There have been years when they had to move the UT game to whatever the Titans call their stadium to hold the large number of UT fans in Middle Tennessee that want to see the game. Dudley Field is cute, I guess, but at 41,000 seats is kinda small for what amounts to another UT home game. There was a time when it was state law that UT had to play a game in Memphis each season, mostly to meet the needs of Boss Tom Elam of Martin (home of UT Martin), a major political power in West Tennessee. Martin is much closer to Memphis than Knoxville.
Fun Fact: When the north end zone of Razorback Stadium at Arkansas was "bowled in" in the last renovation, the northeast corner was left open so drivers can look down and see the field when driving over the top of the hill on Maple Street when going west. People have always been able to see inside the stadium from the street at the top of the hill from that vantage point and the architects decided to preserve that particular view in the stadium expansion.
@@badgerden7080 Prior to the SEC, Vanderbilt played in the SIAA & SIC conferences with most of the current SEC, ACC & a few Big 12 schools at different times throughout that time period. Vanderbilt won numerous SIAA & SIC conference championships in football, alone with being awarded a mythical college football national championship in 1921 & 1922. Vanderbilt was a college football superpower in the early 1900’s. Vanderbilt along with 12 other SIC member schools left the SIC to form the SEC in 1933. After becoming a charter member school of the SEC in 1933, Vanderbilt has never won another conference championship in football. That early success in football was one of the main reasons for Vanderbilt being an SEC charter member school, as the SEC was a purpose built conference to showcase southern football. That was done simply because in the early days of the sport southern football was considered as not being as good as what football from other parts of the country was. Since it’s inception in 1933 the SEC is the only conference that’s had at least one member school to be awarded a mythical college football national championship in every single decade !!! From 1904-1934 under Coach Dan McGuin ( except for 1918, McGuin fought in WW1 ) Vanderbilt went 197-55-19, they won 8 SIAA & 2 SIC conference championships in football, along with be awarded 2 mythical college football national championships in 1921 & 1922. From 1890-1934 Vanderbilt went 278-83-26. They won 11 SIAA & 2 SIC conference championships in football, along with 2 mythical FBS football national championships in 1921 & 1922. Vanderbilt had 41 winning season out of 45 seasons played. Vanderbilt produced 4 college football Hall of Famers & 12 All-Americans during that time period as well !!
Seriously, though. When LSU went up there in 2019, they literally drank Nashville dry before the game! An 11:00 am game! Then, they took up probably 75% of that poor stadium.
They actually banned the song "Louie, Louie" at South Carolina games because the stadium used to sway so bad that the administrators were scared the top deck would come down on the people on the bottom deck.
@@shuthemoody Not really haha, but I think with better engineering techniques and millions of dollars in remodels over the decades have made it safe enough to the point where they don't worry about it swaying now because it wont fail.
I remember being up there when the low brass cheer was played against FSU after not being played all season, and Carolina had run up a 38-7 lead on national television. It was ungodly.
@@Geep615 I agree, and I hope they can return to the Fulmer days. They have had a few strikeouts in the coaching picks of late. I have been there 7 times, and love it when it is rocking. The Vols always bring a large and rabid contingent to the SEC title game in Atlanta, and to Orlando, when they smoked my Wolverines, 45-17 on 1/1/02 in the Citrus/Capital 1 Bowl - the only time the 2 teams have ever met. That TN team could have been national champs, but got upset by LSU in ATL. The Vols had so much speed on that team!
UGA has renovated the west side end zone stands since these images were taken. It looks a bit nicer now. Newer, bigger scoreboard, and you can enter the stadium from the bridge
Those jokes!!! I always look forward to them. I am a big college football fan (Roll Tide) and I appreciate it that you are making videos about each conference.
@@IAmRyan25 that's a moronic thing to say. SEC is like the NFL of college football. It's a murderers row of opponents. Show some respect to those that are greater than you.
@@jesses5463 Earn your respect. LSU and UGA are the only teams in your conference that are willing to play real opponents. The rest of y'all just want to scrimmage. #truthhurts
@@IAmRyan25 that's the way college football has always been in every conference. When you play in the toughest conference it especially makes sense. Given the Alliance, SEC will have no choice.
@@jesses5463 Sorry no, UO vs OSU right now. Commonplace in every other major conference outside of the SEC. Seriously, even your doormats will play any legit program...
Neyland Stadium was much smaller when I first went to UT in 1969. Phys. Ed. was required and was mostly running around the track inside the stadium. Due to lack of housing, there was a men's dorm inside, under the stands.
@@youreverydaysaltyiowastate5602 What a silly statement. Never at anytime in the last 80 or so years has it been an overstatement. Please, by all means, tell us how it's an overstatement to say that the SEC features some of college football's most valuable teams.
