Memorial Stadium: Eighth-Most Intimidating Stadium in Big Ten

USA Today suggests the ranking would be higher if not for the Huskers’ struggles on the field recently.

Nebraska's Memorial Stadium was ranked the eighth-most intimidating Big Ten stadium by USA Today. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

When the expected crowd of 85,458 fans pour into Memorial Stadium on Oct. 4 for Nebraska’s 407th consecutive home sellout, they will walk into what USA Today says is the eighth-most intimidating stadium in the Big Ten.

Michigan State will be the visitors and the large crowd will be ready to help the Huskers bounce back from a tough, 30-27 loss to Michigan.

USA Today’s criteria, as written by Paul Myerberg, ranks the home fields from “nastiest to kindest for visitors.”

“From top to bottom, it’s hard to top the history and tradition found at these Big Ten venues. In terms of pure intimidation, though, there’s a very clear group at the top [and bottom].”

Husker Nation showed out again this past weekend 🤩

📸 Presented by @Ameritas

— Nebraska Huskers (@Huskers) September 22, 2025

Myerberg wrote about Memorial Stadium: “A decided lack of success at home in recent years dunks the Cornhuskers down this list. But when Nebraska is playing well, Memorial Stadium provides one of the best home-field advantages in college football.

“And even when the program is struggling, Memorial Stadium’s deep wealth of history captures your attention and is sure to be sold out.”

Rhule: Nothing better than playing at Memorial Stadium

Nebraska has felt the love the past three home games, two of which were victories. Huskers coach Matt Rhule talked about playing at Memorial Stadium before the Sept. 6 home opener against Akron, which kicked off at 6:30 p.m. CT.

“I don’t know if there’s anything better that I’ve been a part of in my life than a night game at Memorial Stadium,” Rhule said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Before today's game, members of the 1995 @HuskerFootball national title team were honored at Memorial Stadium.@JennyDell_ has more pic.twitter.com/uY2RNkQn0P

— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) September 20, 2025

Michigan State will be Nebraska’s fourth home game of a seven-game home schedule.

The home schedule:

* Sept. 6: Akron (68-0)
* Sept. 13: Houston Christian (59-7)
* Sept. 20: Michigan (27-30)
* Oct. 4: Michigan State, 3 p.m. CT
* Oct. 25: Northwestern
* Nov. 1: USC
* Nov. 28: Iowa

Here are the USA Today Big Ten stadium rankings. Interesting that the four of the six widely accepted best teams in the conference also have the top four stadiums. USC and Indiana probably would be the other teams in the top six.

1. Ohio Stadium (Ohio State)
2. Beaver Stadium (Penn State)
3. Autzen Stadium (Oregon)
4. Michigan Stadium (Michigan)
5. Husky Stadium (Washington)
6. Kinnick Stadium (Iowa)
7. Camp Randall Stadium (Wisconsin)
8. Memorial Stadium (Nebraska)
9. L.A. Memorial Stadium (USC)
10. Spartan Stadium (Michigan State)
11. Huntington Bank Stadium (Minnesota)
12. Memorial Stadium (Illinois)
13. Ross-Ade Stadium (Purdue)
14. Memorial Stadium (Indiana)
15. SECU Stadium (Maryland)
16. SHI Stadium (Rutgers)
17. Rose Bowl (UCLA)
18. Ryan Field (Northwestern)

Memorial Stadium fun facts

Nebraska’s longest home winning streak was 47 games from Oct. 19, 1991 to Oct. 31, 1998.

The Huskers’ record during the 406-game home sellout streak: 328-78.

Memorial Stadium was named to honor all Nebraskans who served in the Civil and Spanish-American Wars; the 751 Nebraskans who died in World War I; the 3,839 in World War II; the 225 in Korea; the 422 in Vietnam; and those in Iraq.

In the 1990s, when the Huskers won three national championships, they were 56-3 at Memorial Stadium. Thinking Memorial Stadium’s “intimidation” factor would have ranked the venue as higher than eighth in those days.

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