The Best College Football Tailgates for 2012

With Christmas 2011 officially in the books, it’s time to look towards the dawning of the New Year, which means establishing resolutions.

Yes, when the clock strikes 12 on January 1, 2012, it will be time to start that overdue diet, get organized, to put money into savings and time to get serious about finding a better job.

But—and though these are all worthy pursuits—why not include a goal that is nearer and dearer to our hearts and, therefore, wholly more satisfying?

As serious college football fans, we’d be remiss not to include at least one football-centric resolution on our list, and so why not pick a couple of 2012 collegiate contests to attend and beforehand commit ourselves to tailgate with wild abandonment at the said venue?

The following slideshow offers up 13 tailgates for the New Year that combine an already thumping tailgate party with forecasts for fantastic football—a duo that is difficult to beat and in many intellectual circles is considered even better than losing weight or cleaning out your closet.

Keep in mind, this is not a complete catalog of great tailgates, it’s just a list of a few prime spots for 2012.

LSU

Baton Rouge has a 50/50 chance of being the city of champions in 2012, with the Tigers playing for the big ball of wax on Jan. 9 vs. Alabama.

Regardless of who wins the super duper rematch, LSU will field another power packed team next season, which amps up an already top tier tailgate.

LSU plays so many games at night (and is so successful after the sun goes down) for good reason—this gives the Tiger faithful all day long to tailgate.

Though the food is magnificent, a Cajun flavor filled tasty treat at every turn (all culinary masterpieces), it’s the saturation of the spirited fan base in Baton Rouge that makes the atmosphere both before and at the actual game a tailgate “must see.”

It may be the biggest party in college football (hands down), and the amount of body paint, cross dressers and tiger stripes are downright impressive.

Death Valley’s tailgating extravaganza may be the best in the nation.

Ole Miss

Even if the hiring of Hugh Freeze to replace Houston Nutt doesn’t bring immediate results, you have to figure that renewed excitement and more than two wins will elevate an already amazing tailgate situation.

Institutions of higher learning that are successful at putting on a tailgating party are no doubt dead serious about their football, which is something you can respect, regardless of how you feel about their team.

Did you know that the speed limit on the campus at Mississippi is 18 miles per hour in honor of Archie Manning’s number at Ole Miss?

Seriously, that’s just about as dedicated as you get.

This makes the prestige and reputation of “The Grove” even more understandable.

Located on the center of the Ole Miss campus, The Grove is 10 acres of old growth hardwood trees and fills up with up to 25,000 fans for a party that officially starts at 10PM the day before a Rebel home game.

Heralded as the “holy grail” of tailgating, The Grove works a lot like old Southern culture; on the surface it’s fine china, crystal and pomp and circumstance, while just under the surface, it’s a lot of drinking and perhaps some questionable (yet delightful) behavior.

It’s not as loud or raucous as others, but the Ole Miss tailgating scene is undoubtedly one of the top two to three destinations in the history of college football.

Tennessee

2012 should be the season where in we find out if Derek Dooley really is the guy in Knoxville. With as much talent as the Vols have been attracting, it could be the year that the people of the orange checkered end zone finally have reason for celebration…you should join them.

Tennessee is one of only a few college football teams that can boast a “floating tailgate” experience.

Fans have been enlisting in the “Vol Navy” since the early 1960s and now arrive outside Neyland Stadium, in mass, via the Tennessee River up to three or four days before actual game time.

One of the best stories to come forth from the years of the Volunteer Armada is from the mid '70s, when Neyland’s in stadium announcer had to page the owner of a tailgating boat to move his or her vessel in order for a big barge to pass.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin has owned the Big Ten over the past two seasons, which means tailgating is at a prime, and travel plans to the land of the Badgers is therefore highly recommended.

Madison is the home of brats, beer and cheese (and the brat burger); seriously, how does it get any better than that? 

Though the Badger fans, as Midwesterners, aren’t going to have all the body paint as, say, LSU (and they’ll more than likely dress to their gender specifications), they are spirited and can “tie one on” with the best of them.

The weather definitely can get dicey up North, but Wisconsin fans are not deterred by a little chilly (or downright frigid) climatic conditions; they tailgate hard regardless of the weather.

The Badgers are another team that is historically successful at nighttime home games; the fans getting well soused all day at Wisconsin’s vast pre-party certainly adds to the threatening road game mystique.

Auburn

Auburn’s 7-5 record in 2011 needs to be viewed while keeping in mind that they were one of the youngest teams in the country coming into this season, which, looking forward, means that they should be fearsome in 2012.

Football is serious business at Auburn, and the tailgating scene reflects this theme.

Fans show up early (how about two days early) and don’t go home after the game; of course, somebody’s got to stick around and paper the trees at Toomer’s Corner.

Bourbon is the drink of choice, and though you might not enjoy the same level of Southern cooking as you do at, say, Alabama or Clemson, you will find Tiger fans shoved into every available allotment of space within 10 miles of Jordan-Hare stadium.

This is above average SEC football experience, and Auburn fans know their football and their tailgating.

Ohio State

Don’t let the bowl ban in 2012 fool you…Urban Meyer’s first season in Columbus will be heartily celebrated by a football people who have gnashed their nut-encrusted teeth for long enough.

For a relatively large state that boasts seven professional sports franchises and a whopping eight Division I-A college football programs, Ohio is, in reality, a one-team state.

