Favorite College Football Stadium

I did not like Purdue's stadium (won't be back)

Hit Rutgers last year, they fire that damn cannon way too much...  nice trip, can't put my finger on it, but a little weird...

Going to Maryland this year

Been to MSU and OSU, not impressed with MSU, OSU you actually can fear for your life but It was a nice stadium

Gald to see some love for Waldo stadium (WMU), it's actually a cool venue for football.  You have the fraternity house up on the hill, the train running right by the stadium, the grass hill... and nice structure.

Want to hit:

Wisconsion

Penn State

Nebraska

Rose bowl

 

 

The Big House and Spartan Stadium to see games,  but I went inside Aloha Stadium in Hawaii while I was sight seeing on my honeymoon.  That looks like a neat place to watch a game.

The Horseshoe / Toilet Bowl, Purdump, Indiana, Ryan Field, Camp Randall, Iowa, and Drab Memorial Stadium in Champ-bana and none of them are nearly as nice as the Big House.  I would like to see a game in Minnesota's new stadium.  Looks nice.  I refused to go there when they played in the Roller Dome as Mike Ditka used to call that place.  I like my football outdoors.

Favorite is probably the Rose Bowl, but Ben Hill Griffin (Swamp) and Neyland Stadiums (Florida and Tennessee) are awesome too. Notre Dame is a smaller version of ours, not really a bad seat in the house there. Boston College has a small stadium but it is nice and pretty cool. Bobby Dodd at GaTech is the same way, very intimate. Michie Stadium is awesome at West Point - low quality of football, but an all-stone facade in a beautiful campus right on the Hudson. As far as non-FBS, I got to know Franklin Field at UPenn a little bit and it is awesome. 

Penn State's Beaver Stadium is a like a ton of scrap metal dropped from the sky and landed on this hill and somehow formed a stadium that attracts 100,000 terrible people every weekend. I hate it there.

Spartan Stadium is the worst stadium I have ever been to that houses a professional or college team in any sport. It is a stadium poured from a concrete mold, tightly wrapped with a chain-link fence, and filled with trash both on the field and in the stands.

My high school's stadium is larger than Ryan Field in Evanston.

Edit: it goes without saying my favorite is ours. I've been to many and none are as nice as the Big House. Very clean, well kept, modern. Spacious concourse. Not a bad seat in the place, and oh yeah, the biggest in the land. 

 

The Washington stadium is nothing spectacular.  The fans are nice, location good, but the stadium feels like a giant high school stadium.

Which brings me to Oregon State, which is a really nice 1/2 college stadium.  Feels small towny -- but it's clean, modern, and if they made both sides the same as the home side, would be pretty decent, a much nicer and more modern version of UW.

Stanford's new stadium is very nice, feels almost like a hockey arena so even the nose bleeds feel close to the action.  And the tailgate scene there is classy.  But not high end.

One of my favorites was the creaky old Cal stadium, which was in a great location, too much cement of course, but the Berkely Hills view rivaled the Rose Bowl.

Nike University (ne Oregon) is a great place for a game.  Fans are looney, loud, and the stadium feels like a mini-NFL stadium.  Modern, clean, great place for a game.  2d best on the West Coast for certain behind...

The Rose Bowl.  Which is much like Michigan's, only with nice weather, mountains, etc... but in a crappy location -- hard to get to from campus.  But a beautiful open bowl.  Hard to beat.

