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This is a test -- a reading test to be specific.
Put your pencils down and focus on the paragraph directly below this one. Don't take too long, however, as you only have 15 seconds to complete the exercise. You will have one question to answer from the passage. Any questions? Ready? Go.
Put your pencils down and focus on the paragraph directly below this one. Don't take too long, however, as you only have 15 seconds to complete the exercise. You will have one question to answer from the passage. Any questions? Ready? Go.
START >>
Since its inception in 1998, Operation Sports has grown from a small community driven news site into an industry leading network attracting over 1 million unique monthly visitors (source Google Analytics) and upwards of 240,000 registered members.<< FINISH
Q: In what year was Operation Sports' inception?
Having problems? Unless you know the answer by heart, there's a good chance you struggled to find the answer. But what's your problem? The information is there (click and drag your mouse after "START" until "FINISH"). See it now?
"Not fair," you say? The information was there. But you couldn't see it? Oh, well that's too bad. I guess you should have looked harder. So what if it's white font on a white page. It's all in the spirit of the test.
Now, imagine the characters on the page as football players on a field. Red uniforms scurrying around on a red surface. Blue jerseys slipping through camouflaged against the blue ground. Or perhaps you might enjoy black shadows flying down field on an equally black turf?
For the sake of players competing on a field that would have possibly melted due to heat absorption, at least Maryland has said no to the latter idea.
But schools such as Eastern Washington and Boise State have embraced the gimmick, and with much success. Boise State, who was forced to wear other-than-blue at home in 2011, had a perfect record of 32-0 since installing the Smurf Turf up to that point.
Eastern Washington, who has a history-long record at home of 112-51 (.664), switched to the red surface in 2010. In 2010, the Eagles exploded to a perfect record of 9-0 at home capped off by an FCS national championship. Granted, the 2011 season had them going 2-2 at home, but the correlation is too hard to ignore.
The success of the teams that have gone to the switch is difficult to discount. And practically speaking, imagine trying to read a defense when all you see are small blurs of blue on a blue surface, or red on red. Much of playing football is relying on your peripheral vision. Good luck seeing to the side, much less right in front of you in such an instance.
The gimmick is over. No more Smurf blue or eagle-blood red. Enough of the turtle-scat grey (pink locker rooms are allowed).
BCS greed aside, this is one green that belongs in college football.
How do you feel about teams with alternate colored fields?
Justin Mikels is a staff writer for Operation Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @long_snapper.
# 2
fsufan4423 @ Jun 28
Every field should be green. But if a few schools wanna have different colors, that cool....unless you start seeing schools getting crazy with it like Oregons helmets.
# 3
AiDub @ Jun 28
It's pretty lame if you have to rely on the color of the field to help you win a football game to be honest. It should not be allowed in the FBS at all. It's hard enough for visiting teams to go into an opposing stadium and deal with the crowd noise and whatnot, but to add pretty unsportsmanlike element to hide the players is ridiculous and should be considered cheating.
# 5
Tickkid @ Jun 28
This argument is one of the silliest things I've ever seen. If there was a true visibility advantage for things like this, then every NFL team would have a green alternate, OR the Eagles would have had to change their color to black ages ago. This is a non-issue.
# 6
sparkdawg777 @ Jun 28
It's no different than a team wearing green on any field. You do realize that when you are on the field as a player the red/blue/green team will still be standing on top of the field, meaning the background will not be the field. It's not like they are laying down trying to sneak around.
It is probably hard for the coaches in the press box though.
It is probably hard for the coaches in the press box though.
# 7
ManOfLaMange @ Jun 28
Yes, the players are hidden on the field...oh wait, what, we're standing up? And the backgrounds aren't different colors? Oh, that's right, it's not that the players play any better or worse based on the field color, it's coaches that complain because they don't have HD scouting tape and don't see the numbers as well!
Okay, so everyone who has responded to this with an answer along the lines of "this is cheating" has never played real sports, or has forgotten what it is like to actually put on a helmet.
Smurf turf or die.
Okay, so everyone who has responded to this with an answer along the lines of "this is cheating" has never played real sports, or has forgotten what it is like to actually put on a helmet.
Smurf turf or die.
# 8
acreyman @ Jun 28
Wow, If you get down to the field level then the view is not all that bad. From the stands obviously it is different. I have been on the sidelines in a couple Boise games back in the day and it is a totally different experience.
TCU beat Boise not because of the white pants they were forced to wear, but Boise had a TON of injuries that game mainly DB's (if you remember the deep bombs TCU was able to throw) and the starting RB. And they still barely lost that game.
Also Boise's biggest wins have come on the green field. VT, Georgia, TCU, Oklahoma to name a few all were on the green field. SO I GUESS MICHIGAN STATE HAS AN ADVANTAGE WHEN WE PLAY THEM BECAUSE THEY HAVE GREEN UNIFORMS? No....that is stupid. Michigan State has the advantage cause Kellen Moore is gone now.....haha. OK but seriously, it looks bad from the stands and broadcast booth but not so much from the field.
Remember Oregons coach was making a big deal out of it the other year by painting his practice turf blue before the game. He is trying to set up an excuse in case they lost, which they did TWO YEARS in a ROW to Boise....once at their house. I beleive we held Blount to -2 yds rushing in the first half.....something like that.
TCU beat Boise not because of the white pants they were forced to wear, but Boise had a TON of injuries that game mainly DB's (if you remember the deep bombs TCU was able to throw) and the starting RB. And they still barely lost that game.
Also Boise's biggest wins have come on the green field. VT, Georgia, TCU, Oklahoma to name a few all were on the green field. SO I GUESS MICHIGAN STATE HAS AN ADVANTAGE WHEN WE PLAY THEM BECAUSE THEY HAVE GREEN UNIFORMS? No....that is stupid. Michigan State has the advantage cause Kellen Moore is gone now.....haha. OK but seriously, it looks bad from the stands and broadcast booth but not so much from the field.
Remember Oregons coach was making a big deal out of it the other year by painting his practice turf blue before the game. He is trying to set up an excuse in case they lost, which they did TWO YEARS in a ROW to Boise....once at their house. I beleive we held Blount to -2 yds rushing in the first half.....something like that.
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