Top 20 college football stadiums you must see in your lifetime

A general view of fans outside Bryant-Denny Stadium (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
A general view of fans outside Bryant-Denny Stadium (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
1 of 21
college football
A general view as the sun sets behind Notre Dame Stadium – Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

There are so many college football stadiums that would be special to witness, but here’s a list of the 20 that would be the best sights to see.

The college football world is now dominated by the “arms race” for the best facilities in the nation. Whether it’s for recruiting purposes or just to build the brand, athletic departments across the country have invested millions into the upgrade of their athletic facilities. However, there is something to be said about the beauty of the great stadiums for the blue blood programs.

Narrowing down a list of the best college football stadiums in the country is not easy, but that’s also part of the greatness of the college football landscape. There are easily 50 programs with stadiums that all have numerous impressive qualities.

For example, the Iowa State Cyclones and NC State Wolfpack have Jack Trice Stadium and Carter-Finley Stadium, each with average attendances well over 50,000 fans (sorry to NCSU fans for the mistake a few days ago as you can see here). And NC State and ISU would never really be mentioned among the blue-bloods in college football, but they have good facilities in respected Power Five conferences.

The most important things taken into account when selecting the 20 stadiums in this ranking include capacity, atmosphere, recent upgrades, program tradition, and overall design of the stadium.

Obviously, you cannot pick all the stadiums on this list just based on a metric. To some degree, there are a few stadiums that just cannot be left off this list because of the iconic significance of the actual stadium and the specific program.

Here’s a look at the 20 college football stadiums you must see in your lifetime.