Michigan Stadium named No. 3 venue in nation, Wolverines play at two top-7 venues in 2024
The Michigan Wolverines play in the largest stadium in North America, but is the Big House one of the best overall venues in the sport? ESPN believes so, ranking the iconic venue at No. 3 among college football stadiums.
The only venues ahead of Michigan Stadium are LSU’s Tiger Stadium and UCLA’s Rose Bowl, the latter of which the Wolverines played a little over six months ago on its run to the College Football Playoff National Championship.
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg made the case for Michigan at No. 3 in his writeup of the venue.
“Size matters with stadiums, and Michigan remains the largest by capacity at 107,601, edging fellow Big Ten venues Beaver Stadium (Penn State) and Ohio Stadium (Ohio State),” Rittenberg said. “In 2013, Michigan drew 115,109 for its game against Notre Dame, the largest crowd ever to attend a football game on campus. The listed capacity has ended in ’01’ since 1956 with the ‘extra seat’ belonging to former Michigan coach and athletic director Fritz Crisler.
“The stadium went through a $227 million renovation in 2010 that brought club suites and private suites and significantly increased the noise level around the large bowl. Games at ‘the Big House’ — a phrase coined by former commentator Keith Jackson — begin dramatically with the Wolverines touching a ‘Go Blue’ banner as they enter the field.”
Michigan will play at a pair of venues that made the top-10 on ESPN’s list this year with Washington’s Husky Stadium coming in at No. 6. The Wolverines will take on Washington in a rematch of last season’s national title game, a 34-13 Michigan win, on Oct. 5 in Seattle.
“Washington boasts that Husky Stadium is ‘the greatest setting in college football,’ and it’s hard to blame it for saying so,” Kyle Bonagura wrote. “Constructed on the banks of picturesque Lake Washington, this mammoth 70,138-seat stadium is a rare big-city venue with big-time college football. With views of the Seattle skyline, Mount Rainier and a pair of mountain ranges, Husky Stadium is the premier college football bucket-list trip on the West Coast.
“Pregaming on the water is a favorite pastime, with a range of experiences from small boats to expensive yachts lining Union Bay. Husky Stadium went through an extensive renovation in 2012 that modernized the facility, bringing fans closer to the field and adding to what was already a formidable home-field advantage.”
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Michigan’s season finale at Ohio State, set for Nov. 30 in Columbus, has them heading to the No. 7 venue in the country. The Wolverines took down the Buckeyes by a score of 45-23 in Ohio Stadium during the 2022 season.
“Arguably no college football stadium is more synonymous with its original shape than Ohio Stadium,” Rittenberg wrote. “The venue opened in 1922 as the nation’s first horseshoe-shaped stadium with double decks. Architect Howard Dwight Smith went with a horseshoe shape to accommodate track events in the open end, and so that all seats could face the field. The stadium is famously ‘on the banks of the Olentangy River,’ as legendary college football announcer Keith Jackson would say, but a bend in the river had to be straightened to accommodate the venue and natural drainage was rerouted into sewers.
A”lthough ‘The Horseshoe’ has been filled in by a grandstand behind the south end zone, Ohio Stadium will forever be known by its original shape. Before each game, the band famously performs Script Ohio, culminating with the dotting of the ‘i.'”
Five other Big Ten venues made ESPN’s top 25 in Penn State’s Beaver Stadium (No. 5), Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium (No. 8), Oregon’s Autzen Stadium (No. 14), Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium (No. 16) and USC’s Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (No. 22).
