ESPN College Football

Thankfully, we won't see this or this ever again.

Although the 2010 Muck Bowl, er, Capital One Bowl, went in Penn State's favor Jan. 1 in Orlando, the game gained notoriety for the appallingly poor field conditions at Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium. The aesthetic component really matters to bowl games; they're supposed to look good on TV, and this one didn't.

Needless to say, Wednesday's announcement that a new playing surface will be installed at Citrus Bowl Stadium was welcome news. Installation of an AstroTurf field will begin immediately and is scheduled to be completed by September.

“Hosting a large number of events in short time windows have challenged the ability to provide optimum field conditions and paint schemes needed for national television," Florida Citrus Sports CEO Steve Hogan said in a prepared statement. "With this improvement, we are very excited about our ability to provide one of the safest, most technologically-advanced playing surfaces in the industry to our customer.”

The Big Ten's new bowl lineup includes only one game, the Capital One Bowl, at Citrus Bowl Stadium. The league previously had participated in the Champs Sports Bowl there.

"This new AstroTurf field is part of the city of Orlando’s $10 million investment in phase one improvements this year at the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium,” Orlando Venues executive director Allen Johnson said in a prepared statement.

I got a bit concerned when I saw the word AstroTurf, remembering the rock-hard, ligament-busting fields at places like Veterans Stadium and the Metrodome. But the selected surface is an advanced product with a cool-sounding name (GameDay Grass 3D) that performs a lot like natural grass.

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and others had voiced concerns about Citrus Bowl Stadium and its viability to host a premier event like the Capital One Bowl. Let's face it: after the BCS games, the Capital One Bowl is about as good as it gets.

Now the bowl can look the part.

Four Big Ten teams will kick off their bowl games in the next 26 hours or thereabouts, so it's time for another check of the weather. For Michigan State fans, you don't have to worry. Your Spartans play indoors on Saturday night at the Alamodome.

Here's the latest weather conditions:

TODAY

Minnesota at the Insight Bowl (Tempe, Ariz., kickoff at 6 p.m. ET): Sunny, temperatures between 57-63 degrees, winds at 6-7 mph.

FRIDAY

Northwestern at the Outback Bowl (Tampa, kickoff at 11 a.m. ET): Showers possible overnight and slight chance of showers after kickoff. Temperatures between 60-65 degrees, winds at 15-20 mph.

Penn State at the Capital One Bowl (Orlando, kickoff at 1 p.m. ET): Chance of showers in the morning, should be out of the area by kickoff. Temperatures between 58-64 degrees, winds at 10-15 mph.

Ohio State at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Citi (Pasadena, Calif., kickoff at 4:30 p.m. ET): Mostly cloudy skies, temperatures between 62-70 degrees, winds at 5-7 mph.

Anyone who watched the Champs Sports Bowl on Tuesday night knows the field conditions at Citrus Bowl Stadium could be an issue for Penn State and LSU on Friday. The stadium hosted eight high school state championship games earlier this month, and the field has been replaced multiple times.

Here's the problem, according to The (Allentown) Morning Call:

The city replaced the stadium's turf Dec. 24, as it has done prior to past bowl games (Orlando has hosted two bowls for the past eight years). But unseasonably cool weather prohibited the grass from growing horizontally or vertically, causing the problems, said Heather Allebaugh, spokesperson for Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer.

"They're working around the clock to get the field into good condition for the Capital One Bowl," Allebaugh said. "Our grass is high quality, the same turf that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers use. We hold ourselves to a high standard. I don't know if it was the best [situation], but I don't know if it's the worst, either."

Read more on the field conditions here and here. After a night of possible showers, it could be a sloppy track Friday.