Nothing compares to the spectacle of watching basketball in an NFL stadium

Every year, college basketball’s biggest game is traditionally held in a stadium that was not specifically made for basketball. Of course, it’s not a tradition as much as it is the NCAA wanting to sell more tickets. Last year’s title game drew over 79,000 fans, and this year’s should be in that ballpark, as well.

This year, the football stadium of choice for college basketball’s Final Four was Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, which is the home of the Indianapolis Colts. I’m a Final Four newbie, and while I was looking forward to the games, I was also extremely excited to see how on earth it would look to have a basketball court in the middle of a giant football stadium. As I suspected, it’s one of the strangest spectacles you’ll see at a sporting event, especially when you’ve spent your entire life watching basketball in basketball arenas.

(photo via Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports)

Right when you walk out of the tunnel and onto the floor level -- where the 20-yard line otherwise would be -- you get the sense that this is not where a basketball game should be played. But at the same time, it’s an absolutely incredible sight to see that many tens of thousands of seats all surrounding a tiny basketball court in the very center. You also get the sense that Iowa star Aaron White did while watching on TV.

There are a lot of stadiums that carry a certain level of mystique when you’re on the court or the field, looking up at the stands, but nothing really rivals the enormity or the surreality of a basketball court in a setting like this. To think that these are college kids -- “amateurs” -- competing for their schools in this environment is nothing short of amazing. We’ve become accustomed to these athletes playing games in front of 15,000-20,000 fans at home, but when you quadruple the size of the crowd and the size of the stadium, it’s almost mind-blowing.

Perhaps the biggest oddity is the court. Football and basketball stadiums are always weird to me to begin with, since the idea of having a perfectly kept strip of grass or hardwood floor surrounded by concrete and metal is just strange. But in normal basketball arenas, the court seems to fit, nestled in among the stands. At the Final Four, it seems incredibly out of place, like a stage for someone to speak on. My first thought was, how the hell do they play basketball on that?

(For the record, I don’t think you can say domes hurt shooting, even though it’s such a strange environment. I looked at this a couple years ago.)

The court is raised, but the benches -- and the student sections -- are on the floor. The stands are extended for the games in order to make for a higher capacity and better sight lines, so the setup has to be a bit weird. Unable to put in more regular seats for students, they’re all just located on the floor, looking up at the court and hoping to see over the people in front of them.

The aforementioned sight lines essentially create a maze around the stadium, with huge walls lining the tunnels behind the baselines, draped with Final Four banners. Despite the best efforts of those organizing the seating, there were still some fans -- like this group of Kentucky fans -- who likely paid several hundred dollars for tickets and had to peer around a wall to see the court.

I was seated in the first elevated row behind the student section, on the baseline (end zone). Usually, there’s nothing wrong with baseline seating, but it’s strange when you’re so far away from the action. I could see shots happen just fine, but it was impossible to tell where they came from on the floor.

A lot of the time, when I wanted to analyze the game, and not just soak in the atmosphere, I found myself watching the giant Jumbotron that was lowered over the court. I didn’t really know this was a possible angle to watch a basketball game from. This was my view. Let me know if you can spot any of the markings on the court.

Until you go to a Final Four, it’s hard to grasp just how strange this experience is. The sight lines, the atmosphere and the seating are all unlike anything in any other sporting event. Lucas Oil Stadium might be the last place you’d expect to find a basketball court, and it might not be where college basketball *should* be played, but it sure is a sight to see.

With 80,000 fans watching college basketball in a stadium that’s big enough to be part of the city skyline? It’s strange, awesome and surreal, all at the same time.