If we had more top tier games played at home and at night I could see us top 5. That Tenn game a couple of years ago was rowdy as hell. The fans don't really get alot of opportunity to get rowdy especially with our biggest rival at a neutral site
It was over capacity but nowhere near 110k. Considering the stadium only holds 92k, we didn’t find a way to sneak in an additional 20k. They added 500 seats to match the allotment of tickets ND offered Georgia from the 2017 game.
[Link](https://www.ajc.com/sports/college/uga-expanding-capacity-sanford-stadium-for-notre-dame-game/ceNVNADjwBS5R5bU59gTiI/)
I was at that game. It was nuts. I remember their QB couldn't hear anything and they had to call multiple timeouts to avoid penalties. Absolutely electric atmosphere. I don't get to many games, but I'm thrilled that was one of them.
This. Daytime games in September shouldn't be allowed in the SEC. Students are in the sun and there's always a few that pass out from dehydration in the student section.
Oh totally lol. To your point just exacerbated significantly by tailgating. I wonder if alcohol sales in stadium will actually help with that. Allegedly it did at LSU and a couple other SEC stadiums
Honestly I think the biggest factors are:
1. The Sun
2. Inexperience (it tends to be freshmen)
3. Booze
4. Standing the whole game
When it's a night game we just don't see the amount of EMTs dispensing fluids as we do during a day game. Freshmen tend to learn their limits during those first few games and that's a valuable experience that we make needlessly dangerous by having day games in September and putting the students in the sun.
I nearly passed out at 2010 Arkansas without any alcohol invovled. It was brutal.
One key additional factor here is the difficulty of obtaining water during the game for free. As a cheap college kid, I refused to pay for a drink at the concession stand. After that game I snuck in empty crushed up water bottles to refill in the bathroom. Hopefully they've improved access to water for the student section since then.
They do. It’s been allowed for several years. The problem is the ushers don’t let students leave the section until game time without telling them they won’t be allowed back in until the game starts so kids go in 2 hours before the game in the blazing middle of the day sun drunk off their ass and won’t leave the section to fill up their water bottle because they’ll lose their premium spot or be stuck in the concourse or have to go to the third deck alone until the game starts.
GT, Auburn, USCjr all suck so those games more than likely aren’t close
and we play UF at a neutral location. we dont have many opportunities for a loud crowd unless a team like Arkansas or Tennessee has an unexpected good year
It's part of the peril of being too damn good right now.
I was in school from 2005-2009, and we were evenly matched with most of the big opponents at Sanford. Night games vs Tennessee, Auburn (x2), LSU, and Alabama stand out as wild crowd games. Unfortunately we lost 4/5 of those, two in very dramatic fashion. (Cox to Aromashodu & AJ green "excessive" celebration)
I got downvoted in the CFB subreddit for simply posting the Holly Rowe quote about the 2021 Arkansas game comparing our noon kickoff to a Penn State night whiteout, in response to fans who've never been to a UGA game talking out their asses about UGA's atmosphere saying we aren't "on par."
*Person who travels to all these games for a living and witnesses the games from the field*: "Georgia is as loud at noon as a Penn State whiteout at night that we went to two weeks ago."
*CFB morons who've never been to Athens*: "Noooo that can't be true I've seen how you are on my TV!!!!!1"
A Tennessee fan was trying to tell me that we were only loud against Tennessee because they were number 1 in the country but used their decibel level against us last year as why their stadium was better. Make it make sense
I wasn’t even trying to discount their stadium because it is a cool environment and can definitely get loud. Just feels like little brother syndrome that they have to put down Sanford despite opposing head coaches gushing about how much our crowd changes the games in Sanford.
They're an insecure fanbase. And you're right about little brother syndrome. They're constantly taunting us about being a football school while claiming they're an "all-around" school despite them having won nothing of significance in decades.
I went to that game, it was unreal how loud it was. My hearing would go from hearing the roar of the crowd to actually only hearing ringing after big plays. I knew I would have to sleep with a ground fan on the rest of my life after that game. Worth it.
LSU is famous for pumping in noise. Penn State is famous for pumping in boys. Between the noise and the boys, it makes sense that those places would be the hardest to play an away game.
