Champions of the East: Nittany Lions awarded record 28th Lambert Meadowlands Trophy
Headline »
Champions of the East: Nittany Lions awarded record 28th Lambert Meadowlands Trophy
February 8, 2010 – | Comments

Congratulations to the Penn State Nittany Lions for winning a record 28th Lambert Meadowlands Trophy presented by the ECAC. For those unfamiliar with the award, the Lambert Meadowlands Trophy is awarded annually since 1936 to the best Division I-A team in the East.
To qualify for …

Read the full story »
Home » Penn State

Toughest Venues: #11 Ryan Field

Submitted by Charlie on May 16, 2008 – Comments
It is quite possible that there are more seatbacks than fans at Ryan Field
Northwestern’s Ryan Field makes the very bottom of our list. There was quite some debate as to who would make the bottom of our Toughest Venues list, but unfortunately Ryan Field barely lost out to two other venues in the Big Ten.

ATTENDANCE: 1

Ryan Field (Capacity: 47,130)
Home Games Overall attendance Avg. attendance/ game
2007 7 172,125 24,589
2006 6 167,973 27,996
2005 6 195,163 32,527
2004 6 170,449 28,408
2003 6 172,578 28,763

As the only private institution in the Big Ten conference, Ryan Field’s empty seats can barely intimidate the Evanston High football team. Even when the Wildcat football team is doing well, they can barely fill the 47,130 seats at Ryan Field. Don’t believe me? Average attendance for the last 5 years peaked at 32,527 during the 2005 season. That’s more than 14,000 seats left available in what is already the smallest venue in the Big Ten.

TRADITION/HISTORY: 2

Lets not kid ourselves here. Though the Wildcats might have a Rose Bowl appearance in the past, they have historically been a bottom feeder in the Big Ten conference until Indiana and Illinois dethroned them from that spot recently.

Until this day, they still hold the all-time records for Division I-A losses, longest losing streak (32), points allowed, and negative point differential. To top it off, the 2006 Michigan State-Northwestern game marks the biggest comeback in history by the Spartans as Northwestern blew a 35 point lead midway through the third quarter.

When you hold more negative records than winning ones, you know this program has less historical success than a pet rock. But hey, at least they are smart. The students still carry on the tradition of ringing their keys claiming that the opposing team will be parking their cars one day.

FANS: 1

\
Apathetic. There are plenty of well versed Wildcat fans, but football will always play second fiddle to academics at Northwestern. When you have the most passionate Northwestern fans skip games to prepare for an exam, you know they have their priorities straight. But unfortunately, that will register as a 1 in the Fan category.

VENUE: 2

During Penn State’s Orange Bowl run in 2005, the road took the Lions into Ryan Field for an epic Robinson-Williams comeback in the fourth quarter. Though this should leave me with fond memories of Ryan Field, I left extremely happy but highly unsatisfied with the venue. When you play Big Ten football, you are playing with the big boys. The Big House, Beaver Stadium, the Horseshoe, Camp Randall and even Ross-Ade pack fans in like sardines.

At Ryan Field, you will always find available tickets at the counter without ever having to deal with scalpers. There is often more fans of the visiting team than Wildcat fans and thats not only limited to conference games either. And for a Big Ten venue, that is downright embarrassing. Though I understand the uphill battle the athletic department faces in putting butts in the seats (we have the same problem with basketball at Penn State), there is no reason why you can’t pack the smallest stadium in the Big Ten especially when big time conference programs make a visit every two years.

This isn’t the Big East, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Purdue, Michigan State and Iowa are big draws when they play non-conference games away from their stadiums, theres no reason why fans shouldn’t flock to Evanston just to see them play as well.

While it might not be Michigan, there is still an abundance of Northwestern fans
Then theres the curved stadium and semi-open endzone design that just doesn’t aid the already dwindling crowd with noise. For teams like the Buckeyes, Wolverines, Badgers and Lions that are used to playing in hostile crowds week in and week out, Ryan Field actually offers a reprieve and allows these teams to almost take a breather that week.

