We’re getting closer to tailgating season for college football fans across the country. BetMaryland.com, where you’ll find the best Maryland sportsbook promos, wanted to know where the best tailgating experiences are out of the American Athletic Conference.
We referred to StadiumJourney.com and Sports-Reference.com to factor in food and beverage, atmosphere, fans, return on investment, and overall records. Then we came up with a scoring system to find the top 10 campuses for college football tailgating in the AAC.
Top 10 AAC Tailgating Experiences
Rank | Team | Total Score |
1 | Navy Midshipmen | 213 |
2 | UTSA Roadrunners | 202 |
3 | Tulsa Golden Hurricanes | 183 |
4 | Memphis Tigers | 174 |
5 | South Florida Bulls | 173 |
6 | East Carolina Pirates | 171 |
7 | Tulane Green Wave | 163 |
8 | UAB Blazers | 143 |
9 | Florida Atlantic Owls | 113 |
10 | North Texas Mean Green | 112 |
No Beating Navy For Festivities
Check out Maryland sportsbook apps for odds on AAC football and so much more all season.
The lone Maryland school in the AAC is No. 1 on our list for college football tailgating in the league. Appropriately, that institution is a member of the American for football only: Navy.
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium only holds 34,000 spectators, but the football program has a tradition spanning the decades and even the centuries.
The first Navy football game was in 1879, and the rivalry with Army began in 1890. The annual Army-Navy game (or Navy-Army, whichever you prefer) has been played at a neutral site for many decades. But Navy home games still offer great views of the campus, set in Annapolis, and a cozy atmosphere.
This season for Maryland sports betting, the Midshipmen will host conference rivals Temple, Memphis, Charlotte and Tulane, plus a non-conference game against Bucknell. And this year the game against Army is at FedEx Field in Landover, just about 20 miles or so from Navy’s campus. In an interesting twist, though Army is joining the AAC this year for football only, the game between the service academies is not a league game. That’s so the game can keep its usual date after the conference championship games.
Other Schools On Tailgating List
According to our calculations, Navy had 213 points to edge the University of Texas at San Antonio (commonly called UTSA). The Roadrunners had 202 points to come in second, followed by Tulsa (183), Memphis (174) and South Florida (173).
Any Navy fans wanting to travel for a conference game might note that the Midshipmen play USF at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium on Nov. 9, just about the time when folks might be looking to escape the approaching winter chill.
With 2023 AAC football champion SMU having departed for the Atlantic Coast Conference, the American will crown a new football champion in 2024. Caesars Sportsbook Maryland rates Memphis as the favorite with +210 odds, followed by USF and Tulane (+400 each).
Navy has +3000 odds to win the conference for the first time but fans in Maryland have one distinction for college football tailgating in the AAC.
USA Today photo by Tommy Gilligan
