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Once a house of horrors in Big 12, the Palace on the Prairie fights for same respect among tall trees in SEC

While Oklahoma's Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium was arguably the toughest place to play for many a year in the Big 12, it finds itself one of many in SEC Country.

Back in the 1940s and '50s, visiting teams used to refer to what Sooner fans now affectionately call the Palace on the Prairie as the "Snake Pit" because opponents rarely left town with a win when they came to play Oklahoma in Norman.

USA Today college football columnist Blake Toppmeyer, a self-proclaimed expert on SEC football venues because, he says, he has covered games at every SEC stadium, recently published a ranking of the SEC stadiums he considers the toughest places to play.