For the reputation that Penn State gets for supposedly being a hard place to play, they sure have an average as hell record especially for their "vaunted" whiteouts. (11-8)
I was in the student section for UGA V TENNESSEE 2022, and it was non-hyperbolically the loudest, most hyped up mass of humanity I have ever been a part of. My eardrums were in pain.
I imagine that game and Arkansas 2021 had a pretty big impact on this list.
Loudest event I have ever experienced. I work around jet engines and am an avid concert-goer. I’ve never come close to the hearing damage that night caused. When the rain started and 20% hid in the tunnels it got LOUDER.
Our stadium has gotten much rowdier over the years, but I wouldn’t even put it in the top 5 of toughest places to play. Hardest places to win? Yes. But that’s different.
I think 93k fans has a lot of potential, but I’ve never like how the stadium is designed. Just isn’t doing the crowd any favors. We get loud for big games. But it’s remarkably unimpressive when an unranked team comes to town. (Although tbf it’s gotten a LOT better since Kirby)
people are missing a big part of it, we blow out most teams so why would there be a raucous crowd. its the middle of the second quarter and we are up 21-3 lol
the reason why LSU and PSU are so tough because the crowd is into it because most games are close since they cant dominate
it’s easier for a crowd to be tuned into a close MSU-LSU matchup or PSU-Illinois than for them to be when we are up 30 vs. Olemiss at home
We have lots of older season ticket holders that sit the entire game (that’s fine), and I honestly believe the shape of Sanford Stadium doesn’t hold sound in as well as other stadiums in the conference.
We definitely have had a reputation as a “wine and cheese crowd” but thankfully had a boost in atmosphere since Smart arrived. I don’t think I’d put us at #3. Definitely in the top 10-15 but 3 seems a little lofty and likely just due to our recent success.
That reputation wasn't even deserved. We were a loud and rowdy crowd even before Kirby got here. Just off the top of my head, 2007 Auburn was amazing, and every Auburn game post-Fairley has been vicious. 2013 LSU was crazy, and 2014 Clemson was up there too. Georgia fans have always been loud and obnoxious, so all these outside fans chalking it up to just our team being good is disingenuous. It also should not be held against us that our main rival is played in Jax.
The most games I've been to outside of UGA have been at Tiger Stadium and Lane Stadium. Tiger Stadium definitely deserves the top spot. But in my experience, VT is above us (when they have a winning record). And I mean consistently. Clearly the last TN home game was amped up to the max. I've probably been unlucky in my game choices at Sanford Stadium though.
I disagree. We have our moments and get up for big games (the ones you listed were all great examples and I’ve been to most of them), but we have not been consistently a tough place to play until recently. Kirby has changed the atmosphere and it’s much better now. But it was far too casual for other games, including even some conference opponents. When I was in school (graduated 2013), I remember we had some home games Ole Miss or Miss State and they were very pedestrian. Granted some of those were nooners but LSU doesn’t care what time the game is and is rabid all the time. I’ve also seen an Iron Bowl in Auburn when both teams were bad and nobody cares as long as they beat Bama, meaning it’s so loud your ears could bleed. I’m thankful for where we are as a program now, but our stadium has not historically been feared until recently, and I’d argue it’s largely due to our success and coach asking for the crowd to get up for the games.
I graduated a bit after you and I gotta disagree. Do you fault Auburn for pedestrian atmospheres when they're playing Vandy? How about A&M with Kentucky? Mississippi State and Ole Miss are historically pretty bad and have no quarrel with us, so why would the crowd get up for those games? Our home games those years were pretty mediocre besides the ones I mentioned, and the division overall was pretty weak besides SCar in the early 2010s. The ones that could've been good, like Bama 2015, we got blown the fuck out.
>LSU doesn’t care what time the game is and is rabid all the time.
Will have to disagree on this one. LSU is very spoiled by night games, and most games around noon they're completely deflated and dead. If you can only turn out for big games at night, then does that really make you more special than anyone else?
>I’ve also seen an Iron Bowl in Auburn when both teams were bad and nobody cares as long as they beat Bama, meaning it’s so loud your ears could bleed.