This is really a question of which great place is the most enjoyable, because any number of these great venues are waaaaaaaaaay better than, say, a mediocre sports facility with 20,000 people in it. Live sports are just awesome witness, and college football is the best thing going. Seriously, if you had the choice of regular season events as a neutral observer (your team isn't involved), would you prefer to watch: 1. A regular season baseball game in Minneapolis with 28,000 people; 2. A regular season NBA game in Charlotte with 18,000 people; 3. A regular season NHL game in Denver with 18,000 people; or, 4. A regular season college football game in Spartan Stadium (as nondescript and mediocre as a college stadium can be) with 75,000? For me, it's the college game hands-down. It's an event you'll never forget. Even there. I've been to games in Knoxville, College Station, Lincoln, Pasadena, Columbus, and others. When I say the best place I went was a night game at LSU (hosting Eli Manning's Ole Miss, FWIW) it's a solid preference but it's preferring an A-plus to a bunch of A's and a B-plus or two. All of them are awesome. I attend and enjoy local UMD D-2 games that draw 2-4000 people. It's great fun. I'd rather do that than a lot of other recreational things. Seeing a game in a huge stadium with superior athletes, a huge band, and a vibrant crowd? There's nothing like it. It's awesome. LSU is slightly more awesome than, say, Nebraska, but it's all still awesome.

1a. Big House
1b. Rose Bowl

1. Michigan Stadium (of course)

2. Rose Bowl - anyone dwelling on the negative aspects of an old facility just doesn't get it. Amazing setting, spectacular old building, sensational Rose Bowl organization, parade is fun. The whole experience is first class all the way. No other bowl game can even approach the Granddaddy.

3. South Bend - I can't stand those guys (and don't even say their name in polite company), but the game atmosphere is great, drips with history (especially when it's UM-ND), and the people who actually attend the game are stunningly great.  They are the exact opposite of any ND fan I've encountered anywhere else.  At the games, they are polite, classy, gracious, knowledgeable and passionate.  I've heard the same about Nebraska, but haven't felt an urge to go to Nebraska.

4. Camp Randall - great fans, great town.  Fun atmosphere, famously nice Wisconsinites. 

5. Cal - Memorial Stadium - fans aren't as passionate (how could they be with the traditional quality of Cal football?), but campus and atmosphere are great. Much better than Stanford IMO. Stanford has a gorgeous campus, perfect weather and a goofy band, but the stadium rebuild is lackluster and the atmosphere is bleh.

Honorable mentions - have always had a great time at Ryan (short walk from sister's house), lots of UM friends and family to enjoy the game together, and practically a home game for UM. Washington - great campus, solid atmosphere. 

 

1.The big house aka Michigan Stadium is the best because of the surrounding area and Ann Arbor is safe place. 2.Spartan Stadium is one of the worse because that stadium is a dump and the fans well you know how they act. 3.Memorial Stadium(Clemson) aka Death Valley is a great stadium went to see them against Miami back in 2008 when my uncle got free tickets and I came along. 4.Baylor's McLaine Stadium its new and I want to go check it out when i do go back to Texas to see my family. 5.Ohio Stadium I will have to bring a few people with me because with there fans It leads to a fight.

I love the Rose Bowl, but go to a UCLA home game there and you will feel differently about the Rose Bowl.

I've been to around 50 college football stadia, but my vote goes to Memorial Stadium in Clemson. The atmosphere is outstanding for a team that underachieves every year. It doesn't matter if they're good or bad, it's still a great atmosphere. For the big games it gets so loud that it's hard to hear the person next to you.

(And counting the overall experience, tailgating, etc.)

1) Clemson

2) LSU

3) Rose Bowl

4) Notre Dame

5 (tied) Wisconsin, Tennessee, Cotton Bowl (OU/Texas)

8) Nebraska

9) Stagg Bowl (D3 championship)

10) Auburn

11) Washington

12) Ohio State (stadium is great, but people - not so friendly)

13) USC

14) Northwestern

15) Harvard

16) Illinois

17) Rutgers

18) Cocktail Party (UF/UGA in Jacksonville)

 

Looked in on Georgia's stadium from the outside, and it looks superb. Same with MSU and Iowa, but not the superb part.

Just my two cents...

I lived in Manhattan, Kansas for 3 years. I had some great times at that stadium. The seats are purple with some white sprinkled in and there is barely a seat in the place that you don't feel close to the action. My son was also born right across the street..The atmosphere is fantastic as well. My only knock is that the stadium is on the edge of campus next to a bunch of farm land. There is very little room for tailgating and Aggieville (the bars) are too far away to reasonably walk. Saw RGIII play there the year he won the Heisman.

