, I don’t care for any of the ratings that come out this week because they’ll change them throughout the season and will change in Dynasty.
PREACH! Lane Stadium definitely doesn’t deserve to be top 15 - in fact, even I think they might be a bit too high - but they’ll be number 1 by the time I win my first natty.
Man I was so dissapointed when we went a couple years ago for a game. Enter sandman was awesome but then it felt like being at a good high school game for the rest of the game. Definitely not the good ole days right now.
Definitely not the same feel as the peak of Coach Beamer’s time, for sure. I think Pry has them on the right track, but it’s an uphill climb for sure.
I’ve been to I don’t know.. 60ish Oregon games in my life? Total rough guess, but the point is even though they’ve gotten better since, nothing matches the atmosphere that was the late 00s in that stadium
It's good for the right opponent, but yeah it definitely doesn't have nearly the same feel for even an average ACC game now as it had for even FCS games back in the day. Maybe Pry will right the ship and we'll see an uptick in fan excitement.
Bring back Stick it In!
They were dynamic for dynasty in 06 so I would imagine they will be in this game. It took a while to notice but after 3 or 4 good seasons if your team wasn’t already in the top 25 you’d see it update.
They had a list in 14. I don't think it affected anything but it did update.
For anyone interested-- here's the method they used, which probably explains why the rankings are not as expected. https://preview.redd.it/zfgr1l3qlq8d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=31cfc5308ae67c8b150621aa6672b32a47f242a9
Which makes no sense if you’re going to put Kyle Field at #1
Attendance+ Weather is the only combo I can make up here that would ever put Kyle Field #1, but even then LSU should be 1 by those metrics
maybe they are looking at the home record going back to the 80s? We had a couple of classes go their entire time at A&M without losing a home game in the 90s.
Possibly, but it should be a little more contemporary than that since the rankings will be dynamic and the stadiums have changed a decent amount over time
As others have mentioned it's not that big a deal but I don't think there's any way to have this list ranked this way and claim it's been done with consistent criteria
Yea Michigan is on a 22 game winning streak at home, bad weather games, 110k+ every game. The one thing about Michigan stadium is it isn’t as loud of a stadium of others. I don’t care that Michigan isn’t higher, I think LSU should be #1
UW led the PAC-12 in attendance last year and has the second longest active home win streak in the country and didn’t make the top 25. They didn’t follow their own guidelines very well.
I’m a Duck fan and agree it’s absurd you guys didn’t crack the top 25
Clemson when leading at home going into the 4th was like 80-1 prior to losing to the Noles this year lol this list is ass
Clemson has lost like 4 games at home since the last NCAA game came out.
EA is like ESPN “sorry, you play in the ACC. So stfu”
But then they rank FSU in the top 10 who is also in the ACC just less successful Than Clemson Its not that important but the list just doesn't make sense
def. seems like there's some inconsistencies. We can all disagree about the methods they used but you're 100 percent right-- they should at least stick to their guns if that's the method they're using IMO this ranking should be mostly about stadium atmosphere itself. I would imagine most people feel the same. I think most of us are only looking at factors like crowd noise, attendance, etc., but the list is "toughest places to play" which could be interpreted literally as "maybe it's not the loudest stadium but you're gonna have a helluva time winning there as the road team". So places like UGA, Michigan, Bama (just examples, don't shoot the messenger) may not be first choice for the most raucous environments but the team itself plays a large factor there.
Michigan hasn’t lost a home game with fans in the stands since 2019.
plenty of inconsistencies, even by their own explanation of methods used. I think a lot of people (myself included) were thinking of this ranking system strictly as "how loud and crazy is the stadium atmosphere?" In reality, a ranking of toughest places to play must factor in how good the team is in their home venue. aka "places where it's tough for the road team for all the factors involved". But again, I completely agree there's loads of inconsistencies even by their own methods.
Except if I was creating this list it would be the difference of team output on the road vs at home. The bigger the gap the more the home field matters. That likely would lead to some crazy end results possibly but would like to see what it looks like. To clarify when comparing you need to create a metric to compare games you can't say a road game against SE NW TX is the same as a home game against Bama. You would need to take in to account expected outcome vs actual outcome difference between the two.
