EA Sports gives Florida State football good and bad news in new stadium rankings

EA Sports has released their Top 25 toughest places to play in advance of the highly-anticipated release of the College Football 26 video game.

The good news is Florida State football continues to get some measure of respect from the video game community where Doak Campbell Stadium is ranked as the 14th toughest place to play. That's good enough for second toughest in the ACC, behind Clemson's Memorial Stadium, which is sixth overall.

LSU's Tiger Stadium was No. 1, with Beaver Stadium (Penn State), Ohio Stadium (Ohio State), Sanford Stadium (Georgia) and Bryant-Denny Stadium (Alabama) rounding out the top five. It's no surprise that the list is mostly dominated by teams from the SEC and Big Ten with 13 of the top 15 stadiums coming from those two conferences.

FSU will travel to three of the top 25 this season -- Memorial Stadium, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (7th) and Carter-Finley Stadium (22nd).

FSU is 1-1 at Memorial Stadium under Mike Norvell. The Seminoles were in position to pull off the upset at Clemson in 2021 after Lawrence Toafili made one of the top plays of the season, but the Tigers rallied for a 30-20 victory.

In 2023, the Noles and Tigers slugged it out like two heavyweight boxers, but it was Kalen DeLoach making the key play on defense late in the third quarter to tie the game. It was at this point where the feeling was that FSU could be in line for a special season.

And Keon Coleman brought it home in overtime for a 31-24 FSU win. It was one of two touchdown catches for Coleman in the game.

The Seminoles are also 1-1 at the Swamp under Norvell. A 24-21 loss to the Gators in 2021 kept FSU from being bowl eligible. But in 2023 the Seminoles improved to 12-0 after Trey Benson's three-touchdown effort on the road.

FSU has yet to win at Carter-Finley Stadium under Norvell. As a matter of fact, the Seminoles are 0-3 overall against the Wolfpack under Norvell. Their last road win against N.C. State came in 2016 when Deondre Francois connected with Travis Rudolph for a 24-20 win.

FSU hasn't been the dominant force at home under Norvell either, going just 19-13 at Doak in his five seasons. There have been some high marks, like the 4th and 14 conversion from Jordan Travis to Andrew Parchment.

And there have been some moments to forget. Jacksonville State anyone? Hard to believe this actually happened.

Ouch. That one still hurts. Anyway, this list means that the season is one day closer and we can't wait!