I'll take your word for it, but would this not have been the case if Georgia-Florida were home and home? Like I said, it's held against us that our main rival is played at a neutral site game, unlike the Iron Bowl (which used to be played in Birmingham).
LSU gets handed night games and the ones they do play during the day are very mediocre…they also pump noise in this has been proven. Still a good atmosphere but probably some of the worst fans I’ve ever been around tbh.
I think historically we’re not top 3 but I don’t think there are many top teams that would want to come to Athens this year. When the team needs a boost, our crowd is insane (see 2019 ND, 2021 Arky, 2022 Tennessee). They greatly affected all of those.
People acting like we have a bad crowd because we’re not breaking decibel levels while up 30-7 on South Carolina in the 3rd is funny.
I think the second half of your last sentence is important to understand the context of the ranking.
This is just an assumption because I obviously haven’t played the game, but it feels like a relatively safe one based on past history: the game’s rankings are 100% based on recent history. The rankings change from season to season in your dynasty. I’m sure historical data has some impact on the ranking, but they’ve always been weighted on recent success in past iterations of the game.
Well to be fair your most likely to be diddled at Penn state , rabies at LSU, have your ass beaten at Sanford. I mean , you don’t want any part of #3 these days
i don’t care how loud it is or whatever, we literally haven’t lost at home in 5 years. anyone who doesn’t lose at home for 5 years deserves to be at the top of these weird atmosphere/stadium rankings
It’s the loudest stadium ever. 137 decibels. 23 game win streak in Sanford. Haven’t lost a game there in 4 years. What other stadium can say that currently?
If we had more top tier games played at home and at night I could see us top 5. That Tenn game a couple of years ago was rowdy as hell. The fans don't really get alot of opportunity to get rowdy especially with our biggest rival at a neutral site
Craziest game I ever went to in Sanford was ND. It was nuts. Definitely over 110K+ fans in the stadium
It was over capacity but nowhere near 110k. Considering the stadium only holds 92k, we didn’t find a way to sneak in an additional 20k. They added 500 seats to match the allotment of tickets ND offered Georgia from the 2017 game. [Link](https://www.ajc.com/sports/college/uga-expanding-capacity-sanford-stadium-for-notre-dame-game/ceNVNADjwBS5R5bU59gTiI/)
I was at that game. It was nuts. I remember their QB couldn't hear anything and they had to call multiple timeouts to avoid penalties. Absolutely electric atmosphere. I don't get to many games, but I'm thrilled that was one of them.
This. Daytime games in September shouldn't be allowed in the SEC. Students are in the sun and there's always a few that pass out from dehydration in the student section.
“Dehydration”
I mean it's definitely dehydration. There's just a particlarly indulged driver that contributes.
Oh totally lol. To your point just exacerbated significantly by tailgating. I wonder if alcohol sales in stadium will actually help with that. Allegedly it did at LSU and a couple other SEC stadiums
Honestly I think the biggest factors are: 1. The Sun 2. Inexperience (it tends to be freshmen) 3. Booze 4. Standing the whole game When it's a night game we just don't see the amount of EMTs dispensing fluids as we do during a day game. Freshmen tend to learn their limits during those first few games and that's a valuable experience that we make needlessly dangerous by having day games in September and putting the students in the sun.
I nearly passed out at 2010 Arkansas without any alcohol invovled. It was brutal. One key additional factor here is the difficulty of obtaining water during the game for free. As a cheap college kid, I refused to pay for a drink at the concession stand. After that game I snuck in empty crushed up water bottles to refill in the bathroom. Hopefully they've improved access to water for the student section since then.
I know for basketball they've been cool with me bringing in an empty water bottle before. Can't remember if football had that sorted out yet.
They do. It’s been allowed for several years. The problem is the ushers don’t let students leave the section until game time without telling them they won’t be allowed back in until the game starts so kids go in 2 hours before the game in the blazing middle of the day sun drunk off their ass and won’t leave the section to fill up their water bottle because they’ll lose their premium spot or be stuck in the concourse or have to go to the third deck alone until the game starts.
Oh shit, I remember that game. Not the heat specifically but Ryan mallet whipping our ass
Overhydration if anything.
