Josh Pate On College Football's 8 LOUDEST Stadiums (Late Kick Cut)

loudest college football stadiums most hostile college football stadiums most intimidating there are a lot of ways that people classify this stuff here's how I choose to classify it I just want to go with the loudest I want to know which places make the most noise now I don't care about your decibal readings I don't care about what it says on your scoreboard I don't trust any of that I trust these two instruments I have right here on my head they're called ears and despite contrary to popular belief out there they are unbiased ears and I've been to most of these places for the biggest games so backstory I'm watching this list circulate the other day and it was one of those loudest college football stadium graphics and I'm looking and all due respect to some of these places and none of these places are quiet but all due respect to some of these places they did not have business as high as they were ranked conversely there were some that weren't even in the equation that didn't even make top 10 not even honorable mention and I'm like I know I've been to these places before I know that I had ringing in my ear the entire way home and into the early partions of the next day so where where is it so what can we do about that well if you have your own show like I do we can do a lot about it we can lead it so tonight to start the show I'm going to tell you the loudest stadiums I've been in some of them I haven't been to In fact right off the top I am telling you I've never been to a game at Virginia Tech so I can't put it in there I have never been to a night game at Clemson the only Clemson game I went to they played A&M and it was roughly 137 degrees at kickoff still a good environment uh Clemson probably didn't get a fair Shake but I can only go on what I've experienced OU never been to a game there hope to change that soon Nebraska never been Wisconsin never been so there are some places where data is incomplete there are other places where we're just going to have to make some tough decisions tonight LSU is the best environment I've ever been in it is the consistently loudest place I've ever been LSU at night unlike some things in the sport LSU at night is everything they say it is and More Death Valley at night is the Apex environment of college football they're not lying to you when they say that and they also as a fan base as a people as a purple people down there they accept the role so their role is to create the most hostile intimidating overwhelming atmosphere imaginable for Road teams to go into if it's an 11:00 a.m. kickoff it could be hit or miss but when the Sun goes down and folks get a night game oh it's unbelievable I've been in there for their biggest games it's normally like when Bama goes in there I think I've only been there I've been there when they play Auburn I've been there when they play Bama trying to think I had been to LSU game in two years which is egregious but nevertheless LSU um I've been there for multiple big games unmatched in college football now some of you heard me two years ago when we went to our next place the number two venue on the list neand Stadium at Tennesseee some of you heard me when I went there for the Alabama game in 2022 and I came right here on this show and I said that's the loudest environment I've ever been in I'm not backtracking on that the day they beat Alabama in 2022 loudest place I've ever been the problem is I've been to nean a couple of more times albeit in blowout losses so it's not their fault necessarily but the the environment did not match what it was in 2022 it can it can I was glad 2022 happened because it dispelled this ridiculous misnomer that had started to float throughout the college football ether and that was well Tennessee's time has come and gone nean Stadium Rocky Top it was fun in the late 90s but that place isn't what it once was the team wasn't what it once was the fan base didn't go anywhere the architecture of the venue didn't change how incredibly loud that place could get hasn't altered in any way they just needed to be competitive again and and frankly it was pretty hostile even when they weren't competing for the SEC or in the playoff picture but now they are like they they'll be smack dab in the middle of the playoff picture again this year they've got a a reasonably favorable schedule they got a couple of big games at home so nean Stadium right there near the top of the list Penn State white out specifically is the best spectacle that I've ever experienced in college football I've been to a couple of Penn State Games over the last couple of years last year Michigan goes in there second half total snoozefest for obvious reasons because Michigan put everyone to sleep and that's the highest compliment I could pay to that day Chiron Moore's team what a preview of things to come that game was but the year prior I'm up there I think they played Auburn wasn't it Jesse Yeah it was an out-of- conference game and it was the white out game this was once upon point a time where you know television contracts worked in such a way that Penn State could actually get a marquee game as the white out game it's a big problem in our sport right now friends big problem college football is allowing media companies to pay hundreds of millions to billions of dollars for these media rights deals and then the television Partners don't even understand what builds the value into the