Horse Latitudes #6 -- B1G football, a house cat for now

The Big Tough Big Ten doesn't want anything to do with an outdoor venue for its football championship game.

Actually, I don't see anything wrong with that. Who does an outdoor title game outside of the Pac-12? Where would the B1G have it's title game? Soldier Field in Chicago? Forget that. The turf there is more surf that time of year. Oh, it's better. Blah, blah, blah. It's not better. It was iffy last August when Iowa played Northern Illinois there.

"I love Indianapolis, it's no secret," Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith said Wednesday at the Big Ten's spring meetings. "I love that facility. I love St. Elmo [steak house, not the Brat Pack movie from the '80s]. I love Ford Field, I love what Detroit has done with that Ford Field and what they're continuing to do with the area contiguous to that facility. . . . I love the indoors. I'm one of those guys."

This is the business of keeping every door open all the time, so Smith went on to say he also "loves" Soldier Field, but thinks it's a better venue to host neutral-site games during the regular season.

(I would like to see this happen. I do think it's a cool trip. You all seemed to enjoy yourselves last fall. Two things, though: 1) How do Iowa City merchants feel about losing a weekend of fan $$$? 2) Iowa needs seven home games. The B1G is moving to nine conference games in 2016. Can Iowa afford a neutral site game? The answer is yes, if there's a payday. Right now, Iowa isn't a team the Jerry Joneses of the world are going to pay for.)

Yes, this is the Ohio State AD saying this, but that doesn't make it conference opinion.

The first two Big Ten football title games have been played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The game will be anchored there for the next three years. I went for the first one in 2011 and it was convenient. Excellent setting. Didn't eat at St. Elmo's.

After this contract, however, a few of the B1G ADs are open to moving the game.

Don't be shocked if Chicago makes a push. The city just hosted the Big Ten basketball tournament. When the bids for the first football game were accepted in 2010, Indianapolis had an established sports commission, Indiana Sports Corp, that brought a Super Bowl to the city. Chicago didn't match that. (Check out this ESPN.com post for more background on this.)

The bidding process for after the 2015 B1G title game begins in about a year. I would say dress for a dome.

Big Ten Linking

-- I found this post from ESPN.com Big Ten blogger Adam Rittenberg very interesting.

I read this as Big Ten ADs wanting to step up their game in the "interesting" department.

You can get sushi at baseball games and every pro stadium has some sort of decent wireless. Let's not get crazy with the sushi, but November night games, bigger louder scoreboards, more pyrotechnics, all are within range.

From the post:

"One of our biggest no-show rates in football was the Iowa game," [MSU AD Mark] Hollis said. "And I'd go out and walk the streets and start talking to kids, 'Why didn't you go?' And they said, 'We couldn't text because it was raining.' They couldn't have their phones out. 

"That kind of hit me pretty hard." 

Michigan State put in new massive video scoreboards at Spartan Stadium last year, but Hollis knows he needs to do more. Part of a $20 million renovation to the stadium will include some new restrooms and concession stands at the north end of the stadium. The addition also will include a recruiting room. 

"We need to make sure we continue to deliver in our venues what's being delivered, and then some, on television," Hollis said. "What's that going to look like? A more comfortable place. It shouldn't be a hassle. … We're putting in more bathrooms, we're looking at a $2 million Wi-Fi system that allows more interaction. We're going to have to deliver wider seats, more comfortable seats. It's making our concession stands more presentable."

National Thinking

-- Remember Rich Rodriguez? You know he's at Arizona, replacing the yelly Mike Stoops (whom I like, but his yelling has been noted).

I think Rich Rod is sitting on a potential West Virginia-esque run with the Wildcats. Tucson is fairly remote. UA can tap the right kind of athletes to run his offense. If he can figure out defense, he might have a shot at leading the Cats to something interesting.

Sportsonearth.com's Matt Brown has Rich Rod and the Cats in a major bowl in the next five years.