The Big Ten recently made a painful announcement for fans with the news of Iowa and Northwestern’s November matchup at the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. Iowa’s painful to watch style of football and Northwestern’s stink is bound to ail viewers in multiple senses. Football games in baseball stadiums may be my biggest sports pet peeve. This has to stop!
The Good
The score of this matchup may be on par with the venue. Baseball scores of 6-3 or 9-6 are nothing new to Wrigley Field and this game does have potential to at the minimum outpace the Cubs offense. This matchup also screams 11 am kickoff. You’ll be able to get in a nap during the second half to get you energized for the prime of a November Saturday slate.
The Bad
The product on the field will be very bad in this one. Northwestern is coming off a 1-11 season, which they did not win a single game on US soil. Iowa is coming off its worst offensive season in recent memory. The Hawkeyes did bring in some new blood to counter their 2022 campaign, but ultimately determined to keep Offensive Coordinator Brian Ferentz. Many believe Ferentz is the problem, but father and Head Coach Kirk chose to keep the train of nepotism rolling.
The Ugly
Football games played in baseball stadiums are just asking for trouble. We often see so many injuries due to poor playing surfaces. Regardless of who is playing its something we never want to see in the game we love. Wrigley field was built for baseball. In 2010, Illinois and Northwestern faced off at Wrigley Field where it was determined they could only use one end zone because the left field wall was too close to the end zone on one end of the field. When are we going to stop jamming the square peg into the round hole?
Final Thoughts
This game is being played on November 4th, which is also the scheduled date for game 7 of the 2023 World Series. The Cubs gave the go ahead to use the facility, so they must be pretty confident they won’t be needing their home field that day. I’m begging for that dilemma to come up. Go Cubs Go!
Parlay engineer with Twitter fingers.