30 Best College Football Stadiums of All-Time
By Duncan Smith
Nov 15, 2014; Knoxville, TN, USA; General view of Neyland Stadium during the first half of the game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Kentucky Wildcats. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
8. Neyland Stadium
Knoxville, Tennessee
Capacity: 102,455
Record attendance: 109,061, on September 18th 2004, in a game in which Tennessee beat Florida by a score of 30-28.
What makes it great: It is BIG, but it wasn’t always so. The stadium can play host to over 100,000 people, but when the stadium opened in 1921, the seating capacity was a mere 3,200. Perhaps no other college football stadium has ever grown exponentially as Neyland has.
Greatest game played: Tennessee and the University of Florida have had a bitter rivalry stretching back to 1916. Maybe the most intriguing of all their many matchups at Neyland occurred in 1928 (at which point the stadium could accommodate 6,800 people) when the Gators brought an 8-0 record into play against the 8-0-1 Volunteers.
The field was a muddy disaster that day, to the point where Florida accused the Vols of watering down the field to remove the speed advantage the Gators possessed. The Vols blamed the playing conditions on a rainstorm the night before the game. Whether intentional or not, the muddy field did indeed slow down the Gators and Tennessee pulled out a 13-12 win.
Next: Beaver Stadium