EA Sports ranks Tennessee's Neyland Stadium as No. 13 in Toughest Places to Play rankings

With the release of the EA College Football 25 just around the corner, EA Sports has announced its Toughest Places to Play rankings. That includes EA ranking the Tennessee Volunteers‘ Neyland Stadium as the No. 13 Toughest Place to Play in the country.

There are several factors that went into EA’s Toughest Places to Play rankings. Among those factors are things like historical stats, including home winning percentage, attendance, home winning streaks, and team prestige among other things to come up with this ranking.

Neyland Stadium opened in 1921 and currently has a massive capacity of 101,915. Its record capacity was set at 109,061 Tennessee fans. That came back in 2004 in a game against the Florida Gators. The stadium was named after the legendary head coach General Robert Neyland in 1962. That was the same year that saw the four-time national championship-winning head coach die.

One of the great things about a game at Neyland Stadium is how many traditions surround the Tennessee program and the home experience.

The first tradition that most fans think of when they think about a Tennessee football game comes when the team takes the field. The Volunteers, led by Smokey, enter the field through a T that is being made by the Pride of the Southland Band.

Another visually stunning tradition is when fans checker games at Neyland Stadium to match the pattern in the endzones. That’s done by having fans wear blocks of either orange or white, depending on what section they’re sitting in. That’s a stadium design that is, reportedly, going to be included in EA College Football 25.

Of course, traditions don’t stop at that point for Tennessee. Another great one is fans singing “Rocky Top.” Beyond that, there are things like the Vol Navy and the Vol Walk that help make the fan experience better prior to the start of games.

Notably, the Toughest Places to Play rankings from EA Sports are going to have an impact on the video game itself. On3’s Pete Nakos reported that how tough a team’s home-field advantage is deemed is going to have an impact on the in-game play.

“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.”

With a massive capacity and more than a century of tradition at Tennessee, it’s no surprise that Neyland Stadium is ranked so highly by EA Sports. Now, it’s just a matter of finding out what the final product looks like in the game.