Jon

This broadcasting crew just won me over.

thats the deal that MSU made with Boise...that must be below the OSU standard The Michigan State/Boise State deal is a pretty safe one for Michigan State. The landscape is going to look different in 10 years by the time the 2nd game rolls around and there's a decent chance Boise State won't be able to keep this going for another decade. So Michigan State gets a single upcoming home game against a likely top team while not having to worry about them again for another decade. But that's not something Ohio State needs. They can get a top opponent in a home and home anytime they want without the risk of looking bad by losing to a non-AQ team, particularly on the road. No real reason for them to do it.

The compromised football sightlines at Wrigley didn't keep the Bears from selling tickets, and similar setups in Milwaukee, San Francisco and San Diego thrived. Ryan Field wins on sightlines, but Wrigley wins on accessibility from the city and desirability - Wrigleyville is a far better pre/post hangout than the NU campus. Football fans like the neighborhood just as much as baseball fans. I think the Cubs were inspired to go forward with football despite the rules setback dealt by the Big Ten. NU could happen again, and they might get ND to come once in a while. A Big Ten title game is a pipe dream so long as Soldier Field is a candidate. Long-term, it is conceivable that the family would look to a full-time college football partnership to help finance improvements to the park. Schools with far less revenue potential than DePaul and UIC have started D1 college football programs in recent years. Season ticket sales is their priority, though, not single game tickets. Season tickets went up 40% this year, in large part thanks to this game, but next time around people would know that they'd be able to get tickets on the secondary market for less or even through tickets.com after some are released. There was the feeling when NU was selling season tickets that you'd be left out if you didn't buy season tickets. Hell, some Illinois fans got season tickets for what turned out to be for no reason. When you're charging more than 3x the amount for a game at Wrigley to season ticket holders than a game in Evanston, I don't see it working more than once. It was fine for the Bears because that was their home They also had temporary bleachers which made a big difference, though I heard the LF bleachers turned out to be pretty good. But when you have a high % of season ticket holders who have good seats and also skew towards the older side, a repeat isn't going to make them happy at all. Besides, they're going to be investing in the athletics facilities pretty shortly. They're spending a $1 million on a survey/evaluation of their current facilities to get plans for the future. There's going to be a different Ryan Field in 5-10 years and the timing of moving another game to Wrigley wouldn't be ideal on that alone. I don't see any other school moving a game to Wrigley based on limited attendance alone. The last time Illinois played in Evanston (2008), the official attendance was 32k. Not many schools will benefit from a 41k seat capacity. I'd imagine the Cubs will try to go for a bowl in the next bowl cycle starting in 2014, similar to what the Yankees have done. They'll be in a tough position in the midwest, though. I'm not sure how high up in the bowl selection order process they could get themselves. And they may have to go for it without having another football game take place there between now and then.

I'll never respond to one of his posts civilly again. It was legally required since I don't do any trashtalking verbally or online. http://twitpic.com/38p7u3 http://twitpic.com/38p7xq The whole thing was great minus the defense not being able to fill gaps for the first time all year (they were in good position against Penn State, but just couldn't tackle to save their lives). Standing for 7 hours and getting to GameDay at 4:30 was well worth it. Everything pre-game went really well. But I will say that while I think this was/is a great idea, it's not something that should be repeated. At least anytime soon for Northwestern. The seats, including great ones for baseball, are awful for football. With the minimal incline on the lower level, the number of people constantly getting up and walking around, the vendors, and the people on both sides who got wasted prior to the game, it made it very hard to see the game from my 1st row seat in 123. 400 seats were probably great and bleacher seats, especially RF, seemed pretty decent, too. And for a baseball game, people doing those things isn't a big deal. But it's quite problematic for a football game. For a game at Wrigley, you have to charge a lot more money for worse seats. My ticket cost $150 when I have a 1st row seat at the 25 yard line in Evanston that costs me less than $40 for a Big Ten game, I believe. It's a sacrifice you make for a game like this for marketing purposes, but especially since the marketing impact for doing this again would be far less, it's not something you want to do again.

It is amazing down here. And getting down here at 4:30 was so worth it. Got a first row spot, though I was about 5 people too close to the desk for most shots. Still got some airtime for my signs, though. They did an amazing job with everything here.

Then the question would be why they couldn't/didn't get clearance from the NCAA considering the NCAA gave them permission to only go in one direction.

The 2009 Emerald Bowl: http://usctrojans.cstv.com/blog/assets_c/2009/12/1206attpark-thumb-640x425-3248.jpg Clearly not 6 yards behind that endzone. The whole thing is strange. FYI, the game will be carried on ESPN3.com.