@@tampazeke4587 in the last decade (since 2012), there have been 4 football schools in the SEC that have a conference winning percentage over .625%, and it’s been very, very consistently Alabama, Georgia, LSU, and Florida who actually have a chance of making the SEC Championship, National Championship and/or a NY6 Bowl Game; everybody else has been consistently average with the best record of those final 10 teams belonging to Auburn with the record being 25-23. So, basically, there have only been 4/14 teams with a truly amazing record in the las5 decade, while everybody else serves as the ones who consistently get their asses kicked by those four.
@@tampazeke4587 no, that’s not it at all. I’m calling out the SEC for having some shitty teams in the past decade. I LOVE those four teams and love watching them play on any given Saturday, but a lot of the teams that they play are absolute dog shit
Well, I can tell you that Kentuckys stadium used to be called commonwealth stadium..why they changed it..or the field name..don't ask...I'm a buckeye fan in Kentucky wildcat country
Davis Wade is set for renovations in the near future, MSU is planning on finishing the third side. The atmosphere in Davis Wade is extremely unique, even if you hate the cowbells. Bully 1 is buried at the 50 yard line, may that good boy Rest In Peace.
Cool video. A note about Auburn’s stadium...It has/had the largest video board in the country. I say “had” because I think Oregon recently built one just a few feet bigger.
I attended South Carolina for University. The games at Williams Brice are freaking insane. The Swaying on the East side has been corrected for some time now. Another name for the stadium has been the Venus fly trap.
Aggie here, We still stand on the bleachers during Midnight Yell, but students only use the bleachers during halftime to sit, because they stand throughout the game. I loved the atmosphere when I was a student.
Many college stadiums look like several stadiums mashed together because essentially they are. Most on campus stadiums started out as a field with small seating areas on the sidelines. Since even Nick Saban can't play the "build us a new stadium, or we move to Vegas" card, college stadiums were expanded by building on what was already there. Often the results are a mishmash of designs based on available space and existing grandstands. Tiger Stadium actually has a more unified seating layout than Kyle Field and The Swamp.
The Big House at UMich was essentially built on one foundation, easily expandable. The only addition were the suites on one side, and an upgraded press box, and suites on the other. Si ce part of it is built below ground level, it is not as intimidating as PSU or OSU, despite the nation's largest capacity and attendance, every year!
@@jdhjimbo I have read that The Big House already has the foundations to double in size. Michigan was probably one of the few schools to have the foresight to plan for that, and the result is a classic look that can be maintained into the future. The Horseshoe and Happy Valley had that look, but their recent add-ons are somewhat out of place.
@@fishingthelist4017 You are correct. The designer back in 1927 took what was useless land, and dug deep into the ground to secure that foundation, so it can be added onto what is already the largest stadium. The new suites just add to the look, and MN are the crowd noise intensified. I think the Horseshoe's add-on in the south end zone is not real harmonious, and the Happy Valley add on almost looks like it could collapse, but both draw great crowds, and very hard places for the opposition to play.
This is actually why I like smaller conference stadiums more. Some are brand new. Some have expanded, but it looks like it fits in better than big schools. Those higher endzone decks than sidelines just look weird. Particularly Bama.
Alabama is currently renovating and constructing a red brick facade all the way around the exterior to give it a unified look to cover the garish "parking garage" sections of the East & West stands
They were good when Lou Holtz was there and really good when Spurrier was coach. I like Williams Brice better than Clemson memorial it’s lines are cleaner, too me it’s more symmetrical
Three unusual things: (1) Back in the 1970s the press box at Vanderbilt’s stadium had doors like hatches on a ship - I suppose it was a nautical theme since the team nickname is Commodores. (2) For years there was a men’s dormitory built into LSU’s Tiger stadium as a part of the stadium - but I believe dorm residents still had to have a ticket to get into a game. (3) Also at LSU, Mike the Tiger’s habitat just outside the stadium is a pretty cool attraction.
LSU the only sec team I have any respect for. Willing to play home and home against quality opponents. Alabama and Georgia want to play in a neutral site just down the road. While the other teams have travel across the country. I hope LSU literally beats Alabama and Georgia so bad the players don't want to take the field in the second half. Other than LSU and vanderbilt the rest of the sec should be disbanded and the schools burned to the ground. Texas a&m is okay too. Nothing against them.
@@catfan5756 UGA has home and home games scheduled over the next 10 years that include Clemson Ohio State UCLA and NC State. But yeah they just want to play neutral sites in Atlanta
@@catfan5756 as a Tiger fan, I appreciate that, but the truth is it's hard to get another power 5 team to play a home and home with an SEC school. They like to host and then reschedule
@@catfan5756 Auburn is home-and-home with Penn State this year and next. Same for Arkansas-Texas. Money talks in big non-conference games, which is why Georgia-Clemson was in Charlotte, Alabama- Miami was in Atlanta, and, btw, LSU plays FSU in New Orleans next year.
