PHOTO: NAIA School Lindenwood Gets Trippy New Field

NAIA School Gets Trippy New FB Field

Well, that’s one way to put a nascent program on the map.

In preparation for its inaugural season, the NAIA program at Lindenwood University-Belleville (IL) will play their home games on a field with stripe-colored “EnviroTurf” that looks like a giant Candy Cane.

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The color scheme – which alternates between gray and maroon every five yards between the end zone and 45-yard lines – was captured on Sunday by The Southern, a local newspaper. It is part of a $2.3 million renovation to what was formerly Township Stadium. Ground was broken on the new stadium on March 5 and is scheduled to be completed on Sunday. The new stadium will feature a capacity of 4,129, as well as a new press box and locker room.

“The field is going to generate a lot of publicity and serve out athletic program well,” LU-Belleville Director of Athletics Scott Spinner said at the time.

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Boise State and Eastern Washington have given their home fields a distinctive look – and provided their teams with a home-field advantage of sorts – by opting for colors other than traditional green. The Lynx’s field, however, takes things a step further with an alternating pattern similar to Central Arkansas’ purple-and-gray field.

We would warn fans not to adjust their television sets – if NAIA teams, in fact, played on TV.

[thesouthern.com]

2:07 PM on 7/9/2012

Ric

Anyone else have Seven Nation Army going through their head right now?
- Football Mom
  
  I realize my comment doesn’t matter BUT! My son is one of the coaches at Lindenwood-Belleville and they are all about the game! Opinions are like ********, everyone has one! I’m just excited to get the games started this fall. This is a new program and we are expecting to put the team on the map! I’m not going to the game to look at the colored field, I’m going to watch FOOTBALL!
Sirsure

Love it! About time – colors are beautiful – and green isn’t the only surface you can play the game on. I hope other schoos catch on soon.
un entschieden

Not sure what to make of it there are other means to show patriotism
KW

I disagree with teams being permitted to put any color scheme on the field that they want. At some point a team will come up with a scheme that is distracting or in some way visually confusing to a visiting team that may only see it once a year. This would then become a home field advantage that goes way beyong the crowd home field advantage. AT some point then teams would find other ways to visually or audibly distract the visiting team. Will teams start then to be permitted to blare the loud speakers while the other team is calling signals? At what point do you use the phrase “unsportsmanlike conduct” ?
Anonymous

I can’t wait to watch my son play lacrosse on that field next Spring!
Gary Van Zandt

This is beyond ridiculous.
matt

That makes my eyes hurt. Can’t imagine looking at that for a whole game.
Ron

Whoever approved that field should lose their job. Dumb, real dumb.
Austin

Fields should be limited to green only.Period!
- JJ in Indy
  
  For years I have tolerated the Boise BLUE TURF, but because it was the ONLY non -green surface in the nation, I had learn to accept it !
  Then came Eastern Washington’s copy cat RED surface !!
  
  Now you have an NAIA school trying to attract young recruits with its striped look !!! ???
  
  If this is where this is heading, for the purposes of keeping the game from looking like a SCI-FI film or comic book, the NCAA may have to CUT THE CHORD, and say.. NO MORE NON GREEN FIELDS !!! (with the exception of grand fathering in Boise State and leave it at that ).
  
  Football surfaces were all grass until the invention of astro -turf, and those surfaces were grass for the better part of the first century of the game !!
  
  This is taking things WAY TOO FAR out of bounds !!!
  - SEC
    
    Boise shouldn’t be allow either. When they wear the blue uniforms on the blue field it is a distraction for the other team.
    If these antics are what it takes to draw attention to a football team or school, well, maybe they weren’t that impressive to start with!
    - MW
      
      SEC I guess you have never watched Boise State play in Blue on the Blue. Because of people crying about a so called advantage they can no longer dress in all blue for conference home games. It is not the blue uniforms that make the difference its the athletes wearing them.
    - Anonymous
      
      youre a moron sec because if it was such a big distraction dont you think the bsu quarter back will have the same problem of seeing his own players? Plus anyway i have watched football games there and there is no problem seeing the bsu players.
      - Ric
        
