Do they teach a class at NIU called "Hating Northwestern"? You and NIU_Huskie both really seem to love giving it to them.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Well, they certainly brought a pretty decent amount of fans and they were really loud at that game.



The point is that you are trying to pretend that Northwestern is doing it on its own. We all have seen Northwestern average in the low-to-mid 20,000s year after year and what has helped them achieve that is having Ohio State, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, etc. bring a lot of their fans.

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Forward, Together Forward

Go Huskies!!!

I hate Northwestern because i made a true statement about opposing big ten teams bringing a lot of their fans to Evanston?

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Forward, Together Forward

Go Huskies!!!

So lets say Illinois & NIU play each other next week. Who wins? Discuss.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Your first surviving post on this forum was attempting to put down the Northwestern women's lacrosse "dynasty". Half your posts seem to somehow reference them. You seem to have a firm grasp on the makeup of the crowd at Northwestern games. I'll say that you do.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Do they teach a class at Purdue that includes any reading comprehension? I wasn't hating on NW at all, I was making a point that college football is not a priority of sports fans in the Chicago area. All of the schools in the state struggle to draw crowds compared to other parts of the country.

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husk, hope you're getting over your pneumonia.

You're aware Illinois already beat NIU this season, right? We don't have to do novel thought experiments on this one. Illinois has only gotten better since then, seeing as how their QB was making his second ever start against FBS competition.

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Fire Phil Emery

No, they haven't. They've been a middling team in the 2nd worst conference in I-A/FBS. They were probably a bit better than decent in 2003, and they are decent this year.


I agree with all that. Besides, I don't think NIU's scheduling was bad. I was merely responding to NIU_Huskie's complaint that Florida's OOC scheduling is a joke. NIU's is worse. It's not bad, per se, and there's not a lot of control you have over long term deals. As for I-AA games, I don't particularly like it, though almost everyone schedules these things and I don't see them going away any time soon.


18k is just an objectively bad number. It just is. There are excuses, sure, but this is a night game, with no other sports competition, and one of the bigger games of the season and with perfect weather. If they can get close to 30k in Murfreesboro, I'd expect similar in DeKalb.


True, Memorial Stadium doesn't sell out much, unfortunately. It also rarely gets less than 50k. I wouldn't expect that many in DeKalb for a whole host of reasons. But that doesn't make 18k less pathetic.

I honestly don't even get what the point of contention is at this point. Hell, I want NIU to do well from here on out. It makes Illinois look better. I'd love it if they could sell out DeKalb, because I love college football, and I like seeing games played in front of full houses wherever that may be.

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Fire Phil Emery

In fairness to NIU, there's about 74 people at the UAB/ECU game tonight. Yikes.

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Fire Phil Emery

I haven't looked at that ECU game (I'm watching the NFL game) but I meant to post that there were 12,000 at Bowling Green last night.

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I did not see that game last night. Bowling Green is bad, so that doesn't surprise me.

I don't think I've ever seen fewer people at a football game. It's just a CBS Sports game so its not nationally televised, but this is terrible. Birmingham isn't a tiny city either.

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Fire Phil Emery

I saw the last 4:00 of last night's game. It ended on a short FG with no time left in fog so thick you couldn't see the snap from the "traditional" camera angle for FG's (behind the upright).

The kicker ran around celebrating like mad for at least 30 seconds afterward - I never saw one teammate even attempt to celebrate with him. It was actually kinda comical.

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How did that work out for Illinois today?

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

He got you there, IB...

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Looks like NIU will move into the top 25 tomorrow!

Congrats to the Gophers on making it out of the cellar in the little sisters of the big ten!

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Forward, Together Forward

Go Huskies!!!

Go Huskies. What sucks is that losing the Mac would result in a better bowl. Fuck the pizza bowl. No one wants to go to that shit.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

I think it's fantastic that the third best team in Illinois went undefeated in the Mid American Conference. That is a truly impressive feat, one which will be spoken of for ages and ages.

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Fire Phil Emery

I'm also pretty sure that Northern Illinois was exactly the type of team Gee was talking about. 1-2 against middling BCS teams, 8-0 in the MAC. Best of luck against your Sun Belt opponent in Detroit, Huskies fans.

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Fire Phil Emery

How can you call us the third best? Because you're uneducated?

We never even played Northwestern and if we did we'd be favored.

I love it when the haters come out!

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Forward, Together Forward

Go Huskies!!!

I forgot about Northwestern. Was thinking about WIU.

Fourth best.

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Fire Phil Emery

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

War Leathernecks

Only one of the the three football teams in the state will be ranked in the top 25 starting tomorrow, but you're right IB, they're the worst of the three.

Let's just throw this out there also - given their propensity to completely disappear for entire games at a time, there is now way that Illinois goes 8-0 in the MAC this year.



*The only thing I would disagree with NIU_Huskie about is that NIU probably would not be favored against NU in Evanston if they met right now.

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We also know that if Illinois played in the MAC that there is no way that NIU would go 8-0 in the MAC either.

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My Maserati does 186.

Good point. Although we could always hope that the Illinois juggernaut played in the other division and we could miss them.

Let me ask this - who would Minnesota beat if all three played in the MAC?

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It is too bad the NIU basketball team sucks otherwise we could continue this fun throughout the winter.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Doesn't stop the NIU football guys.

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My Maserati does 186.

So...NIU wouldn't be favored against Northwestern without Northwestern's best player, and NIU lost to Illinois, but the thought that NIU is the third best team in Illinois is eye-rollingly laughable?

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Fire Phil Emery