they really deserve their own thread for football. 22 wins in a row in November. Possibly 6 straight MAC West championships. They are competitive with big conference schools and send players to the pros each year.

Despite that, they sit there with 10K fans in the stadium last night.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

it's weird that the town won't show up to support the team.

It's no surprise the student base won't show up. They have proven time and time again that they'd rather sit in the dorms or go home than come watch a football game. Basketball on the other hand, should it get good again will draw. When Molinari was here the place would be packed.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Take out Spanky's head, and they're down to 5k

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I do not abide this head shaming

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

It's not shaming if you're stating fact.

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That 's what they get with the ESPN weeknight MACtion deal. Night games on a work day in November in northern Illinois. What's not appealing about that?
I would have had to take a day off of work to get their last night. Mix in other responsibilities and it just doesn't happen. Too difficult.
It will be easier for me to drive to Detroit in a couple weeks for the MAC Championship game on a Friday night than getting to last night's game. At least the next day is a Saturday.

That being said, the students are to blame. They are on campus, the weather really wasn't terrible, and it's still early enough in the night to go out afterward. No reason 5k of them can't show up.

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Students have shown up until this last game. The West side where it is mostly non-students, local community, and alumni is to blame. That side is almost never is as full as the East side (student side).

When i look back at our 2003-2005 seasons back when we played mostly Saturday games our stadium was mostly full. When the MAC agreed to play a bunch of weekday games attendance started declining and has kept declining.

Also, we have no nearby rivals in the MAC. The closest team to us is Western Michigan (3 hours away). I haven't seen any visiting MAC team bring more than 100 fans to Huskie Stadium. Meanwhile, when Illinois and Northwestern play teams like Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa, etc. you see a bunch of the visiting teams fans. NIU is earning all of its attendance on its own with no help from the visiting teams.

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NIU Football:
2011, 2012, & 2014 MAC Football Champions

I'm glad we finally agree.
Students are to blame for that piss poor showing this week.

Your 3rd paragraph makes your 2nd completely irrelevant. Nothing has changed in that regard.

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There's maybe 3,000 students in the dorms. Then another 4,000-5,000 students off campus. Even if 75% of the students show up, that's only 6,000 students. So you still have 21,000 seats left over for everyone else.

The problem is the local community and alumni, not the students. Were you at the game?

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NIU Football:
2011, 2012, & 2014 MAC Football Champions

Wish I could have been.
Work and family responsibilities make the tues/wed games damn near impossible.

I will be in Detroit. Let me know if you are there. I'll buy the beer.

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Even if you include Sycamore, DeKalb is still a pretty small island of population in a great big ocean of corn. Between an apathetic student body and a small local community, the stadium is much too big for the market, no matter how well the team does.

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There are a shit ton of people east of Dekalb/Sycamore that should their target fanbase. I think they just like their HS football better. If you take all the fans that are at the Geneva, St. Charles East, Kaneland, Batavia, St. Charles North games each week you have filled half your stadium. I lived 15 miles from DeKalb and loved football and went to zero games. I have been to the stadium for HS football though.

I would have thought they were building a pipeline to these HS fans with the success of the immortal PJ, the santacatarina boys from Geneva....Aurora Christian....but it does not seem to have taken.

The MACtion is kind of a damned if you don't situation. You are on national TV, it helps recruiting immensely and you are getting a ton of ESPN money.....however.....no one is going to attend your game because its during the week and ITS ON TV. I talked to a guy who worked at Ohio University about this and he said the money is just so good that you can't not do it.

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

This game is gross.
They lost. Now have to pull for WMU to beat Toledo.........I just threw up in my mouth.

NIU's current QB - the one in the game now - was 6th on the depth chart when the season started.




6TH!!!!!!!

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Perhaps they should be, but they're not ... not enough for people to be arsed to take a nice, easy country drive west on 38 at 65+mph to see a game anyway.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Uhhhggghhh......he's got two receiving gloves on, plus a a baggie sweatshirt, and he's lefty.
He has ZERO desire to actually be in this game right now.
He's too cold or something.

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NIU Band playing Reel Big Fish> NIU's QB situation

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

Well that sucked, but I learned that it is legal to pick the f'n ball up off the tee on an onside kick attempt and then drop kick it.......

WTF was that???

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Terrible. No way you can get a big bounce on a punt like you can by topping the ball off of a tee.

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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

I still think they get into the championship but they will get smoked by BG. Winning the MAC championship game really doesn't matter as the prize is a bowl game in Detroit.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I agree, no one is going to a mid-week game to get home at midnight or later then wake up for work the next day.

No, i won't be in Detroit (even if they back into it now). I live on the East coast. I buy two season tickets every year though just to support the program since i can't make most of the games.

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NIU Football:
2011, 2012, & 2014 MAC Football Champions

Why is Spanky arguing with himself?

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We had 80 total yards of offense in the first half?! YIKES!!!

Poor true freshman QB was in high school not so long ago and now he's thrust into a situation with very little practice snaps when he was buried down the depth chart and never thought he'd be playing.

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NIU Football:
2011, 2012, & 2014 MAC Football Champions

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PJ is still a Huskie!

WMU defeats Toledo to give NIU their sixth straight MAC West title.

Get that 5th string true freshman QB ready! He's got a MAC Championship to bring home.

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NIU Football:
2011, 2012, & 2014 MAC Football Champions

think the huskies get destroyed in this game but at least they were on national tv again

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I agree.
Too many injuries at the QB position.

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I would agree, however, everyone thought Ohio State, Toledo and WMU were going to beat us easily too. That was back when we still had Hare.

Very few teams destroy NIU. When we lose its usually a close loss.

However, if this 5th stringer starts tossing up a bunch of INTs then it could happen. NIU will look to establish the run though because that's what we will need to do to keep BG offense off the field and give ourselves the best shot to win.

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NIU Football:
2011, 2012, & 2014 MAC Football Champions

Nope. NIU rarely gets blown out. Huskies win.

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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

They had a chance with Graham.

BG is going to score. There is no question about that even with a good defensive game. That means NIU is going to have to keep up. They may be able to do that for a half by running but I think it gets ugly in the 4th when they need the 5th stringer to lead a drive.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I'll wait for Rozner to tell me what to think.

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Hawaii (fuck) You