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 accurate as of the 2024 college football season.
Stadium | Team | Location | Division | Conference | Field color | Year installed | Capacity | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Albertsons Stadium | Boise State Broncos | Boise, Idaho | NCAA Division I FBS | Mountain West Conference | Blue | 1986 | 36,387 | 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 FBS | Sun Belt Conference | Teal | 2015 | 21,000 | Nicknamed "The Surf Turf" |
Carlson Stadium | Luther College Norse | Decorah, Iowa | NCAA Division III | American Rivers Conference | Blue | 2017 [8] | 5,000 | First non-green field in NCAA Division III |
Drake Field | SUNY Morrisville Mustangs | Morrisville, New York | NCAA Division III | Empire 8 | Black | 2023 [9] | 1,500 | |
Estes Stadium | Central Arkansas Bears | Conway, Arkansas | NCAA Division I FCS | United Athletic Conference | Purple and gray alternating every five yards | 2011 [10] | 10,000 | Referred to as playing on “The Stripes” |
Lindenwood Stadium | Lindenwood Lynx | Belleville, Illinois | N/A (NAIA through 2019) | N/A (Mid-States Football Association through 2019) | Red and gray alternating every five yards | 2012 | Unknown | Has been called "the nation's most original (hideous) football field". [11] Lindenwood University closed its Belleville campus in 2020 and later sold it to the city of Belleville. Southwestern Illinois College, which now manages the campus on the city's behalf, replaced Lindenwood's turf with a surface striped in two different shades of green in 2023. [12] |
Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium | New Haven Chargers | West Haven, Connecticut | NCAA Division II | Northeast-10 Conference | Blue | 2009 [13] | 5,000 | 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 [14] | 8,700 | Nicknamed "The Inferno". |
Rynearson Stadium | Eastern Michigan Eagles | Ypsilanti, Michigan | NCAA Division I FBS | Mid-American Conference | Gray | 2014 [1] | 30,200 | Nicknamed "The Factory" by head coach Chris Creighton in honor of the area's 100+ years of automotive history . [15] |
Tomahawks Field | Hosei Orange | Tokyo, Japan | Japan American Football Association | Kantoh Collegiate American Football Association | Blue | 2012 | 0 | Granted special permission and an international trademark from Boise State to use blue turf. [16] [17] |
Other programs outside of college football have non-traditional colors. Lincoln College Preparatory Academy in Kansas City, Missouri has blue turf with yellow sidelines surrounded by a red track. Barrow High School in Barrow, Alaska also has a blue turf, as do high schools in Hidalgo, Texas; Santee, California; Lovington, New Mexico; [18] Ravenna, Ohio; Colonia, New Jersey; Oxford, Michigan; and Spotsylvania, Virginia. [19] West Salem High School in Salem, Oregon has a black field. [20] St. Mary's Preparatory in Orchard Lake Village, Michigan has red turf, as do Edgewood High School in Ellettsville, Indiana [21] and Ludlow High School in Ludlow, Kentucky. [22] Trona High School in Trona, San Bernardino County, California has an all-dirt field, the only one in the United States outside of Alaska. [23] Belle Vernon Area School District uses a gold turf with black accents. [24] Tenino High School has a black turf football field. [25] Moore Catholic High School in Staten Island, New York unveiled its red turf field in 2021. [26] Also in Kentucky, Paris High School in the city of that name unveiled an orange field in 2024. [27]
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. From 2014 to 2016, the L.A. KISS of the Arena Football League played on a silver field. Two teams currently in the National Arena League use non-traditional field colors. The Lehigh Valley Steelhawks moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania in 2015, and began using a black field, while the Massachusetts Pirates began play in 2018 on a dark blue 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. [28]
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twelve full member schools are in Ohio and Michigan, with single members located in Illinois, Indiana, and New York. For football, the MAC participates in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision.
Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees since 1965. It became a public institution in 1969.
Memorial Stadium is a stadium on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, United States. The stadium, used primarily for football, is a memorial to the university's students who died in World War I; their names are engraved on the nearly 200 pillars surrounding the stadium's façade. With a capacity of 60,670, the stadium is primarily used as the home of the university's Fighting Illini football team.
FieldTurf is a brand of artificial turf playing surface. It is manufactured and installed by FieldTurf Tarkett, a division of French company Tarkett. FieldTurf is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and its primary manufacturing facility is located in Calhoun, Georgia, United States. With a design intended to more accurately replicate real grass, the new product rapidly gained popularity in the late 1990s.
Rynearson Stadium, nicknamed "The Factory", is a stadium in Ypsilanti, Michigan. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the Eastern Michigan University Eagles. Currently, the stadium has seating for 30,200 people. The stadium is located on the school's west campus, just south of the Huron River.
