On the 40th anniversary of the famous 10-10 ‘Game of the Century’ tie against Notre Dame, the atmosphere was electric. Drenched in nonstop rain all night, the Spartans jumped to a 17 point lead in the first half against their ranked rivals, Notre Dame. Spartan Stadium rocked in front of a national audience in prime time.

Going into the fourth, #12 Notre Dame had put 21 points on the board, but still trailed by 16. Sensing an upset, the Spartan crowd only grew louder and more raucous. But in typical Spartan fashion, the wheels began to fall off the bus. Irish quarterback Brady Quinn connected on a 43-yard stunning Jeff Samardija touchdown pass only to score another touchdown to cut the lead to 37-33 with barely 5 minutes remaining in the fourth.

The once deafening crowd eerily simmered to a silence. They had been there before, the Spartans were well known for their second half collapses and end of the season defeats. At this point, they were just waiting for the play to confirm their expectations of a loss in usual Spartan nature. That play came with 2:53 left in the game when Irish cornerback Terrail Lambert returned an interception 27 yards for a touchdown to put the Irish in the lead for the first and last time.

That game provided the perfect example as to why Spartan Stadium, despite its well known boisterous crowd and home field support, sits at #6 in our Toughest Venues list. Like the Irish has Touchdown Jesus, and LSU has their Eye of the Tiger at midfield, Spartan Stadium has the curse. Not an official curse like the Red Sox’s or Cubs’, but something about the Michigan State Spartans has created such heartache for their fans in recent years.

But this is why opponents might have some trouble once in a while at Spartan Stadium, but ultimately the venue just doesn’t strike fear into opponents. No Spartan lead is ever safe, and the home crowd can be silenced with just one play.

ATTENDANCE: 5

Spartan Stadium (Capacity: 75,005)
	Home Games	Overall attendance	Avg. attendance/ game
2007	7	493,779	70,540
2006	7	497,731	71,104
2005	6	451,047	75,175
2004	6	441,613	73,602
2003	7	509,811	72,830

Spartan fans have been known to flock to home games in large numbers. But the last 5 years saw the firing of ex-coach John L Smith who many saw was prone to early season success only to have his teams fall flat on their faces at season’s end.

To replace him, Michigan State hired Mark Dantonio from Cincinnati hoping for better results. Unfortunately, Dantonio’s first season did not carry with it the hype that usually follows a new head coach merely drawing an average of 70,000 fans a game last season. Thats less than the 4 years before that. In the past 5 seasons, Michigan State attracted an average capacity attendance just once.

But even with sub-par attendance, the 70,000+ fans that fill Spartan Stadium are still far more than the 5 stadiums preceding them in the rankings.

TRADITION/HISTORY: 8

As wild as it may sound, Michigan State used to be a powerhouse in college football. Think 1966 Game of the Century between #1 Notre Dame and #2 Michigan State played at Spartan Stadium. What elevated the game to classic status may be the final defining play of the game when Notre Dame elected to run out the clock instead of trying for the end zone to break the 10-10 tie. What resulted was both the Irish and Spartans winning national championships that season.

Thats in addition to the other 2 undisputed national titles won by the Spartans. Fans will claim to possess 3 more, but those were awarded in the days of numerous news services handing out their own titles and are disputed till this day. If Spartan fans had their way, Penn State could be claiming 7 national titles instead of 2, one for each of the 7 undefeated, untied seasons.

Then there’s Spartan greats like Bubba Smith (evoking his old slogan ‘Kill Bubba Kill’), Brad Van Pelt, Percy Snow and the 25 current players on NFL rosters.

FANS: 6

The last time I made it out to Spartan Stadium was in 2005 when Penn State captured its second Big Ten title at Spartan Stadium. Because this was the last game on both our schedules, and like every other recent Spartan season, the Spartans were faltering to end the season. There were plenty of empty seats and tickets to be had for traveling Penn State fans eager to win its second Big Ten title after dismal 2004 and 2003 seasons.

The fans were courteous for the most part both at the tailgates and during the game. But like any other program struggling to gain respectability and some wins, there were plenty of disgruntled fans eager to harass visitors. But that is life in college football where passion runs rampant.

But when the game was well in hand for Penn State and the fans began to stream out of Spartan Stadium, it was the Penn State fans and not the Spartan fans that caught my attention. In the upper bleachers, Penn State students began to rip the benches up from their foundations and began passing them down the crowd. Despite all that, Spartan fans never lashed out, or verbally assaulted the visiting fans for their misbehavior.

It is because of that we gave Michigan State a 6 in the fans category. It is not easy sharing a state with a program like Michigan both in terms of recruiting and fan base. Michigan is clearly the bigger program, one with more tradition, history, revenue and fans, but Michigan State still does extremely well for itself with its football teams establishing an identity of being a scrappy football squad.

VENUE: 7

How do you not fear a venue named Spartan Stadium? Like ‘The Swamp’ at Florida, or LSU’s ‘Tiger Stadium’, Spartan Stadium should strike fear into their opponents based solely on the name. Unfortunately, Spartan football teams have not lived up to the hype their name affords with a tendency to blow leads, or lose games they shouldn’t to close the season.

But the venue itself is spectacular and one of the most beautiful in the conference if not the nation. Built in a bowl configuration with two upper decks added on both sides of the field, Spartan Stadium has improved the structure’s ability to retain sound on the field. This allows fans to rain down their noise from the upper decks and allow it to resonate around the lower bowl portion of the stadium. This helps make an already hostile crowd at Spartan Stadium even louder.

One interesting fact about the stadium are the high walls that separate the crowd from the field. For the crowd to rush the field (should they ever get the chance again), they must first make the 10 feet drop onto the field. I have not really seen that in any other stadium yet.

WIN/LOSS RECORD: 6

	Home				Away
	W	L	W vs ranked	L vs ranked	W	L	W vs ranked	L vs ranked
2007	5	2	-	#12 Michigan	2	3	-	#9 Wisconsin #1 Ohio St
2006	2	5	-	#12 Notre Dame #1 Ohio St	2	3	-	#6 Michigan
2005	3	3	-	#5 Penn St	2	3	#10 Notre Dame	#15 Ohio St
2004	4	2	#20 Minnesota #4 Wisconsin	-	1	5	-	#11 Michigan
2003	3	2	#12 Iowa	#4 Michigan	4	2	#20 Minnesota	#6 Ohio St
overall	17	14	3	5	11	16	2	6

The last season Michigan State upset a ranked team at home? In 2004 when they beat #20 Minnesota and #4 Wisconsin at Spartan Stadium. Since then, 4 different ranked teams have had their way in East Lansing which is a shame considering the support Spartans receive at home. Its not as if they play in front of empty stadiums.

But if you ever had to find a word to describe Spartan squads, it would be fragile. In the past 5 seasons, Michigan State has field teams that raced off to a great winning start only to lose once in heartbreaking fashion sending the team into a losing spiral.

Last year, Michigan State raced off to a 4-0 start beating Pittsburgh and Notre Dame until a 3 point loss to #9 Wisconsin at Camp Randall in their 5th game sent them tumbling to a 1-4 record in their next 5 games.

• In 2006, the Spartans began the season 3-0 including a win at Pittsburgh until the heartbreaking, 3-point loss (which I described in the beginning of this post) to #12 Notre Dame triggered a 1-7 record in its remaining 8 games to finish the season.

• In 2005, it was their hated in-state rivals Michigan that was the catalyst. 4 straight wins to begin the season including an upset of then-ranked #10 Notre Dame, Spartans were riding high into their rivalry game against unranked Michigan at Spartan Stadium. Once again a 3 point loss to the Wolverines in another heartbreaking fashion sent the Spartans to a 1-5 record in its last 6 games.

• The 2004 Spartan squad was inconsistent as they would pull off stunning upsets only to lose to inferior opponents in their very next game. A loss to #11 Michigan followed the win against #20 Minnesota the week before. Any momentum gained in their win against #4 Wisconsin at home was lost in 2 consecutive losses to Penn State and Hawaii in their next 2 games.

• It was the Michigan game that was the turning point for the Spartans in 2003. A great 7-1 record to start the season including wins over #12 Iowa, and #20 Minnesota, a 7 point loss to #4 Michigan at Spartan Stadium sent Michigan State to a 1-3 record to finish the season.

I have no doubt there is a Spartan Curse that exists among Michigan State teams. And it was such inconsistency that eventually led to the dismissal of ex-coach John L Smith.

TOTAL: 32 OUT OF POSSIBLE 55

Have you attended a game at Spartan Stadium? Let us know how your experience went. Your memories of the venue might differ greatly from our perspective and we would like to know.

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