Big Ten college football stadiums ranked from best to worst
From top to bottom, it's hard to top the history and tradition found at these Big Ten venues. In terms of pure intimidation, though, there's a very clear group at the top (and bottom). Here's how USA TODAY Sports ranks Big Ten home fields from nastiest to kindest for visitors:
1. Ohio Stadium, Ohio State
Trips to the Horseshoe are basically a guaranteed loss for teams in and out of the Big Ten, unless you're Michigan. (The Wolverines have taken two in a row at home in the series.) Since the stadium opened in 1922, Ohio State has posted a mark of 478-115-20, including a remarkable 55-3 record (94.9%) since 2016. The Buckeyes have turned the 'Shoe into maybe the most hostile locale in the sport.
2. Beaver Stadium, Penn State
"White Out" games are among the most unique home-field sights in college football: Nittany Lions faithful across the board dress up in white tops to provide visitors with an unsettling, eye-popping backdrop. Combined with the deafening roar provided by 100,000-plus fans, this makes Beaver Stadium one of the elite settings in the Bowl Subdivision.
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3. Autzen Stadium, Oregon
Autzen became a house of horrors for opponents in the late 1990s before reaching a peak during the Chip Kelly era, when the Ducks rolled off a 21-game winning streak before an epic loss to Southern California in 2011. Oregon has lost just once at home since hiring Dan Lanning in 2022 and gone unbeaten the past two years.
4. Michigan Stadium, Michigan
The largest venue by capacity in college sports? Check. But that's selling Michigan Stadium short: This is the largest stadium by total seating in the Western Hemisphere and the third-largest in the world. It may not be the loudest in the conference, but it might be the most iconic.
5. Husky Stadium, Washington
There are few scenes in college football more aesthetically pleasing than a packed, rocking-and-rolling Husky Stadium with sailboats dotting Lake Washington - what locals call "sailgating." Historically, Husky Stadium has been seen as maybe the loudest spot in the FBS when things are going right for Washington.
6. Kinnick Stadium, Iowa
In addition to goosing Iowa's Big Ten chances - the Hawkeyes are 22-6 at home since 2021 - Kinnick is home to the best new tradition in the sport: Since 2017, players and fans turn at the end of the first quarter and wave to the patients at Stead Family Children's Hospital. "The Hawkeye Wave" is already an indelible part of the college football fabric.
SPECIAL PLACE: Inside the unique Iowa wave tradition
7. Camp Randall Stadium, Wisconsin
At the end of the third quarter, Wisconsin fans will "Jump Around" to the 1992 House of Pain classic of the same name. The tradition started in 1998, took a very brief, highly controversial, one-game hiatus in 2003 and became a rallying cry during the Badgers' development into a Big Ten powerhouse under former coaches Barry Alvarez and Bret Bielema.
8. Memorial Stadium, Nebraska
A decided lack of success at home in recent years dunks the Cornhuskers down this list. But when Nebraska is playing well, Memorial Stadium provides one of the best home-field advantages in college football. And even when the program is struggling, Memorial Stadium's deep wealth of history captures your attention and is sure to be sold out.
9. L.A. Memorial Coliseum, Southern California
The Coliseum's art-deco-influenced design speaks to the venue's extensive history as the host not just for USC football but also multiple Olympic Games, the Super Bowl, NFL regular-season games and more. While it can be hit or miss, the Coliseum ratches up the intensity for opponents such as Notre Dame or rival UCLA.
10. Spartan Stadium, Michigan State
Spartan Stadium hosted one of the defining matchups of the 20th century during the famous (or infamous) 10-10 tie against Notre Dame in 1966. More recently, Michigan Stadkum turned in a dominant run at home under former coach Mark Dantonio, though that edge has diminished this decade with the program's downturn.
11. Huntington Bank Stadium, Minnesota
The newest stadium in the Big Ten (for now, as we'll see), Huntington Bank Stadium's capacity of just over 50,000 makes it one of the coziest venues in the conference. The open-air site will also turn frigid and occasionally snowy later in the year, though that doesn't stop locals from enjoying a Dilly Bar in the cold temps.
