Is Penn State's Beaver Stadium Underrated in College Football 25?

Beaver Stadium ranks 6th on the list of toughest places to play in EA Sports' College Football 25 game.

Penn State Nittany Lion fans cheer during the third quarter against the Michigan Wolverines at Beaver Stadium. / Matthew O'Haren-USA TODAY Sports

Penn State's Beaver Stadium, whose White Out environment Urban Meyer once said is worth a 10-point advantage, will be among the 10 toughest places to play in EA Sports' forthcoming College Football 25 game. But is also will rank behind Meyer's former venue.

Beaver Stadium, home of Penn State football, is No. 6 on EA Sports' list of the top 25 toughest places to play in college football. That's two spots behind Ohio Stadium, home of the Ohio State Buckeyes, which checks in at No. 4. According to EA Sports, these aren't subjective rankings or engagement-based takes. EA Sports said that its Development Team factored "historical stats such as home winning %, home game attendance, active home winning streaks, team prestige, and more" into its ranking formula to grade the degree of difficulty each stadium delivers."

Ranking behind Ohio State in home-field environment is another bitter note for a Penn State program that has lost seven straight games to the Buckeyes. Ohio State seeks to make that eight in a row when it visits Beaver Stadium on Nov. 2.

EA Sports College Football 25, the new video game scheduled for release in July, has unveiled the game’s rankings for the toughest places to play in college football. It factors in historical home win percentage, home attendance, etc.

Let the debating begin… pic.twitter.com/au58H97AmY

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) June 25, 2024

College Football 25 will make stadium atmospheres part of gameplay with its Home Field Advantage Feature. It will include a previous game feature known as the Stadium Pulse Meter and give players a chance to boost home-field crowd noise.

According to a recent EA Sports blog post, the HFA feature will be "situation-based." "As the game situation gets tougher, the crowd noise intensifies," according to the post at EA Sports. "The louder the crowd gets, the higher the modifier and composure hits. This is designed to accurately reflect the real-life dynamics of playing in a hostile environment and further adds to the immersive gaming experience.

RELATED: Penn State's updated view of Beaver Stadium naming rights reflects college football's new reality

Penn State loves to brand Beaver Stadium as the toughest place to play in college football and loves when influential voices bear witness. In 2020, before Penn State played Ohio State in an empty-stadium version of the White Out, Meyer said this on Big Ten Network: "I told [Penn State coach] James Franklin this: That became the most difficult place I've ever coached in my career."

ESPN's Chris Fowler has called the Penn State White Out "monochromatic mayhem" and "my favorite annual scene in college football." Meanwhile, his broadcast partner Kirk Herbstreit helped mainstream the Penn State White Out when he said at halftime of the 2005 game against Ohio State, "That's the best student section in the country. They're crazy."

Last year, Cleveland.com commissioned a preseason poll of Big Ten media that included the conference's toughest stadium. Beaver Stadium won in a landslide, nearly doubling the votes of Ohio Stadium. As EA Sports' said in releasing its toughest-places-to-play list, "Rankings are subject to change in future updates."

Here are the 10 toughest places to play in college football, according to EA Sports

• 1. Texas A&M's Kyle Field

• 2. Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium

• 3. LSU's Tiger Stadium

• 4. Ohio State's Ohio Stadium

• 5. Georgia's Sanford Stadium

• 6. Penn State's Beaver Stadium

• 7. Wisconsin's Camp Randall Stadium

• 8. Oklahoma's Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium

• 9. Florida State's Doak S. Campbell Stadium

• 10. Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium

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AllPennState is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on Twitter @MarkWogenrich.