Big Ten championship game to be played in Indy ...
... starting in 2011 (Lucas Oil Stadium, obviously). It's not a permanent deal -- it's a one-year contract, and the conference will do a thorough search before deciding on a permanent home.
Sorry, I don't have a link yet as I just got the raw story (I work for an unnamed news organization). Just thought you guys would be interested.
When do tickets go on sale?
Might as well include it with Michigan's 2011 season tickets.
YES. This.
Its a really nice stadium, I hope they do rotate the games through the different pro stadiums in the midwest though. Those championship games are going to be really fun to watch
Agreed.
I personally would much rather see a game outside in the frigid cold at Soldier Field. Something about intense weather just adds to the intensity of the game.
I agree, I think the injury worries may prevent some people from wanting it, I hope it happens though
... alternate between outdoors and indoors, like the Super Bowl does
I don't care so much if the game is indoors or outdoors, I'd just rather visit Chicago than Indy.
Agreed, although I do think it would be fun to watch Denard race Indy cars.
That was the obvious choice given the time crunch they were in. It is centrally located, a nice stadium, and the city is more than capable of handling an event like that. I would also like to see it rotate in future years though.
Gracias
Grassyass?
They need to do it in Lambaeu Field. That would be sweet. If Texas was in the confrence they would demand we play it at Cowboys Stadium.
We should play the championship in Toronto. Or London.
I'd be fine with outdoor games at any of the venues in the footprint- Soldier Field, Pittsburgh's pro stadium, Browns Stadium (I know), Lambeau. All would be acceptable. I guess Ford Field and Lucas Oil as well, but I just prefer the game to be outdoors. It's just...how it should be. This is the Big Ten. Cold temps and players being able to see their breath, please.
Am I the only one who doesn't want the Big Ten Championship game to be played outdoors? First of all, our offense (including our players) is not one that would fare well in the weather. Unless it's a crazy snow storm, football is less fun to watch in the weather because it slows down the game and decreases big plays. And the crowd is just generally less involved when they are bundled up and shivering.
I played football in Michigan, and the occasional snow game was a novelty, but for a national audience, I'd rather play it indoors and have both teams play at their highest level.
This is for any coaches in the audience and you (especially if you're a coach).
I don't mean to flame. (Aside: It would be poor taste to do that with someone who's been profiled by Six Zero.)
Questions:
* Exactly what parts of our offense are poorly suited to cold weather?
* Which players are poorly suited to cold weather?
I get some of the general ideas. Handing the ball to John Clay and hoping he'll punch out 3-4 yards behind his mammoth linemen seems like a reasonable approach to a 20-degree day. But, are we to believe that Cox / Hopkins will not be able to do the same if asked?
If passing is the issue, then we wouldn't be able to expect Tolzien to throw long passes to Toon or their tight ends, right? They'd be no more useful than Martavious Odoms in cold weather. It could be argued that RichRod's shorter passes might have more success.
This is arguably a touchy subject because of all the b*tching RichRod's detractors have done about his "midgets" and "warm-weather-only gimmick offense."
Comments appreciated...
at the end of November in say Ann Arbor, especially at 1 or 2PM. It's not warm, but it's not exactly snowy weather, yet.
on every Thanksgiving holiday. The U would always nearly lose 3-4 of us in an accident coming back from the East coast.
I always felt that was more due to the lack of driving ability by the east coasters
Here's my opinion on it - snow (and cold weather) slows players down. Both because it's harder to run fast in colder weather, and because of the condition of the field. Our team is built on speed, both on offense and defense. You brought up Martavious Odoms, and compared him to a Wisconsin TE. In the snow, what is easier - making a quick cut to juke a DB, or plowing over a DB? Yes, we have power running backs too, but if the game was reduced to power running all game, who has the advantage, John Clay and his OL, or Mike Cox and ours? We should have a power run game, but it won't be the strength of our offense.
And since you used Wisconsin as an example - most of the players on Wisconsin's team are from Wisconsin or another cold weather part of the country, mostly the midwest, and these guys are accustomed to playing in the cold their whole lives. Look at our line up for 2011 (too hard to project much further), Odoms, Hemingway, Stonum, VSmith, (maybe Dee Hart), Gallon, TRob, Lewan, Barnum, QW, Hopkins, Tate, Denard - these are all starters or probably contributors from very warm weather areas. Defense will likely have guys like Floyd, MRob, Vlad, Roh (freshmen Kellen Jones, maybe Kris Frost) and others from the sun belt.
