THE BOWL ELIGIBLE BLOG

FBS Stadiums Ranked by Elevation: Wyoming Stands Alone Above 7,000 Feet

All 138 FBS stadiums ranked by elevation, from Wyoming's 7,234 feet to Tulane's 10. The top 11 are all in the Mountain time zone.

Every FBS road team knows the speech. The air is thinner, the ball carries, your legs go in the third quarter. But which stadiums actually sit highest? We pulled terrain elevation for all 138 FBS stadiums, and the answer at the top is not close: Wyoming's Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium sits at 7,234 feet, 577 feet higher than the runner-up. Laramie is not just the highest stadium in the FBS. It is the highest by more than a tenth of a mile.

How we measured. Elevations are SRTM terrain elevation at each stadium's coordinates, one consistent basis for all 138 stadiums. That tracks published stadium figures within a few dozen feet, but it is terrain data, not a survey of the playing surface, so treat the last digit as approximate. One honest wrinkle: on this basis, BYU's LaVell Edwards Stadium (4,678) edges Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium (4,665) by 13 feet. Published figures generally list the pair the other way around. We kept the SRTM order rather than mixing two measurement bases mid-list.

The top 15

Three things jump out. First, only three stadiums in the country sit above a mile: Wyoming, Air Force, and Colorado at 5,384 feet. Five clear 5,000 feet, adding New Mexico and Colorado State. Second, the top 11 are all in the Mountain time zone. You do not leave the high country until No. 12, Appalachian State's Kidd Brewer Stadium at 3,278 feet, the highest stadium in the Eastern time zone and the first one east of the Rockies anywhere on the list. Third, Utah quietly owns a cluster: Utah State, BYU, and Utah sit 6th, 7th, and 8th, all within 36 feet of each other, with BYU and Utah separated by less elevation than a two-story house.

The list also falls off a cliff in two places. The gap from Air Force (6,657) down to Colorado (5,384) is 1,273 feet, the biggest single drop inside the top 15. And after Washington State at No. 15, the ranking leaves the mountains for good: Arizona's Casino Del Sol Stadium is 16th at 2,461 feet, then UNLV's Allegiant Stadium (2,188), then Virginia Tech, and the air only gets thicker from there.

The middle of the list has its own geography. Only 18 of the 138 stadiums sit at 2,000 feet or higher, and only 30 clear 1,000 feet, which means more than three quarters of the FBS plays its home games within 1,000 feet of sea level. The power-conference peaks are worth knowing for road-trip arguments: Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium (2,067) is the highest in the ACC, Arkansas's Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium (1,371) leads the SEC, and Nebraska's Memorial Stadium (1,204) edges Penn State's Beaver Stadium (1,188) for the Big Ten's roof. After Washington State at No. 15 there is a long drop into the hundreds of feet where most of the sport lives. The median FBS stadium is a lowland stadium; the altitude game is a regional one.

The bottom of the list

At the other end, eleven stadiums sit below 50 feet. The lowest in the FBS is Tulane's Yulman Stadium at 10 feet, which in New Orleans is practically a flood plan. Old Dominion's S.B. Ballard Stadium and Coastal Carolina's Brooks Stadium check in at 20 feet each, Florida Atlantic at 23, FIU's Pitbull Stadium at 30, Hawaii at 36, and UConn at 39. The entire bottom of the ranking is a coastal crawl: Louisiana, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Hawaii, Connecticut. The vertical distance between the highest and lowest FBS stadiums is 7,224 feet, more than a vertical mile separating two teams playing the same sport at the same level.

Want to see whether altitude shows in your guesses? Pin Drop Saturday shows you the stadium photo and asks you to place it. Good luck telling 4,678 from 4,665 from the parking lot.

Elevation is only one way to sort the 138. For sheer size, see our ranking of FBS stadiums by capacity, and for the opposite of altitude sickness, our map of the closest FBS stadiums to each other.