WIN/LOSS RECORD: 3

Home Away
W L W vs ranked L vs ranked W L W vs ranked L vs ranked
2007 5 2 - - 2 3 - #8 Ohio State
#19 Illinois
2006 2 4 - #1 Ohio St 2 4 - #2 Michigan
2005 4 2 #14 Wisconsin #25 Michigan 3 2 #22 Michigan St #18 Arizona St
#10 Ohio St
2004 5 1 #6 Ohio St
#19 Purdue		 - 1 5 - #19 Minnesota
#7 Wisconsin
#9 Michigan
2003 2 3 - #15 Miami (OH)
#20 Minnesota		 4 3 - #6 Ohio St
#13 Purdue
#4 Michigan
overall 18 12 3 4 12 17 1 11

The Northwestern football team has actually held a winning record at home overall during the last 5 years. To make things even better, they have also beaten 3 ranked conference opponents that ventured into Ryan Field. This is far better than some of their other conference members. Unlike in decades past, Northwestern has actually consistently been a middle-of-the-pack conference opponent than a bottom feeder thanks in large part to the new direction of its head coaches.

One would expect that with more wins, more fans would flock to Northwestern games. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been true at Northwestern. And until that happens, Ryan Field will continue to sit in last place on our Toughest Venues list.

TOTAL: 9 OUT OF POSSIBLE 55

Did you make it out to Ryan Field for a game? Share your experiences with us. Your memories of the venue might differ greatly from our perspective and we would like to know.

Releated Posts:

  1. Penn State-Indiana will be relocated to FedEx Field in 2010
  2. The Field of 65: Where PSU Stands
  3. Big Ten Basketball Schedule Released
  4. Breaking Down the Big Ten Bubble

  • There is no doubt this is the worst home field in the Big Ten, however my best seats for an Ohio State game were at Ryan Field. To have 5th row tickets available on game day is unheard of in Columbus. I also like the ability to take a train to the game.
    Nothing like the sense of pride that goes with taking over someone else's home stadium, even if it is Northwestern.
  • Chaddogg
    Glad you enjoyed it Corey. I gotta say, as an NU fan, I had great seats too in 2004 when we kicked your ass at "the worst homefield in the Big Ten." Plus the El ride home with dejected Buckeye fans? Priceless.

    As an NU fan, I can't really quibble with this ranking. To be fair, though, our attendance numbers get shafted for early, non-conference games that happen before students are even on campus - a by-product of the asinine quarter system.

    Still, Fitzgerald has this team on the right path, we're gonna surprise EVERYONE this year, and Evanston will become tough to play in. Trust me, as someone that was there in 2000, when NU is good and has support, it's LOUD in that stadium.
  • nate
    I made it out to Evanston in 2003, my twenty-first birthday. It was cold, snowing, the overnight parking was a 30 minute walk from the stadium (right next to the natatorium and coincidentally the lake), the only usable shitter was in the medical center and worst of all I was with pops and some elders of mine so i was sober. I really dug the lowered in field, that was the first time I had seen that and it struck me as particularly neat. The wildcat fans were able to spread out over on their side (3/4 of the stadium) while it seemed like the majority of the fans (penn state) were thrown into a corner like a fat girl throwing 10 lbs of potatoes in a 5 lbs sack. The atmosphere was for the most part drab, but everyone that was in or around the over night lot were very kind and enjoyable, state lost and the students were assholes, which prompted me to return "you got one out of six years, anyone can beat us when we suck" and subsequently almost got my ass beat.
  • wildcat05
    Your observations are right on. I went to northwestern and graduated in 2005. It saddens me that no one cares and the stadium sits empty. I wish our students had more pride that we are in a conference with some of the biggest schools, and we actually are able to compete and win some games. I have pride and love the school. I guess our only hope is for Fitz to return us to the Top 25 and get the bandwagon fans which is fine with me.
blog comments powered by Disqus