        So then any team that wears green blends in with traditional fields?
Bill

Well, first off: Sirsure needs to go back to schoo

They should get an ESPY award. Enormously
Stupid
Play
Yard
JP

The NCAA made a rule change that beginning in 2013 all football fields must be green. They got this done just in time, but if anything happens to it, or when it wears it in a few years, they’ll have to go green.
- JGizzle
  
  they dont play in the NCAA, they clearly would not have invested that much money into it with the rule change. They play in the NAIA, it says that right in the title. NAIA and NCAA are 2 sepererate associations
- Anonymous
  
  Lindenwood is an NAIA school, not NCAA.
- EG
  
  NAIA doesn’t comply with NCAA rules. So it won’t matter. I thougth Lindenwood was gold and black…why play on a red and white field?
Christina Wallace

No high school or college in New Mexico would be caught dead using this color scheme for their football fields. Give me a break!
Roger

They didn’t have to pay for that….did they? LONG hair and candy colored fields….Really……… next a football with a GPS in it!
TLcomeon

This is just stupid! As is Eastern Washington and the smurf turf at BJC (boise state). Get a green field!
lakawak

All this will show the world is how bush leage your school is.
Stan White

When the Boise State football team wears all blue, the players are sometimes difficult to see on the blue background. It would certainly make sense to restrict all fields to one color (green) to avoid such issues.
- Big o Boy
  
  What about when Michigan State is in all green?
the architect

This is brand new field surface? The grey / white areas already look worn in places. This is a functional playing surface. Blood should look real good on TV. I would pick colors that can take the abuse and still look good.
RockyTopFaithful

This is a disgrace. Build a legacy through your team, not your field. Some people have no respect for an amazing game.
rmchief50ret

Football is starting to show signs of changing like so many other things…for the SAKE of change. Football is played on a Green (for GRASS) field. But, hey, we have turned the National Anthem into an artistic monstrosity, why not do the same with the field. And, we have expanded the league’s until they are so watered down that only a few wealthy teams can actually put winning units together. And, we generally have no clue who our favorite teams will have on them from year to year because they jump from team to team (because it is all about the game, right?) But, people will continue, no matter what, to buy the over-priced tickets to watch the watered-down teams play on creative colored turf following the latest version of the National Anthem, all RIGHT AFTER a word from our sponsor, the one that really dictates what we see.
Jojobee

Football is football regardless of the field color. Get over it
dk

Already been done at University of Central Arkansas, colors are Purple and Gray.
DT

Being in the athletic communications field, I can tell you this field will suck to stat a game on. The first game on it when it rains or when there’s a really bright sun, I guarantee you ‘t be able to see the white lines on the gray.

Plus, NAIA DOES follow the NCAA rules when it comes to playing rules and governance of the game.
Anonymous

My son is playing at Lindenwood – Belleville-he is in that picture, and this field was one of the things he likes about the school. The biggest determining factor in him choosing LUB over 5 other scholarships offers is that they are also building the new Illinois State Police Crime Lab on campus, and it will provide unique opportunities to study his chosen field. All of you griping about it “not being (pure) to the game”, “what they have to do to get the program on the map” simply don’t have to look at it. Go somewhere else. Nobody will miss you. The kids love it, and it has helped tremendously with recruiting. Nobody has said they aren’t going there because of the field. They also have put together a pretty impressive recruiting class (104 players) with transfers from Ole Miss, Ball State, UT-Martin, NW MO, SIU, IL ST,. SEMO, N AZ and Central MI. Those, along with all-state caliber HS players from IL, FL, TX, CA, MI and MO will give them a good nucleus to start with. They will suprise some people in DII and NAIA their first season.

“the architect” needs to study up a little on modern playing surfaces. When this picture was taken, the rubber bead in-fill (4 punds per square foot) had just been put on less than 48 hours prior to that picture being taken. It takes some time for it to settle. It has no wear as this picture was the first time any players have ever been on it.

Have fun all. Bye.
- Sorethumb1
  
  The University of New Haven in CT. has a blue field,very similar to Boise State’s….I do not see the problem. Let the schools or conferences choose the allowed field colors, they pay for them.
That field is disgusting. Whoever thought of this should be fired. It’s football

,
AustinBuckeye

I want to know how fast the team runs in clown shoes….

NAIA School Gets Trippy New FB Field

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