Fear the Bells! Mississippi State has strong home field advantage in EA Sports CFB 26

We're just over two weeks away from the release of EA Sports College Football 26, and clearly, the game developers have a fever...

The Top 25 Toughest Places to Play for the game were announced on Tuesday, and Mississippi State's Davis Wade Stadium and it's cacophony of cowbells checked in at No. 25 in the rankings.

Making up the Top 5 of the rankings were LSU's Tiger Stadium, Penn State's Beaver Stadium, Ohio State's Ohio Stadium, Georgia's Sanford Stadium, and Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium. In total, 11 SEC stadiums made it into the Top 25 rankings.

Joining Davis Wade and the three venues to make the Top 5 in the rankings were Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (No. 7), Oklahoma's Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium (No. 8), Texas A&M's Kyle Field (No. 11), Tennessee's Neyland Stadium (No. 12), Texas' Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium (No. 13), South Carolina's Williams-Brice Stadium (No. 16), and Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium (No. 17).

No question, the SEC is home to many of the wildest atmospheres in all of college football, and when Davis Wade Stadium is packed with 60,000 cowbells ringing madly, it's as tough a place to play as there is. Obviously, it's been a few years since we've seen that home field advantage at full effect given the product on the field, but there's no denying that a fired up Davis Wade is an intimidating environment.

Mississippi State better hope EA Sports' stadium ranking is reflected in real life this season

Davis Wade Stadium being one of the toughest places to play in EA Sports College Football 26 is a plus for the Bulldog fans that will surely suit up as the Maroon and White once the game is released. Having that home field advantage will be big in dynasty mode while looking to build up Mississippi State.

But away from the consoles and into real life college football, MSU will be in hoping for a similar home field advantage as in the video game. They're going to need it to in order for the Bulldogs to take a big step forward this fall.

State's entire 2025 schedule is brutal, but their home slate is particularly treacherous. Four College Football Playoff teams from last season - Arizona State, Tennessee, Texas, and Georgia - will visit Starkville this fall along with an Ole Miss program that came just one game short of the playoff.

State will be an underdog, and potentially a sizeable one, in all five of those matchups. Though the Bulldogs should be improved, beating any of those opponents will almost certainly require more than just playing well. They'll need the Davis Wade crowd behind them and disrupting the competition. A dead atmosphere for those games, and State simply won't have a chance.

Obviously, Mississippi State has to earn a high-level atmosphere. Fans needs to see positive results before fully buying back in and bringing the energy to Davis Wade. We'll see if the Bulldogs can impress enough to get Saturdays in Starkville rocking once again.