Michigan Wolverines want their road game at Northwestern next season moved to where the Monsters of the Midway reside (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
The defending national champion Michigan Wolverines aren't going back to the College Football Playoffs, but they will be back in a bowl game this postseason. Fresh off an upset win at #2 Ohio State on Saturday, Michigan is once again feeling major momentum after beating their arch-rivals, knocking them out of the Big Ten Championship Game, and doing so as 21-point underdogs.
They're also looking ahead to 2025, when their schedule includes a visit to conference rival Northwestern. According to RG sources, the University of Michigan’s athletic department is pushing to get the Northwestern game played at Soldier Field; home of the National Football League's Chicago Bears.
It still needs to be finalized, but according to sources high up within the athletic department, it looks pretty probable. While league opponents have been announced for next season, no conference game dates have been set as of yet.
Due to Northwestern building a new Ryan Field, which will become their future home stadium on campus, they were forced to find an alternative venue(s) for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
The answer is a very scenic, utterly distinctive, but also tiny lakeside facility called Martin Stadium on the Evanston campus. The venue has a capacity of about 12,000 and serves as NU's home venue for games in September and October. In November, the home games are shifted to Wrigley Field (capacity of about 41,000), when there is no risk of scheduling conflict with the Friendly Confines' primary tenant, the Chicago Cubs.
Soldier Field last hosted a college football game in 2021, when Notre Dame beat Wisconsin. Northwestern most recently played in the venue in 2015, when they beat Illinois 24-14 in the annual Land of Lincoln Hat trophy game.
The Wolverines play their home games at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, which is known as "The Big House" because it has the highest capacity (107,601) athletic arena in the United States of America. Only two stadiums in the world, Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea (which can seat 150,000) and Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India (which holds 132,000), can hold more people.
While Soldier Field has the smallest capacity of any NFL venue, it still holds 61,500, which is much higher than either of NU's two temporary venues. Given the extremely high number of Michigan transplants who reside in the Chicagoland area and its reasonably close proximity to the state itself, selling out the stadium should not be an issue.
Fans of college football's all-time winningest program are known for 1) being a nationwide base and 2) traveling very well. It makes perfect business sense for all involved to have Soldier Field host this game.
Paul M. Banks
