College football, in the opinion of many, has the best regular season of any sport. Each and every game matters, each and every game determines your ranking and leaves such a minimal margin of error when playing for the National Championship. The teams are looked at under a microscope based on more than wins and losses. Factors including strength of schedule, points scored, points given up and team injuries are all discussed at length when determining the top four teams earning their spots in the playoffs come December. However, one factor that is not considered in the rankings, but can determine a game outcome is home field advantage.
Home field advantage gives the home team that extra bit of confidence, that extra edge and a whole lot of crowd noise. There are some stadiums that create such a hostile environment for the away team that the crowd becomes just as much a part of the game as the play calling and tackles for loss. Some of these environments are created by tradition like The 12th Man at Texas A&M where the crowd takes it’s support role very seriously. Other environments are created by stadium structure, such as Virginia Tech where the stadium is built vertically instead of out, making it feel like the Hokie fans are sitting on top of you, instead of stadium style seating. However, there are two stadiums that come to mind creating such hostile environments for the away team that they have been ranked as the top 2 toughest stadiums to play, #2 Beaver Stadium at Penn State and #1 Ohio Stadium at Ohio State, according to 247sports.com.
This past Saturday #10 Penn State played host to #4 Ohio State in the 11th all stadium White Out at Beaver Stadium. Heading into this game the White Out held a record of 5-5 for the Nittany Lions. The stadium was loud, there was a sea of white with a splash of scarlet. Pom poms filled the air and you could hardly hear the announcers. While Ohio State prepared the week leading up to the game with noise crowd in their practice facility, there is nothing that can quite prepare you for 110,000 people rooting against you. Ohio State has experienced the White Out in previous years and though it took them an entire half to adjust to the Lions home field advantage, the Buckeyes came out victorious, due to a little bit of luck.
Beaver Stadium and Ohio Stadium are two of the largest stadiums in the country. Beaver Stadium officially holds 107,282, making it the second largest stadium in college football behind Michigan Stadium. Ohio Stadium officially holds 104,944 making it the third largest stadium in college football. Both these stadiums are filled with intense fan bases. The Nittany Lions and Buckeye faithful are loud and loyal to their home team, their goal is to create an atmosphere so hard for the away teams to play that mistakes happen with the hopes of those mistakes snowballing into a loss.
The showdown between the Nittany Lions and the Buckeyes these past few years have led to the winner going on to become Big Ten Champions and each game for the past three seasons have come down to the wire with a lot of crowd noise and a little bit of luck.
Two years ago, Ohio State attempted a field goal, the kick was blocked and Penn State ran it back for a game winning touchdown in the final minutes. The past two games the Lions had the lead for the first three quarters until the Buckeyes came back in the fourth quarter to win it. Last year you can say home field advantage gave the Buckeyes their extra luck to win, this year it was a questionable play call by Penn State coach, James Franklin, giving Ohio State that extra bit of luck. Home field advantage is real and it’s intense. Ohio State lucked out with a win this year and I know Buckeye Nation will be ready to return the hostile environment next season when Penn State comes to Columbus.
