Big Ten Stadiums

osugrad21 · #1 (**permalink**) 06-29-2006, 03:05 PM

Sporting News

Ranking the Big Ten football stadiums
June 29, 2006
Three down, three to go in our informal rankings of the nation's most intimidating stadiums by conference. Today, we give you the Big Ten, where life, love and the pursuit of hard-hitting linebackers are a way of life and scoring points is evil. Deep breath, everyone. We'll get through this together. Or at least I will, and you can fire away.
1. Ohio State: Come on, of course the Shoe is No.1. It's enormous, it's loud and the fans ... let's face it, they're sick. Frankly, I'm intimidated minutes before kickoff by the Best Damn Band In The Land.
2. Wisconsin: Love Bucky's place. Beautiful campus setting, raucous atmosphere and devoted junkies that feed off the Badgers' lunch pale attitude. And then there's the Fifth Quarter.
3. Iowa: Kinnick always has been a pit over the years, even when Hayden Frye's teams were underachieving. Now that Kirk Ferentz has built this program into an every-year monster, the place is downright nasty.
4. Penn State: If the 'Nits aren't winning, an afternoon at the science center is more intimidating. When they are, it's a loud joint. And that constant Lion screech piped through the PA system? Enough already.
5. Michigan: Look, if you want storied tradition and pageantry and all that fluff stuff, Michigan Stadium is at the top. Personally, I'd like more than just one loud, crazy atmosphere every other year. And you know which game I'm talking about.
6. Purdue: Hey, at least Joey T. makes things exciting. Used to be going to a game at Ross-Ade meant no atmosphere and getting your arse handed to you.
7. Michigan State: Sometimes I think Sparty basically built this enormous edifice just to keep up with the rest of the league.
8. Minnesota: If the place is full, and if the Gophers are rolling, the Hump Dump gets loud. Can't wait to see Minne shoot up this list in a few years when the new outdoor, on-campus stadium is finished.
9. Illinois: If you had tickets to the Michigan-Illinois game in 2000, count yourself as one of the 72,524 who can say, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Memorial Stadium can be a snakepit.
10. Northwestern: The soccer moms at my nephew Matthew's soccer game are more intimidating. To say nothing of their beauty.
11. Indiana: Pffffft.

AJHawkfan · #2 (**permalink**) 06-29-2006, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by osugrad21

5. Michigan: Look, if you want storied tradition and pageantry and all that fluff stuff, Michigan Stadium is at the top. Personally, I'd like more than just one loud, crazy atmosphere every other year. And you know which game I'm talking about.[/i]

Ouch........

Dryden · #3 (**permalink**) 06-29-2006, 03:17 PM

Oh come on ... the comments on the article are better than the article!!!!

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What the 'Shoe has in spades over Crappy Valley is enough toilets so that students don't have to fill water bottles with their own urine...then heave them onto the opposing teams band.

Knucklehead.

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I'm a Penn State alum, and I don't have a huge problem with the rankings. I would ask Hayes when was the last time he was at a Penn State game, because the stadium has been much louder ever since the most recent renovation where they closed the second end of the stadium.

Penn State was lousy in '04, but Joe Tiller said after the Purdue game that stadium noise totally threw his team out of sync. Granted, PSU still didn't win, but whatever.

I know you can't go just by comments on a blog, but I really wish some of my fellow Penn Staters wouldn't just spew out insults any time PSU isn't rated #1 in stuff like this. It's an incredible atmosphere up there for home games, but let's not act like it's the only place that has an incredible atmosphere.

I was out in Columbus for the PSU/OSU game in 2002 and i thought it was great. I had a great time the Friday night before the game, and I had a great time the Saturday night of the game. Yeah, PSU lost a close one (to the eventual National Champs), but i came away with positive feelings about Columbus in general and Buckeye fans in particular. (Unlike when i went to Ann Arbor that same year. Michigan fans seem to think that UM is Harvard with a better football team.)

Plus, let's not forget the outpouring of support that OSU fans gave Adam Taliaferro ( and the top-notch care he received at OSU's medical center) when he had his horrible injury in Columbus.

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I agree completely. The students in Ann Arbor have chants about how if you can't get into college, then go to "State." Are you kidding me? Michigan is not Harvard. It's a pretty good academic school, especially for a large school, but is it really that much better than the other Big Ten schools? I guess you have to be arrogant about something when your football team disappoints you every year.

Awesome!

t_BuckeyeScott · #4 (**permalink**) 06-29-2006, 03:20 PM

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Originally Posted by AJHawkfan

Ouch........

That is rather funny.

buckiprof · #5 (**permalink**) 06-29-2006, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by osugrad21

Sporting News

3. Iowa: Kinnick always has been a pit over the years, even when Hayden Frye's teams were underachieving. Now that Kirk Ferentz has built this program into an every-year monster, the place is downright nasty.

Iowa is now an every-year monster?!?

Bucklion · #6 (**permalink**) 06-29-2006, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckiprof

Iowa is now an every-year monster?!?

Hey man, there's 7-5....and then there's that ferocious Iowa 7-5!!!!!!!