Leading up to Texas A&M's game against Rice, the Aggie playing surface saw nearly 5 inches of rain in less than a 24 hour span. The field was such a mess that you could catch people from the grounds crew running onto the field during breaks with buckets of sand to fill holes and tears in the grass throughout the game.
If that doesn't give you a clear enough picture of what the field conditions were like Saturday, Rice head coach David Bailiff was reportedly seen arguing with Aggie AD Eric Hyman on the way into the locker room at the half about the condition of the playing surface.
After the game, and a few injuries to players (which team doctors did not attribute to the field conditions), the administration decided that a change to the playing surface was needed, and grass from a North Carolina's sod farm would be the replacement.
The new sod, which is coming in on 24 refrigerated trucks according to The Eagle, is based on a much thicker sod base which will allow it to take root and provide a firm base for their next home game on October 11 against Ole Miss.
The decision to replace the field at the cost of $300,000 may seem like a monumental mid-season decision, but Carolina Green (the company selected for the replacement) has replaced playing surfaces for NFL franchises like the Eagles and Redskins in recent years, as well as at Tennessee, Kentucky and South Carolina, all during the season, effectively making the decision much easier. Just last week they replaced the surfaces at for the Dallas Cowboys and Tennessee Titans with a one week turnaround before kickoff.
More importantly, the last thing that you want as a coach or athletic director is the field conditions being discussed as a possible reason for a sustained injury to any of your players. That's something you simply can't risk (see Robert Griffin III).
Once the field is down, Texas A&M will get four games in on the new surface (Ole Miss, ULM, Missouri, and LSU) before it is torn up for the second part of the $450 million renovation to Kyle Field.