product they're purchasing let's let's if we if we're going to do one thing let's go buy something and then do everything to screw up what makes it that valuable I digress Penn State specific specifically the white out environment unbelievable about as close to a major pro wrestling event as anything that I've experienced because it's got like it's got It's got levels of that it's got levels of rock concert it's got levels of football it's very performative but in an authentic way because the fan base 107 108 whatever thousand strong again they know they have like an intimate role to play in the environment and and they pull it off very very pridefully they pull it off next up this was uh this was something that I was probably the impetus honestly for me doing this segment paper pop y'all can you can do your list if you want to and you can talk about loudest environments and you don't have to put them number one but if you don't have Jordan har Stadium at Auburn squarely in your top five of loudest college football environments then you don't really have a list of loudest college football environments this place is in insane specifically when Georgia or Alabama are in town and I don't even need Auburn to be ranked although it helps when they are that place is insane and unlike some of these other places they've got deafening noise they also what they in a sanitized way have what they would call planes magic or uh as it's more Loosely translated just pure Voodoo so there are things that happen for the Auburn Tigers in their home venue that they can't really count on happening on the road now recent history would say that's been turned on its ear but overall history would say there's some really crazy stuff that happens there case in point the kick six and uh the prayer at Jordan hair those are things that frankly should never happen for any team in history just mathematically the odds are overwhelming that doesn't happen it happened for these folks two times in three weeks and guess which venue housed both games so Jordan Harris Stadium at its best just full throat rivalry Saturday unbelievable and yet I've got lists floating around out there where it's not even in the top 10 and I don't want to question your intelligence we we're looking at one of two possible things either you don't like Auburn or you've never been to a game there because if you go I don't even care if you hate them honestly Bama and Georgia folks who have gone to watch their team play on the road there would tell you begrudgingly place is another world to try and go win games in you don't believe me ask folks who have coached in there as a road team next up very very close here very neck and neck Ben Hill Griffin Stadium the swamp down in Gainesville Florida oh so loud all concrete it's a million years old it's hot it's gross it's so wonderful the road accommodations are barely anything at all which is exactly what a college football stadium should be the fan base it's very very important to note this the fan base it has always been rabid Florida folks have always been like that but it's important to watch some of these places if you have sustained success you'll get baked into your fan base a younger generation that has experienced winning therefore hasn't known hunger Bama deals with this right now Ohio State I think deals with this Florida's gone through downturns long enough now where the entire younger generation has experienced hunger and what that does to a game day Saturday is there is nothing like a hungry fan base there is nothing that sounds like a group of people that have not had it in a while and conversely you can tell when they have had it uh Clemson has been at the mountain top several times Bama Ohio State these places that have won fairly consistently for over 10 years in a row every one of them has the same complaint man our game day environment's good but but it could be next level or it used to be next level they don't have to talk about that at Florida now um you'd probably want to change that you'd probably love a full trophy case but in the meantime we're talking about loudest environments loudest stadiums I was down there uh when they I think it was also Auburn Auburn's like a fixture in this whole thing I was never an Auburn beat writer but I happened to be on the road when they played in a lot of these places uh insanely loud when they played Auburn down there a few years ago that was the game The Last Game I was at actually at the swamp so crazy been that way for a long time uh and maintains its reputation the next place incredibly I doubted and it proved me wrong just emphatically proved me wrong the team proved me wrong multiple times last year the venue proved me wrong is there anything that Washington did not prove me wrong on Husky Stadium at Washington in Seattle at Washington is squarely in the middle of this list I'm talking about louder than some SEC venues that have 20 to 30,000 higher capacity than they do big 10 as well I've been to all of them I've been on the sideline I was the sideline for this game I've been on the sideline for pretty much every place that I'm talking about here um husky stadiums right there in the mix this place was louder than Oregon when I went there so I go up there and I've been told all week uh Cooper protagonist specifically because he worked there he was telling me all week you're going to be blown away because you grew up in the South and you think you know everything