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The arms race of college football facilities has been waging for several years now.
Interestingly, Florida head coach Jim McElwain, who was previously the offensive coordinator at Alabama from 2008-11, was asked why the SEC West has won the conference championship six years in a row, and McElwain alluded to the West jumping on the facility train earlier than the East.
“I think the one thing that they have done on that side is they’ve really invested in facilities,” McElwain said at SEC Media Days. “I think, when you look at it up and down the road as far as helping in the recruiting phase of it, I think that they’re really — there’s a lot of really good things happening that way. And they got out ahead of the curve just a little bit.”
Texas A&M is finishing up the second phase of a $480 million renovation to Kyle Field. It looks awesome from a drone, although it’s not completely finished yet.
Five SEC stadiums were under renovation during the 2014 off-season; four of the five expanded their stadiums (LSU, Missouri, Mississippi State and Texas A&M). Kentucky’s Commonwealth Stadium is the only stadium contracting.
Ole Miss’ stadium renovation and expansion should be complete by the 2016 season. It will temporarily reduce the seating from 60,580 to 58,580, before finalizing the renovation capacity of 64,038.
Auburn now has college football’s biggest scoreboard, and the Tigers could expand their north end zone by 9,500 more seats. Arkansas could expand by enclosing the south end zone, too. It’s uncertain if either of these expansions will take place, but there’s been talk about both, as Auburn and Arkansas both have the means to make it happen.
We look at the SEC’s football stadiums’ capacities in 2014, 2015 and the future:
| Team | Stadium | 2014 | 2015 | Future |
| Texas A&M | Kyle Field | 107,000 | 102,500 | NA |
| Tennessee | Neyland Stadium | 102,455 | 102,455 | NA |
| LSU | Tiger Stadium | 102,321 | 102,321 | NA |
| Alabama | Bryant-Denny Stadium | 101,821 | 101,821 | NA |
| Georgia | Sanford Stadium | 92,746 | 92,746 | NA |
| Florida | Ben Hill Griffin Stadium | 88,548 | 88,548 | NA |
| Auburn | Jordan-Hare Stadium | 87,451 | 87,451 | 96,951 |
| S. Carolina | Williams-Brice Stadium | 80,250 | 80,250 | NA |
| Arkansas | Razorback Stadium | 72,000 | 72,000 | 80,000 |
| Missouri | Memorial Stadium | 71,168 | 71,168 | NA |
| Miss State | Davis Wade Stadium | 61,337 | 61,337 | NA |
| Kentucky | Commonwealth Stadium | 62,093 | 61,000 | NA |
| Ole Miss | Vaught-Hemingway Stadium | 60,580 | 58,580 | 64,038 |
| Vanderbilt | Vanderbilt Stadium | 40,350 | 40,350 | NA |
A graduate of the University of Florida and founder of Saturday Down South, Kevin is a college football enthusiast.
