Goal: To attend a game at every FBS (Division-1) college football stadium. STADIUM COUNT: 86/130
Often regarded as one of the Big Ten’s wildest and most thrilling venues, Camp Randall Stadium never disappoints. Once a Civil War training site, this massive structure is crammed in a beautiful residential area among dorms, fraternity houses, campus buildings and bars. The Camp is the perfect college venue with views of the state capital and Madison’s surrounding lakes (Mendota and Menona).
Somewhere amid the cornfields of the midwest lies Champaign, Illinois. It’s a great college town with mounds of enthusiasm and passion for their team. On gameday, tailgating takes place in open fields where music blasts, games are played, and footballs are tossed. You might even catch the band performing a quick drumline or “Oskee Wow Wow” before they make their march into Memorial Stadium.
The opener for Nebraska and Illinois has already been billed as a must win for each team. The Illini don’t have many expected wins on their schedule and need to take advantage of every opportunity they have. Nebraska head coach Scott Frost cannot afford to lose any games that the Huskers are expected to win or his seat will continue to boil.
Continue reading “Game 302: Nebraska @ Illinois”
For what will be a blip in the annals of college football history, Wisconsin looked to have Ohio State strangled at halftime. The Badger offense looked undaunted by the two time defending Big Ten champ, and leaped to a 21-7 halftime advantage. But, like many of their previous contests, Wisconsin looked competitive, but not quite enough.
Continue reading “Game 301: #2 Ohio State vs. #8 Wisconsin”
Due to basketball’s domination in the state of Indiana and a shortage of winning seasons in the past decade, the Hoosier football program is starving for attention in the Big Ten. However, they have all the ingredients in Bloomington to be successful. John Mellencamp, an IU alum, donated a beautiful practice facility and the campus itself is very attractive. Memorial Stadium is hard to miss on campus. It’s old-fashioned press box and extremely high facades seem to go right up into the sky. Recently, Memorial Stadium has undergone a facelift with world class weight lifting facilities and added seats that closed both ends of the stadium. All these pieces make Memorial Stadium primed to be a cauldron of excitement.
The Hoosiers have been winning the games they should win. In the competitive Big Ten East, it’s forgivable to lose to Ohio State, Penn State, and even Michigan State during their struggle saturated season. Indiana won all their non conference games, beat the lower echelon conference teams, and consequently have secured a bowl bid. With all this, though, wouldn’t it be nice to topple conference heavyweight, Michigan?
Spotlight on Bloomington for Indiana’s opportunity.
“There will be a team that will come from nowhere and will have an outstanding year. We plan on that being us.” These were the words of Coach Lovie Smith at Big Ten Media Days this past July. Now, sitting at 2-4 including an ugly home loss to Eastern Michigan, one might wonder when that “outstanding year” will start.
Continue reading “Game 292: #16 Michigan @ Illinois”
Fondly called “The Shoe,” Ohio Stadium ranks as one of the most colossal and intense sporting venues in the country. It’s dumbfounding just gazing at the vast amount of red and hearing the cranked up decibel levels of “O-H-I-O” exclaimed in unison.
A tremendous defensive play resulting in a safety followed by an impressive field goal ending drive gave Miami (Ohio) a 5-0 lead over Ohio State early in the first quarter.
“We’re winning!” exclaimed a dumbfounded Redhawk fan.
Someone nearby echoed, “you better take a picture of the scoreboard now!”
That turned out to be good advice.
Ohio State won 76-5.
That early safety was one of two times that the Buckeye offense was truly stopped.
The other was the lightning storm that swept over Ohio Stadium, thus ending the game with just under three minutes to go.
Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois is known as the “Wrigley Field” of college football. It doesn’t quite have the history of the Cubs, but boasts a very classic and old school stadium atmosphere. For a while now, NU has been calling themselves Chicago’s Big Ten Team. Attempts to market this slogan are popping up around the city, and the evidence is beginning to show with more rumps in the seats in Evanston. Perhaps because Chicagoans are slowly realizing that Northwestern is no longer The Big Ten’s little brother.