Iowa Football to Play Northwestern at Wrigley Field in 2023

Feb 7, 2023 - 6:42 PM

We may be in the thick of basketball season but that doesn’t mean football has completely faded into the background. While much of the Iowa football news cycle has sat comfortably between predictably frustrating and DEFCON-1 stupidity, this morning we got something more enjoyable than what we’ve been used to. One of Iowa’s road games in this 2023 season will take place in confines more friendly than usual.

The Hawkeyes and Wildcats will face off in Wrigley Field on November 4. It will mark the first time since Iowa’s 2017 victory over Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl that the team will play in a baseball stadium. This year’s game will mark the third time the Chicago Cubs’ home field will host a college football game. The stadium has been a popular alternate site for Northwestern games as the Wildcats hosted first Illinois there in 2010 and Purdue in 2021. A game against Wisconsin in 2020 was moved back to Ryan Field due to the COVID pandemic.

While football games in baseball stadiums are something of a novelty, it’s nothing new for Wrigley Field. The stadium was home to the Chicago Bears from 1921 until 1970 when the team moved to Soldier Field. In fact, the field has seen more football championships than baseball, with the Bears winning eight titles during that span compared to the Cubs’...zero.

With Iowa being home to plenty of Cubs fans and Chicago having its fair share of Hawkeye fans this announcement is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Wrigley is one of the Meccas of the sports world and being able to watch a football game there is a unique experience these days. And sadly for us Cubs fans of the world, Wrigley will likely have seen its last baseball game of the season well before November 4.