Traveler spotlights FCS's most scenic stadiums, from Lehigh to Southern Utah

1. Goodman Stadium, Lehigh

Goodman Stadium makes the strongest case because the setting and the football history travel together. Opened in 1988 and backed by South Mountain, it sits about 3 miles from Lehigh’s historic Taylor Stadium site, which gives the venue a rare mix of campus tradition and mountain-edge isolation. Lehigh also points to the results that came with the move, including 27 straight home wins from 1997 to 2002, a stretch that makes the view feel like part of the program’s identity rather than a decorative extra.

For a traveler, that combination matters. Bethlehem gives the trip an easy weekend frame, and Goodman is the kind of place where the backdrop does not distract from the game, it deepens it. A stadium with a 16,000-seat footprint, a strong home-field record, and South Mountain rising behind it is the rare scenic stop that still feels like a football destination first.

Wien Stadium earns its place because it drops a big-time college football venue into one of the most recognizable urban settings in FCS. It opened on September 22, 1984, seats 17,000, and sits at the Baker Athletics Complex in Inwood-Manhattan, where Columbia says it is the largest multi-purpose stadium on the island of Manhattan. That makes the trip more than a game day, since the stadium gives you a Manhattan football experience that is almost impossible to replicate anywhere else in the subdivision.

The value here is how different the whole day feels. You can pair an FCS game with a New York weekend, and the stadium’s size gives it real event energy instead of novelty value alone. If the mountain venues are about escape, Wien is about contrast: major-city logistics, a compact campus setting, and a football footprint large enough to stand out in a borough that rarely slows down for a game.

3. E.J.

Whitmire Stadium / Bob Waters Field, Western Carolina

Western Carolina’s stadium deserves attention because its scenery is matched by the way it was built into the campus story. Completed in 1974 at an initial cost of $1.66 million, the venue was funded by a 1971 North Carolina General Assembly grant, and its name honors E.J. Whitmire while the field honors Bob Waters. The stadium sits on the southern-most part of campus in Cullowhee, which gives the whole setting a tucked-away, mountain-program feel that fits the region.

That kind of place appeals to travelers who want the game day to feel rooted in where they are, not just in the scoreboard. Western Carolina does not need a giant capacity to make the visit memorable; the appeal is the mountain-town location, the layered naming history, and the sense that this is a place where football and place have been tied together for decades. It is the sort of stop that rewards fans who want the trip to feel specific to western North Carolina.

4. Eccles Coliseum, Southern Utah

Eccles Coliseum is the most underrated value play on the list because it turns scenery into an event-day asset without pretending to be oversized. It seats 8,500, can hold just over 10,000 at maximum capacity, and went through a major renovation in 1997, which shows it is not frozen in the past. Southern Utah also says the mountain backdrop is among the most beautiful in the country, and that claim lands because the venue is built for fans who want the view as part of the football experience.

What pushes Eccles higher than a simple pretty-place ranking is how the stadium continues to evolve. Southern Utah added a new Thunder Kids Zone in 2023, a sign that the Coliseum is still being shaped as a gameday destination rather than preserved as a postcard. For a fall trip, that matters: Cedar City gives you the mountain frame, the stadium gives you a manageable size, and the ongoing upgrades make it an easier sell for families or anyone trying to turn one game into a full weekend.