12. Memorial Stadium, Illinois
After suffering a major dip in attendance during the woebegone days of the late 2010s, Illinois has reestablished a home-field advantage since Bielema was hired in 2021. The Illini averaged almost 55,000 fans per home game last year, the program's most since 2009. Illinois won six home games last season for the first time since 2001.
13. Ross-Ade Stadium, Purdue
We won't penalize Purdue for incorrectly calling its oversize bass drum the "World's Largest Drum." (There's nothing wrong with a little hyperbole.) Ross-Ade has been inhospitable at times throughout its history: in the 1930s, the 1960s, the late 1970s and most recently during the Joe Tiller era (1997-2008).
14. Memorial Stadium, Indiana
The home-field edge was alive in 2024, at least, when IU sold out its final four home games in Curt Cignetti's debut and drew a record single-season total of 386,992 fans. While not the case historically, the Hoosiers showed that Memorial Stadium can bring the noise when the team is competitive.
15. SECU Stadium, Maryland
As a men's and women's lacrosse venue, SECU Stadium can be hard to beat. Football? There's a national title banner hanging inside (1953), and SECU (long known as Byrd Stadium) also hosted Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip for an upset of North Carolina in 1957. But the stadium doesn't wobble the knees of Big Ten opponents.
16. SHI Stadium, Rutgers
The environment can be intimidating, as Washington found out last September. Back in the program's Big East days, then-and-now coach Greg Schiano helped Rutgers turn SHI Stadium (then called Rutgers Stadium) into a surprisingly unfriendly host. That hasn't always been the case in the Big Ten, though.
17. Rose Bowl, UCLA
There's the Rose Bowl game - one that has long defined college football's postseason - and there's the Rose Bowl itself, which shares an address with the bowl game but little of the pageantry and hoopla (or fans). UCLA's home stadium is at least 30 minutes or so from campus, longer depending on traffic, and while the crowd will show up for rivals such as USC there is little in the way of an obvious home-field advantage.
18. Ryan Field, Northwestern
The Wildcats will play their games in 2025 at Northwestern's soccer and lacrosse stadium while extensive renovations are completed at Ryan Field. When done, Ryan will be a slightly cozier, much more 21st-century venue "engineered to create a powerful homefield sound advantage at games," the school said. We'll have to wait and see where it ranks when complete.
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The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Oregon motivated by College Football Playoff loss to Ohio State
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A great, player-led team isn't concerned with anything but doubling down and completing the buildout. "What happened last year has nothing to do with the future," Lanning said. Neither do the bookend beatdowns. But they're all part of the bigger picture. Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
Scottish Sun
8 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Inside Viktor Gyokeres' rollercoaster career as former team-mates and bosses tell Arsenal fans what to expect
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Going to Coventry and really developing his game, and then even more so abroad. "He was a bright lad. Probably because of where he came from, his English was very good, which I think helped. He was a very mature lad, for a young one. He was a confident lad. I think he had a strong belief in his own abilities. "If you're a No9 going to Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City, one thing you know is you're going to get lots of chances. I don't think it will faze him." 11 TRANSFER NEWS LIVE - KEEP UP WITH ALL THE LATEST FROM A BUSY SUMMER WINDOW 11 Gyokeres impressed St Pauli chiefs as he arrived on loan from Brighton Credit: Getty ST PAULI (loan): 2019-20 Former assistant manager Andre Trulsen... "I had not heard of Viktor when we signed him on loan from Brighton. We were a Bundesliga 2 club. "But he came and joined us at St Pauli and I was very impressed. He was very physical and also knew how to use his attributes. He was eager to get better and worked hard to get more minutes during games. "Before the winter