USA Today insider on Auburn venue ranking: 'Magic of Jordan-Hare Stadium seems to be dissipating'

USA Today compiled a ranking of the top 25 toughest stadiums to play in college football. Auburn checked in at No. 13, well outside the top 10.

A decade ago, that might have been unthinkable. No longer, after a period of relative mediocrity for the program.

“If I would have voted in this say a decade ago, I think obviously it’s a slam dunk Auburn should be in the top 10,” said Blake Toppmeyer, one of the USA Today writers who voted on the rankings, on The Paul Finebaum Show on Monday. “But when you look at their home performance in the last several years, it’s not a top 10 toughest venue anymore.”

Auburn fans obviously won’t take too kindly to the ranking, which places Jordan-Hare Stadium beneath SEC peers at Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas A&M. But Toppmeyer insisted the ranking was more about the team than the fans.

“I don’t think that’s, that’s not a knock on the fanbase,” he said. “The fans can only do so much. The team has to go out and perform. But you can’t ignore the home results in recent seasons.

“Last year Auburn lost at home to the mighty Berkeley boys from California. The season before that they lost at home to New Mexico State. You go back the last four, five years and it’s been a tough batch of home field results, nevermind what they’ve done on the road.”

Perhaps concerningly, there’s probably only one way back for Auburn at the moment. The team needs to start winning and winning big again. Especially at home.

“That’s pretty miserable what they’ve done on the road the last several years,” Toppmeyer said. “But even at home some of that magic of Jordan-Hare Stadium seems to be dissipating. And again, I don’t blame the fans for that. Credit to Auburn fans, quite frankly, for as bad to mediocre as they’ve been since they fired Gus Malzahn, the fans still turn up. They still bring the noise.”

Bottom line, though, USA Today doesn’t see Auburn and Jordan-Hare Stadium as nearly as formidable a venue as it once was. Only results will change that at this point.

“You can’t deny the results, and the results are what the results are,” Toppmeyer said. “That includes home field losses to Vanderbilt and California last season.

“So yeah, I’m not terribly surprised to see Auburn fall outside the top 10 and be at No. 13. That’s kind of the definition of home field advantage. Even when your program is mediocre, are you tough to beat at home? Well, Auburn’s program has been mediocre the last several years and they’ve not been all that hard to beat at home. So I think they’ve been judged accordingly in these rankings at No. 13 rather than being in the top 10.”