Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium may not be the biggest in the SEC, but its unfriendliness to visiting teams belies its size, according to a ranking published this week by USA Today's Paul Myerberg and Blake Toppmeyer.
It's not all that remarkable that home teams have won at least 60% of games over the past 20 years, but all home venues are far from equal, and Myerberg and Toppmeyer chose to fill the slow news cycle in the final countdown to the 2025 college football season with a ranking of the 25 most inhospitable environments.
Oklahoma's Palace on the Prairie ranked 11th on the list, but was the seventh-most unfriendly SEC home field, according to Myerberg and Toppmeyer. The two college football writers considered team records, traditions and environments in compiling the top-25 list.
Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium among 'unfriendliest' in college football
"A touch smaller than other SEC colossuses with a capacity of 80,126, the 'Palace on the Prairie' still more than holds its own. (Seven national banners hanging inside help deliver that message.)," Myerberg and Toppmeyer wrote.
LSU's Tiger Stadium, known by visiting teams as "Death Valley," was ranked No. 1 as the hardest place to play in college football. LSU was the only SEC stadium ranked in USA Today's top five, which included No. 2 Beaver Stadium (Penn State), No. 3 Ohio Stadium (Ohio State), No. 4 Autzen Stadium (Oregon) and No. 5 Memorial Stadium (Clemson).
Interestingly, in a USA Today Sports article by Toppmeyer earlier this month ranking the most difficult places to play for visiting teams in the SEC, LSU was ranked No. 2 behind No. 1 Florida. Moreover, Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (a.k.a. "The Swamp") was ranked ninth in the all-college ranking behind No. 6 Neyland Stadium (Tennessee), No. 7 Sanford Stadium (Georgia) and No. 8 Bryant-Denny Stadium (Alabama). Kyle Field at Texas A&M rounded out the top 10, just ahead of Oklahoma.
In all, 10 of the 16 SEC stadiums were included in the top-25 ranking of the most unfriendly college football stadiums for visiting teams. The next closest was six from the Big Ten and three each from the Big 12 and ACC.
Oklahoma's Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is the 14th-largest among teams at the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) level, but ranks eighth in seating capacity in the SEC, in which five exceed 100,000 fans.
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