Ranking the SEC's best basketball home-court advantages, EA Sports style – Knoxville News Sentinel

Welcome to SEC Unfiltered, the USA TODAY NETWORK’s newsletter on SEC sports. Look for this newsletter in your inbox Monday through Friday. Today, Knox News’ Tennessee athletics reporter Mike Wilson takes over:
EA Sports got the online discourse churning twice in a six-day window: It announced the top 26 home-field advantages in college football and the return of a college basketball video game.
It only make sense to combine the two by taking a stab at ranking the best basketball environments in the SEC. For fairness, Oklahoma has been omitted, as I haven’t covered a game there. (It would be near the bottom, though, close to where my email is posted, for any complaints.)
Here are my rankings of 15 SEC arenas:
Auburn’s Neville Arena is the best home-court advantage in the SEC for a handful of reasons. It is the smallest arena, with a capacity of 9,121, which is what gives it the added buzz. It is a tiny gym packed with loud fans supporting a great program. It makes for a popping scene.
Have you ever heard almost 20,000 people call the Hogs after Jaylin Williams takes his 79th charge in a game? It is chilling. No other explanation is needed.
Tennessee’s Food City Center might be the best big game arena in the SEC, which is a credit to what Rick Barnes has built. It packs a punch with a present capacity of 21,678.
Kentucky’s Rupp Arena is the second-largest arena in the conference but doesn’t boom like the other mega-facilities above it.
It seems like a reasonable expectation that the O’Dome will jump in these rankings after the Gators won the national title. It’s a stout environment, and the oversized Gators harkens memories of Anthony Roberson and Co.
Coleman Coliseum is good, not great. It gets loud but it’s not that loud. It feels like a facility pretending to be a basketball arena.
The drop from Alabama to Mississippi State is steep. “The Hump” can rock, though, and MSU has made improvements, such as moving the student section. Three students dressed like bananas got arrested after a Tennessee game in 2024.
Yell leaders are weird, but Reed Arena can get after it. Bucky Ball could blast the noise up a notch with a more exciting brand.
At least the gold seats are gone. The black seats look way better. The scene is still lacking as a whole.
Memorial Gymnasium is probably the most polarizing venue in the SEC. Some call it wonky. Some call it charming. It gets roaring, especially when Tennessee comes to town. You might get to storm the raised court.
The Pavilion at Ole Miss is pretty because of the natural light let in at one end. It doesn’t bring much to the table in terms of environment, which is strange, given the quality of the teams.
This is a tough one because the PMAC is perhaps the best environment I’ve seen in the SEC back in 2019, when Tennessee played in Baton Rouge. That was the exception, though, not the norm.
Maybe Austin is just too cool and has too many options for lifestyle, because it doesn’t have an elite basketball environment, even in a downsized arena.
Colonial Life Arena is too big for what South Carolina basketball is. Dawn Staley might argue otherwise, and I would not debate the women’s basketball icon.
Stegeman Coliseum is small, sterile and sad.
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.

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