Inside Northwestern's new (but temporary) football stadium - ESPN

EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern football coach David Braun has made bold calls late in games, but they usually come on a sideline somewhere, not across the dinner table from his wife, Kristin.

Yet there they were this spring, enjoying a rare night out around Braun's 39th birthday, engaged in a conversation they never could have envisioned a year earlier. Braun, who had not worked at a major conference school until 2023, is the reigning Big Ten Coach of the Year. Last year, he led Northwestern through one of the rockiest stretches in program history, securing the permanent coaching job and the financial rewards that came with it.

Uncertainty lurked, though. Northwestern had not finalized plans for where to play its home games in 2024 and 2025, during the $800 million rebuild of Ryan Field. The area offered limited venue options, none particularly good and all that would remove the team from campus and its comforts.

An alternative had emerged, broached years earlier by former coach Pat Fitzgerald, but gaining traction as the clock ticked toward the 2024 opener against Miami (Ohio). A gimmick play of sorts, perhaps even a Hail Mary. The concept would draw some chuckles, but at Northwestern, it might just work.

The school would build a temporary structure around its on-campus soccer/lacrosse stadium, using an outdoor football practice field and a parking lot as the site for the primary grandstands. Capacity would be only about 15,000, minuscule for a league where several teams regularly play in front of six-figure crowds.

Braun loved the idea for several reasons, but needed to get it across the goal line.

«We're talking through this, and to Kristin's credit, she's like, 'We're passionate about this. What can we do?'» Braun