EA Sports ranks South Carolina's Williams-Brice Stadium as No. 15 in Toughest Places to Play rankings

The EA Sports College Football 25 Toughest Places to Play rankings are out. EA Sports factored in historical stats such as home winning percentage, home game attendance, active home winning streaks, team prestige and more to compile the rankings. Williams-Brice Stadium, which is the home of the South Carolina Gamecocks, cracked the top 25.

Williams-Brice Stadium comes in at No. 15 on the list, which is impressive considering the South Carolina program hasn’t historically enjoyed the same success as some of the higher ranked stadiums.

South Carolina has one of the top entrances in college football, which likely helped the Gamecocks. South Carolina comes out to “2001-A Space Odyssey” as Cocky appears and more than 80,000 fans go wild.

Leading up to kickoff, and throughout Saturdays in Columbia, “Sandstorm” is blasted through the speakers, while fans wave towels. It is truly one of the best scenes in the sport.

The Gamecocks haven’t had the best teams as of late, but when South Carolina is playing well, it’s an incredibly difficult place to play. If you need proof, former Gamecocks quarterback Connor Shaw was a perfect 17-0 at home in his career as the program enjoyed plenty of success under Steve Spurrier.

Williams-Brice Stadium has been home to some big-time wins over the years, including a victory over Nick Saban and No. 1 Alabama in 2010 as the Gamecocks went on to win the SEC East.

When South Carolina is playing well, and the stadium is rocking, good luck escaping with a win.

EA Sports College Football 25 had, ‘a glimmer of hope’ four years before release

EA Sports College Football 25 had a “glimmer of hope” four years before release this summer, according to EA’s Christian McLeod.

The gaming franchise was dormant since the summer of 2013, the last game to be released. Now a decade later, it’s finally back and it’s been met with a bevy of positive reactions.

McLeod told the story of when he thought this was possible.

“I would say probably about four years ago we started to have some discussions right before the pandemic,” McLeod said on Andy Staples On3. “And there was a glimmer of hope. And from there, it became real, you know, about a year and a half later. And so what was super exciting about that whole situation was just getting the gang back together and starting to build that team back up. And to Ben’s point, we’re a bunch of college football sickos … 

“I used to play Madden 93 as the New York Jets because they’re green and white, I pretended in a binder … this was my college football game. And so, you know, we had that moment where it became real.”