James J. Fitzpatrick Stadium is a 6,300-seat multi-purpose outdoor stadium in Portland, Maine, United States. It is located between Interstate 295, Hadlock Field baseball stadium, King Middle School, and the Portland Exposition Building. It is located across Deering Avenue from Deering Oaks Park. Formerly known as Portland Stadium, it was renamed in 1989 to honor James J. Fitzpatrick, one of the most respected figures in Maine athletic history.
Carey Stadium is an open-air multi-purpose stadium located just off the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey. The stadium has been in use since 1919 and is primarily used by the Ocean City School District for Ocean City High School's Red Raiders football, soccer, and lacrosse teams.
Roos Field is an outdoor college football stadium in the northwest United States, on the campus of Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington, southwest of Spokane. It is the home venue of the Eastern Washington Eagles of the Big Sky Conference in Division I (FCS).
The Boise State Broncos football program represents Boise State University in college football and competes in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as a member of the Mountain West Conference. The Broncos play their home games on campus at Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho, and their head coach is Spencer Danielson. The program is 13–8 in bowl games since 1999, has the longest current streak of winning seasons in college football with 26. It also held a 3–0 record in the Fiesta Bowl between 2007 & 2014. As of the end of the 2023 season, the Broncos' all-time winning percentage of .725 is the sixth highest among NCAA FBS football teams, while their 491 total wins ranks 105th.
Ravenna High School is a public high school located in Ravenna, Ohio, United States. It is the only high school in the Ravenna School District and serves students primarily in Ravenna and Ravenna Township. The school's colors are blue, white, and red and its athletic teams are known as the Ravens.
The NHL Winter Classic is an annual outdoor ice hockey game played during the National Hockey League's (NHL) regular season on or around New Year's Day. It is generally held in a football or baseball stadium in the United States in an area with a resident NHL team, though for most of the game's existence, they are usually played in a baseball stadium to avoid scheduling and logistical conflicts with football stadiums during the National Football League regular season. The Winter Classic is distinct from the league's two other series of outdoor games, the NHL Heritage Classic and the NHL Stadium Series. The first Winter Classic was held in 2008 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins. Fifteen Winter Classics have been held as of January 2024. The most recent game was played during the 2023–24 NHL season at T-Mobile Park, with the Seattle Kraken defeating the Vegas Golden Knights 3−0.
Oxford High School is a coed public secondary institution located in Oxford Township, Michigan, United States, with an Oxford postal address. Part of the Oxford Community Schools district, it is within one of the largest school districts, geographically, in southeastern lower Michigan.
The 2011 Central Arkansas Bears football team represented the University of Central Arkansas as a member of the Southland Conference during the 2011 NCAA Division I FCS football season. Led by 12th-year head coach Clint Conque, the Bears compiled an overall record of 9–4 with a mark of 6–1 in conference play placing second in the Southland. Central Arkansas received an at-large bid into the NCAA Division I FCS Football Championship playoffs, where the Bears defeated Tennessee Tech in the first round before falling to Montana in the second round.
Philadelphia Lone Star Football Club is an American professional development soccer club based in Southwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that competes in USL League Two and the National Premier Soccer League, both leagues which sit in the fourth tier of the American soccer pyramid. Nicknamed "the Stars", the club was founded as Junior Lone Star Football Club in 2001, but changed its name to Philadelphia Lone Star F.C. in 2018.
Away colours or road colours are a choice of coloured clothing used in team sports. They are required to be worn by one team during a game between teams that would otherwise wear the same colours as each other, or similar colours. This change prevents confusion for officials, players, and spectators. In most sports, it is the visiting or road team that must change.
Lindenwood Stadium is a sports stadium in Belleville, Illinois. Before Lindenwood University closed its Belleville campus in 2020, the stadium was primarily used by the athletic teams of that campus.
Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium is a sport stadium in West Haven, Connecticut. The facility is primarily used by the University of New Haven athletic teams, as well as the University of New Haven Chargers Marching Band.
Albertsons Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. It is the home field of the Boise State Broncos of the Mountain West Conference. Known as Bronco Stadium for its first 44 seasons, it was renamed in May 2014 when Albertsons, a chain of grocery stores founded by Boise area resident Joe Albertson, purchased the naming rights.
The Youngstown City Series was an OHSAA athletic conference that began play in 1925 and lasted until the end of the 2006–07 school year. Its members were located in the city of Youngstown, Ohio, although membership was eventually extended to Timken High School in Canton, Ohio. Some schools closed during the league's tenure, while the rest left before the closings or at the league's demise.
Tomahawks Field was an outdoor athletic stadium in Tokyo, Japan, the home field of the Hosei Orange of the Kantoh Collegiate American Football Association. With permission, and assistance, from Boise State University, Hosei is the first university to have a blue turf playing surface granted to them under the first international licensing of the playing surface through a Boise State trademark.
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?