break, he worked really hard to adjust to German football and to play in our system. His efforts paid off and he played more for us in the second half of the season. "Viktor definitely played a part in us avoiding relegation and he gave everything. I could see his potential but as if often the case in football, you could not be sure he would be so successful. "On more than one occasion, we had to tell him to leave the training pitch because he never wanted to stop trying to get better. "I am sure his decision to come to Hamburg and play for St Pauli was helpful for his next step and I am so pleased he has done well in Portugal "Hopefully, he can be a big player for Arsenal and can help them to success." 11 Gyokeres struggled at Swansea but team-mates knew he could be the next Harry Kane Credit: Getty SWANSEA: Oct 2020 - Jan 2021 Former defender Ryan Bennett... "There are big similarities for me between Viktor and Harry Kane. 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He started to contribute more and started to look more like a player. "Towards the end of the season, you could see his trajectory was starting to go up. Then you could see he'd be a really good catch for the following season. "There was a lot of work that I did during the summer to convince him to come permanently. "He just went on to have two really good seasons. The second season, we just missed out on promotion, unfortunately. That was the only way we were going to keep him. And even then, we may have lost him. "Sporting was a really good move. They had been interested for a long time. "I think that move was already preordained and the decision was made. "He's become one of the most talked-about strikers in Europe over the last 18 months but he deserves everything he gets because of his focus. "At Arsenal, it will be really interesting to see where he goes and what he does." 11 Gyokeres formed a prolific strike partnership with Matt Godden, right Credit: Getty Matt Godden was his strike partner at Coventry... "When he first came in, it was from January onwards, they signed him on loan from Brighton and he struggled a little bit. "But then we signed him permanently that summer because obviously the coaching staff saw something, saw some potential in him. "He came back that summer looking a completely different animal. It looked as though he had just gone away and smashed the gym. He came back an absolute animal and hit the ground running. "From then, we spent two years playing together and scored quite a few goals between us. "Then, he was adamant he was going to get us to the Premier League with his goals but unfortunately we lost on penalties to Luton. "There's a brilliant picture of me and him against Luton (Sep 2022) at Kenilworth Road after he had scored and I've got him by the throat and the emotions are just so high. We were both so determined after a poor result away at Norwich. "The story behind the picture is that there was all this stuff flying around that me and him didn't get along and we were both left out of the starting XI at Norwich, which was rare. "The gaffer left us both out and I remember my wife ringing me on the way home saying 'there's all this stuff flying around social media saying you and Vik have had a fight and you're not getting on'. "Vik was actually in the passenger seat of my car that day when she rang, I was giving him a lift to the airport and I said to my wife, 'Don't believe everything you read because he's sat next to me in the car! Nothing's gone on.' "And the following game we played Luton needing a result because we were struggling. We went 1-0 down and he scored a great goal after showing unbelievable pace. I've got a picture of it where I've got him by the throat. It was just pure emotion. "I play at Charlton now with Luton boys who beat us in the play-off final. "And every one of them say he's the best all-round Championship striker they'd seen or played against. "Sporting was a really clever move for him. He didn't want to go to a Premier League side that was going to struggle or a team that had been relegated into the Championship. "If you're putting chances on his plate and playing to his strengths, he's going to have a real impact, and he's done it in the Champions League so is proven at the top level. "There's no reason why he can't do well in the Premier League for Arsenal."
