Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium 8th toughest place to play, says EA Sports

Next Monday not only marks the start to a new month and the second half of the 2024 calendar year, but also is the official date the University of Oklahoma becomes a new member of the SEC, widely regarded as the best conference in college football.

You would expect the conference considered the best and brightest of the college football landscape to also have some of the largest and loudest stadiums, which of course makes it like a second opponent you're battling if you are a team on the road playing in the SEC.

SEC football venues are always numerous among the top 10 or 15 best stadiums in college football, regardless of what criteria or form of measurement you use (e.g., size, loudness, toughest place to play, fan experience). OU's Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium generally falls somewhere between 10 and 20 when these kind of rankings come out.

In advance of the widely anticipated return and release of EA Sports' NCAA College Football video game franchise after an 11-year absence, the folks at EA Sports have issued a ranking of the Top 25 Toughest Places to Play. This list is the first installment in a series of rankings, lists and other details about the new version of the popular video game in advance of its commercial release on July 19

Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is ranked 8th in EA Sports' Toughest Places to Play. According to the gaming company, the ranking is meant as both an advance teaser as well as an indicator to "College Football 25" gamers of the stadiums that will pose the greatest challenges to those playing as the visiting team

According to an article in the New York Times and reprinted by The Athletic, EA Sports' Toughest Places to Play ranking was a regular feature of previous editions of the college football video game, and the return of the game comes with numerous "enhancements of the atmosphere and environments to the game's depictions of the atmosphere and environments that make college football a unique experience."

Six SEC schools, including Oklahoma, are ranked in the top 10: No. 1 Texas A&M's Kyle Field, No. 2 Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium, No. 3 Tiger Stadium at LSU, No. 5 Georgia's Sanford Stadium, No. 8 Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, and No. 10 Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

The stadiums for Tennessee (No. 13), Auburn (No. 14), South Carolina (No. 15), Texas (No. 19), Arkansas (No. 23) and Mississippi State (No. 25) are also listed in the top 25. In total, 11 SEC stadiums are ranked in the top 25. That compares to seven Big Ten stadiums, three from the ACC and one from the Big 12.