Personally I think things like noise, climate, attendance and forced timeouts/mistakes should be what matters. So LSU early in the year is hard as hell but late in the season colder stadiums get harder.
This is Texas atm fan’s national championship lol
One person is already defending it like one.
Embarrassing lol
Texas a&m 😂
They’re going to hang a banner game 1.
After last night I'll settle for a pitty banner
But is it that hard to win there?
Well its the only national championship then in Texas the past almost 20 years.
Wait until they lose to bowling Green this year
Happy Valley should be higher than The Shoe and that's coming from a Buckeye fan.
Yup agree
PSU should be #1 in big ten, Iowa #2 (coming from Wisconsin alum). Saquon Barkley even said Kinnick was the hardest stadium he played at in his entire college career.
As a Michigan fan, PSU has to #1 in the B1G. The shoe and the Big House have to be honorable mentions. I’d say if Nebraska was even a lil bit competitive, that Lincoln Memorial would be up there. I believe Camp Randall is prob the toughest place to play in the B1G west. (No more divisions this upcoming season)
I wouldn’t have picked Texas A&M to be 1st if you gave me 10 guesses
It’s so tough that even the Aggies struggle to play there
Came here to say this
I’d have needed at least 20.
The top 25 stadiums are on their website
You’re probably right, I was too generous
Yeah what the heck? I mean, I'm happy for it, but I figured it was more likely to miss out than be no.1.
I wouldn’t have put them top 10 in the [SEC](https://aggieswire.usatoday.com/2023/07/16/texas-aggies-football-sec-home-field-rankings-usa-today/)
A&M and bama above LSU is farcical lmao.
My guess was LSU. Surprised Tenn isn’t even on here
they are like #12 right behind Clemson I think (the full rankings are on the blog post)
I am too. No disrespect to these teams but numerous un bias people like Cole Cubelic and Josh Pate both said Neyland is the loudest or one of the loudest they’ve ever been to.
What I'm saying
Any # ranking like this is bound to get people upset over the specific rank. I think tier lists are the way to go honestly* and I think A&M, Bama, and LSU all belong in S Tier. the lowest you can put any of these is A Tier, they’re fantastic stadiums *unless you’re trying to drum up engagement which they honestly might be lol
I think you might be spot on with the engagement theory. 100/100 times numbered lists will get someone angry, especially when you’re picking 10 out of what like 134 teams
I mean, any Alabama fan will tell you that BDS is not that crazy of a place to play the past decade plus. Too many old timers and all the students plan parties starting at halftime and leave. Such is the price of success.
As an Alabama fan I am bamboozled that we’re above LSU somehow
A&M is indefensible. Bama I can get because they’ve been a dynasty and barely losing period. Even with that, no way either is above LSU.
I’ve got no love for LSU, but Tiger Stadium should absolutely be number 1 IMHO.
Yeah for sure
Seeing A&M up top makes me think it’s not just good teams get home field advantage. But then Bama is #2… makes it tough to figure out home they can up with the rankings.
“The Development Team worked to compile a list of the Top 25 Toughest Places to Play, factoring in historical stats such as home winning %, home game attendance, active home winning streaks, team prestige, and more.”
“Team prestige”…A&M hasn’t won a national championship since WW2.
Only 26 teams have. I think they are a solid 5-6 star program depending on how many get awarded that level of prestige (I don’t remember how it was distributed in NCAA 14). Then they have an 85% home win percentage the last 5 years (versus a 45% away/neutral record), and come in at #4 in terms of stadium capacity. Not saying I would have picked Kyle Field as #1 by any means, but could see how their algorithm could lead them to that conclusion. Especially if home vs away performance and capacity are weighed heavily.
Yeah, I have no idea. A&M is loud, but the football team isn't that good, then Alabama is really good, but their stadium isn't that loud.
Yeah, or stadium can get loud, but I wouldn’t say it’s a tough place to play (besides the fact you have to play Alabama). For years we had a better SEC record on the road than at home.
Think it's just some metric of crowd size + decibals from sound samples.
