This is a list of college football venues with non-traditional field colors. Traditionally, college football is played on grass fields. As technology advanced, the use of various kinds of artificial turf as a playing surface became more and more popular. With the artificial turf came the ability to have field colors other than green. Although many programs that choose an artificial surface for games do keep a green surface, a few have chosen other colors.
It is common for the end zones to be painted a different color, but as of the 2015 season only seven programs have their field color other than the traditional green. Six of the programs participate in the NCAA and one in the NAIA.
Conference affiliations are accurate as of the 2026 college football season. Stadium Team Location Division Conference Field color Year installed Capacity Notes Albertsons Stadium Boise State Broncos Boise, Idaho NCAA Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference Blue 1986 36,387 Nicknamed "The Blue" and "Smurf Turf". The first college stadium field to be any color other than traditional green, as well as the only college to have a non-green field for 22 years (1986–2008). In 2011, the Mountain West Conference banned Boise from wearing their all-blue uniforms during home conference games, after complaints from other Mountain West coaches that it was an unfair advantage. The uniform restrictions were removed from 2013 forward as part of the deal that kept Boise State in that conference after it had initially planned to leave. Boise State holds a trademark on any non-green field, not just blue; the enforceability of such a vague trademark has been questioned. It has licensed the right to use blue fields to several high schools as well as the University of New Haven, and also issues free licenses to any school or team that uses a color other than blue or orange, Boise State's school colors. Alumni Memorial Stadium Livingstone Blue Bears Salisbury, North Carolina NCAA Division II Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Light blue 2022 6,000 Blue Storm Stadium University of New England Nor'Easters Biddeford, Maine NCAA Division III Conference of New England Blue 2018 1,600 Location renovated from the Big Blue Turf, which opened in September 2010. Brooks Stadium Coastal Carolina Chanticleers Conway, South Carolina NCAA Division I FBS Sun Belt Conference Teal 2015 21,000 Nicknamed "The Surf Turf" Carlson Stadium Luther Norse Decorah, Iowa NCAA Division III American Rivers Conference Blue 2017 5,000 First non-green field in NCAA Division III CAU Panther Stadium Clark Atlanta Panthers Atlanta, Georgia NCAA Division II Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Red 2024 5,000 Don Drumm Stadium Marietta Pioneers Marietta, Ohio NCAA Division III Ohio Athletic Conference Two shades of gray alternating every five yards 2018 5,000 Drake Field Morrisville Mustangs Morrisville, New York NCAA Division III Empire 8 Black 2023 1,500 Estes Stadium Central Arkansas Bears Conway, Arkansas NCAA Division I FCS United Athletic Conference Purple and gray alternating every five yards 2011 10,000Referred to as playing on “The Stripes” Lindenwood Stadium Lindenwood Lynx Belleville, Illinois Red and gray alternating every five yards 2012 Unknown Has been called "the nation's most original (hideous) football field". Lindenwood University closed its Belleville campus in 2020 and later sold it to the city of Belleville. Southwestern Illinois College, which now manages the campus on the city's behalf, replaced Lindenwood's turf with a surface striped in two different shades of green in 2023. Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium New Haven Chargers West Haven, Connecticut NCAA Division I FCS Northeast Conference Blue 2009 5,000 New Haven and Boise State reached an agreement in 2009 to license the use of Boise State's trademark blue field. New Haven calls their field a "blue and yellow" field as part of the agreement. Roos Field Eastern Washington Eagles Cheney, Washington NCAA Division I FCS Big Sky Conference Red 2010 8,700 Nicknamed "The Inferno". Rynearson Stadium Eastern Michigan Eagles Ypsilanti, Michigan NCAA Division I FBS Mid-American Conference Gray 2014 30,200 Nicknamed "The Factory" by head coach Chris Creighton in honor of the area's 100+ years of automotive history . Tomahawks Field Hosei Orange Tokyo, Japan Japan American Football Association Kantoh Collegiate American Football Association Blue 2012 0 Granted special permission and an international trademark from Boise State to use blue turf. Walter M. Katz Field Curry Colonels Milton, Massachusetts NCAA Division III Conference of New England Purple 2026 2,000
Other levels of play with non-traditional colors Other programs outside of college football have non-traditional colors. Lincoln College Preparatory Academy in Kansas City, Missouri has blue turf with yellow sidelines surrounded by a red track. Barrow High School in Utqiagvik, Alaska (formerly named Barrow) also has a blue turf, as do high schools in Hidalgo, Texas; Santee, California; Lovington, New Mexico; Ravenna, Ohio; Colonia, New Jersey; Oxford, Michigan; and Spotsylvania, Virginia. West Salem High School in Salem, Oregon has a black field. St. Mary's Preparatory in Orchard Lake Village, Michigan has red turf, as do Edgewood High School in Ellettsville, Indiana and Ludlow High School in Ludlow, Kentucky. Trona High School in Trona, San Bernardino County, California has an all-dirt field, the only one in the United States outside of Alaska. Belle Vernon Area School District uses a gold turf with black accents. Tenino High School has a black turf football field. Moore Catholic High School in Staten Island, New York unveiled its red turf field in 2021. Also in Kentucky, Paris High School in the city of that name unveiled an orange field in 2024.
The Nebraska Danger of the Indoor Football League also play on a black field, while the Trenton Freedom of the Professional Indoor Football League began play in 2014 on a red field. From 2014 to 2016, the L.A. KISS of the Arena Football League played on a silver field. Two teams currently in the National Arena League use non-traditional field colors. The Lehigh Valley Steelhawks moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania in 2015, and began using a black field, while the Massachusetts Pirates began play in 2018 on a dark blue field. The Buffalo Lightning of American Indoor Football, for convenience purposes, used a plain Haudenosaunee-purple field with no field markings except for goal lines; the Lightning play their games on a hastily converted box lacrosse court.
The National Football League has prohibited the use of non-traditional field colors without league permission since 2011, and no team in the league has ever attempted doing so. The United Football League twice rejected playing on a nontraditionally colored field; it rejected Rynearson Stadium as a home for the Michigan Panthers specifically because of the gray turf (which, due to the lack of any other viable replacement, eventually led to the team being shuttered), and a plan to bring the UFL to Boise fell through with no agreement, with Albertsons Stadium's blue turf being one sticking point in the negotiations.
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