I confess that I’m not getting this cold weather fetish surrounding possible venues for the Big Ten championship game. The latest locale to toss its hat in the ring? Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Nothing says fun like this.
They can always burn a few couches later to keep warm. (Photo via Kirby Lee/Image of Sport/US Presswire)
“Early December, that’s balmy in Green Bay,” Murphy joked. “To me, that’s part of the attraction of college football, to play in the elements. We’re going to have a Super Bowl in New York in February, so it’s not that much different.”
This is starting to sound like little more than an exercise in machoistic masochism. Big Ten football: our players may not be SEC fast, but at least our fans aren’t pussies!
But why stop there? I mean, if showing that the cold doesn’t bother you is the primary motivation here, why settle on half-measures like Lambeau Field? I hear Edmonton is lovely that time of year. You want to keep the game in the US of A? Fine, it’s a smaller venue, but I’m sure these guys would be happy to offer up their place.
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UPDATE: It’s a Northern thing, we wouldn’t understand.
Which I think is my point.
Get The Picture 
We will play them anytime, anywhere, baby!!
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I remember Jim Rome talking about his only tailgating experience in Green Bay. They put their beer in the car to keep it from freezing. F*** that. The Big T2n just desperately wants something to hang their hat on since speed, talent, and winning big bowl games are already taken. That’s like the kid in the neighborhood who is stuck riding a Vespa and tries to act like it’s cool even though he’d trade it for an old beat up Daewoo in a second.
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They should shoot for the fences and play the Big 10 Championship in Juneau, Alaska. I’m sure they’ll sell the same amount of tickets.
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Re: That field in Alaska
The Cathy Parker of Jacksonville, FL mentioned in that story as being the benefactor of that field is Kyle Parker’s mother.
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So because the NFL takes a header off a cliff, the Big 10+2 should follow. Glad I wasn’t educated where people think no better than this.
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I’m with you, Senator. If you can’t play decent football in ideal conditions (i.e., a Sun Belt locale in January), I don’t see what playing the game in miserable conditions is supposed to accomplish, except make B10 football more boring than it already is.
Does this really have appeal with the fans? I’ve never lived in the midwest and the only midwesterners I’ve know are the ones who moved south and west to escape precisely the conditions Murphy is touting.
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Well, you never see Big Ten fans at those SB bowl games looking unhappy. At least not about the weather.
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Hey, it was 29 degrees as the high in Barrow on December 13 of 2008, which would be pretty close to the time of year for a Championship game. That’s 2 degrees warmer than the high of the same date in Green Bay.
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Okay. But it’s a dry chill in Green Bay. 😉
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I wonder how all of their sentiments change when Nebraska or Ohio State is 12-0 set to face a 9-3 Penn State or Wisconsin in Lambeau or Soldier field and in a 3-2 game or a 9-7 slopfest their national title team loses because their Heisman qb couldn’t see his receivers through the blinding snow. Or the Heisman RB fumbles a handoff at the 1 yardline.
This toughness bravado is ok to a point. I get it, you’re tough and you play/watch football in the snow and wind. But when BCS championship game appearances or BCS at large bids are at stake you want to see the best shine through, not the weather.
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Exactly. It isn’t that football cannot be played in extreme temperatures, it is just stupid to do so when you have a 72 degree option in Indianapolis. 75,000 fans and 180 players proving they are macho enough, even if it means you don’t send your best representative to the next level game.
Except for kicking the ball, I would submit playing a mid-day game in Columbia on September 11 is going to be more difficult conditions than one in early December in the Mid-West. I wouldn’t do that to CFB players, or fans, either if the Georgia Dome were the option. You play where you have to, in whatever weather you draw, but that doesn’t excuse, voluntarily, choosing a retarded location. But then, they are mentally superior to us, just ask Delany.
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I believe Slive told Delany that most SEC fans won’t watch the B10+2 championship game. I know I’d rather be making white lightning, stock car racing, or noodling for catfish.
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Or, if you’re like me and my girl first cousin, popping the tops on some cool ones and keeping up with reports from the Michealde’angleo of Turnipseed as he still tries to get the approval of the conglomerate that is Nick on the hair, facial features and colouring for the Statue. That will probably still be going on by the time the Big 1o has its first conference championship game.
http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2010/06/nick_saban_statue_might_not_be.html
Dang ol’ Michigan State never would have built a statue of Nick. Heck, they don’t even have one of Izzo or Duffy.
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you can do all those things in the South in December without contracting pneumonia, too.
Me? Instead of the watching the Big Ten Winter Carnival, I’ll be trying to run 400 cases of Coors from Texarkana to Atlanta in less than 24 hours. I know Coors can be purchased in Atlanta now, but it just sounds like traditional Southern fun. I suppose I could submit a bid for the whale blubber concession at the Big Ten game, though. That sounds like fun and profit mixed together.
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only 4 of the last 20 heisman trophy winners hail from big 10 territory anyway, so you won’t have to worry about that, InTheBleach…
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“Early December, that’s balmy in Green Bay”.
Reminds me of the famous last words of Robert Falcon Scott. Something like “it’s f—ing cold out”.
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Seems like the kind of short-sightedness that turned the Midwest into the Rust Belt. They will get left behind in football as it seems their ability to recruit kids from outside the region (or even with the region) would be hampered. Wouldn’t a top notch skill position player rather give the Gators, Tide or Longhorns a look with late season games and conference championships being played in an environment more suited to show off his skills? Nah, he’d probably prefer playing in the Ice Bowl Redux because that’s how they’ve always done it in the Big Twen.
