Why the vote for Douchebag of the Week? Well, it seems that amongst the myriad of different people and organizations that were involved in the planning of this game/event, nobody in their infinite wisdom thought it may be a good idea to take some accurate measurements of the field to insure that it meets regulation standards for the dimensions of a college football field.
You would think that something like this would have a planning committee or someone who would have taken care of these type of things at least a year ago! Not literally 2 days before the game is to be played. Looks like up to that last minute, the game probably would have gone off as planned too. But they had the media in the stadium to take some pictures and to hype the event. Upon doing so, someone had mentioned that the east end zone did not seem to meet the 12 foot rule. And if not for that I don't think they would have even considered taking a look at that rule. And for those who are not aware of what this rule is (I sure had no clue and it seems many in the know did not either) the rule basically states that a field must have at least 12 feet from the end of the end zone line to any wall or obstruction. So someone brought this to the Big Ten's attention at the last minute and they were forced to abide by the rule.
So what do they do? They already have everything in place for the game.. all the advertisers, the tickets are sold, ESPN College Gameday is there broadcasting from Clark and Addison. Well, what they do is this. They make the adjustment to the rules for the game and dictate that all offensive plays will take place heading in the direction of the western goal line! So basically any defensive plays that happen to go towards the eastern goal line will obviously not be stopped. You cannot stop an interception in the middle of the play and turn it around. So all defensive plays will be allowed to finish, obviously. But after that play, or any play, once it is established that the offense for either team will take the field. The team will be turned around and execute all their plays for the series heading in the direction of the west end zone. Pretty funny.
Now I don't watch college football. I'm not a fan. Too many teams, too many conferences. I have never paid attention or gotten enamored with the sport at the college level. Though many, many do. I just cannot get into it. But I can tell you that this is a game I will be watching. If not the whole game, then at least the first quarter or half. Just to see what happens with the field configuration and the offensive rule change. Not to mention everything that the commentators will be saying about it considering the game is on the national stage with College Gameday on ESPN. This should be very interesting.
