The end zone at the east end of the field, near the right field wall, wasn't even a full end zone. The bleachers cut off part of it, and the brick wall (while padded) essentially jutted out into the field of play. Good luck running any deep posts into the end zone or running anything other than shallow crosses from inside the five yard line.
It seemed like a recipe for disaster. As Matt Zemek of College Football News put it on Twitter: "If you're a parent of an Illinois or Northwestern WR / TE / RB / DB / CB / SS / FS-- any perimeter player--U should want this field re-drawn."
The layout was apparently approved by representatives of both Illinois and Northwestern. But today, the Big Ten stepped in and pulled a Lee Corso. Not so fast, my friends from the Land of Lincoln:
"The Big Ten Conference announced a series of adjustments to football playing rules in order to enhance student-athlete safety for the Illinois-Northwestern game to be played on Saturday, Nov. 20, at Wrigley Field in Chicago."
It would have been nice if the league had stepped in earlier during the surveying process for laying down the grid, but whatever. It's 24 hours to kickoff. Maybe they'll cut down the end zone at the west side and make it only 8 yards, or cut both back to be equitable, but I'm sure it'll be something simple.
Um:
The following rule changes were determined to be the best of all options and will be in effect for this game only based on the unique layout of the field.
1) All offensive plays will head toward the West end zone, including all extra points and all overtime possessions.
2) All kickoffs will be kicked toward the East end zone.
3) After every change of possession, the ball will be repositioned for the offense to head toward the West end zone.
4) As a result of a coin toss held by the conference office Friday morning, Illinois will occupy the West team bench in the first half and Northwestern will occupy the West team bench in the second half and for all overtime periods.
If you bought tickets for the East End Zone, how upset are you today that outside of kickoffs and turnovers returned for touchdowns, you aren't going to see any game action? I would be livid, personally.
I appreciate the fact that someone finally decided, after seeing the field, that enough was enough and that you really couldn't play a game in that configuration. Like I said upstream, it would have been better if this had occurred before the grid was actually laid down to find a better orientation for the field, but whatever.
Here's a thought, though: If you wanted to play a football game in the city of Chicago this weekend, wouldn't it have been nice to have scheduled the game in a venue that is actually designed for football? A novel concept, I know. If only the city of Chicago had such a facility.
Oh, wait. It does. It's called Soldier Field. And from what I can see, it's available this weekend.
Is it as iconic as Wrigley Field? Probably not, especially since the rebuild in 2003. But it wouldn't have allowed the game to become a mockery, either.
