Illinois and Northwestern Go Old School Tecmo Bowl

[dencyguy]

For Northwestern Wildcats-Illinois Illini game at Wrigley, offense will use one end zone - ESPN Chicago

Yeah...this seems like something that they should have thought about earlier. Oh, wait:

>>"It was something we've all had some concerns about in regard to the closeness of the right-field wall at Wrigley Field, so a decision was made with both coaching staffs and the athletic directors of both schools and the [Big Ten] commissioner to start every offensive possession and go west,"<<

So, to recap, having actually looked at pictures of Wrigley Field before deciding to play a game there (one would hope), the powers that be at the schools and Big Ten have decided that it might not be a great idea to have players running at a brick wall. Indeed, this does seem to be a good decision (with that said, I'm sure there will be comments in some quarters about players being wimps who can't handle brick wall-based concussions and broken bones like the guys did back in the day), but one wonders why they didn't think about how they would need to change the game--and whether or not it would be worth it--before scheduling the thing.

>>In a statement issued by the Big Ten, the following changes will be made:
* All offensive plays will head toward the west end zone, including all extra points and all overtime possessions.

* All kickoffs will be kicked toward the east end zone.
* After every change of possession, the ball will be repositioned for the offense to head toward the west end zone. * 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. <<

An idiotic oversight? To be sure. But then again, I recall a similar issue arising when Oklahoma State renovated their stadium and put a brick wall ridiculously close to the field of play, and that one was designed and built for the football team, not a one-off promotion.

Dennis