EA Sports ranks Michigan Stadium as No. 16 in Toughest Places to Play rankings
The return of a college football video game is drawing closer by the day, 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 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 and the legendary nearly-century-old Big House, EA Sports slots Michigan Stadium at No. 16 overall on its list of the toughest places to play.
In its favor, Michigan’s Big House has rich history, sheer immensity and a reigning national champion program to support. Titles or not, fans have supported religiously, as UM has led the nation in attendance in 41 of the past 43 years, per a Michigan Stadium fact page. But the Big House isn’t just a big college football stadium, it’s a coliseum unrivaled in an entire hemisphere, according to Wikipedia.
On the official Michigan Stadium page, the following fact is provided: “It is the largest stadium in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, the third-largest stadium in the world, and the 34th-largest sports venue in the world.” Per the Michigan Athletics website, it’s been the largest college sports venue ever since it opened back in 1927.
Yes, the building is nearly 100 years old in Ann Arbor, and the venue has persevered through the last century thanks to the visionary who first broke ground, Fielding Yost. According to the Michigan archives, Yost imagined football on a grand scale as he aimed to build the largest stadium in the country — and did so.
Yost was able to get the project completed on the cheap by selling thousands of tax-exempt and low-interest individual bonds of $500 apiece to fans in exchange for the opportunity to purchase tickets between the 30-yard lines over the next 10 seasons.
Some of its traditions include the singing of 126-year-old fight song “The Victors,” which is done at the beginning of every game as the Wolverine players run out onto the field, leaping up to touch the “Go Blue Banner” as they do so, a tradition dating back to 1962.
That’s not the only musical incorporation. Starting with a game vs. Wisconsin in 2016, Michigan now also plays the iconic early-2000s hit song “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers at some point during every home game to ignite fans.
Perhaps we’ll be lucky enough to hear “Mr. Brightside” or see the Michigan players jumping up to touch the banner as their fight song plays in the new video game. After all, EA Sports seems to be bringing out al the stops.