Whether you fancy the Bengals or the Browns, and whether you really went to the University of Cincinnati, Toledo, Ohio U. or Miami (OH), you root for the Buckeyes.

You may be brainwashed and running around the streets with a nut necklace on, but, by God, you’re an Ohio State fan.

The passion may be borderline psychotic, but it’s certainly reflected on Game Day in Columbus, and, if you can’t get a ticket into the Shoe to see the ‘Bucs clean someone’s clock, you can and will get your tailgate on.

Columbus Ohio—and really the entire state of Ohio—is one of the most dedicated college football zones in the USA.

Clemson

Regardless of what goes down in the 2012 Orange Bowl, Clemson will roll into next season as defending ACC Champs and oozing with momentum.  Yes, what was already a fanatic tailgate will be flat out crazy.

“Solid Orange” is what they refer to the dress code before a Clemson football game, and this is definitely reflected at the Tiger tailgate.

Clemson’s tailgate is southern hospitality, a plethora of BBQ and impressive in terms of how every square inch of the campus is packed with football celebrants.

And these people are serious about their football, and they show up and are enthusiastic regardless of how their team is playing.

This is a huge, colorful yet safe party that will leave you wishing you might have actually spent a couple of years of your life at Clemson. 

“The World’s Largest Cocktail Party”

Jacksonville Florida’s annual drink-a-thon doesn’t exactly have an exclusive guest list, which is precisely why you should make plans to attend.

The annual Georgia versus Florida game is somewhat overlooked in other parts of the country that look forward to the Red River Rivalry, the Border War, “the Game,” and Ohio State against Michigan, but leaving this experience off your bucket list would be a huge mistake.

Let me ask you this; have you ever seen 500,000 rabid SEC football fans packed into an event called “the World’s Largest Cocktail Party?”

Go forth my friend! Go forth and drink from the cup of frivolity, from the chalice of crazed fan-da-monium, from the goblet of goodness.

The forecast for the 2012 edition of THE Cocktail Party is looking top shelf…it will be the “got to get it done” Gators vs. the rising Bulldogs.

Yes, it’s Richt vs. Muschamp in the battle of the coiffed hair and the “keep your job” sweepstakes.

Red River Rivalry

Oklahoma may have blown the Longhorns out of the Cotton Bowl in 2011, but don’t look for Texas to remain down for long.

The site of the annual game betwixt Oklahoma and Texas is the only venue on this list to offer a full blown state fair.

And this is no run of the mill state fair; this is the Texas State Fair, where everything is either deep fried or served with a disposable, environmentally friendly cup of cold beer.

There aren’t grills, flying footballs or coolers, but there are midway rides, livestock, fair goers (many times a distinctly different crowd from your average football fan) and deep fried cookie dough.

It’s neutral ground, it’s an annual event, and there are still port-a-potties if you’re in to that kind of thing.

The bottom line with the Red River Rivalry is that you’re going to see one of the best state fairs in the nation before and after you watch a college football game that will have BCS implications.

Georgia

Combine one of the best college football towns in the world with a football program that looks primed to take the SEC by storm and 2012 is a red number year for Athens tailgating prospects.

Bulldog fans take their football very seriously; down between those hedges it is all business, which doesn’t mean that Athens, Georgia, is not one of the premier football party spots in America.

Don’t forget the “Dawg Walk,” led by the famous and formidable Georgia “Redcoat” band, and don’t shortchange Bulldog fans and their ability to consume the all-important adult grade beverage.

The University of Georgia is yet another SEC gem of a college football experience.

Iowa

Game day in Iowa City reminds one of Christmas Day—hope and enthusiasm, goodness and mercy, love and good tidings fill the air in a place that was destined to be a great football city.

Everyone is eternally 19 on campus on game days and forget about tomorrow because, as the song says, “In Heaven There is No Beer,” which is actually the title of the Polka the Hawkeye Band plays, in the event Iowa wins the ball game.

The song is officially known as the “Hawkeye Victory Polka,” and the tailgate party that precedes the desired win must be, unofficially, the biggest outdoor party in all of Iowa.

After a rebuilding 7-5 product in 2011, the Hawkeyes have stacks of talent and the perennial “under the radar” personality that make them dangerous and Iowa City party central in 2012.

South Carolina

South Carolina is simply a haven for the college football enthusiast. 

Neighbors to the north may have their basketballs to play with, but the Palmetto State is one of the truly underrated college football hotbeds in the nation.

Sure, they got it good over there in Alabama, but really, other than that, who can compete with the Gamecocks and Clemson, two great programs in a state with no other distractions? None.

All this potential goodness is reflected in the South Carolina tailgating scene, and come on, man...these people have a Cockaboose—who is going to even try to compete with that?

I’ll tell you who.

Nobody.

Cockaboose, it’s the best train car in college football, check it out.

And if the Cock’s keep contending and winning…it just gets better.

USC

This just in...Matt Barkley is coming back for his senior season in 2012.

Hot off the wire...USC's postseason ban is over.

Now hear this...the people of Troy will be hosting a pregame party worthy of flying to the West Coast for.

Yes, football is back in earnest in 2012 at USC, and regardless of your status as a hater/lover or enthusiastic onlooker, Trojan fans may offer up the best tailgate on the Pacific next season.

It's the perfect cocktail for pregame revelry...rich tradition, high hopes, wooden horses that can roll up to the stadium for a stealth attack and offensive firepower.

Go West young man...Go West.