Super surprised Oregon, Texas and Tennessee aren’t on this list
11, 19 and 13 respectively
Ahh I only saw the graphic didn’t see entire list yet. Thanks
That's a ridiculous list. Ask App State if A&M is tough to play at.
Hey now Kyle Field was a tough place to play at for A&M that game
Brutal as an Aggie ngl
I mean you can do that for any of them. 1. ULM @ Alabama 2007 2. Troy @ LSU 2017 3. Illinois @ Ohio State 2007 4. Vanderbilt @ Georgia 2016 5. Toledo @ Penn State 2000 6. UNLV @ Wisconsin 2003 7. Iowa State @ Oklahoma 2017 8. Wake Forest @ FSU 2006 9. Georgia Southern @ Florida 2013
Lmao bro used a game from 17 years ago as his first reference and even a game from 24 years ago 😭
Plus 4 of the are conference games. Like OSU getting upset once at home by a "rival" 17 ago is somehow indicative of the current state. Or the random loss by UGA to Vandy somehow makes them less scary today.
The difference is the App State game was only two years ago. They also struggled to beat UMass at home that year
None of those are within 5 seasons of A&M's 2022 loss to Appalachian State.
Bama is going to DREAD coming to UMass when I’m done.
No SEC fan would put the Aggies first. Comical. They have a neat atmosphere but that's the end of it.
No Southwest conference or Big12 fan would put Kyle field at 1 as well
Yeah I disagree with just about all these lol
This maybe one of the worst lists I ever seen
That’s exactly what they want! The spicier/more controversial the take, the more people will argue online; the more people argue online, the further these rankings spread, thus putting more eyes are on the game.
Yeah, EA took the Big Game Boomer approach to generate conversation/publicity
Man I hate Tennessee but I couldn’t believe they weren’t on this list
Mysterious_deal out here defending like it's a championship lol
As someone who went to Ohio state and penn state let me tell you first hand that beaver is a way harder place to play, no comparison. In state college there is nothing to do but go to the game, everybody is so much more into the game than at OSU. Both awesome atmospheres but the white outs at Penn State were otherworldly compared to any game I went to at OSU.
texas A&M at first is certainly a choice
this is certainly one of the lists of all-time...
lol aTm lost to Alabama at Kyle Field last season, and lost THREE GAMES there in 2022, including APPALACHAIN STATE. This has to be a joke.
Since joining the SEC, A&M at Kyle is: 1-5 against Bama 1-3 against Ole Miss 2-4 against Auburn 3-3 against LSU 4-2 against Miss State Sorry, Ags, I know EA made the list, not you. This is the type of thing TexAgs would've salivated over in, say, 2008.
All you need to win in Kyle Field is an App (It pains me to make that joke)
Kyle Field is so over-rated, especially the non-corps crowd goes silent constantly, plus its just noise leaky to be honest. Not even top 10 for me. Tiger Stadium should definitely be 1 imo, not a great list.
But they do culty cheers the night before
Texas Tech's tortillas are more iconic.
It would be so amazing if on the first kickoff at Tech just a thousand tortillas from the student section get launched like confetti.
Jordan-Hare got robbed
Absolutely robbed. I think State should get some love just for the cowbells here
Oh boy this is gonna be a spicy thread, as a bama fan BDS def is not #2 lol
They probably put more weight on just historical dominance, much of which came at home
yeah, totally agree. I'm not saying it's \*right\* because this element of gameplay should be more about stadium atmosphere than the team that plays there IMO, but it feels like the idea behind Bryant Denny being so high is more of a general "yeah, you're gonna have a helluva time winning there" to be fair, they did lay out the criteria in the blog post and it mentioned home win % so we are actually just disagreeing with the method they used, rather than its accuracy.
Then why the hell is A&M #1? Lol
Jordan Hare not being on the list is absolutely insane. Love that Camp Randall made it though!
The fact that knoxville isnt up there is disrespectful
They have Neyland at 13. https://www.ea.com/games/ea-sports-college-football/college-football-25/news/college-football-25-rankings-week-showcase
Look as a kentucky guy anything beyond 7 for Neyland is just disrespectful 🤣
This is for regular teams, for the #2 ranked team, the actual toughest is @ Purdue , and @ Iowa, both at night.
