Wisconsin is making changes to Camp Randall ahead of the expanded College Football Playoff format where teams would host games at their own stadiums.

Wisconsin will get a heated field and new video boards before the 2024 season. In terms of the heated field, Senior Associate Athletic Director Jason King said the Playoff was added motivation. The first-round games are scheduled for Dec. 20-21, 2024, and Dec. 19-20, 2025. Normal temperatures for those dates in Madison are below freezing.

“What pushed this over the edge for us was the potential of hosting Playoff games in Camp Randall in December,” he told Badger Extra. “I think this will make the surface safer because we’re not going to have a frozen field like we had in the past. We just think overall it’s going to be a good benefit to the program.”

King estimated the cost to be $5.5 million for installation, and that would replace the FieldTurf surface that was just installed in 2022 as part of the reconstruction of the stadium’s south end zone seating sections.

Preliminary work is scheduled for this summer, but most of the construction is set for after the 2023 football season. The reconfiguration also will eliminate the crown on the field, and that means that drainage will be handled under the field, King said.

The Badgers are also set to replace the main video board on the north end of the stadium, a smaller board on the south side and ring beams in 2024.