College Football Heads To the Ballpark This Saturday

This weekend, two of professional baseball’s most recognizable venues—Chicago’s Wrigley Field and New York’s Yankee Stadium—will host collegiate football action. In-state rivals Northwestern and Illinois will battle for the Land of the Lincoln Trophy at Wrigley Field while Army and Notre Dame will meet each other for the first-ever football game played at the New Yankee Stadium, which was opened back in April of 2009.

The Big Ten matchup between the Fighting Illini and the Wildcats will be a designated home game for Northwestern, which is located in Evanston, a half hour north of Chicago. The famous Wrigley Field marquee has already been painted purple in preparation for the event, appropriately dubbed the Allstate Wrigleyville Classic, much to the chagrin of Cubs purists.

The field will be laid out east-west inside the stadium which should give the some 40,000 expected spectators the best possible sight lines, however, it also could prove hazardous to some of the competing players. The end zone adjacent to the right field bleachers is just a few feet from a padded brick wall which could come into play if a receiver overruns the end line.

This will be the first time the two teams meet at the field since 1923 and the first time the venue has hosted a football game since the Chicago Bears moved out after the 1970 season.

The last non-baseball sporting event at Wrigley was the 2009 NHL Winter Classic between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings in which a full sized NHL ring was constructed in the outfield.

Illinois, who is now 5-5 on the season will be fighting for bowl eligibility. Northwestern, which has already clinched a winning season, will be without the services of quarterback Dan Persa, who was lost for the season during last weekend’s victory over Iowa.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who are also 5-5, will be looking to gain bowl eligibility as well when they take on Army at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night.

The game will be the first football game played at the New Yankee Stadium and will renew a great tradition of Army-Notre Dame games that were played in the old Yankee Stadium from the 1920s through the 1940s.

Because the Yankees are involved, you know that tickets for the game are vastly overpriced, with some of the nosebleed seats going for as much as $150 a piece, so for all you New Yorkers wanting to check out the game, get ready to break out your wallets.

Regardless if both of these games do involve mediocre teams, this is a still a very cool idea and one that hopefully college football continues and experiments with for years to come.

While there’s nothing quite like a rousing home field atmosphere on a college football Saturday, a change of venue to a nontraditional stadium such as a baseball field is an interesting way to draw attention to the sport and the schools competing.

For those interested in tuning in, the Northwestern-Illinois game will kickoff at 3:30 ET and will be broadcast on ESPNU. The Notre Dame-Army game is set for 7:00 ET and will be broadcast nationally on NBC.