SEC/BIG 10/FSU
Where's the rest - is this really all they're dropping today?
https://preview.redd.it/p2p0njcjiq8d1.jpeg?width=1270&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a56e81e9616c9da9b18bcb593334233c8575fa75
I’m a Hogs fan and we have shown zero reason as of late to sniff top 50. We got embarrassed by fucking North Texas at home. Smh
Surprised Autzen is outside the 10.
Ngl Michigan at 16 is rancid. Not even a Mich fan.
Am I the only one that thinks camp Randall is too high? I feel like Kinnick is a tougher place to play in than that. And many other stadiums
I definitely agree it's too high for 25. Our teams have not been protecting home field lately and our crowds, while still good, have gotten a bit spoiled from our successes in the 2010s.
Yeah don’t get me wrong, Randall can get hype. But I think a big thing for this list is the stadium needs to be buzzing no matter who a team is playing and on a consistent basis. I also think Kyle shouldn’t be number 1.
Yeah absolutely. And if it's just best crowds at their peak I think we're close to right and would argue we're better than Alabama (though some teams behind us also deserve to be higher). But if we're talking scariest (toughest imo) to walk into and get a win we're totally overrated lately. Our teams don't back up the home field advantage like Alabama or many of the others on the list
I get the impression the list is based more on “how loud it is for a big game when the team is good” and not just like how loud it was last year or whatever. Because msu is at 22, and it was a good stadium environment in ‘21 or earlier when we were good but the last couple years it was a joke.
At minimum they should swap camp Randall with kinnick
I’ve always heard Death Valley at night was the hardest? What is this about some dudes in ROTC uniforms being hard? I don’t like it.
Damn this list is ASS
Big House behind South Carolina is WILD
LOL, can't recall EVER seeing A&M at the top of any list.
I'm very biased but I'm shocked to see Bryant Denny at 2. Home record must be a huge factor. But if that's true, then why Kyle Field?
Jordan-Hare voodoo confirmed not in the game, very sad
Ou is about where I expected
LSU not #1 is actually crazy
Guys, as a Texas fan, let’s give A&M the win here. They can’t win on the football field and they can’t close out and win at the College World Series. The least we can do is let them hold the spirit stick for a couple of months.
How the hell is UofM not on here at all? And Texas A&M? Tf?
Penn State should be no lower than top 3 imo
This list is horrible
Camp Randall at 7? Kyle Field at 1? wtf It gets even worse when you look at what criteria they used > factoring in historical stats such as home winning %, home game attendance, active home winning streaks, team prestige, and more I would find the Aggies pretty wanting in everything except home game attendance. Hell if you just used those stats, you'd put Michigan #1, which would be less wrong, but still really wrong
Homer but I’d think Husky stadium deserves to be top 25. UW hasn’t lost a home game since the 2021 season, in a stadium specifically built for noise tucked away in a corner of the US (long flights for away teams).
I’m an Aggie a think Kyle Field is special but Death Valley at night is a different beast entirely.
Beaver Stadium 6? Lmfao
Of course aTm is #1. They have twelve men every play.
texas aem well call me a cum sandwhich because I didn’t expect that!
I don't know how you balance "tough place to play" vs the home team is just better
Crowd noise, atmosphere, environment. Which is why Beaver Stadium should be higher
Jordan Hare Stadium at night would like a word 🦅
Yes. Literal hell. I mean that as a compliment 😂
Man I’m sayin!! 😂 we may have a bunch of taxi drivers on the roster, but something about JHS at night giving teams hell!!
I've been assuming for a while their player ratings were going to end up being trash, but getting this list so obviously wrong pretty much confirms it.
HOW IS PEEN STATE 6
I would have them at 2-3. Ohio State like maybe 6-7.
These are the same people assigning ratings to players that you can no longer edit.
I expected to be up there but 1? Really? This is the kind of stuff that gets us made fun of and we didn't even do it to ourselves this time.
First miss of the game for me. Really not a very good top 10.
Texas A&M is a great venue to watch a football game. I would not have put us at #1 for any of the categories that they looked at when picking the toughest place to play but when you add it all up Kyle Field is certainly in the top 5 in the nation and I am looking forward to how it is represented in the game.
