Okay, so, I got this idea the other day to figure out which college football stadium is the smallest. You know, just one of those random things that pop into your head. I got really into it and wanted to share what I did.
First, I started by looking around the web a bit, just to see what I could find off the bat. I found out pretty quickly that the Sam Houston Bearkats’ Elliott T. Bowers Stadium is the smallest one in the FBS, holding like 14,000 people. It opened back in 1986, which is a cool little fact.
Then, I went down this rabbit hole of comparing it to NFL stadiums. Turns out, Soldier Field is the smallest there, with a capacity of 61,500. Still way bigger than that college one, though.
- I also found this article about Northwestern.
- They have the smallest stadium in the Big Ten.
- It made me think about how even a small stadium can make a big deal out of something simple.
I kept digging and looked into the Big 12. BYU’s stadium is just a bit bigger than the one at Iowa State. There are a bunch in the Big 12 that are over 60,000, and some others between 50,000 and 54,000. The smallest in that conference is Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati, with a capacity of 38,000, still bigger than the Sam Houston one.
But then, I found the real tiny one. It is the Multi-Sport Field at Georgetown University. It only holds 2,500 people. That is super small! I mean, that’s like, barely bigger than some high school stadiums, right?
So, after all this searching, I put together this little summary of what I found. It is not super organized, but it is got all the main points:
- Smallest FBS stadium: Elliott T. Bowers Stadium (Sam Houston Bearkats) – 14,000 capacity
- Smallest NFL stadium: Soldier Field – 61,500 capacity
- Smallest Big Ten stadium: Northwestern – not specified, but smaller than most
- Smallest Big 12 stadium: Nippert Stadium (Cincinnati) – 38,000 capacity
- Overall smallest: Multi-Sport Field (Georgetown) – 2,500 capacity
Wrapping Up
It was a fun little research project, I guess. I learned a lot about stadium sizes and got a better sense of just how big some of these places are. It is pretty wild to think about thousands of people packed into those things, cheering on their teams. It is something I have never thought much about before, but now I am kind of fascinated by it. Maybe I will try to visit some of these places sometime.
