The Big Ten football conference is commonly romanticized as a “black and blue” league, where teams utilize traditional offenses and exude a physical nature while playing in the outdoors of the chilly Midwest.
But when competition in the Big Ten will reach its apex this Saturday when Wisconsin and Michigan State do battle in the conference’s inaugural title game, it’ll be settled inside the warm, cozy confines of Lucas Oil Stadium – a dome.
Only one team in the “black and blue” league, Minnesota, called a dome home up until the 2009 season when the Golden Gophers ditched the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome for the outdoor scene of TCF Bank Stadium.
Although it’s standard practice for teams to employ indoor practice facilities nowadays, catching any Big Ten team in a dome on gameday is still a bit of a rarity. The Gophers occupied the Metrodome from 1982-2008, and other than that, Big Ten teams have been playing outdoors in totality – rain or shine, warm or cold.
Wisconsin was last seen playing indoors back in November 2007, on the road against Minnesota. Other than the occasional trip to its rivals’ dwellings, Wisconsin has only appeared in domes two other times in the last 18 years.
The Badgers visited the Alamodome in 2002 for the Alamo Bowl and, back in 1993, played Michigan State under a roof in Tokyo.
The Spartans have had limited opportunities to ball inside as of late, too. Michigan State appeared in the same venue for the Alamo Bowl in 2010 and 2003 and last played Minnesota indoors in 2005.
Venturing inside obviously isn’t something teams need to frantically prepare for, but both teams can see their already established passing games take off now that Mother Nature has no say in Saturday’s championship game.
The game comes just in time as temperatures really start to dip, not to mention the fact that it rained on the Badgers the last time they played.
And although a dome creates walls for crowd noise to reverberate off of, a neutral site should stymie that potential problem.
“Climate control,” offensive coordinator Paul Chryst said when asked of the benefits of playing inside. “Some of the variables … the temperature is going to be good; wind won’t be a problem. You don’t know what to expect (in terms of noise), but it’s not like it’s their home stadium. I think our guys will acclimate pretty quickly.”
The passing game is, of course, the main beneficiary of playing under a roof as there is nothing to influence the trajectory of a pass and no precipitation or cold temperatures to render a slick ball. That should feed into both teams’ gameplans well as both have moved the ball through the air well this season.
UW quarterback Russell Wilson leads the nation with a 192.9 pass efficiency rating, completing 72.69 percent of his passes for 2,692 yards. In the meantime, MSU’s Kirk Cousins is third in the conference with a rating of 149, completing 64.3 percent of his passes for 2,735 yards.
Both quarterbacks have targets big and fast, and in their October meeting, both threw for over 200 yards and at least two touchdowns. Wilson, however, threw two interceptions to Cousins’ zero.
As much as Wisconsin wide receiver Nick Toon – who leads the team with 52 receptions, 788 yards and nine touchdowns this season – sees the benefit of playing inside, a love for the traditional game of football precedes him.
“I think (outdoor) elements are part of the game of football, so I don’t know how I feel about it, but obviously we’re looking forward to playing Michigan State,” Toon said, later adding he would prefer playing on grass over turf.
But considering what will be up for grabs Saturday – a second-consecutive conference championship and trip to the Rose Bowl – Toon can’t help but allow practicality to settle in for this game.
“With the championship game being the date that it is, it wouldn’t make sense to have the game outside,” he said. “You want to see all aspects of each team, I think, in a championship matchup. If you had it at an outdoor venue the weather could be a factor.”
Along with Toon, other players like offensive lineman Kevin Zeitler prefer to be indoors as well come Saturday.
But there still remain others, like wide receiver Jared Abbrederis, who have no preference, weather or no weather.
“I don’t really care; it’s just a field we’re playing on,” Abbrederis said, who has caught 48 passes for 749 yards and six touchdowns. “You saw us play in the rain last week and it didn’t really affect us either, so it’s not all about the climate. It’s just your mindset if you’re going to attack the ball or not.”
But never mind the neutrality of the weather – what may be more important to these two teams may be the fact that neither has a home field advantage. Neither the Badgers nor Spartans have won a game on the other’s field since Wisconsin did so in 2002.
That’s a neutrality nobody would pass up.
“Definitely, you know, neutral venue,” Toon said, on whether he’s glad to see the Spartans outside of Spartan Stadium. “We’ll see, on Saturday, the better team. We just got to go out there and do what we do.”