The explanation of what transpired is rather strange. On Wednesday, the head of SEC officiating saw photos posted online and notified the head of Big Ten officiating about a the rule that states endzones must have 12 yards after it ends in facilities that allow for that and 6 yards for those that don't. Nobody in the Big Ten knew about the rule and never thought there was one because of 2 bowl games that have fields with similar dimensions. Nobody knows right now as to why those games were let to happen, but I'm guessing those involved didn't know about the rule. The Big Ten also stated that they only look at on-campus facilities and Wrigley fell out of their responsibility for looking at the field. So this whole process started Wednesday with everyone involved and the one direction was the best they came up with. Really strange.

Standard on DirecTV. Picture quality pretty much on par with ESPN/2.

I asked that kiddingly and I would hope most people would as well. Oh, they've been real...

Excessive but necessary, unfortunately. It would be different if it was taking place in a giant parking lot on campus. It's going to be cold, though. Won't get out of the freezing range until sunrise.

Very few changes of possession occur without a media timeout. I'm a little surprised by all the people elsewhere asking about defensive TDs, ST TDs, etc. There's no reason to think that those would be impacted by this. You don't need a full endzone with space beyond it for a TD return. Typical older NU fan reaction, though. Lots of "outrage" and people either demanding refunds, saying they won't renew their season tickets next year, or saying that they will withhold donation money (which they said after not getting the seats they wanted). It's rather pathetic.

Definitely, which isn't a problem for me. This is a fantastic idea for Northwestern to do it right now because it's so unique, but if games at Wrigley become relatively common, fans won't want to pay the high ticket prices.

Well, it was through of beforehand, but why the Big Ten office decided to make the decision now is beyond me. But yeah, I really don't think this is a big deal. The game won't feel all that different and if anything, it makes it a little easier on the coaches and players.

What time do you think is the latest time to get there to get a good spot in the crowd? I ain't getting up at 2:45 that's for sure. Since this is off-campus and you can't camp out overnight, GameDay is letting Northwestern students and fans get first dibs on the pit on the McDonald's parking lot at 5 AM. Then they open it up to everyone else at 5:30. From what I've seen, the pit area on the McDonald's parking lot isn't that big and I can't imagine they'd shut down Clark. The overflow area is across the street next to Wrigley. I'd imagine the pit at 5 might be close to full by the time 5:30 hits.

I can't imagine you'd have been able to see the RF endzone, though.

No, that's fine. There's plenty of room for that. But the ball is going to be respotted after every change of possession. This actually puts Illinois at a big disadvantage unless they work something out. Illinois had the outfield half of the sideline with Northwestern getting the infield half, so Illinois will be far away from the red zone. My suspicion is that this was Illinois' demand, though they did sign off on it, since today is their practice at Wrigley. Edit: Nevermind, it sounds like they'll switch halves of the sideline at halftime. Things were ironed out this morning at the Big Ten offices and they received a waiver from the NCAA for these rule changes.

And disaster just struck. Illinois is saying that only one end zone is going to be used...

I'm getting up at 2:45 to freeze my balls off waiting for GameDay to start. Fun times. The amount of media attention this game is getting far, far exceeds what anyone at Northwestern could have hoped for. And not just nationally. The Chicago media is eating this up big time. I didn't expect anything close to this kind of coverage in Chicago. Plus, NU said that they're making a little more money from this than the typical NU/Illinois game in Evanston due to ticket prices and the Allstate sponsorship.

Ricky Stanzi hates hippies:

Per Teddy Greenstein, the deal is for about $140 million. That's a lot more than what some had expected the Big Ten to get out of it ($23m vs. $13-15m)

Unless Gus Johnson's CBS football contract prohibits him from working any other football games, professional or not, I'd hope that the Big Ten will push hard to get him.

Fox will broadcast the Big Ten championship game from 2011 through 2016. Not sure of ESPN's other championship game commitments, but Fox does own 49% of the Big Ten Network.

Primarily, yeah. Lots head back to the coasts. It's more likely that a midwest student will stay in Chicago, but not those outside the midwest.

Then there's no way he's smart enough to get into Northwestern under legit circumstances. I agree with it being a smart campaign that makes perfect sense. It may not be true, but it's a "title" they can make a claim on. You'd be surprised by the number of people who have never heard of Northwestern or at least have no idea where it's located both within the Chicago area and across the country. It's not as bad as Washington University or University of Chicago (minus location), though it's still pretty bad. If you're not from the area and you don't watch any Big Ten sports, there's a pretty decent chance you don't know where Northwestern is located. Also if you are an idiot. I would not be surprised that lots of people don't know what Northwestern is, but the vast majority of those people probably don't know where London is either. Regardless, it's a legitimate issue for Northwestern. As for that player, all I can say is that he graduated with a major in learning and organizational change (NU doesn't have a business major, so this is the typical track for those who want to go onto business school) with a minor in business institutions. He is also a 3-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree.