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Stadium Experiences

Best stadium I've been to as far as overall experience (tailgating, fans, stadium itself, atmosphere) is Clemson. I don't think that's even close. Worst stadium overall was Duke but they've upgraded a bit recently. Wallace Wade truly was total garbage in the 90's and 2000's. Worst experience overall was probably FSU or NC State. FSU fans literally threw so much trash at Wake fans. State's tough to place because I've been several times and it has been hit or miss, but their fans also throw a ton of things at opposing fans and it's the place I've been the most verbally abused simply walking into the stadium. Doofus has a great story from a couple years back about the State-Wake game which led my dad, grew up a State fan and went to a ton of basketball/football games growing up and his whole side of the family are big State fans, to say he's never going back to a football game there every again. Although some of that was apparently Wake fans also being absolutely terrible.

Made it to a South Carolina-Georgia game in Columbia my freshman year at Wake and that was a great experience but the game was objectively bad.
 
Except for the typical student dbags that inhabit every stadium, UT fans are traditionally pretty hospitable (both mountain people & regular people). You won't have any issues, especially since you're not a Florida or Alabama fan.

Nice, my only experience with Vol fans has been Gatlinburg after they played Bama back in the early 00's. I'm pretty sure they won because I heard a few hundred drunken renditions of Rocky Top all over town that night.

Come to think of it, I've never had a bad experience with fans at an away game. Considering I've sat in IPTAY seats in Death Valley and Wolfpack Club seats at Carter-Finley, I feel like that's saying something. The worst opposing fan experiences have all been at Wake home games. A few "discussions" with Clemson fans in section 4 at BB&T, had a State fan drive a truck at me in the LJVM parking lot after we beat Russell Wilson his last year there, had Virginia Tech fans show up with bootleg tix to section 4 in 2006 and try to stand right in front of us (my dad almost blew a gasket), and had to sit in an entire section of asshole Cuse fans at the Joel on that icy night a few years back. Not even mentioning experiences with UNC and Duke fans at the Joel as I think that is par for the course for most Wake fans...
 
Nice, my only experience with Vol fans has been Gatlinburg after they played Bama back in the early 00's. I'm pretty sure they won because I heard a few hundred drunken renditions of Rocky Top all over town that night.

Come to think of it, I've never had a bad experience with fans at an away game. Considering I've sat in IPTAY seats in Death Valley and Wolfpack Club seats at Carter-Finley, I feel like that's saying something. The worst opposing fan experiences have all been at Wake home games. A few "discussions" with Clemson fans in section 4 at BB&T, had a State fan drive a truck at me in the LJVM parking lot after we beat Russell Wilson his last year there, had Virginia Tech fans show up with bootleg tix to section 4 in 2006 and try to stand right in front of us (my dad almost blew a gasket), and had to sit in an entire section of asshole Cuse fans at the Joel on that icy night a few years back. Not even mentioning experiences with UNC and Duke fans at the Joel as I think that is par for the course for most Wake fans...

THat was miserable.
 
How does Michigan or Ohio State compare to UT, Alabama, Georgia, Clemson?
 
Nice, my only experience with Vol fans has been Gatlinburg after they played Bama back in the early 00's. I'm pretty sure they won because I heard a few hundred drunken renditions of Rocky Top all over town that night.

Come to think of it, I've never had a bad experience with fans at an away game. Considering I've sat in IPTAY seats in Death Valley and Wolfpack Club seats at Carter-Finley, I feel like that's saying something. The worst opposing fan experiences have all been at Wake home games. A few "discussions" with Clemson fans in section 4 at BB&T, had a State fan drive a truck at me in the LJVM parking lot after we beat Russell Wilson his last year there, had Virginia Tech fans show up with bootleg tix to section 4 in 2006 and try to stand right in front of us (my dad almost blew a gasket), and had to sit in an entire section of asshole Cuse fans at the Joel on that icy night a few years back. Not even mentioning experiences with UNC and Duke fans at the Joel as I think that is par for the course for most Wake fans...

Ah yes, the infamous tix scam that had a reported 38-40,000 jammed into Groves that day.
 
Worst away game experience was by far UMD in '06. Throwing full fans of beer at us. A bottle got thrown. On the way in the girl I was dating got freaked out and put the car in park and refused to drive. Forcing me to get out and go around to her side to drive the rest of the way through the crowd.
 
The best place ever to watch college basketball was Penn's Palestra when the Big 5 was in its hey day of the 60s and 70s. The place sat about 9200 and had nearly perfect acoustics. It sounded like 30,000+ and cascaded.

Plus they played doubleheaders. If was two Big 5 teams versus two outside teams.The fans of each would arrive/stay for both games and go after both opponents.

I went to a Blackhawks/Blues game in St. Louis. That was insane.

I haven't found a single venue in CA (haven't been to see the Warriors in the Bay Area) that is very intense. I like watching games at the Rose Bowl. It's an amazing setting and every seat has good sight lines, but it's very tame.

Busch Stadium and Wrigley have very involved fans and are fun.
 
I saw Alabama open the season at UCLA in the Rose Bowl in 2000. Tailgated on the fairway of the golf course that sits right beside the stadium. More RVs with Alabama license plates in the parking lot than one could ever imagine seeing in California. There had to have been 25,000 Bama fans behind one of the end zones. Bama's Freddy Milons was a preseason Heisman candidate that year, and after UCLA went three and out on the first possession of the game, he took a punt back toward that Bama section for a TD. Totally awesome.

The rest of the day belonged to UCLA, though. DeShaun Foster ran for about 250 yards that day and UCLA won easily. Still an awesome overall stadium experience.
 
The girlfriend has been at UF's pharmacy school in Jacksonville, FL the past 3 years and we've made every Cocktail Party. Something that should be on every college football fan's bucket list.

Yeah, one of the Gainesville tailgate crew lived in Jacksonville on the James River. They rented a boat for that day and a slip at the stadium. Watching all of the yacht tailgates was something else. The atmosphere and the scenery is top notch.
 
Worst away game experience was by far UMD in '06. Throwing full fans of beer at us. A bottle got thrown. On the way in the girl I was dating got freaked out and put the car in park and refused to drive. Forcing me to get out and go around to her side to drive the rest of the way through the crowd.

One of the best games ever though. Kenny Moore!
 
Worst away game experience was by far UMD in '06. Throwing full fans of beer at us. A bottle got thrown. On the way in the girl I was dating got freaked out and put the car in park and refused to drive. Forcing me to get out and go around to her side to drive the rest of the way through the crowd.

Ah forgot about this. Parked in the basketball stadium lot and had full beers chucked at our car as well as we drove into parking lot. It wasn't just one or two, it was a ton of beers. My dad rolled down the window slightly and shouted out "you're just wasting good beer"
 
LSU at night is the top of my bucket list. Use to work at Michigan, went to a few games, most notable the one in 2003 when U-M beat Ohio State. At the time, it was the most attended college football game ever, 112,000+. Like Neyland, you were standing sideways, my wife loved it. The weird thing about Michigan Stadium is that it is built into the ground, it's amazing to see, and fun to attend, but for some reason, it never sounds as loud as some other smaller places, although I did talk to one of the App State players who played in that epic upset who said the noise was deafening on the ground.
 
Alabama's tailgate scene is awesome, and the environment inside the stadium is great, but I was surprised that it wasn't louder than it is. A group of friends and I usually rent out a tent for a tailgate there each year. Great set up, and you can walk around the frat houses with impunity either getting free drinks or buying them from their bartenders. Alabama's band, The Million Dollar Band, is also one of the best in the country, if that interests you.
 
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