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Courtesy of Matthew Tosh

The two largest college football stadiums in the SEC belong to Alabama and Tennessee. Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium is the largest with 101,821 seats.

Tennessee follows closely behind with a seating capacity 100,011. By most standards everyone in the SEC has large football stadiums with the exception of Vanderbilt Stadium which holds 39,773. The Vanderbilt stadium is small with an open end zone which gives them a lot of room to expand if they need to.

Most of the football stadiums in the SEC hold at least 80,000 fans with the exception of Vanderbilt, Mississippi, Mississippi State and Kentucky. All four of these stadiums make up for size with their beautiful surroundings. Mississippi has Vaught Hemingway Stadium which has beautiful tailgating areas for cooking and eating before and after the game.

Bryant-Denny Stadium in Alabama has had tremendous growth. The stadium was initially built in the 1920s and only held 12,000 fans. There were 4 additions to the stadium after until a big expansion in 1998. In 1998, the east side upper deck was constructed, bumping the capacity to 83,000. This project included 81 new skyboxes, a video/scoreboard on the south end, new lights, an east side entrance tower and a brick façade for the facility. Another expansion in 2006 increased the capacity to 92,000.

In November 2008, Alabama announced plans to expand Bryant Denny Stadium to seat 101,821 fans. This $65.6 million expansion, was completed by the start of the 2010 season. It includes a 8,500 seat upper deck, 34 luxury seats, 1,700 club seats, a 1,500 seat stadium club and two new corner videoboards, all on the south side of the stadium. Today, Bryant-Denny Stadium is the fourth largest college football stadium and the largest stadium in the SEC.

Neyland Stadium

Neyland Stadium in Tennessee is built on the banks of the Tennessee River. The initial stadium built in 1921 only held 3200 people. Quite a difference from the over  100,000 it holds today. There were eight additions to the stadium between 1929 and 1980. In 1980 the old stadium held 91,249. In 1987, 42 luxury suites were added to the stadium and an additional 78 were added prior to the 2000 season. The last large addition to Neyland Stadium was completed before the 1996 season, when 10,642 seats were added in the north upper deck bringing the capacity to 104,544.

After that the seating actually decreased to make room for more high dollar luxury boxes. In 2004, the University of Tennessee approved a 200 million dollar master plan to expand and renovate Neyland Stadium in five phases. The first phase included renovating the east side in 2006 by adding new club seats. This decreased the seating capacity to just over 102,000. The next phase was completed on the west side before the 2009 season as skyboxes, the press box and club areas were renovated. The concourses were also revamped and expanded with new restrooms and concession areas. The latest renovations have further decreased the seating capacity to 100,011.

So as you can see the two largest college football stadiums in the SEC have been through numerous growth changes over the last 80 years. These huge stadiums with their screaming fans are what makes college football in  the SEC the greatest spectacle around.

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