about these loud venues and you've gone to some big 10 places and you think you know and like I was saying no man but internally I was thinking yep yep I pretty much do and so he said it'll blow you away I went up there blew me away and you get lulled into a false sense of being able to hear because the morning is pristine and you got the sun coming up over the lake there over the sound this is actual footage from the iosh if you're watching this is not b-roll that fox or CBS or ESP provided us this is from my phone how great does that look it looks like a screen saver couldn't be more calm and tranquil and then you fast forward two or three hours and what did we see well we saw a walk-off we saw field storming place was so loud the whole day I don't know the science of Acoustics I can't explain it to you all I can tell you is there's a feeling when noise is coming down on you and they do it there unreal noise I was telling folks just during the game oh man I cannot believe how loud it is and also they told me it was going to be like this and I doubted so I shouldn't have doubted now will put Oregon right there I'm not saying that there's an overwhelming either or here so Oregon is right behind them Aon stadium looks like a spaceship from the outside especially on the freshly renovated parts and kind of feels like another planet when you're inside as well so just sort of an otherworldly experience and you need need to get up there right as the leaves start to change that's when I went up there a couple of years ago really really loud and In fairness I was up there in a game where they pulled away pretty quickly so I put Oregon in this top 10 but even I know I haven't really really experienced an Oregon game like oh for example we'll get to Saturday October 12th this year you know who Oregon plays in Aon Stadium Saturday October 12th this year that would be the Ohio State Buckeyes does anyone think that one could be loud does anyone think that we could be there it's not a slam dunk it's not an automatic cuz there were other big games that day so yeah they're there uh I am absolutely positively putting Kyle Field at Texas A&M in my top eight staggering amount of fan engagement here it's not just people yelling the entire time it's people knowing what to yell when I went there for the first time I I I had thought without having to see it just side unseen I always wondered why is Kyle Field why is Texas A&M not included on more of these lists and I thought there must be something I'm missing certainly everyone one wouldn't just exclude them from these lists if they should be on there so then I went there and I said wow they've excluded A&M from these lists even though they should be on there place is amazing it's insanely loud and also like I said when I went there I I'm on the sideline and they did the Aggie warh him which is when like 400,000 people just sway back and forth if you're in the Press Box the Press Box actually sways it's kind of like the T-Rex when it's approaching you in Jurassic Park and and the water starts to Ripple it's kind of the way it is when they start doing the Aggie warham up in the Press Box so I wanted nothing to do with the Press Box so I stood on the sideline and there's a thing that happens sometimes in these bigger venues and it happens at A&M there's like a a moment of sensory overload because your eyes aren't used to seeing that certainly your ears aren't used to hearing it but your eyes aren't used to seeing that so it happens for me at least I have to look down for a second then look back up sort of like a visual reset button otherwise I get dizzy and that's on the ground I can't even imagine what it's like being you know second or third deck there so Texas A&M's in this so I that's my list that's my top eight I did not have a Alabama in here B's really loud B's also won a long time you cannot manufacture the kind of hunger which leads to the kind of rabid intensity and noise that some of these other places make Ohio state was not top eight for me really really good environment Michigan as well really good environments um and I've been there for the Michigan Ohio State game the last three years so I've seen the best of to the best incredible just a notch below some of these other places in terms of sustained noise Texas same Georgia is an interesting case study I'm a firm believer that Georgia gets a bad RP for the more sweater vested mentality that their fan base had for a long time that place is insane now uh Kirby I think his attitude has also permeated its way into what game day Saturdays are like there here's the problem I haven't been there for those bigger moments when I was there last I think they play play Tennessee a couple of years ago and and it was kind of a SLO Fest and it was loud U but it was also not quite on the level of some of these other places but I know like that Arkansas game Georgia played a few years ago they had Notre Dame in there for a night game had I been there I probably think Georgia would be in this top eight but I going based off what I have experienced I've been there for LSU at night I was there for Tennessee when they played B I was there several times when Auburn absolutely deserved to crack this top five list been there for the white out at Penn State Oregon Washington the swamp A&M I've been been all those places and they belong and frankly some of these other places you guys are putting on that list don't belong above them [Music]