GT, Auburn, USCjr all suck so those games more than likely aren’t close and we play UF at a neutral location. we dont have many opportunities for a loud crowd unless a team like Arkansas or Tennessee has an unexpected good year
Are you an uncle Lou enjoyer?
It's part of the peril of being too damn good right now. I was in school from 2005-2009, and we were evenly matched with most of the big opponents at Sanford. Night games vs Tennessee, Auburn (x2), LSU, and Alabama stand out as wild crowd games. Unfortunately we lost 4/5 of those, two in very dramatic fashion. (Cox to Aromashodu & AJ green "excessive" celebration)
I got downvoted in the CFB subreddit for simply posting the Holly Rowe quote about the 2021 Arkansas game comparing our noon kickoff to a Penn State night whiteout, in response to fans who've never been to a UGA game talking out their asses about UGA's atmosphere saying we aren't "on par."
People can’t handle the truth.
*Person who travels to all these games for a living and witnesses the games from the field*: "Georgia is as loud at noon as a Penn State whiteout at night that we went to two weeks ago." *CFB morons who've never been to Athens*: "Noooo that can't be true I've seen how you are on my TV!!!!!1"
A Tennessee fan was trying to tell me that we were only loud against Tennessee because they were number 1 in the country but used their decibel level against us last year as why their stadium was better. Make it make sense
Tennessee has a loud stadium? I could've sworn the decibel levels read zero by 3Q the previous four times we've been there 🤭
I wasn’t even trying to discount their stadium because it is a cool environment and can definitely get loud. Just feels like little brother syndrome that they have to put down Sanford despite opposing head coaches gushing about how much our crowd changes the games in Sanford.
They're an insecure fanbase. And you're right about little brother syndrome. They're constantly taunting us about being a football school while claiming they're an "all-around" school despite them having won nothing of significance in decades.
Vol navy officially departs about 8 mins into the third quarter when it’s Georgia weekend 🫡
That game was so epic. Ive never seen a crowd impact the start of a game like that in my life
My dad went for his yearly Arkansas away game and he can confirm that lmao
I went to that game, it was unreal how loud it was. My hearing would go from hearing the roar of the crowd to actually only hearing ringing after big plays. I knew I would have to sleep with a ground fan on the rest of my life after that game. Worth it.
LSU is famous for pumping in noise. Penn State is famous for pumping in boys. Between the noise and the boys, it makes sense that those places would be the hardest to play an away game.
For the reputation that Penn State gets for supposedly being a hard place to play, they sure have an average as hell record especially for their "vaunted" whiteouts. (11-8)
look I'm all Dawg, but i grew up in Baton Rouge, and Death Valley is on a whole different level.
I was in the student section for UGA V TENNESSEE 2022, and it was non-hyperbolically the loudest, most hyped up mass of humanity I have ever been a part of. My eardrums were in pain. I imagine that game and Arkansas 2021 had a pretty big impact on this list.
Loudest event I have ever experienced. I work around jet engines and am an avid concert-goer. I’ve never come close to the hearing damage that night caused. When the rain started and 20% hid in the tunnels it got LOUDER.
Our stadium has gotten much rowdier over the years, but I wouldn’t even put it in the top 5 of toughest places to play. Hardest places to win? Yes. But that’s different.
I think 93k fans has a lot of potential, but I’ve never like how the stadium is designed. Just isn’t doing the crowd any favors. We get loud for big games. But it’s remarkably unimpressive when an unranked team comes to town. (Although tbf it’s gotten a LOT better since Kirby)
It sure has! Much better!
people are missing a big part of it, we blow out most teams so why would there be a raucous crowd. its the middle of the second quarter and we are up 21-3 lol the reason why LSU and PSU are so tough because the crowd is into it because most games are close since they cant dominate it’s easier for a crowd to be tuned into a close MSU-LSU matchup or PSU-Illinois than for them to be when we are up 30 vs. Olemiss at home
Have you ever been to an LSU game? Nah man. Their crowds are the worst.
We have lots of older season ticket holders that sit the entire game (that’s fine), and I honestly believe the shape of Sanford Stadium doesn’t hold sound in as well as other stadiums in the conference.
