I did a high school football game Friday night at a Division 6 high school game and let's just say the lighting was the worst I've ever shot in. Even late in the 2nd quarter, the auto ISO in CWA was registering ISO values higher than what I was wanting to shoot at, and I was even at f/2.8 and 1/500. So I spot metered off the players brightest part and although that left the remainder of the player underexposed, it didn't matter because 1. ISO was about 6400, and 2. the 1DX allows you to pull a TON of shadow detail after the fact in post. I want to emphasize that this is much much easier if ISO is 6400 vs. say, 25,600. This may be a great alternative way to handle this siutation if you dislike shooting at high ISO, which I do. It was still very challenging, but again, I didn't see any of the other photographers shooting anything in the 2nd half, and I still could.
