EA Sports ranks Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium as No. 14 in Toughest Places to Play rankings

With the release of EA College Football 25 just around the corner, EA Sports has ranked the Auburn Tigers and Jordan-Hare Stadium as the No. 14 home stadium in its Toughest Places to Play rankings.

EA Sports used several different factors in determining these rankings. That includes things like historical stats, including home winning percentage, attendance, home winning streaks, and team prestige among other things to come up with this ranking.

Auburn opened Jordan-Hare Stadium in 1939 and today it has a maximum capacity of 88,043 people, which makes it the 11th-largest on-campus stadium. The stadium hit that capacity as recently as the 2023 Iron Bowl against rival Alabama, helping to create one of the best environments for a game that college football saw throughout the entire season.

Over the years, traditions have become one of the key parts of a football game at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Many of those traditions are things that are expected to be included in the game to some extent.

Perhaps the most famous tradition at an Auburn game is watching the prgoram’s eagle mascot fly through Jordan-Hare Stadium on a Saturday. It’s part of Auburn’s War Eagle tradition as a whole and goes back over 100 years now. The Auburn website explains, “Eagles stir emotions in many people as they have come to symbolize strength, power, and courage as well as other important values such as freedom, American heritage, and the preservation of our environment.”

Other traditions include things like the Tiger Walk, singing the fight song, and rolling of the Auburn Oaks at Toomer’s Corner.

A point of emphasis for the video game has been to include traditions like those in it as much as possible. Showing teams taking the field in a traditional way and including those in-game traditions helps make the video game itself immersive and makes for a better experience playing, after all.

An interesting aspect of these Toughest Places to Play rankings from EA Sports is that they’re not just random rankings. Recently, On3’s Pete Nakos reported that how tough a home-field advantage is deemed will impact the game itself.

“Home-field advantage is also back,” Nakos wrote. “Players can test their squad’s road game composure and confidence levels with distractions like screen shaking, missing pre-play icons and moving play art.”

Throughout the years, college football fans have learned about how difficult a place Jordan-Hare Stadium is to go in and win as a visiting team. So it’s not a surprise to many at how highly ranked EA has Auburn’s homefield advantage in its rankings.