The Friendly Confines might have enough room for a football game after all.

Northwestern's push to schedule a future home game at Wrigley Field in Chicago has reportedly cleared a major obstacle, as the field footprint at Clark and Addison is big enough to safely accommodate players, coaches and officials. Wrigley Field hasn't been used for football since 1970, and while the field footprint is smaller because of recent seat additions, it's big enough to hold a regulation game.

Northwestern and the Chicago Cubs are on board for the game, which would be a huge hit for fans. As someone who lives in Chicago and witnessed the seemingly endless hoopla over the Winter Classic hockey game at Wrigley on New Year's Day 2009, I can safely say a college football game there would be insane (in a good way).

Athletic director Jim Phillips wants ample time to promote the game, which would have to take place after mid November to ensure the Cubs would be done with their season (don't laugh).

The two possibilities in the 2010 season are home games against Iowa (Nov. 13) or Illinois (Nov. 20). While an NU-Illinois game at Wrigley would be ideal, Northwestern might wait until the 2011 campaign, when it ends the season with home games against Michigan (Nov. 19) and Rice (Nov. 26).

Despite the safety issue being resolved, other obstacles remain, as Teddy Greenstein points out:

A source said that Big Ten issues, NCAA issues, TV matters and finances still need to be sorted out.

Among them: Are the locker rooms large enough? Where would the team's coordinators sit during the game? Would alcohol be served? Would the ESPN family or the Big Ten Network get the TV rights?

A Big Ten source said the game would be played at either 11 a.m. or 2:30 p.m., not at night.

These issues combined with Phillips' desire to promote the game for a while make 2011 the likelier option.