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Anthony Chiusano | NCAA.com | July 17, 2023

The 25 biggest college football stadiums in the country

These are the biggest stadiums in college football

When the first-ever college football game was played in 1869, just about 100 spectators showed up on Rutgers' campus. Fast forward 147 years to Sept. 10, 2016 and Bristol Motor Speedway played host for a special Tennessee-Virginia Tech neutral site game that drew an NCAA-record 156,990 paid.

Crowds of 100,000-plus have become commonplace in college football thanks to extraordinary renovations and multimillion-dollar projects. In 2022, eight schools boast home stadiums that hold a six-figure capacity. 

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Here are the 25 largest capacity stadiums that serve as primary homes for FBS college football teams ahead of the 2023 season. 

The 25 largest FBS college football stadiums in the United States:
RANK SCHOOL STADIUM CAPACITY
1 Michigan Michigan Stadium (Ann Arbor, Mich.) 107,601
2 Penn State Beaver Stadium (University Park, Pa.) 106,572
3 Ohio State Ohio Stadium (Columbus, Ohio) 102,780
4 Texas A&M Kyle Field (College Station, Texas) 102,733
5 LSU Tiger Stadium (Baton Rouge, La.) 102,321
6 Tennessee Neyland Stadium (Knoxville, Tenn.) 101,915
7 Alabama Bryant-Denny Stadium (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) 101,821
8 Texas Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium (Austin, Texas) 100,119
9 Georgia Sanford Stadium (Athens, Ga.) 92,746
10 UCLA Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.) 91,136
11 Florida Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (Gainesville, Fla.) 88,548
12 Auburn Jordan-Hare Stadium (Auburn, Ala.) 87,451
13 Oklahoma Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium (Norman, Okla.) 86,112
14 Nebraska Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.) 85,458
15 Clemson Clemson Memorial Stadium (Clemson, S.C.) 81,500
16 Notre Dame Notre Dame Stadium (South Bend, Ind.) 80,795
17 Florida State Doak Campbell Stadium (Tallahassee, Fla.) 79,560
18 South Carolina Williams-Brice Stadium (Columbia, S.C.) 77,559
19 Southern Cal Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (Los Angeles) 77,500
20 Wisconsin Camp Randall Stadium (Madison, Wisc.) 75,822
21 Michigan State Spartan Stadium (East Lansing, Mich.) 74,866
22 Arkansas Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium (Fayetteville, Ark.) 72,000
23 Washington Husky Stadium (Seattle, Wash.) 70,138
24 Iowa Kinnick Stadium (Iowa City, Iowa)  69,250
25 Temple Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia, Pa.) 68,532

Notes: 

  • Before that 2016 Battle at Bristol meeting between Tennessee and Virginia Tech, Michigan Stadium owned the modern-day college football attendance record. In 2013, Notre Dame visited Michigan and played in front of a crowd of 115,109. Michigan won 41-30.
  • While the Rose Bowl's capacity for UCLA home games stands at 91,136, its all-time attendance record is 106,869. That was set in 1973 at the 59th Rose Bowl Game, which saw USC defeat Ohio State 42-17. The Trojans were then unanimously voted the No. 1 team in the nation in both the final AP poll and coaches' poll.

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