Ranking the top 10 tailgating spots in college football

By Phil Poling | Aug 27, 2019

OXFORD, MS - OCTOBER 21: Mississippi Rebels players greet fans as they walk down the Walk of Champions in the Grove on the Ole Miss Campus before the start of a college college football game against the LSU Tigers on October 21, 2017, at Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium in Oxford, MS. LSU won 40-24. (Photo by Austin McAfee/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

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LINCOLN, NE – NOVEMBER 17: Quarterback Adrian Martinez #2 of the Nebraska Cornhuskers prepares to take a snap against the Michigan State Spartans at Memorial Stadium on November 17, 2018 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images) /

Even when your favorite team isn’t in the national title picture, tailgating is still a must in college football. These are the 10 schools that do it best.

College football provides plenty of traditions, from a team’s entrance to the field to their post-game celebration. But even before and after each game takes place, the fans are what set the tone for each program.

You’ll see it every weekend from now through early December, fans arriving early for games and leaving well after they’ve concluded. Tailgating could be considered a sport itself with all that goes into it – planning the trip to the stadium, preparing the food, playing music, making sure every age group has something cold (or hot) to drink – it’s a full day, longer than just a four-hour football game. Some schools and fans do it better than others, though. With over 100 Division I programs and countless other excellent tailgating spots, plenty are going to be left off our list of the ten best. With that in mind, we’d like to mention a few that just missed the cut: the University of Georgia, Auburn University, the University of Notre Dame, West Virginia University and Virginia Tech. Ready for the Top 10 Tailgates?

Lincoln, NE. Nebraska Cornhuskers. 10. player. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. Big Ten. 810

Nebraska’s shown it doesn’t matter what conference your team plays in. If you can tailgate, you can tailgate. Once a member of the Big 12, the Cornhuskers now compete in the Big Ten. But that hasn’t affected their before and after scene: it’s still a party.

Roughly 90,000 fans pour into Memorial Stadium, also known as The Sea of Red, to watch the Huskers play football on Saturdays. Their 2019 home-slate includes matchups with South Alabama, Northern Illinois, Ohio State, Northwestern, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Scott Frost’s second year at the helm should provide an optimistic outlook from fans. After finishing 4-8 in 2018, the best is ahead for Frost and the Huskers. They didn’t have a problem filling the seats, though, as Nebraska was one of five teams to average a sellout crowd in 2018.

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