Editor's note: As we count down to the start of the college football season, FOX Sports Carolinas ranks the game-day experience around the Atlantic Coast Conference (item rankings are based on a scale of 1 through 10):
1 – Memorial Stadium, Clemson (81,500)
Beauty (5): The stadium is massive, but it's not the most beautiful in the ACC by any stretch. Yet, the school has made it more pleasing to the eyes in recent years. Could use a new press box.
Tailgating (10): Awesome tailgating and it's really important to these folks. The cookers start the day before, the smell around the stadium is incredible, and the folks are hospitable. Plush couches, HD TVs, satellite dishes, the whole works is set up. It's as if some people basically move in at their parking space. They tailgate afterward with the best of them.
Buzz (9): These people care about football and tailgating, so the build up to even a noon game against a nonconference opponent is impressive.
Fans (9): It would be nice if the upper corners were filled for all games, but sometimes they aren't. Nevertheless, Tigers fans make a ton of noise, are a 12th man when necessary, and if wearing orange overalls in public says anything, it's that Clemson fans are unbelievably passionate.
History (8): The players are bused from the locker rooms on one side of the stadium to the other so they can touch Howard's Rock and run down the hill, which is easily the most exciting entry in college football. A national champion and earning the nickname “Death Valley” gives this facility an impressive history.
Remark: Love it. Great experience that all football fans should have. Nothing about the Clemson football experience to criticize.
