College football returns to Wrigley Field with Northwestern hosting Wisconsin
Wrigley Field used to be the home of the Chicago Bears before turning into the full-time home of the Chicago Cubs, but it’ll once again be host to a football game in 2020.
Northwestern and Illinois played a college football game inside Wrigley Field in 2010 that saw the teams playing with only one end zone due to size constraints. The Wildcats ended up losing the game to the Illini, 48-27 but they’ll try to pick up a win in the Friendly Confines with their next trip.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Northwestern will play Wisconsin inside Wrigley Field for their 2020 matchup that’ll take place on Nov. 7.
As a Cubs fan, hopefully, that’ll be a couple of days after the Cubs won another World Series.
Of course, because the venue is home to the Cubs, that only leaves November as the only time Northwestern could use it as their home park away from Ryan Field in Evanston. Outside of this option, the Wildcats had their season finale against Illinois as a potential game. But Northwestern wasn’t too keen on the idea of giving their in-state rival a nice marketing play to sell to potential recruits.
Wisconsin is a perennial contender in the Big Ten and has a large alumni base in the Chicagoland area, so I’m expecting a sold-out crowd (which is a given in the small baseball stadium) and a rocking good time outside the park.
And I hope that part of those having a good time outside the park is College GameDay. I really can’t think of a cooler venue for ESPN’s pre-game show to be at outside the normal college venues, so hopefully, they’ll take a week off from LSU-Alabama or something like that and shine the light on Wrigley Field, for what is turning into at least a once-in-a-decade opportunity.