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- The Herald Scotland
Big Ten College Football Playoff plan would make season worse
On a wild Saturday last November, Florida upset Mississippi and Oklahoma stunned Alabama in results that altered the playoff field. That same day, Penn State barely survived Minnesota, and Arizona State wriggled past Brigham Young in a thriller with playoff stakes. Regular-season television ratings peak in November. It's the rest of the season that could use a boost. That's where Petitti's controversial 4+4+2+2+1+3 playoff plan falls flat. Big Ten playoff plan would devalue non-conference games Petitti claims to want a playoff model that would improve the regular season, but his plan wouldn't achieve that goal. The surest way to improve the season would be to incentivizing teams to play tough non-conference games and reduce the feast of cupcake games that shackle the season's early weeks. Petitti, though, aims to devalue non-conference games. November would stay great in his plan, and play-in Saturday would generate buzz, but his idea to award more than 80% of the playoff bids based on conference standings and play-in games would diminish September and, to a lesser extent, even October. "Fans will gravitate to" play-in games, Petitti said Tuesday at Big Ten media days. At what cost? One play-in Saturday is not worth deflating September. If the playoff became a Petitti production based mostly on conference results, interconference games like Ohio State-Texas, LSU-Clemson and Michigan-Oklahoma would become glorified exhibitions. ABSOLUTE POWER: Big Ten, SEC fight to shape College Football Playoff HOME FIELDS: Our ranking of toughest Big Ten college football stadiums Play-in Saturday could prop up average teams Petitti admits to wanting to prolong the playoff hopes of average teams. He sees the chance for an 8-4 Big Ten team winning a play-in game and cracking the playoff as an asset, not a detriment. I see a structure that would make the season's first two months less relevant. I'm envisioning a scenario in which Iowa loses to Iowa State in a September non-conference matchup, and the Hawkeyes slog to 8-4 before winning a play-in game to reach the playoff, while the Cyclones go 10-2, lose a play-in game and miss the playoff. That's how a playoff becomes a farce. Fortunately, Petitti's playoff plan is going nowhere fast. He's failed to gain support from other conferences. The playoff format for 2026 and beyond remains undecided. Petitti would like to diminish the selection committee's role and, as he puts it, allow playoff spots to be decided on the field and not in a boardroom. In practice, his plan not only would diminish the selection committee, but it also could dilute the influence of some November results. Alabama, Mississippi and Miami lost to unranked opponents late last November, results that bounced them from the playoff. If Petitti's model had been in place, the losing teams would have retained a playoff path through play-in games. I don't see how college football's season improves if Syracuse upsetting Miami on the final day of November carries no weight on the playoff picture. How to actually improve college football's regular season Petitti's playoff plan would earmark four automatic bids for the Big Ten and four more for the SEC - that's half of a 16-team field - while the Big 12 and ACC received only two automatic bids apiece. Is it any wonder why the Big Ten hatched this plan, and the Big 12 and ACC detest it? If Petitti wants to get serious about improving the regular season, then he's going about this backward by focusing on conference standings and propping up mediocre teams. Here's how you improve the regular season: Preserve automatic bids for conference champions, but keep most of the playoff bracket open to at-large bids, and devise a system in which the playoff committee values meaningful non-conference results while evaluating bubble teams. As it is now, Big Ten teams like Indiana and Nebraska are canceling their toughest non-conference games in favor of weaker schedules, and SEC teams cling to their Championship Subdivision games like a child hugs a security blanket. These gimme games bog down the schedule, particularly early in the season. To rectify that, task the selection committee to reward teams that schedule - and win - tough non-conference games and hold accountable bubble teams that beefed up their record purely by blasting patsies. Do this, and you'd spur more Big Ten vs. SEC games, of which there are only three this season. Likewise, only three SEC teams will play a Big 12 opponent. Generating more high-stakes non-conference clashes between Power Four opponents not only would become a boon for September audience, those games also would help the committee separate the wheat from the chaff come selection time. Imagine if Oklahoma played Oklahoma State this October, instead of Kent State, or if Texas played Texas Tech in September, instead of Sam Houston, or if Southern California opened the season against Missouri, instead of Missouri State. That's how you improve the season. College football needs a play-in Saturday in December less than it needs more significant non-conference games, some of which could restore rivalries that conference realignment interrupted. College basketball figured this out. The NCAA men's tournament selection committee values victories against opponents within the top quadrants and thereby rewards teams that schedule tough. Qualifying for March Madness isn't purely an exercise of assembling a fine record. Who you played, and who you beat, matters. Teams that avoid tough games are held accountable in bubble debates. Petitti claims he's got college football's regular season at heart in his playoff plan. He's wrong. His playoff plan would diminish and neglect the non-conference portion of the schedule that needs enhancement. Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@ and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
