Playing at Lucas Oil Stadium a possibility in the future for Purdue
Neutral site games have become the next big thing in college football, particularly early in the year. Each season, a handful of games feature major programs at off-campus locations.
Purdue is one of the programs that recently took part in the new trend, playing Louisville at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to start the 2017 season, Jeff Brohm’s first year with the Boilermakers. Despite the 35-28 loss to the Cardinals, it was an experience and an atmosphere that Purdue really enjoyed.
Scheduling more neutral site games at Lucas Oil Stadium is something that Purdue Athletic Director Mike Bobinski is very interested in pursuing.
“We love the game that we played here in 2017,” Bobinski told Mike Carmin of the Journal & Courier. “It was a terrific environment, great contest and we really enjoyed doing that.”
Bobinski said the trouble with scheduling more of those games — as much as Purdue would like to get them on the calendar more frequently — is finding the right opponent and being able to match open dates.
Purdue has played at Lucas Oil Stadium twice this decade. In addition to the season opener against Louisville in 2017, the Boilermakers also played Notre Dame in the Shamrock Series in Indianapolis early in the 2014 season.
The Boilermakers lost that game as well, falling 30-14 to the Fighting Irish. It was the last time the two schools met.
Earlier this spring, Purdue rounded out its non-conference schedule through the 2026 season, all of which are scheduled to be played on the road or at Ross-Ade Stadium. So, unless something changes in the future, it’ll be quite some time before the Boilermakers return to Indianapolis — barring a B1G Championship Game appearance. But Bobinski hasn’t ruled out the possibility of playing at Lucas Oil Stadium again.
“Right now, there’s nothing on the books but we haven’t at all given up on that concept,” Bobinski said. “We like the idea.”