Clemson's Death Valley ranks outside Top 10 of ESPN's best college football stadiums |
Brandon Rink
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- Thursday, July 18 2024
ESPN polled a panel of 14 writers to determine the Top 25 stadiums in college football, and Clemson's Death Valley ranked just outside the Top 10.
Memorial Stadium checked in at No. 11 for a ranking described as having no parameters or criteria other than what the pollsters saw as best. "A trip to Clemson includes 'the most exciting 25 seconds in college football,'" ESPN's Andrea Adelson wrote in Clemson's rankings case. "There is a slow buildup, of course. The giant video board keeps the crowd updated: Players loading up the buses to take the 1 minute, 45 second drive from the locker room to the hill atop the east end zone. Coach Dabo Swinney is always the first one off the bus. He and his players stop first to rub Howard's Rock, which was placed on a pedestal at the top of the hill in 1966 but did not become a pregame tradition until the following year. "They stand atop the hill, edging close to the Rock, as the crowd builds into a frenzy. Then: BANG! Swinney is off like Usain Bolt in the 100-meter dash, running down the hill with his players in fast pursuit as the Clemson band plays 'Tiger Rag,' fireworks shoot from the videoboard and fans scream C-L-E-M-S-O-N to cap it off." The spot was one above Clemson's placement in the recent EA College Football 25 Toughest Places to Play list. Those two lists differ at the top, with ESPN giving the nod to LSU's Death Valley, while not weighing the in-season environment much at all with its No. 2 spot, the iconic Rose Bowl. Clemson has recently made a couple of trips to ESPN's No. 4, Notre Dame. Death Valley paces the ACC rankings, with Virginia Tech up next at No. 15. Florida State ranked 19th and South Carolina's Williams-Brice Stadium was among those receiving votes (two votes).
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