Most of the oldest college football stadiums have been expanded multiple times, which is why they look like they were pieced together, and most aren’t perfectly continuous all the way around. But it’s also one of the reasons I love college football and its stadiums.
Arkansas claims two home stadiums, Reynolds Razorback, and Little Rock War Memorial stadium, also Alabama played a lot of games, almost two hundred at Legion Field in Birmingham, even though they last played there in 2003, and the last scheduled game was 2008.
We tend to play one game per year in Little Rock, but not in 2022 for some reason. And it's not the university that owns the stadium. I do wonder how it's considered a home stadium rather than neutral
Nice review of my favourite college's stadium!!! Mississippi State has a banging baseball stadium in Dudy Noble Field-- do college baseball stadiums next!!!
Vanderbilt Stadium hosted the Tennessee “Oilers” (renamed the Titans the following season) for one season while their new stadium was under construction. Funny story because they played the prior season in Memphis which was a disaster. Vanderbilt was always an option, but their owner was reluctant, partially because it was to small, but allegedly the biggest reason, Vanderbilt does not allow the sale of alcohol on campus, and they refused to carve out an exception for the NFL. But nevertheless the team attracted more fans then they did in Memphis, and the state suddenly saw a drastic reduction in drunk driving accidents (probably lol)
That happens when you pay players under the table, and don't require them to go to class. The only school worth a damn scholastically is vanderbilt. Sec school degrees are the equivalent of an associates degree in most states.
Sec stadiums are pretty impressive. Big ten and sec have the best stadiums. The horseshoe, the big house, beaver stadium , memorial stadium in Lincoln Nebraska. Then you got Tuscaloosa, Neyland stadium, death valley lsu, Athens Georgia
The first time USC cane to Baton Rouge some 15,000 Tiger fans gathered out the USC hotel chanting "Tiger Bait" all night. Mike the Tiger's cage was also set up next the Trojan locker room and the cheerleaders poked Mike (it's really a girl tiger) with batons when the Trojans came out of the locker room. USC won 13-12, but they obviously had lot to talk about the way home. I can only imagine the atmosphere at Tiger Stadium, especially since in the day they opened the gates at 1 p.m. for night games and, well, it was and probably still is the biggest outdoor cocktail party in the world. My only trip to Tiger Stadium was in 1982 for a UT game. Olympian and future Raider star Willie Gault had to run a kickoff back for a TD to salvage a ttie. It was a unique atmosphere, and I understood about a third of what they were saying.
Well, there's no mention here of the filthy tricks the Missouri Tigers often did with their stadium in Columbia...Some college football fans in the USA may remember the "extra down" the scoreboard manager provided to the Tigers when they were in the Big 12... But there were other "slimy" tricks...The stadium had been built far to the south of the main campus on some kind of "rocky swamp" in the Ozarks...So, you guessed it, the landscaping crew always had some kind of official excuse to turn on the gardening hoses for the field, as if to water it...Lots of times, that would happen in the 3rd or 4th quarter of a football game itself!...Amazingly, they tried that so often from 1970 to 1990, that whenever the OU Sooners played there, they actually practiced for it and out-smarted them...The OSU Cowboys also figured it out, so the Tigers went to the SEC where they could play with a couple of other kittens at LSU and Auburn... Really!..We're not making this stuff up.. It's one of the most "unique" stadiums in America...
You can see Vanderbilt’s baseball stadium pretty well on this video. Always liked how it is squeezed in between the football stadium and Memorial Gym, plus how the arena forms part of the left field wall.
I went to Mississippi State. They've spent over 100 million in stadium improvements in the past decade or so. It looks alot better than it did in years past.
That's the only thing that's at Jordan-Hare and Auburn fans are quick to let everyone know all about that damn video board! Honestly, the tree's covered in toilet paper at Toomer's Corner are more interesting than Jordan-Hare stadium.
Random Kroger Field Facts: Used to be known as Commonwealth Stadium before Kroger bought the naming rights. A recent renovation actually reduced capacity which used to be 65,000, but there are now more club sections, luxury boxes, and a dedicated recruiting area in the East end zone The exterior is made of locally sourced limestone It was the largest covid vaccination site in Kentucky before the clinic was moved to other locations on UK's campus
The stadium is named that from the deal. Kroger pays 100 million for some renovations and a better box seats (the large glass addition on the home side), for the name of the stadium.
@@jwalk7134 Even before covid, in game attendance is dropping around the sports world due to rising ticket costs and the availability of every game on TV. Compare that to Louisville who keeps expanding their seating capacity even though they never sell out their games.
