Where Michigan Stadium ranks in study of best college football atmospheres

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – This one’s going to upset some people.

For a long time, Michigan football fans have had a reputation of being (for lack of a better term) lame.

Sure, the Big House is the biggest stadium in the college football, but it’s not an intimidating atmosphere. That’s what rivals like to say.

But if you’ve been to big games at Michigan, you know that has changed in recent years. The atmosphere was brutal during the Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke years, and even before then it was kind of... meh.

Jim Harbaugh revitalized this fan base, though. Years of suffering and national ridicule made Michigan fans realize they shouldn’t take winning for granted. And the Michigan Stadium atmosphere is better for it.

That change is reflected in a recent study by BetMGM.

Study details

The study gathered information about college football stadiums and put it all together to create a list of the “rowdiest college football stadiums” in the nation.

Here’s what went into those rankings:

• Percentage of filled seats, on average, over 5 years.
• Average game attendance over 5 years.
• Home game winning percentage over 5 years.
• Google star rating.
• Percentage of Google reviews mentioning great fans, great atmosphere, loud volume, and tailgating.
• The number of followers on Instagram.
• The number of hashtags (#GoBlue for Michigan) on TikTok.

These metrics were compared for the top 50 football programs in the AP poll and Football Power Index.

Top 15 stadiums

Each stadium received a score, and that score was used to determine the rankings. Here are the top 15:

1. Penn State’s Beaver Stadium -- 41.82.
2. Michigan’s Michigan Stadium -- 38.25.
3. Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium -- 37.58.
4. Clemson’s Memorial Stadium -- 36.3.
5. Ohio State’s Ohio Stadium -- 35.66.
6. Georgia’s Stanford Stadium -- 34.18.
7. LSU’s Tiger Stadium -- 32.43.
8. Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium -- 31.78.
9. Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium -- 31.26.
10. Oregon’s Autzen Stadium -- 30.92.
11. Texas’ Memorial Stadium -- 29.63.
12. Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium -- 29.61.
13. Notre Dame’s Notre Dame Stadium -- 28.64.
14. Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium -- 28.16.
15. Texas A&M’s Kyle Field -- 27.46.

I’ve been to six of the stadiums on this list, and I can say, Penn State deserves to be at the top. Michigan, Iowa, Ohio State, and Notre Dame all have incredible big-game atmospheres, too.

Camp Randall -- mixed reviews. It depends on the time of kickoff. One Michigan-Wisconsin game had that stadium rocking. At another, the students showed up about midway through the second quarter of an 11 a.m. kick.

OK, obviously the size of the stadium is helping Michigan out a lot here. I don’t think anyone will argue that the Big House is rowdier than Tiger Stadium or Autzen Stadium.

But Michigan fans deserve credit for how much the gameday atmosphere has improved in recent years. For a stadium that’s not constructed in a way to keep sound in, it gets loud. Every bit as loud as what I’ve heard at Iowa, Notre Dame, and Ohio State.

Not Penn State, though. White Out games are a different animal.

Would I personally say Michigan has the No. 2 rowdiest gameday atmosphere? No. But it’s definitely in the top 15. Probably around the 10-12 range.

Michigan’s ranking details

Here’s what the study says about Michigan:

“The University of Michigan’s Michigan Stadium, home to the Wolverines, is the second-rowdiest college football stadium in the U.S., and the numbers prove it. With an average home game attendance of 110,559 -- the highest game attendance in the study -- and 102.75% of seats filled over the last five years, it’s a stadium packed to the max. Michigan Stadium also has the second-highest percentage of Google reviews praising the rowdy atmosphere (16.8%) and has an impressive overall Google star rating of 4.8.”

Here are Michigan’s individual rankings:

• Average game attendance: 1st (110,559).
• Percentage of filled seats : 1st (102.75%).
• Home game winning percentage in past 5 years: 17th (77.14%).
• Percentage of reviews mentioning great fans: 10th (6.97%).
• Percentage of reviews mentioning great atmosphere: 2nd (16.8%).
• Percentage of reviews mentioning tailgating: 4th (7.79%).
• Percentage of reviews mentioning loudness: 13th (2.87%).
• College Barstool Sports follower count on Instagram: 14th (123,000).
• Official college football team follower count on Instagram: 8th (750,000).
• Google star rating: T-2nd (4.8).
• Number of team cheer hashtags (#GoBlue) on TikTok: 4th (75,000).