Road trips are a big part of the college football experience for many of the sport’s most devoted fans. Each weekend in late summer and throughout fall, highways in various college football hotbeds are filled with fans traveling to see their schools battle it out on the gridiron. The atmosphere at college football games is something to behold, and that undoubtedly plays a role in the sport’s popularity. There’s certainly no shortage of fun places to attend a college football game on a fall Saturday, and the following are five of the more notable stadiums across the country.
- Albertsons Stadium, Boise, Idaho: Home of the Boise State Broncos, Albertsons Stadium is known for its blue turf. Albertsons Stadium also is among the more intimate settings for big-time college football, with roughly 36,000 seats to welcome fans of a Broncos team that has strung together 26 consecutive winning seasons.
- Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, Wisconsin: Often referred to as “Camp Randall,” the home of the University of Wisconsin Badgers has a capacity of just under 76,000. But that capacity may feel a lot greater at the start of the fourth quarter, when House of Pain’s “Jump Around” is blared through the stadium’s speakers, prompting a raucous celebration among the loyal Badgers faithful.
- Kyle Field, College Station, Texas: Enormous crowds are the standard at Kyle Field, which has been home to the Texas A&M Aggies since the early twentieth century (the stadium underwent an impressive rebuilding project in 2013). The current capacity of Kyle Field is around 102,000, though the stadium did host roughly 110,000 fans for a game between the Aggies and the Ole Miss Rebels in 2014. Visitors to Kyle Field also might be struck by the Twelfth Man, a reference to the school’s student body, which remains standing throughout every game in a show of support and solidarity with their beloved Aggies.
- Notre Dame Stadium, Notre Dame, Indiana: The University of Notre Dame boasts a storied college football tradition, and the team’s nearly 80,000-seat stadium is a fitting home for the Fighting Irish. Even fans who have never been to Notre Dame Stadium can likely recognize one of its signature features. Affectionately referred to as “Touchdown Jesus,” the Word of Life is a mural on the side of the Hesburgh Library on campus. The mural depicts Jesus with arms raised in a fashion similar to the signal referees give when a touchdown has been scored. The mural is now only partially visible from the stadium after a recent renovation, but it remains one of college football’s most recognizable symbols.
- Autzen Stadium, Eugene, Oregon: Proximity to the field is part of the appeal at the home of the University of Oregon Ducks. The stadium was designed to ensure fans are close to the field, which helps to make it among the nation’s loudest venues, even though it boasts a capacity of around 60,000. Fans also might be taken aback by Autzen Stadium’s impressive video screen, which was the largest in the sport upon its construction in 2020.
Atmosphere is everything at college football games, and there’s no shortage of must-see stadiums for fans to visit.
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