My rankings are below.
Yesterday, Wrigley Field and Yankee Stadium–two professional baseball venues–played host to college football. The big story at Wrigley was that there wasn’t enough room around the east end zone, as you can see in the picture on the right. Big Ten conference officials were worried about player safety (and by “player safety” I mean “cash one would lose from not ensuring player safety”). So the day before the game, they decide that all offensive possessions will go towards the west end zone.
Look, player safety is important. More important that entertainment, that’s for sure. But players are launching themselves into each other’s craniums and our main worry is a padded wall that is off the field of play? Then who put carts just past the endzone (warning: gruesome)? Why are fans allowed so close to the field? That’s dangerous, but no one complains so officials tend not to worry about it. Again, it’s not about safety, it’s about the appearance of safety, which helps cash flow. But that’s a conversation for another day.
The two games yesterday got me thinking about other cross-sport playing surfaces. Football on a baseball field is easy; grass is grass. But here are some more exciting ideas:
- Pommelhorse on an actual horse while it’s racing. If you say you wouldn’t watch this, you are either lying or you don’t know what a pommelhorse routine looks like.
- Football on a marathon course. Basically like regular football but 26.2 miles long.
- Boxing on a luge run. Now you can get terribly injured in two ways. That’s why we watch these sports right?
- Ice dancing on a figure skating rink. THAT WOULD BE CRAZY.
- Skateboarding on an archery range. Self-explanatory.
- Racquetball in an elevator. I think it will be hard to swing.
Okay! On to the playoff scenarios and rankings. Here’s what December 18th would look like right now:
#8 Ohio State @ #1 Auburn
#7 Boise St. @ #2 TCU
#7 LSU @ #3 Oregon
#8 Stanford @ #4 Oklahoma State
I would stay in for that.
