EA has kicked off its week of presentation and ratings reveals with the 25 toughest places to play in EA Sports College Football 25. It’s a list that has some potential surprises to it so let’s get to it below.
First off, let’s just get the list out there before yappin’ about it.
Toughest Places To Play In EA Sports College Football 25
- Kyle Field – Texas A&M
- Bryant-Denny Stadium – Alabama
- Tiger Stadium – LSU
- Ohio Stadium – Ohio State
- Sanford Stadium – Georgia
- Beaver Stadium – Penn State
- Camp Randall Stadium – Wisconsin
- Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium – Oklahoma
- Doak S. Campbell Stadium – Florida State
- Ben Hill Griffin Stadium – Florida
- Autzen Stadium – Oregon
- Memorial Stadium – Clemson
- Neyland Stadium – Tennessee
- Jordan-Hare Stadium – Auburn
- Williams-Brice Stadium – South Carolina
- Michigan Stadium – Michigan
- Lane Stadium – Virginia Tech
- Rice-Eccles Stadium – Utah
- Darrell K. Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium – Texas
- Kinnick Stadium – Iowa
- Notre Dame Stadium – Notre Dame
- Spartan Stadium – Michigan State
- Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium – Arkansas
- Albertsons Stadium – Boise State
- Davis Wade Stadium – Mississippi State
How EA calculated this obviously matters, so here’s what they are basing their rankings on:
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.
This list of stadiums is subject to change in future updates during the season, and it’s also worth remembering that this list was dynamic during dynasty mode back in the day, so it would change as you progressed through seasons. We don’t have the full dynasty mode breakdown as of yet, so I’m not sure if that feature will be in the game once again, but here’s to hoping.
Even beyond trying to be “factual” about how to do these rankings, expertise and the week you’re at a game are also going to play into how people feel about these rankings. Fandom aside, you might have gone to a stadium when it was especially loud and intimidating for that week, or you maybe have only been to three stadiums while someone else maybe has been to 40 stadiums and has a different general opinion.
Point being, there’s not going to be a “right” answer for these in the grand scheme of things, but there are a couple stadiums and teams people have been gravitating towards talking about so far on the forums. In terms of Kyle Field being at number one, the big argument against is that the program itself was a joke for quite a few years. On the other side of that, you have a team like Clemson at 12, and they basically never lose at Memorial Stadium.
In terms of bringing more numbers to the argument, we had OS user Pokes404 making a play for Oklahoma State (Boone Pickens Stadium) making the list while using Michigan St. and Virginia Tech as reasons why:
Lane Stadium/Virginia Tech: #17
W/L since 2018: 22-16
Top 25 Wins: 2
Top 10 Wins: 1
Spartan Stadium/Michigan St: #22
W/L since 2018: 22-15
Top 25 Wins: 2
Top 10 Wins: 2
Boone Pickens Stadium/Oklahoma State: Not Ranked
W/L since 2018: 32-7
Top 25 Wins: 11
Top 10 Wins: 4
I doubt EA’s historical stats on winning percentage are weighted too heavily one way or another, but my feeling would be to certainly weight the last five years way more heavily than the 10-50 years before that. Arkansas making the list at the 23rd spot is another one that falls into the category of “why?” among some OSers, partially on those same grounds about winning programs at home.
From a pure loudness standpoint, it does seem like LSU could have a claim to the top spot, plus a place like Kinnick Stadium for Iowa could be even higher than 20 due to how the fans are placed on top of you at that stadium.
From my own limited perspective, I think Michigan, Iowa, Notre Dame, Utah, Oregon, and LSU all have claims to being higher on the list. In terms of being higher on the list than I would suspect, Virginia Tech, Michigan State, Texas A&M fit the bill for me. But the biggest snub by far to me has to be Washington not making it at all. Maybe it’s due to the program’s overall history, but I scanned the list multiple times to make sure I didn’t miss Husky Stadium in there.
Overall, it’s a fun list to talk about and that’s the point here by EA. As long as we get confirmation about the toughest places to play changing as you progress through dynasty mode, there will be no harm, no foul.
Oh, and by the way, EA has got the presentation trailer queued up for tomorrow at 10:55 a.m. EST.
Tomorrow is a big friggin’ day!
