New Ohio Stadium Turf

[OB33]

Is it me or does it seem like most of the Big 10 schools either already have or are going to field turf and away from natural grass for their football stadiums?

Not sure if I'm liking this trend or not...

My guess would be that because Field Turf is much easier and cheaper to maintain, especially in the cold conditions that most Big Ten teams face. The same thing happened with AstroTurf until everyone realized it was terrible and led to more injuries.

[batman1211]

I like the clean look of the new field. It is classy and bold. IMO, the old field looked like it was missing something. This is a definite upgrade.

[Burning River]

For some reason the grass never held up well... so I understand why they had to change. I would prefer an artificial surface that they painted. Not, the colored turf.

Since they are using colored turf and red end zones, I would prefer gray letters with black out-line. There is a "MS Paint" type of layout on a webpage that shows the endzones red, with white lettering. Letters outlined in gray.

[BroadSt_Bully]

For some reason the grass never held up well

As part of the last expansion, the track was removed and field level lowered to install more seats closer to the field. However, this resulted in the field being below the water table like at Michigan.

I was at the 'Shoe last year for the Penn State game and at Michigan in 2002 the year before they went to FieldTurf. The conditions were abysmal and look much worse in person than on TV.

Beaver Stadium = best natural turf in sports.

[Yac12]

Is it me or does it seem like most of the Big 10 schools either already have or are going to field turf and away from natural grass for their football stadiums?

Not sure if I'm liking this trend or not...

I thought Iowa was going with Field Turf with the remodeling of Kinnick Stadium. I haven't seen anything lately.

[mfoster]

In other artificial turf news, Oklahoma State will be staying with FieldTurf at Boone Pickens Stadium despite earlier plans to install a natural surface. A survey of the stadium was done recently and found that a sufficient amount of sunlight would not be able to reach the field in the fall due to the shadows created by the stadium and Gallagher-Iba Arena, and maintaining grass in those conditions would probably be too cost-prohibitive and result in a poor surface (a lot like the problems at Gillette Stadium).

That's what you get for orienting your stadium east-west.

Still, some aggie college you got there when there's a million varieties of low-sun turf out there and you can't adapt one for your needs.

[SmoothieX]

FieldTurf = crap.

Play on grass. Stop sterilizing the game.

[whitedawg22]

FieldTurf = crap.

Play on grass. Stop sterilizing the game.

Playing on mud with occasional patches of grass in the upper midwest in November = crap.

There's nothing wrong with using technology to improve the quality of play. This isn't Astroturf, a.k.a. carpeted cement, that we're talking about.

[apeman33]

FieldTurf = crap.

Play on grass. Stop sterilizing the game.

Field Turf = better than playing on rock-hard dirt, which was always the case at the Garden City stadium (Kansas) in late October and early November. One year, we got the stadium early for a playoff game. There was no grass at all between the hashmarks and the dirt was like concrete. We could hear the players' cleats going clomp, clomp, clomp during warmups and they were kicking up dust. We started calling it "Astro Dirt."

Some places just can't keep a quality natural surface and it's no one's fault. The field I was on yesterday while watching a track meet was almost devoid of grass because it had rained gallons there this spring and the grass washed off (basically; it was as if the grass had been overtaken by mud). They're worried that the grass may not grow back well enough to survive all the way through next football season.