Where does The Swamp rank among the top-10 college football venues for fan atmosphere?
Ask any Florida Gators fan where the best place in the world to watch a college football game and 11 times out of 10 they will tell you, “The Swamp.” And in complete fairness, they 100 percent correct.
Homerisms aside, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium has been among the elite venues for collegiate gridiron action since Steve Spurrier first bestowed the endearing title to the home of the Fighting Gators, and that tradition continues to this day. While not everyone will agree that Florida Field — which now also bears the name of the Head Ball Coach — is the greatest location in the nation, there is a general consensus among the sports media that it is a top-tier locale.
Riley Gates over at 247Sports took a stab at ranking the top 10 college football venues in terms of fan atmosphere, and unsurprisingly, The Swamp not only cracked the list but appeared among the top five. In fact, it landed right at No. 5 according to Gates, and here is his explanation why.
With a nickname like, “The Swamp,” Florida is always going to be a college football stadium that sticks in people’s minds. And then 90,000 Gator fans join in, cheering on their team and doing the iconic Florida Gators “chomp” together. While the school has distanced itself from the chomp because of its racial history, it will be interesting to see how fans conduct themselves when they return to full capacity in 2021.
“The Swamp has long been one of the loudest game day environments in college football. A home game in Gainesville is a big home field advantage for the team with how passionate and loud fans are with their Gator Chomps. If you look back at a recent game, back in 2019 when Florida played Auburn at home, it was one of the loudest games in The Swamp in quite some time. That electric atmosphere made it tough for Auburn’s offense to get anything going.” — Blake Alderman, Swamp247
While Florida lags behind two other Southeastern Conference schools — the Alabama Crimson Tide‘s Bryant-Denny Stadium at No. 3 and LSU‘s top-ranked Tiger Stadium — it still stands tall among its college football peers when it comes to providing the ultimate fan experience.
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