Photo by Chris Meyer The IU Bloomington football team took to the AstroPlay field at Memorial Stadium during the Indiana State University game Sept. 13. At 2:05 p.m. tomorrow (Nov. 1), the team will meet Minnesota in Minneapolis.

AstroPlay fields look and play like optimum grass, but they offer advantages over the regular green stuff—real grass or old-style carpets. These new surfaces provide all-weather performance, durability and safety.

“This is a terrific addition for our program,” said DiNardo. “A lot of time and research went into our decision to make a change, and we determined that this change is in the best interest of our student-athletes.”

The AstroPlay surface is tufted polyethylene fibers with a rubber in-fill on top of a pad. More than 300,000 pounds of crumb rubber is brushed into the fibers to make the surface soft and more forgiving on impact. What’s more, while it’s probably not on purpose as some kind of sports aesthetic, photographers and reporters note a realistic, dirt-like puff of crumb rubber that flies up from under players’ cleats.

All of the marking for the field are permanent, with marks in both end zones and at midfield. One end zone has the word “Indiana” in it, and the other has the word “Hoosiers.” The midfield mark is similar to the mark at center court on the Assembly Hall basketball floor.