Death endzone at Wrigley

"Good luck to the receivers in this game."

-At least they're in good hands...

infect either team?

Hey now, at least the QB's who are playing in this game are savvy veterans who would never put their WR's in harm's way. I mean it's not like Illinois is starting a Freshman QB and it's not like Northwestern is breaking in a brand new QB in his first start of the season. Amirite? Oh wait, what's that you say? Nevermind.

Per the NCAA there is a required 12' buffer zone behind the back line of the endzone.  Doesn't seem like they had too much trouble getting a variance granted for this game.

As long as I have my NCAA rule book out from the other thread...

Rule 1-2-3-a:  "Limit lines shall be marked with 12-inch lines and at 24-inch intervals 12 feet outside the sidelines and the end lines, except in stadiums where total field surface does not permit.  In these stadiums, the limit lines shall not be less than six feet from the sidelines and end lines."

So the rule requires 4 yards buffer behind the end zone, but it permits buffer as low as 2 yards.  Also, at the beginning of the rule book, there is a section of "administrative rules that may be altered by mutual consent of the institutions" and "administrative rules that may not be altered" and "administrative rules that may be altered by game management."  Rule 1-2-3-a is an administrative rule that may not be altered.  So who is giving them a waiver, and under what authority?!?  It's certainly not the NCAA or the Big Ten; they don't have the ability to waive this rule. 

My guess is that they conceived of this game in theory only by looking at pictures of how Wrigley was set up back when the Bears played there and no one made the realization that the configuration of Wrigley has changed since then (backstop moved closer to the mound and seating down the left field line moved in toward the base line) making the original configuration impossible to duplicate. They probably never realized this until they got in there to prep the field (likely like last week) and had an "oh crap" moment when they realized that this is the only configuration that would "work". That is really the only logical explanation for this, and even that isn't particularly logical.

They should play this like a half court game.  Once you cross the 50 just turn around and go the other way towards home plate.  Suck if you had right field seats, but still...

but playing football at Wrigley Field is dumb.  Even dumber is the fact that College Game Day is going to be there for this.  Two middle of the pack Big Ten teams playing football on a baseball field.  Yay!

That blogger apparently isn't aware that there would be a similar problem if they angled it like they used to, and might not even have been able to have it as it was when the Bears played there as the Cubs have added premium seating by the dugouts, so there is less room over there now.

Also, is there a possibility that the photo from that blog is a photoshop job?

This asinine configuration should make for some excellent moments. I just hope no one gets hurt as a result.

... to play football here, back in the leather helmet days. The legend is that bronko nagurski shook 2 linebackers, a corner, a saftey than bounced off the goal post, and ran straight into the brick wall. His words coming back to the huddle were something like, "that last guy hit hard". Hopefully we won't see any of that saturday.

What if the ball bounces off the wall and the player catches? Is that considered a TD?

1.  Arena football plays with borders all around and nobody gets hurt.  It becomes like hockey, where the boards are part of the action.  Brick walls, though, ivy or no ivy, are definitely more dangerous.

2.  If they want to make it safe, and have a unique venue, they should see if they can get both teams and the NCAA to agree to an exemption and use a 90-yard field with the 45-yard line as the center instead of the fifty. 

3.  I'm glad this isn't in Utah; Orrin Hatch might have gotten OSHA involved already.

Double mouthguards for this game please.

Pray that if you have these seats that there aren't a lot of goal line stands with this view.

if a kickoff goes into the ivy and the returner puts his hands up, does the ball get placed at the 20 or 40?

So much for the warning track...

don't expect many fade routes?