List of college football venues with non-traditional field colors
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 current for the upcoming 2018 college football season.
| Stadium | Team | Location | Division | Conference | Field color | Year installed | Notes |
| Albertsons Stadium | Boise State Broncos | Boise, Idaho | NCAA Division I FBS | Mountain West Conference | Blue | 1986 | 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. 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. |
| Brooks Stadium | Coastal Carolina Chanticleers | Conway, South Carolina | NCAA Division I FBS | Sun Belt Conference | Teal | 2015 | Nicknamed "The Surf Turf" |
| Carlson Stadium | Luther College Norse | Decorah, Iowa | NCAA Division III | American Rivers Conference | Blue | 2017 | First non-green field in NCAA Division III |
| Estes Stadium | Central Arkansas Bears | Conway, Arkansas | NCAA Division I FCS | Southland Conference | Purple and gray alternating every five yards | 2011 | Referred to as playing on “The Stripes” |
| Lindenwood Stadium | Lindenwood Lynx | Belleville, Illinois | NAIA | Mid-States Football Association | Red and gray alternating every five yards | 2012 | Has been called "the nation's most original football field". |
| Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium | New Haven Chargers | West Haven, Connecticut | NCAA Division II | Northeast-10 Conference | Blue | 2009 | 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 | Nicknamed "The Inferno". |
| Rynearson Stadium | Eastern Michigan Eagles | Ypsilanti, Michigan | NCAA Division I FBS | Mid-American Conference | Gray | 2014 | Nicknamed "The Factory" by head coach Chris Creighton in honor of the area's 100+ years of automotive history. |
| Tomahawks Field | Hosei Tomahawks | Tokyo, Japan | Japan American Football Association | Kantoh Collegiate American Football Association | Blue | 2012 | Granted special permission and an international trademark from Boise State to use blue turf. |
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 Barrow, Alaska 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 a red turf, as does Edgewood High School in Ellettsville, Indiana. 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.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.