The loudness debate between Oregon and Iowa fans needs to quiet down

Debate rages, as college football fan debates do, about who has the louder, more intimidating stadium, Autzen Stadium in Eugene or Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.

The suggestion has been made that Kinnick clears Autzen as a home field advantage. Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz is 30-56 lifetime against the Top 25 and 12-28 against the Top 10, though he's pulled up some memorable upsets.

The Hawkeyes are a 6.5-point underdog Saturday at home, 12:30 p.m. PT on CBS. Their fans believe, as they should, that Iowa's brand of tough, physical complementary football and the raucous environment will produce an upset, despite the fact that Iowa passes for a league-worst 133 yards a game, 16th in the 18-team conference in offensive yards per play at 5.15.

The Ducks are third in the league, two yards better per snap at 7.36. Iowa has had a fine season, but Oregon has the best array of offensive weapons the Hawkeyes have seen this year, rushing for a conference-best 6.3 yards a carry.

Ferentz is the conference's winningest all-time coach with 210-126 at Iowa in 27 seasons, capturing his only two conference titles in 2002 and 2004.

Iowa is a tough opponent and Kinnick Stadium is a wonderful college football atmosphere. But the loudness debate won't solve this matchup or be a big factor in who wins. The Ducks are a better football team with more weapons, and Kinnick isn't more intimidating than the White Out, Camp Randall and the Big House, all of which are places in which the Ducks have conquered in their first two seasons in the Big Ten.

There's a scene in the movie "The Legend of Bagger Vance" where Matt Damon's character Rannulph Junuh takes a pull at his cigarette and glass of whiskey as young Hardy Greaves asks him, "How drunk is drunk enough, Captain Junuh?"

Deeply scarred by the Great War, Junuh invites the boy to sit down as he expounds on the question. He has his companions bring Hardy an orange Nehi.

"The answer is that it's all a matter of brain cells," Junuh begins.

"You see every drink of liquor you take kills a thousand brain cells but that doesn't much matter because we got billions more."

"And first the sadness cells die so you smile real big and then the quiet cells go so you just say everything real loud for no reason at all. That's okay that's okay because the stupid cells go next so everything you say is real smart."

" And finally come the memory cells. These are tough sons of (expletive) to kill."

The scene resonates because whenever football fans debate, the loudness cells take over and memory is selective.