[KP]

I've been to home games for UCLA, Oklahoma, Alabama, Colorado, Miami, Florida State, Illinois, SMU, TCU, Texas, Baylor and the actual Cotton Bowl. Okay, not a great list to choose from for comparison sake, I realize.

But, from that list, UCLA, Oklahoma and Alabama are far and away better than the others. Suprisingly, Texas, Miami and Florida State were disappointing. There wasn't a lot of room to have a good tailgate.

I know someone will say I'm a homer, but UCLA was the best. The Rose Bowl is surrounded by a golf course which allows for a tremendous amount of room. The scenery, geographically and otherwise, were outstanding. Alabama had to have the best people I experienced of all the schools. The fans were great. The atmosphere was incredible. Being on campus, the room was a little bit limited, but not like Texas or Miami. Of course, great barbecue!
Oklahoma is another on campus environment and again, the fans were excellent. The tailgate areas were spread out around the campus and in to the town, which was pretty cool.
Colorado had a area like Alabama in that it was spread throughout the campus, but the fans were terrible and the atmosphere just seemed bland. Nice campus, but the fans really ruined it for me.
Baylor, TCU and SMU seemed to be the same as Texas....not a lot of room. Must be a Texas thing. Actually, SMU was probably a better atmosphere than Texas.
Illinois actually wasn't all that bad. A lot of room and cool fans for the most part.
My rankings for what I've seen:
1. UCLA
2. Oklahoma
3. Alabama
4. Florida State
5. Illinois
6. SMU
7. Colorado
8. Texas
9. TCU
10. Miami
11. Baylor

As far as the Cotton Bowl, the game was 11 am CT on New Years Day, so you can imagine the lack of participation!