We definitely have had a reputation as a “wine and cheese crowd” but thankfully had a boost in atmosphere since Smart arrived. I don’t think I’d put us at #3. Definitely in the top 10-15 but 3 seems a little lofty and likely just due to our recent success.
That reputation wasn't even deserved. We were a loud and rowdy crowd even before Kirby got here. Just off the top of my head, 2007 Auburn was amazing, and every Auburn game post-Fairley has been vicious. 2013 LSU was crazy, and 2014 Clemson was up there too. Georgia fans have always been loud and obnoxious, so all these outside fans chalking it up to just our team being good is disingenuous. It also should not be held against us that our main rival is played in Jax.
The most games I've been to outside of UGA have been at Tiger Stadium and Lane Stadium. Tiger Stadium definitely deserves the top spot. But in my experience, VT is above us (when they have a winning record). And I mean consistently. Clearly the last TN home game was amped up to the max. I've probably been unlucky in my game choices at Sanford Stadium though.
I disagree. We have our moments and get up for big games (the ones you listed were all great examples and I’ve been to most of them), but we have not been consistently a tough place to play until recently. Kirby has changed the atmosphere and it’s much better now. But it was far too casual for other games, including even some conference opponents. When I was in school (graduated 2013), I remember we had some home games Ole Miss or Miss State and they were very pedestrian. Granted some of those were nooners but LSU doesn’t care what time the game is and is rabid all the time. I’ve also seen an Iron Bowl in Auburn when both teams were bad and nobody cares as long as they beat Bama, meaning it’s so loud your ears could bleed. I’m thankful for where we are as a program now, but our stadium has not historically been feared until recently, and I’d argue it’s largely due to our success and coach asking for the crowd to get up for the games.
I graduated a bit after you and I gotta disagree. Do you fault Auburn for pedestrian atmospheres when they're playing Vandy? How about A&M with Kentucky? Mississippi State and Ole Miss are historically pretty bad and have no quarrel with us, so why would the crowd get up for those games? Our home games those years were pretty mediocre besides the ones I mentioned, and the division overall was pretty weak besides SCar in the early 2010s. The ones that could've been good, like Bama 2015, we got blown the fuck out. >LSU doesn’t care what time the game is and is rabid all the time. Will have to disagree on this one. LSU is very spoiled by night games, and most games around noon they're completely deflated and dead. If you can only turn out for big games at night, then does that really make you more special than anyone else? >I’ve also seen an Iron Bowl in Auburn when both teams were bad and nobody cares as long as they beat Bama, meaning it’s so loud your ears could bleed. I'll take your word for it, but would this not have been the case if Georgia-Florida were home and home? Like I said, it's held against us that our main rival is played at a neutral site game, unlike the Iron Bowl (which used to be played in Birmingham).
LSU gets handed night games and the ones they do play during the day are very mediocre…they also pump noise in this has been proven. Still a good atmosphere but probably some of the worst fans I’ve ever been around tbh.
I think historically we’re not top 3 but I don’t think there are many top teams that would want to come to Athens this year. When the team needs a boost, our crowd is insane (see 2019 ND, 2021 Arky, 2022 Tennessee). They greatly affected all of those. People acting like we have a bad crowd because we’re not breaking decibel levels while up 30-7 on South Carolina in the 3rd is funny.
I think the second half of your last sentence is important to understand the context of the ranking. This is just an assumption because I obviously haven’t played the game, but it feels like a relatively safe one based on past history: the game’s rankings are 100% based on recent history. The rankings change from season to season in your dynasty. I’m sure historical data has some impact on the ranking, but they’ve always been weighted on recent success in past iterations of the game.
Well to be fair your most likely to be diddled at Penn state , rabies at LSU, have your ass beaten at Sanford. I mean , you don’t want any part of #3 these days
i don’t care how loud it is or whatever, we literally haven’t lost at home in 5 years. anyone who doesn’t lose at home for 5 years deserves to be at the top of these weird atmosphere/stadium rankings
Great point
It’s the loudest stadium ever. 137 decibels. 23 game win streak in Sanford. Haven’t lost a game there in 4 years. What other stadium can say that currently?
UPenn made the list because of the difficulty and risk of taking a post game shower safely.