 

 

I like Sun Devil Stadium in the mid to late fall.  Those early September games suck during monsoon season even with kickoff at 8pm.  The stadium is really old and kind of run down, but its currently getting a face lift.  I love the mini-mountain valley its built into.  It definitely has that AZ vibe going on not to mention the ASU coeds are top notch. :)

Runner up is probably Purdue's Ross-Ade Stadium.  It has that small town college vibe - almost like a D-III feel with a few thousand more seats.  Every game kind of feels like homecoming there. The fans aren't too obnoxious and it has that Fall season weather that I miss living in the desert.

was my favorite place to play for big stadiums.  easy to get to, parking, locker rooms were nice, san diego is a fun visit.   for small stadiums it would be cal state fullerton.  the locker rooms aren't much, but that had to be the nicest piece of real grass i have ever seen in my life.  

Rose Bowl, as others have said, is just a special place. However, the tunnels are small and you get a better appreciation for the good job Michigan Stadium does moving 100K+ in and out of a stadium. I've been to Auburn, Tennessee, and Georgia since living down in the Southland and I liked UGA best, especially as its in the best college town not named Ann Arbor that I've visited. Auburn had nice folks and a fun gameday atmosphere but the town is literally a street corner with about 4 bars and the stadium itself is nothing special. Neyland is big and on a river, and that's about all I can say about it that's complimentary. The concourses look like a minor league baseball stadium and the campus is bland.

I will have to also agree the Rose Bowl is it especially after the recent upgrades. Been a UCLA season ticket holder for 12 years now cause I live here in Southern Taxifornia and need that upfront Big time College experience and it easy to get to in Pasadena.

Of the ones I've been to (other than the Big House), I'd say

1. Rose Bowl

2. Notre Dame

3. Tiger Stadium (LSU)

4. Ryan Field -- up close at least it's a bit like a high school field in terms of how close you get.

This post actually made me think about the stadiums i have been to, and they are:

Big House

Purdue

Notre Dame

Nebraska

Mizzou

Florida State

Tennessee

Iowa State

Iowa and

Texas. (not counting S.W. Missouri or Morehead State where my daughter played soccer)

Next to the Big House i would take Tennessee, although Florida State is very impressive inside and exterior.  That is the first time i ever took "roll" call of my stadium travels...makes me tired!

Best: Michigan Stadium
Second: Rose Bowl
Third: ND
Fourth: Colorado
Fifth: iowa

Odd stadiums I've visited (for UM away games): Washington, hawaii, Colorado, Oregon. Florida State (non UM game)

Big ten: iowa, wiscy, Sparty, Ohio state, penn St, purdue, minny (old), northwestern

Biggest dump: purdue. It's pathetic. Borderline sad. Worse than a soccer stadium in Haiti.

Dump 2: Sparty. The stadium fits the fans. All that is missing is aluminum siding. So JC Penny. I like the abandoned gas station on the side of the stadium. Nice touch.

Dump 3: penn st.

I've been to the following (listed in order of enjoyment): Michigan Stadium: Best ever but the game-day experience has sagged these past several seasons. Rose Bowl: Michigan-stadium-west. Great location. Kinnick Stadium: My favorite place (other than A2) to watch a game in the B1G. Best opposing fans in the conference. They talk smack, but also invite you to their tailgate parties and share everything they have. They just love their football. Camp Randall Stadium: Great atmosphere but way too many drunks. The Bank: Huge improvement over the Metrodome. MSP has much going for it. Sun Life Stadium: Middle of nowhere and they can't settle on darn name. Really a pro stadium but I was at the '00 Orange Bowl there. The Metrodome: A sterile environment for a game, but oddly a bit under-rated IMHO. Still, football should be outdoors! Rynearson Stadium: felt like high school but still fun. The Snakepit: Drunk & classless fans. Was there for the tie in '92. Never really felt the urge to go back for another game. Autzen Stadium: Smaller stadium and unbelievably loud. I still suspect they pipe in and amplify crowd noise. Not very enjoyable place to watch a game.