A trip to play at Northwestern used to include the Big Ten’s worst road venue.
The old Ryan Field would be more than half empty, and late-season games often came with the gales of November whipping off Lake Michigan. The Gophers’ last trip to Evanston, Ill. — a 37-34 overtime loss in 2023 — included a partially closed concourse due to pieces of the ceiling falling to the floor.
While a new $862 million Ryan Field is built on the same site for next season, the Wildcats have been playing the majority of home games on a makeshift field near campus, then two late-season games at the Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field.
A general view during the second half between the Northwestern Wildcats and the Michigan Wolverines at Wrigley Field on Nov. 15, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Minnesota (6-4, 4-3 Big Ten) gets the latter treat. The U will head to “The Friendly Confines” for a Big Ten game against Northwestern (5-5, 3-4) at 11 a.m. Saturday.
“It’s going to be a really special moment for our players,” head coach P.J. Fleck said Monday. “You get to play in a different venue and a historic venue. It’s cool to be able to say you played at Wrigley Field.”
For Northwestern, the novelty has warn off. The Wildcats fell 0-6 at Wrigley Field after a 24-22 loss to No. 18 Michigan on Saturday. Northwestern won the turnover margin 5-0 but lost on a last-second field goal.
Even before that defeat, Northwestern coach David Braun told the Pioneer Press at Big Ten Media Days in July he was tired of losing there.
“It’s an incredible experience. Ultimately, we’ve got to find a way to catch our stride there,” Braun said in Las Vegas. “It’s fun to talk about playing at Wrigley, but, dang it, I want to talk about winning at Wrigley. That is going to be a challenge for our team. We have two great opponents at Wrigley this year.”
Northwestern is a four-point favorite against the Gophers; the Wildcats are trying to become bowl eligible.
Minnesota has played in two baseball stadiums for recent bowl games and won them both — an 18-6 win over West Virginia in the 2021 Guaranteed Rate Bowl at Chase Field in Arizona and a 28-20 victory over Syracuse in the 2022 Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium in New York City.
“We’ve played in a lot of baseball stadiums in a lot of bowl games,” Fleck said. “But Wrigley Field has a special place in my heart and I think that will be a lot of fun.”
Wrigley Field does not have heating coils, so the new grass surface, which just had a game on it, is expected to be less than ideal. There is also a chance of rain in Chicago on Friday, and the Gophers are exploring different cleats to match the field.
Slipping and sliding were issues in the Gophers bowl games on baseball fields.
Fleck grew up a Cubs fan in Sugar Grove, Ill., which is 55 miles west of Wrigley Field. In 1998, Fleck took a high school field trip from Kaneland High to watch Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout game. It was rainy that day, so Fleck and friends worked their way down from “bad seats” toward premium spots.
“I wasn’t one of the kids holding up the Ks in the bleachers,” Fleck said. “But we were right there. There wasn’t a ton of people there, so we just kept moving down as the game went on.”
His favorites Cubs players were Ryne Sandberg and Mark Grace, and he watched Sammy Sosa hit so many home runs in the white and blue pinstripes.
“Growing up near Chicago, you pick one or the other,” Fleck said. “My dad was a Chicago White Sox fan, so you kind of pick the opposite, so you can cheer against him, just to make it fun.”
Briefly
The Gophers-Wisconsin game for Paul Bunyan’s Axe will kick off at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 29 at Huntington Bank Stadium. It will air on FS1.
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