List of college football venues with non-traditional field colors

This is a list of college football venues with non-traditional field colors. Traditionally, college football is played on grass fields. As technology advanced, the use of various kinds of artificial turf as a playing surface became more and more popular. With the artificial turf came the ability to have field colors other than green. Although many programs that choose an artificial surface for games do keep a green surface, a few have chosen other colors.

It is common for the end zones to be painted a different color, but as of the 2015 season only seven programs have their field color other than the traditional green.[1] Six of the programs participate in the NCAA and one in the NAIA.[2]

Conference affiliations are current for the ongoing 2016 college football season.

Stadium Team Location Division Conference Field color Year installed Notes
Albertsons Stadium Boise State Broncos Boise, Idaho NCAA Division I FBS Mountain West Conference Blue 1986 Nicknamed "The Blue" and "Smurf Turf". The first college stadium field to be any color other than traditional green, as well as the only college to have a non-green field for 22 years (1986–2008). In 2011, the Mountain West Conference banned Boise from wearing their all-blue uniforms during home conference games, after complaints from other Mountain West coaches that it was an unfair advantage.[3] The uniform restrictions were removed from 2013 forward as part of the deal that kept Boise State in that conference after it had initially planned to leave.[4] Boise State holds a trademark on any non-green field, not just blue;[5] the enforceability of such a vague trademark has been questioned.[6] It has licensed the right to use blue fields to several high schools as well as the University of New Haven,[7] and also issues free licenses to any school or team that uses a color other than blue or orange, Boise State's school colors.[5]
Brooks Stadium Coastal Carolina Chanticleers Conway, South Carolina NCAA Division I FCS
(NCAA Division I FBS in 2017)		 Independent
(Sun Belt Conference in 2017)		 Teal 2015 Nicknamed "The Surf Turf"
Estes Stadium Central Arkansas Bears Conway, Arkansas NCAA Division I FCS Southland Conference Purple and gray alternating every five yards 2011[8]
Lindenwood Stadium Lindenwood Lynx Belleville, Illinois NAIA Independent Red and gray alternating every five yards 2012 Has been called "the nation's most original (hideous) football field".[9]
Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium New Haven Chargers West Haven, Connecticut NCAA Division II Northeast 10 Blue 2009[10] New Haven and Boise State reached an agreement in 2009 to license the use of Boise State's trademark blue field. New Haven calls their field a "blue and yellow" field as part of the agreement.[7]
Roos Field Eastern Washington Eagles Cheney, Washington NCAA Division I FCS Big Sky Conference Red 2010[11] Nicknamed "The Inferno".
Rynearson Stadium Eastern Michigan Eagles Ypsilanti, Michigan NCAA Division I FBS Mid-American Conference Gray 2014[1] Nicknamed "The Factory" in honor of the areas 100+ years of automotive history by head coach Chris Creighton.[12]
Tomahawks Field Hosei Tomahawks Tokyo, Japan Japan American Football Association Kantoh Collegiate American Football Association Blue 2012 Granted special permission and an international trademark from Boise State to use blue turf. [13] [14]

Other levels of play with non-traditional colors

Other programs outside of college football have non-traditional colors. Barrow High School in Barrow, Alaska has a blue turf, as do high schools in Hidalgo, Texas, Santee, California, Lovington, New Mexico[15] and Ravenna, Ohio. West Salem High School in Salem, Oregon has a black field.[16] Trona High School in Trona, San Bernardino County, California has an all-dirt field, the only one in the United States outside of Alaska.[17]

The Nebraska Danger of the Indoor Football League also play on a black field, while the Trenton Freedom of the Professional Indoor Football League began play in 2014 on a red field. Most recently, the L.A. KISS of the Arena Football League unveiled a silver field. The Buffalo Lightning of American Indoor Football, for convenience purposes, used a plain Haudenosaunee-purple field with no field markings except for goal lines; the Lightning play their games on a hastily converted box lacrosse court.

The National Football League has prohibited the use of non-traditional field colors without league permission since 2011, and no team in the league has ever attempted doing so.[18]

Image gallery

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference smurf_turf was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lindenwood_Stadium was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

References

  1. 1 2 "EMU Installing Gray FieldTurf Surface at Rynearson Stadium" (Press release). Eastern Michigan University Athletics. June 17, 2014. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  2. ↑ Held, Kevin (July 12, 2012). "Lindenwood University-Belleville Football Field turf laid down". KSDK.com. Retrieved September 7, 2012.
  3. ↑ Treadway, Daniel (July 27, 2011). "Boise State Banned From Wearing Blue Uniforms On Smurf Turf". Huffington Post.
  4. ↑ "Boise State to stay in Mountain West". Sports Illustrated. December 31, 2012. Retrieved January 1, 2013.
  5. 1 2 Siegel, Alan (October 13, 2014). "The 10 Best Fields in College Football". fanindex.usatoday.com. USA Today. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Boise State Somehow Got A Trademark On Non-Green Athletic Fields". Techdirt. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  7. 1 2 Cripe, Chad (September 23, 2011). "Here's how Boise State protects its trademark on the blue turf". Idaho Statesman. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Purple & Gray Turf Coming to Estes Stadium". Central Arkansas Athletics. 1 April 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
  9. ↑ Watson, Graham (July 11, 2012). "NAIA school unveils the nation's most original (hideous) football field". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved September 7, 2012. We've seen all blue fields (Boise State) and all red fields (Eastern Washington), and we've even seen stripes (Central Arkansas), but this, this is an abomination to the game. It looks like a flattened out barbershop pole. Whatever happened to good ol' green?
  10. ↑ "Dellacamera Stadium: Home of Chrager Football!". New Haven Chargers. 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Eastern Washington installing red turf". ESPN. February 26, 2010. Retrieved October 1, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Eastern Michigan Football Introduces The Factory". Eastern Michigan University.
  13. ↑ "Japan's Hosei University Dedicates Turf". Boise State Athletics/Bronco Sports. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Boise St. tight end Huff relishing time in Japan with Hosei". The Japan Times. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Another Blue Football Field: Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium at the University of New Haven". Tom McMahon.net. November 19, 2008. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
  16. ↑ Chandler, Rick (August 21, 2012). "Oregon High School says 'The heck with everything, we're going with black turf'". Off the Bench. NBCSports.com. Retrieved October 23, 2013.
  17. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/18/national/18FOOT.html
  18. ↑ Rosenthal, Gregg (March 22, 2011). "There will be no blue NFL fields". Pro Football Talk. NBC Sports. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
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