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Best I can tell the debate isn’t a North/South issue but simply an internal debate regarding the venue of the Big Ten Championship. Should they play the game inside in Indy or some outdoor venue? Personally, I hate domes in good weather and bad. Football should be played on grass and outside period. If the Big Ten decides to play at Soldier Field and someone thinks it makes us look bad because we play inside in Atlanta, well, that’s just too bad. We play in Atlanta because of the city not because of the dome. Besides if its -4 with snow, it might be only thing that makes a Big Ten Championship worth watching.
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The most vocal for the outside venue are, of course, the Big 10+2 fans (not players) who cover up in warm clothes and blankets, have hand warmers and are drinking stimulants.
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You SouThern traitors lost your seditious war. Superior conditions? Capital One Bowl. Wait, isn’t that where an OMG SEC speed team lost to a superior Big Ten team. You mammaluccos claim superior speed, which is nothing more than veiled racism, ironic in the knowledge that your teams only became integrated within my lifetime.
By the way, We Are Penn State hails from the 1947 when SMU threatened to not play Penn State in the Cotton Bowl because they had a, GASP!, black player. At a team meeting to discuss this revolting development, Steve Suhey, the first of three generations of Penn State players, exclaimed, “We are Penn State. We all play or none of us play.”. Wally Triplett caught the game’s tying score. Both teams ended undefeated and shared identical trophies. Triplett, from suburban Baltimore, was recruited by Miami until they found out he was black, became the first black player in the NFL. And no, Paterno was a quarterback and linebacker at Brown in 1947, not the Nittany Lions coach.
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Funny you should mention that.
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Bill Sherman went to West Point, not Penn State. If he were alive today, being a partial to speedy battle maneuvers, he likely would NOT be a Big 10+2 fan.
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Question…isn’t the better analogy to the NFL Conference Championship games rather than the Super Bowl? The BCSCG would be the SB, no?
So, if Pittsburgh, New England, New York, Buffalo, Green Bay, Chicago, and San Francisco can hold rather successful NFC/AFC CGs than why can’t the Big Ten do the same?
Those of you that laud southern cities seem to have quickly forgotten the slop-fest that was Indy’s only SB title.
Besides, the only reason the NFL doesn’t hold more SB’s in the north is simply for the potential lost revenue. Now, how often do we hear gripes about the sport being beholden to the dollar and yet here some of us are arguing for what is the money position.
(Note: the Ice Bowl and the Immaculate Reception, two of the greatest NFL games/moments were both played in cold weather. And it wasn’t too warm for Dwight Clark’s “Catch” or Elway’s “Drive” either.)
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First off, why should I care about what the NFL does?
My posts on the subject aren’t about whether the BTCG will be a commercial success or a success on the field, but simply to question why playing outdoors in subfreezing weather is necessarily as virtuous as its supporters suggest, or why it’s inherently superior to how the SEC handles its championship game.
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Because playing the game indoors is akin to artificially manipulating the conditions just because certain groups don’t like the cold.
(also, pretty sure the NFL and NFL venues were mentioned several times above so…)
If the BigXII CG were held outdoors and it happened to rain during the game would it be rescheduled? What about the BCSCG or any other Bowl Game.
What about altitude, should sea level teams be forced to play games in the mountains?
The game is what it is…and weather is a part of it. Football isn’t baseball. Games aren’t postponed or called off entirely simply because the weather (aside from lightning, tornados, hurricanes, etc.) isn’t conducive to the optimum level of performance.
If the calendar says “December” and the game is scheduled in the Midwest there is a fair chance that the weather report will not read “sunny, no winds, 76 degrees”. So play the game in the almost every university plays it that can’t afford a Billion dollar dome on campus.
Disclosure: I don’t like artificial turf, nor do I like domes (for any sport). I understand the fiscal reason for their existence but I will never support their use when there is no reason other than money to hold a game on or in them. ( In pro sports, mainly baseball in the summer, I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it.) Football should be played outdoors, under any and all conditions…whether that be Miami in August or Minneapolis in December.
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Well, you could say that about scraping the field clear of snow before a game… or letting the players use hand warmers on the sidelines.
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Umm, no and no.
Scraping the field clear has far more to do with enhancing the ability of the referee-ing crew to officiate the game than it does with providing a better surface for the athletes… To whit: during games in snow storms only the 5 and 10 yard lines get brushed off rather the entire field.
As for hand warmers, they are no different than knit hats worn under the helmet or long sleeved shirts under the jerseys. And, they have far less effect on the game than do gloves worn by receivers, tinted visors worn by running backs, or longer spikes worn by all.
Besides, in all of DivI football there is only one team that I can think of off the top of my head, Syracuse, that plays inside a dome. So why introduce an entirely different element for the penultimate game of a conference season?
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There’s also artificial turf. And field turf. And advanced drainage systems to minimize the effect of precip on the field. And big ol’ cooling and heating devices used on the sidelines. All kinds of artificial enhancements are used to deal with the elements.
As for domed stadiums, no, you don’t see too many. The economics don’t make sense for schools. But when it comes to creature comforts, you sure see a helluva lot of luxury boxes.
And what’s the different element being introduced with a dome? Decent field conditions? Don’t see what’s bad about that…
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Cooling and heating devices on the sidelines are not part of the game on the field so I couldn’t care less. (Certainly they are less so than coaches with headsets.)
What is done for the fans, luxury boxes, is of even less import to the game on the field.
As for turf, I don’t like it. I stated that already.
As for domes…well, you tell me where on God’s green earth anyone can guarantee 72 degrees, ‘sunny’, and no wind? All of those factors directly effect how the game on the field is played. Runs and passes may or may not be called based on wind, rain, snow, etc. Also they effect game plans such as ‘playing for field position’. Whether a player warms himself on the sidelines with forced air and gel packs rather than a parka and woolen mittens doesn’t.
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