re: Should SEC stadiums switch to artificial turf?

We switched to turf at Petrino's request, and I think long term it was part of the construction of our new football ops center. Because of our placing our new practice fields on top of a parking garage, that construction required a season of having no outdoor practice field. With turf in the stadium, they were able to practice there all year.

We'll probably eventually go back to grass someday. Or maybe not, don't really care.

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roadGator
Should SEC stadiums switch to artificial turf?

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No. The good Lord made grass so that SEC football could be played upon it.



And yet the SECCG is on turf and fricking indoors. Bull chit.

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1 game that is being played in an NFL team's stadium.

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I hate that Mizzou has field turf, sadly that will not change as Faurot sits on limestone and the place just does not support a grass field:(

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sure it can, last time i was on it, it was thick, plush, real grass, with today's technology and the SEC money we will be getting, I have no doubt we could have real grass and nice real grass, if we really wanted it.

The problems weren't drainage as much as air stagnation and early shadow from the tall west tower. We could fix both of those, but we are primarily a speed team now and field turf works for us. It's the same surface a lot of NFL teams play on, I might add.

I like the real stuff.............and so do some of our players. :rimshot:

The researchers wrote in the American Journal of Sports Medicine this week that they can't prove anything about FieldTurf, in particular, was behind the higher injury rate.

Michael Meyers, an assistant dean at the College of Western Idaho, said it's hard to know what else came into play during injuries - such as weather and where on the field injures took place.

Meyers conducted the research on FieldTurf in college and high school athletes, which he said was partially funded by the company.

"We didn't find any significant differences between the two surfaces, which makes them both a viable option," he told Reuters Health.

When it comes to natural grass, he said, this study may not be representative of the surface most non-professionals are playing on.

"There's a big difference between an NFL field, which is pristine and prime, and every other field in the country," Meyers said. That could tip the injury balance in favor of grass in a study limited to the pros.

Darren Gill, Vice President of Global Marketing at FieldTurf, also responded to the study in a statement to Reuters Health, saying the findings "run contrary" to data supporting the safety of artificial turf.

"Third party expert analysis of the 'NFL Study' concluded that poor study design drove the flawed, outlier, findings. New field buying patterns from the NFL continue to support turf," he added.

Hershman said the results call for more research on injury rates on grass and turf for a range of sports and levels of play - as well as on what was happening on the field at the time of NFL injuries that might explain injury differences by playing surface.

Nothing beats natural grass. It's the way football was meant to be played. Someone commented that OM' field looked good, I think it looks terrible. But that's why it's at OM. On the contrary, and I'm really not trying to be biased, but I think Scott Field is the best looking field around, esp early in the season. They really do a beautiful job with it.

I don't mind our turf.....especially once they updated it in 2009. The crap we had from 2003-2008 was terrible. The turf now is like walking on grass.

I'd love to have actual grass.....it just never grew right on our field. Was always dead.