Where Autzen Stadium ranks among ESPN’s best venues in college football

Anyone who has been to Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon knows that this venue is something special. Though it isn’t very big — boasting a capacity of just 54,000 fans — it is regarded as one of the loudest and most hostile environments in the nation.

As we lead up to the start of the 2024 college football season, ESPN came out with a ranking of the best venues in the nation, ranking the Oregon Ducks’ home among the top locations.

Autzen Stadium landed at No. 14 on the list. Here’s what ESPN had to say about it:

Despite its modest 54,000-seat capacity, Autzen Stadium has long been billed as one of the loudest stadiums in college football. There’s just something about the combination of the stadium’s generic potato-chip-shaped design and passionate fan base that seemingly defies logic. Taking in a game at Autzen feels more like somewhere with twice the crowd size than like other stadiums of a similar size.

The proof is in the results: Over the past 10 years, the Ducks are tied with the 10th-best record in college football (90-38) but rank No. 6 when playing at home vs. No. 15 when on the road. Plus, there’s a duck that rides a motorcycle to kick things off.

While some Oregon fans may think that Autzen should be higher on the list because of the gameday atmosphere that it provides, it’s hard to argue with some of the locations that were ranked above it, like The Big House, Beaver Stadium, Ohio State, and the Rose Bowl.

With the Ducks’ move to the Big Ten, there’s a good chance that more eyeballs are soon going to be turned to Eugene, so Autzen may get more of the credit that it deserves going forward.

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