It might not make as much of a difference as I'm making it seem, but it certainly won't help us.
I see your point on field condition. A slower game would hurt us more than Wisconsin.
As for the weather, I'd hope that the Floridians could get acclimated (psychologically and otherwise) to the climate over the course of a couple years.
The thing is, as it stands now there are really only the last few weeks of the season that are cold, and even then the weekends are still nice. And UM has a beautiful indoor practice facility, so the team won't practice outside much at all in the cold weather, it's just harder to work on a lot of technique, increases the likelihood of injury and makes everything sloppier - not good for practice. So the southerners on our team will get very little cold weather football time. And those few games a year are nothing compared to a whole team who grew up playing in the cold their whole lives.
That's fine, we don't need anyone tearin up Ford Field other than the Lions, let the extra game ruin the field of a bad team like the Colts
That they play on FieldTurf, right? I don't think an extra game every two years will really have that much of an adverse effect on the field conditions.
Yeah, just a shameless sarcastic Lions plug
There is no need to build the suspense with the title. It makes you look like an MLive JackTard. You don't get any sort of sweet bonus MGoPoints for the number of people that read your thread.
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/lets-have-informative-headlines
What should I title my threads?
Please make your thread titles as informative as possible: "Justin Feagin" is bad. "Justin Feagin leaving the team?" is good.
I had no problem with the title.
Edit: After reading Brian's post on how this title violated policy, all I can say is: What difference does it make if I didn't have a problem with it?
You stand vindicated on the validity of your post shirtless, but your tone was rather harsh.
It was a little...
Perhaps, I'll take it down a notch or two next time.
I was just trying to share some valuable information. My apologies if I came across as a "jacktard" -- I didn't see anything wrong with a little suspense.
I liked it, its pretty obvious what the thread was about
I didn't think Shorts, a poster who has been around since the early stages of the board craved the attention so badly. I guess I was wrong. The informative headlines used to be an aspect of the site that separated the board from the MLives/Scouts/Rivals of the universe. I guess I had higher expectations. Carry on.
I also don't like these types of titles, but it doesn't upset me like it does him. Honestly, I thought this was another thread about where you think or where you'd like the title game to be played. I was pleasantly surprised when I clicked it, but I almost didn't for that reason. I also almost always boycott the "suspense" threads in principle alone.
"Indy picked for first Big Ten Champ game" would have been much better, or something along those lines. It's supposed to be more of a title, or even a thesis statement, rather than an attention catcher headline.
August 5th, 2010 at 11:07 PM ^
I can see where you guys are coming from. I'll make sure future titles are less "click here" and more "headline."
They should do the national championship game at Lambeau.
I stopped rooting for the Lions when they moved to the Silverdome and haven't missed a thing.
Do NOT google:
perverted abomination, an unnatural act
You can't unsee that...
August 5th, 2010 at 10:55 PM ^
if you wouldn't have brought it up. Damn you to hell.
August 5th, 2010 at 11:07 PM ^
You googled the term before they leaked the photos of Favre's "manhood" that he sent to the FSU hottie.
Gross, did you see his balls? Yeah, they were weird lookin'.
August 5th, 2010 at 11:20 PM ^
... then welcome to the Internet.
I googled it and got a link back to this thread, with the web definition below.
Also if there really is something I don't need to be seeing, telling us not to google it is pretty much a sure way to get me to.
Another day, another priceless gem of a post from Don. Keep it up, you're almost on Tater's level
I don't mind an indoor game, but would prefer a stadium (whether indoor or outdoor) in a state that has a good program or football tradition. Neither the Hoosiers nor the Boilers will ever see that game.
Soldier Field, Heinz Field, Cleveland whatever-it's-called, Ford Field, Lambeau...those are all good to me.
That certainly makes sense, but it means that the game would likely never be in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin or Pennsylvania. I think Indy is a great location for basketball championships because it has a basketball history. Football...not as much...but I can't say I really care too much. Seems like most folks are more concerned with indoor v outdoor.
We discussed this sometime last winter, but Indianapolis is a great city in which to hold the game. Easily drivable, easy to get in and out, lots of downtown hotels that are walkable, plenty of cheap flights in and out, some decent restaurants and shopping downtown.
And maybe they can open the roof if it's a nice day? It's not a dome. It's retractable. Although there have been issues with the sun when the Colts have played with it open.