One thing you missed abt Bryant Denny Stadium. It houses the studio’s of WVUA, a commercial TV station used by the Department of Journalism & Media to train students in TV Journalism & owned by THE University of Alabama; although professionals run the station. It also houses the main studio’s of Alabama Public Radio.
Excellent observation about Tiger Stadium looking like it is several stadiums fused together ( See at 8:44). This is because it has been expanded in several stages over the years. It started out with just the two sidelines between the 5 yard lines. The North end zone was added as a WPA project during the Great Depression, the South end in 1953. The first double deck on the West side was completed in 1978, but was torn down and replaced in 2004-2005, its completion delayed by hurricane Katrina. The East side was added in 2000, and finally the massive expansion of the South end in 2014. Funny but the North end cost only about $250,000 at the time but the final South end expansion was....ulp!... 80 MILLION bucks!
They are pretty much the same in capacity actually lol it’s like only 100 more people or something stupid close like that lol Kyle Field gets pretty loud though as well.
That’s one thing I miss about traveling across the US. I’ve been to most of these cities and their respective stadiums and I do like how diverse they are. And believe it or not, though I am a Bama fan, I’ve rather enjoyed coming to these cities outside of Tuscaloosa… for the most part. Not a fan of Baton Rouge (almost died there) or Columbia, SC. They are just like Atlanta: really nice campuses and stadiums tucked inside a ghetto city. I love seeing Neyland stadium overlooking the river and surprisingly I am quite the fan of Auburn’s campus. Totally true that Sanford is largely hidden from the road, very annoying. Yes it is also true that it gets stanky hot there in Gainesville, but the campus is very well shaded. Hands down my favorite city though, is College Station. The city is great and the stadium is spectacular. Highly recommend the bars and restaurants along University Blvd.
The Swamp was actually built in a former swamp which explains why you are already halfway up when you enter at ground level. It was also the first stadium that was specifically built for football. It should be noted that not one penny from the government was ever used in the construction and expansion of this stadium. Steve Spurrier also gave it its nickname “The Swamp” in the 1990’s.
Fun facts about Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (Go Gators) -It is one of the loudest stadiums in FBS, with crowd noise for games averaging at 117 decibels -Since 1990, the Gators have one of the best home winning percentages in FBS -At the end of the 3rd Quarter, Gator fans lock arms and sway, while singing "We Are The Boys", followed by "I Won't Back Down" by Gainesville native Tom Petty (RIP)
I'm a Gamecock fan and I can confirm The Swamp is loud. I tell people fairly often that the loudest single moment I ever experienced in a stadium was the '94 Gamecocks at LSU game, but the most consistently loud...if that makes any sense...stadium I have been to is The Swamp. I've been to several games there, and it seems like there is constant noise from start to finish.
Underneath Neyland is where part of the old music department is. The old band room and I think the old Chours Room still sit under it abandoned due to the field caving in on them. I think they have mostly been filled with concrete now but im not sure. My Dad went to UT so im just trying to remeber what he has told me.
Teams alternate between good and awful, depending on coaching. The program has had several very good stretches. Unfortunately, there have also been those losses to teams like the Citadel, too.
That's because they were all built originally in the 1920's. You can only renovate and not destroy and rebuild. I think if you stepped inside Bryant Denny Stadium you would see one of the most elite stadiums in the world. Very modern, and very up-to-date.
@@davidakridge2831 The A&M stadium was built in the 1920s but certainly doesn't look it, they renovated it quite nicely. I would love to go to a game in Bryant Denny.
So about the “morgue” under Neyland Stadium. There are anthropology classes under the stadium, but no bodies. The body farm is beside the UT Medical building, but it used to be under the stadium
Ole Miss fan so obviously the Vaught is my favorite, but second is Neyland by a mile. That checkered crowd made up of 100k people all singing Rocky Top is just plain moving.
I agree that Vaught-Hemmingway is a really good looking stadium but I cannot get on board with Neyland! They can renovate it all they want but I'll always see it with the ugly, steel skeletal exterior and the bland interior. To me, the exterior is what was so bad. It looked as if it were thrown together as cheaply as possible just to get as many fans inside as humanly possible. Also, that puke in a pumpkin orange that the fans wear on gameday doesn't do them any favors either!
Been a Bama fan for decades but the distance from the sideline to where the stands begin has always bothered me. It's like 20 yards on each side. Anyway, to me, two of the nicest stadiums are Wake Forest and the new Baylor stadium. They did a really great job on that.
Please, someone let me know if I am wrong, but I believe beloved Faurot Field @ Memorial Stadium (been there a few times in my life) is the only "bowl" or "sunken" stadium in the SEC, as in the playing surface and a majority of the fan seating is below "ground" or "street" level.
