EA Sports ranks Michigan State's Spartan Stadium as No. 22 in Toughest Places to Play rankings

The return of a college football video game is just weeks away, and EA Sports is already rolling out plenty of info about the game, including a ranking of the top 25 toughest stadiums to play in.

EA College Football 25’s ranking of the toughest places to play in College Football 25 factors in historical stats such as home winning percentage, home game attendance, active home winning streaks, team prestige, and more. That’s a list certain to garner debate among many of the powerhouse programs, who all surely believe their team’s stadium is the toughest.

When it comes to Michigan State, EA Sports ultimately slotted Spartan Stadium as the No. 22 toughest place to play in college football.

A top-25 appearance is certainly warranted for MSU and their passionate fanbase, especially with this note from their athletics website: “The Spartans have ranked among the NCAA’s Top 25 in attendance each of the last 66 seasons.”

Those fans aren’t showing up to watch losing football either, because MSU has been solid at home. “Since its opening in 1923, Michigan State has won nearly 70 percent of its games played in Spartan Stadium,” the website adds.

Spartan Stadium just celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023 and heading into year 101 you know there are plenty of traditions, none more iconic than the PA announcement of “It’s a beautiful day for football!” just before each game.

Jania Clowers of State News produced an article running through many of the Michigan State gameday traditions and made this comment about the beautiful day statement:

“It does not matter what the actual weather conditions are, but the sentiment is that any day is beautiful if football is going to be played.”

She detailed some other rituals, such as this expressive act from the mascot:

“Also, during pregame, MSU’s mascot, Sparty, runs out of the Spartan Stadium tunnel with the MSU flag to center field and puts it in the ground, then proceeds to do one-handed pushups in front of all the fans.”

There’s also a musical number incorporated with the Spartans’ gameday fun, a song that uprooted AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” the previous tradition.

“A fairly new tradition is the football rushing out onto the field playing the famous Fast Life Yungstaz’s ‘Swag Surfin’ song,” says Clowers, “where the crowd links arms, shoulders or even elbows to sway side to side.”

If you’re lucky, you’ll even get to see a dog running around on the field during breaks in the game: “Another out-of-the-box Spartan Stadium tradition is Zeke the Wonder Dog catching frisbees during the game,” wrote Clowers.

Michigan State certainly has some fun traditions and it would be cool to see Zeke’s frisbee catching or hear “Swag Surfin'” in the actual video game.