This will be the first visit to Stanford University for many Seminole fans so we suggest you allow several hours to enjoy the campus with an hour or so devoted to the athletics complex — home to hundreds of Olympians — which are literally right next to Stanford Stadium, where Florida State will be Stanford’s Homecoming opponent.
The well-landscaped campus leans into its Romanesque- and Mission-Revival architecture with red-tiled roofs, arched arcades and courtyards with sandstone-hued walls evoking California’s historic mission aesthetic. While the architecture is quite different from Florida State’s Collegiate Gothic style, the two campuses architectural standards both echo the campus’s commitment to original design for new and athletics building.
The Main Quad is the historic heart of the campus and includes the Memorial Church, which is considered the hub of academic life. The Hoover Tower, Anderson Collection and Stone River are other campus highlights.
The Athletics Facilities
Stanford Softball Stadium
You don’t have to be a Stanford fan to appreciate the Cardinal training and competition facilities if you cheer for the good ol' U.S.A. during the Olympics.
By the time the 2024 Paris Olympics ended, Stanford-affiliated athletes had 12 gold medals and now have 162 gold medals throughout Olympic history, and according to some sources 335 medals overall (second only to Southern Call with 337).
You’ll recognize the names and maybe even their Olympic performance when you see the names on the monuments.
If you are a collegiate and Olympic sports fan, you’ll feel the gravitas.
Stanford Stadium
While Florida State fields 20 men’s and women’s teams, Stanford fields 36, so you better pack a breakfast and lunch if you plan to visit them all.
We recommend you visit two in addition to Scott Stadium, the Avery Aquatics Complex, which we review later in this article, and “The Sunken Diamond” — Stanford’s baseball stadium, which like the football playing surface is sunken well below ground level.
The original Stanford Stadium was built in 1921, wooden bleachers and floors, built into an earthen berm. The stadium hosted 94,000 fans for a game against Cal in 1935 and in 1985 hosted Super Bowl XIX with the San Francisco 49ers defeating the Miami Dolphins.
What you will notice first about the stadium, which was torn down and rebuilt after the 2005 season, is that the playing surface is 29 feet below ground level where most patrons enter, and then you’ll notice its capacity is a quaint 50,107.
The football stadium has hosted a variety of events besides football including 1994 FIFA World Cup soccer as well as Stanford’s softball team in 2025 while the softball stadium was being renovated. Interestingly, the Cardinal set an NCAA single-game softball attendance record of 13,207 against rival Cal.
The original stadium hosted a series of track meets between the United States and Soviet Union from 1958-85. Coldplay played twice in the stadium during the band's 2025 tour.
Must See: Avery Aquatics Center
Avery Aquatics Center
If you do not have time to do the campus walk, by all means allow an extra 15 minutes to stop at the Avery Aquatics Center, widely believed to be the finest in the United States if not the world. Covered grandstands seating 2,530 line the competition pool, which serves the needs of the men’s and women’s swim and dive teams, water polo and synchronized swim teams. It has also hosted numerous NCAA and US Collegiate team Championships and the training facility for numerous US swimming and water polo teams training for the Olympics, including Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel, Regan Smith, Torri Huske to name a few swimmers, as well as Maggie Steffens, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and team captain for the US Women’s Water Polo team.
In addition to the main competition pool, the facility boasts four separate pools: The Avery, a 37-meter by 20-meter Competition Pool (one of fastest in the world), the Maas Diving Center (the finest in the country), The Belardi Pool (50x25 meters tapers to 11 foot depth) and the Baker Pool (50x25 yards with 4.5 to 8.5 foot depth) training pools that flank the competition areas.
Stanford has won 20 NCAA Championships in swimming and diving (10 by the men and 10 by the women).
Allow an extra 15 minutes if you want to read the monuments dedicated to Cardinal national champions, NCAA record holders and Olympians. Stanford women have won 172 individual NCAA Championships, the men 142. The exact number of record holders hasn’t been updated, but Ledecky set 12 NCAA records in just the 2016-17 season.
If you are a serious collegiate sports fan, you owe it to yourself to plan some time to check the Stanford Campus and their athletic traditions out.
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