I wrote a long piece on this during the offseason. I'm a proponent of putting in field turf. I believe ND has the money to properly maintain it (you see a lot of H.S. injuries on field turf because those schools don't have large enough budgets to maintain the surfaces) and for the vast majority of people (especially watching on TV) you can't tell it's not "real" grass.
It's been a highly debatable issue as to why ND's field has been such a mess in recent years. Honestly, no one but the maintenance crew probably knows for sure.
My guess was that at some point bad turf was laid down, and once you go through that whole process and you realize it's more or less a failure, you can either keep it or drop hundreds of thousands of dollars to rip it out and start over. In most cases, time is an issue if you want to start over.
The exact same scenario happened at Ohio State a few years ago. They went to put in natural grass and the sod was terrible, so they ripped it out and installed FieldTurf.
The other issue is what happened during the stadium renovation. We know they put state of the art draining pipes and all that good stuff underneath the ground. But that was over 15 years ago, before people had cell phones, so I think the technology available today has made leaps and bounds in this department.
As far as I know, they have not upgraded the pipes and drainage system, but I could be wrong. I've said if we're not going to put in 100% FieldTurf, then we should adopt the Lambeau Field model.
They currently redesigned their drainage systems underground with the best technology available and went with the a hyrbid turf that is something like 97% real grass with 3% synthetic fibres to keep the field strong, yet give the same characteristics of a natural surface.
I think this should be a definite option for Notre Dame. You'll notices that a lot of the NFL teams that have "grass" surfaces are actually using these hybrid surfaces. Denver and Pittsburgh are two that come to mind.
I believe that there are only a very small amount of teams in the colder areas of the country still using 100% natural grass. The Bears, Browns, Penn State, UConn and of course Notre Dame are just about the only ones left.
I think it's largely true that they have grown the grass out a little longer at ND Stadium because the Kentucky Blue Grass that is not a particularly strong species and is easily killed, more or less. Check out the corner of the end zone near the tunnel where everyone walks sometime during the season, you'll notice it has turned into mostly dirt with just a very thin layer of grass.
But if you grow out the grass longer, the field gets sloppy in the form of huge divots (we've all seen those) and the longer grass is not condusive to planting and changing directions (Kamara vs. USC??). Then again, with the grass short, we run the risk of the field becoming thin and dirt-like, or if it rains, incredibly muddy...not really a better situation.
Interestingly, Purdue is one of the only teams in the colder regions of the country to use Bermuda grass. They also have the Prescription Athletic Turf (which they invented in 1974) which is known as the best draining system out there.
You would think ND would have this system in place, but as far as I know, we do not. Even though the Bears use real grass, they have the PAT underneath. So do a bunch of other NFL teams and Michigan, Ohio State and Iowa in college.
Whatever happens, it seems that ND Stadium needs an upgrade of some sort, whether it be putting in a new high-tech drainage system, the PAT, or using hyrbid grass, or going full FieldTurf.
