Half court football for NW vs. ILL

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Uncharacteristic bush-league move by the Big Ten.
 

Has this EVER been done at the major college level?

How did nobody figure out the logistics of this before the event was scheduled?

I'm excited for this game as college football comes to my neighborhood, but I'm just going to soak up the revelry and then watch Ohio State/Iowa.
 

Ridiculous that they didn't figure this to be an issue when they scheduled the event. Northwestern, you're smarter than that.
 



This will be comical though watching the IBTR's (Incompetent Big Ten Referee's) trying to figure out where to place the ball each possession!
 

If they've decided it's this big of a problem, they should just move the game up to Ryan Field. But of course, Northwestern doesn't want to lose money, so they're just embarrassing the Big Ten.
 

It is the fault of whoever got weak-kneed by all the press coverage. They knew what the field would look like before they set the event up. Both sets of coaches and both schools had to sign off on this. Everyone brought in their risk management consultants. This thing was locked. But then someone started playing "what if", got scared about bad pub, and this is the result.

LAME. The article makes is sound like some big consensus on the change, but I have my doubts since everyone listed (except maybe the B10 commish) knew the dimensions/risks and had already signed off on them.
 



Stan The Caddy said:
Having the game there in the first place or changing the alignment?
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Changing the alignment should've never happened, because the game should've never been scheduled there. They've had this game scheduled for how long, and it took them until the day before the game to realize that it wouldn't be smart having players running full-tilt toward a wall that's basically a foot from the back of the endzone? Simply inexcusable.

The idea of having a game at Wrigley is awesome. This is one case where the theory is far superior to the actual practice. It should have never come to this. It is embarrassing for Wrigley, embarrassing for the schools, players, and officials involved, and most importantly, embarrassing for the conference.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Changing the alignment should've never happened, because the game should've never been scheduled there. They've had this game scheduled for how long, and it took them until the day before the game to realize that it wouldn't be smart having players running full-tilt toward a wall that's basically a foot from the back of the endzone? Simply inexcusable.
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At this point I'm pretty sure the "they" in this is Delaney or someone else at the Big Ten offices. Every other person capable of making a stink on this knew the details, knew how that endzone would look, and still signed off. This isn't them "realizing" last minute that it was a bad idea. It was the Big Ten deciding it was a bad idea a year two late. This is the same kind of knee-jerk nonsense that got us the alcohol ban. Everyone knew the details well in advance, was cool with them, but then some articles get written and boom, last minute change.
 

Very lame. This takes away what could've been a major factor in a game played at Wrigley Field: the wind. Anyone who watched the Illinois game last Saturday saw how the wind affected the strategy and playcalling. Now, if there's a stiff breeze coming in off the lake, both teams will be playing with a short field all day long, every possession. To me, that's tinkering with the integrity of the game.
 

The closest analogy I can see is the 1932 NFL championship. He's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

The first major indoor football game was the 1932 NFL Playoff Game, which was played indoors in the Chicago Stadium due to a severe blizzard that prevented playing the game outside. A dirt floor was brought in, and to compensate for the 80-yard length of the field, the teams' positions were reset back twenty yards upon crossing midfield.
 



It's not quite as dumb as I was thinking intitially, but still, seems like something that could have been determined long ago. I hope those in that end zone are gonna get SOMETHING for sitting there, cause you know the prices were high, some kind of rebate of some sort you'd think.
 



So is this going to be "Loser's Walk" like street football?
 


Why didn't they put the field down the 3rd base line? Isn't the left field wall usually deeper than the right field wall?
 

wrigley_field.gif
 

Its actually pretty close but I can't tell what the measurement is to the part of the wall that juts out into the endzone. At first glance it looks as if they would be gaining 2 feet by going down the left field line.
 

The only time the game will be delayed is on a quick change of possession. All the other times there are commercials.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Changing the alignment should've never happened, because the game should've never been scheduled there. They've had this game scheduled for how long, and it took them until the day before the game to realize that it wouldn't be smart having players running full-tilt toward a wall that's basically a foot from the back of the endzone? Simply inexcusable.

The idea of having a game at Wrigley is awesome. This is one case where the theory is far superior to the actual practice. It should have never come to this. It is embarrassing for Wrigley, embarrassing for the schools, players, and officials involved, and most importantly, embarrassing for the conference.
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We actually agree 100%. I think it is a cool idea, but i cannot believe it came to this. Based on how close the wall was, I have no problem with the change that was made.
 

E-gads. This is just plain silly. Shirts and skins on the half court. The half-goalpost arrangement bolted to the wall on right field will serve as a monument symbol of underplanning and stupidity for everyone.
 

Why not just shorten the field to 50 yards and play by Arena League rules while they are at it?
 

I like the idea. Should make for good TV and TV ratings.

Could be the first game where the goal post is torn down before the game.

It's not really that big of a deal unless you are sitting in the defensive end zone.
 

station19 said:
It's not really that big of a deal
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Not that big of a deal?

Playing a game in a fashion rarely (never?) seen before in 141 years of major college football and 90 years of NFL football is "not that big of a deal"?
 

dpodoll68 said:
Not that big of a deal?

Playing a game in a fashion rarely (never?) seen before in 141 years of major college football and 90 years of NFL football is "not that big of a deal"?
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Nope. It's one game and they basically do the same thing now at the end of first and third quarters.
 

It seems like it would be a much wierder game to watch in person than to watch on TV. You won't notice all the weird moving the ball to the other end if you watch on TV.
 

Ten years from now there will be 100,000 people saying they were at the game.
 

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