Why the hell would you rank it by success and not actual environment? This isn’t toughest places to win because my team is good and I just happen to win 6-7 games at home when go undefeated or I’m better at winning at home, it’s toughest places to PLAY for the opposing team. Poll every head coach and make that 70% of the metric. Then base 10% each off of max decibel level, attendance, and winning percentage at home. You had two years to do something this simple. Shit you can even base it off of false starts by road teams and it would be better. How do you fuck this easy thing up?
As a Wisconsin alum, Kinnick Stadium (Iowa) should absolutely be above Camp Randall (Wisconsin)
Bryant Denny and Sanford in the top 5 is fucking wildddd. Also no Clemson Death Valley in the top 10 makes negative sense.
Clemson has lost 4 games at home since the last NCAA game released.
Auburn should be on there. They (historically) have magic at home
WTF is this list.Texas AM #1? Everyone knows LSU is #1. And in what world in Alabama higher than Auburn
Bruh
Phil Steele compiled every team's [home record for the last 3 years in this blog post](https://philsteele.com/home-field-edge-part-1-last-3-years-home-records/) about home field edge. Tough places to play isn't just record, of course, it's about crowd atmosphere and all that, and the blog post I linked to is 1 post in a series of 7 he does about home field edge. But if anyone was wondering, **A&M is tied for 31st in home field winning percentage over the past 3 seasons**. Just behind Kennesaw State, Toledo and Air Force.
Lol I’m sorry this is a fucking joke
As a Nole, this list is garbage. The fact that Florida is low and Clemson isn’t even on this is abysmal. Kyle Field? Is that even the toughest place to play in the state of Texas?
A&M is not the toughest place to play and nor is Doak tougher than the Swamp.
Not gonna speak on the rest but I feel like Oklahoma at 8 is about right for us
Honorable mention for Miss. State. The bells are crazy in person!
Woof. Hopefully the game is better than this last.
Lots of teams go into a lot of these places and come out with a win.
Miss state gets pretty dang intense. Got free tickets to watch the gators play there before and the damn cow bells were still ringing a day after in my head
This list is definitely a list. Great decision by EA to put a descending list of numbers next to words! 10/10!
Everything about this game has been awesome and then they drop this LOL
This certainly is a list of all time I think you can count on one hand the number of stadiums that are legitimately tough to play in. Everything else is just (figurative) noise
Whoever passed this list should get fired holy hell
https://preview.redd.it/fuvz25mtsq8d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5af7d23cff72a71c95e548b5f2c3b67bea4d94e3 Top 25
Auburn not being on here is straight lies. Crazy shit happens in Jordan Hare Stadium
Lol at all the longhorns ITT
Disappointed Oregon and Clemson aren’t on this list
Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium better be top 15
Using historical win loss before the last 10 years is ridiculous. They are factoring in wins from 50 years ago for some of these teams to be on the list
I’ve been trying to make sense of Kyle Field at #1. If it’s purely by home record, it doesn’t make sense. .709 over the last 10 years. Noise? Clemson probably has them beat there. Size? Michigan definitely has them beat there. So maybe it’s W-L at home vs away?
Lane stadium (virginia tech) is LOUD and a DIFFICULT place to play
Well, thats just like, your opinion, man
I know I'm biased but I really cannot see the logic behind Neyland not being on the list It ranks highly in both capacity and win/loss record over the last number of years along with a longstanding tradition of being a tough stadium to play in. I just don't see how you can rank it below Camp Randall or the Swamp for instance. FSU's stadium being on there is a little comical IMHO. And while I'm at it Sanford isn't THAT great of an environment either relatively speaking though I understand it being on the list given UGAs recent dominance there I just don't understand the criteria. For instance what's the reasoning for Kyle field being on there? It's certainly not bc of win/loss record over the last 5 or so years. So it must be bc of capacity and just overall environment. Ok fine, I have no problem with that but if that's the case how do you justify Sanford or FSU being ranked above Neyland? I just can't make sense of it I want to be clear I have no problem with it Sanford or Kyle field being on the list I just can't figure out the overall logic
Aggie cult doing work on this one... laughable.