Ohio Stadium readies for historic College Football Playoff game with winter prep

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Saturday’s matchup between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Tennessee Volunteers is historic for many reasons.

This is the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff and the first time a football game will be held at Ohio Stadium in December. University officials said years of preparation have gone into winterizing the stadium to ensure it’s ready to welcome thousands of fans.

They say what typically happens is after the Michigan game, the university turns off the water at the stadium so the pipes don’t burst. This year, there are new plans in place.

“We're just kind of in uncharted territory,” Mike Penner, the executive senior associate athletic director with Ohio State University, said.

The Ohio State Buckeyes on the football field are not the only ones preparing for Saturday's game against the Tennessee Volunteers. What people don’t always see are the MVPs prepping behind the scenes

“We feel like we're as prepared as we can be,” Penner said.

Penner said they’ve been improving Ohio Stadium for years since they found out the Bucks could host a game in December. One of the major improvements has been to the stadium’s pipes.

“We have concerns when it will dip two or three days in a row before freezing or below freezing, and so the, you know, the staff is really keeping an eye on it,” Penner said.

He said they constantly have someone monitoring the system. Penner explained they’ve hired contractors to fix the pipe’s heat tracing to keep the water warm in the bathroom and concession areas.

He said they’ve put space heaters in the concession stands for the workers, and while this is a temporary fix, all of the improvements are still a work in progress. Penner said they have never had a major snow event at the stadium for the football game, but have developed a snow plan.

“We would probably have to hire some temporary labor, up to 250 to 300 people, to come help us remove the snow from the stadium,” Penner said. “We will build some chutes that would go from C deck all the way down to the field so we can move the snow from C deck down and then kind of truck the snow out.”

Other changes for Saturday include additional plumbers and staff on deck ready to jump in if anything happens, and a tarp covering the field from snow to keep the turf warm.

According to Penner, the university is ready to make history and he knows Buckeye Nation is too.

“They're going to bundle up and they're going to have fun and they're going to get into the stadium and root for the Buckeyes,” Penner said.