In the world of football, there are many important aspects of the sport. Whether that’s the ball, the players or the coaches. Well that’s how it seems to outsiders at least. If you ask one of the players, many will say the stadium matters a lot. This is because of how much comes with the stadium from the turf to the stands. Every part that may not seem like that big of a deal can stack up to being a big difference. College football stadiums do this fairly differently than high school football stadiums do it, due to their difference in popularity and money. Then again, they are both made for players to play football and for fans to watch football so how different could they possibly be.

As I previously stated, some people may look at the football field and think “there is no way the turf plays a big role in football.”But no. Turf is a pretty important detail in a stadium. Well a very important detail at that. When playing high school ball, you are more often gonna run into grass fields instead of turf, even though they both have a wider range of turf fields than grass fields. This may disrupt some players whilst making others more comfortable with their surroundings. Though some players may claim turf is more comfortable (including me), It is also known that players are more prone to no-contact injuries on turf fields than they are on natural grass fields, challenging some players to ignore the risk and play at full effort, or be more cautious. Now this (obviously) could lead to game changing actions due to the fear of juking someone and rolling their ankles.

The stands in the stadium, plus the amount of fans in the stadium poses a grave difference for many players as well. When you’re on the field in a high school football game, there are a lot of people. This creates pressure and stadium pulse. This makes some players crumble under pressure, whilst making others thrive even more. This aspect could possibly be a deciding factor in how the game will end and who will win. During high school, players tend to get comfortable with a certain amount of fans in the stands. This limit is also kind of set by the amount of seats in the stands anyway. Think about it, a high school stadium, there is a track surrounding it for track and field. This takes up space, making the stands more limited in how many seats could fit. This still allows a great amount of people to watch the football game though.

A college stadium is a whole different story on the other hand. College football stadiums are not limited by a track around the field, and they also have a far greater abundance of money to spend on their stadiums. This, as you can imagine, leads to FAR bigger stadiums which allows FAR more fans. Therefore, a college football stadium pulse is on a whole different story in every way possible. The amount of fans multiplied by more than a DOZEN. This major difference really sets the strong apart from the weak. It is far harder to get plays and keep focus on the game in this type of setting. Coaches also make this a very big deal. When we are going to the Mercedes-Benz stadium, our coaches make it essential to get it through the players head that this is gonna feel far different from a normal high school game just because of how different the stadium is. Even though that stadium is not equal to how a college stadium would be, it’s extremely close and a game like that would make Friday night lights look like a mere candle compared.

These two different types of stadiums obviously have some major differences. Some prioritize different things than the other, and the difference in setting may catch some players off guard if they are not used to such a place. Although these things may make others shine while it makes the other seem worse, overall they are both meant to play football in, and that makes them all the same in a sense. This makes football all the more interesting as you climb up the ranks since the amount of money an organization has affects how their stadium will be. With this being said, I would bet one would wonder how the NFL must feel. I would bet that’s a whole different world than the two we’ve gone over.