Three Yards and a Cloud of Rubber

What the 2011 Schedule Should Look like.

2010-06-18T12:02:00.005-05:00

In my not-really-read-by-anyone rant before this, I argued for non-geographic divisions, arguing that the Big Ten must emphasis group cohesiveness, and at the same time reinforce rivalries.

now that we will almost assuredly have 12 schools for 2011, the Big Ten will need to, in the next month or two, redo the league schedule.

What follows is how I think they should do it. The result is an 8 game league schedule that protects almost all key rivalries, fits into the existing non-conference slate for each school, and creates two balanced divisions.*

* I know some will argue the "balanced" side when they see the final product, keep in mind I also believe that divisions should be frequently reset

Step 1: Create 2 Divisions

First off, teams are split into 3 Pots. Each pot is a cluster of 4 geographically linked schools.

They are:

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Wisconsin	Illinois	Michigan
Iowa	Indiana	Michigan State
Nebraska	Purdue	Penn State
Minnesota	Northwestern	Ohio State

In order to split the league into two groups of 6, two schools from each pot should be put in each division. So for example if Illinois and Indiana are in one division, then Purdue and Northwestern must be in the other.

The next task is to rank all of the schools from 1-12. The format I used below I multiplied the number of wins for each of the last 5 seasons by a "weight factor" for each season. The weights add up to 100, with 30% of the score being the 2009 record, 25% being 2008, and so on down to 10% for 2005.

The results are below (go Illinois!)

	Weight:	30	25	20	15	10
Ranked 1-12		2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	TOTAL
1	Ohio State	11	10	11	12	10	1080
2	Penn State	11	11	9	9	11	1030
3	Wisconsin	10	7	9	12	10	935
4	Nebraska	10	9	5	9	8	840
5	Iowa	11	9	6	6	7	835
6	Northwestern	8	9	6	4	7	715
7	Michigan State	6	9	7	4	5	655
8	Michigan	5	3	9	11	7	640
9	Purdue	5	4	8	8	5	580
10	Minnesota	6	7	1	6	7	535
11	Indiana	4	3	7	5	4	450
12	Illinois	3	5	9	2	2	445

The basic rules I used are as follows:

- The top school is in group A
- The next best school is in group B
- Alternate into group A and group B until 2 teams from one pot are in a group, then the remaining schools go into the group.
- After that, rearrange schools, keeping 2 from each pot in each division, to try and create divisions with equal "scores" (from the total column above)
- Where possible, split primary rivals (Michigan/Ohio State, for example) into opposite divisions, to allow for a championship game between them.

Long store short, here's the final result:

	Division A	4,370
1	Ohio State	1,080
2	Wisconsin	935
3	Northwestern	715
4	Michigan State	655
5	Minnesota	535
6	Indiana	450

	Division B	4,370
1	Penn State	1,030
2	Nebraska	840
3	Iowa	835
4	Michigan	640
5	Purdue	580
6	Illinois	445

For practical purposes, the division is perfectly balanced (I agree, seeing Northwestern over Michigan in seeding is a bit to swallow, but its also been the fact the last few seasons). I will again reiterate, my plan calls for divisions to be reseeded every two years. Division names could be geographic (Great Lakes and Plains) or honorary (Zuppke and Yost, rotating every year to other legends of Big Ten football)

Step 2: Competition Format
Now, I know what what you are thinking, you've been thinking it since I first split up Ohio State and Michigan State in an opposite league from Michigan... "How the hell can you put TWO of Michigan's rivals in another division?"

well, here's the answer:

Remember the Pots of 4 teams? Those are your geographic rivals. In addition to 5 division games (which would include 1 geographic rival), you play 2 games against the remaining two geographic foes. That makes 7 games. (I would propose a traveling trophy to the winner of each geographic subdivision, to further reinforce rivalries and add a layer of complexity to the league, and have a permanent system of regional rivalry). The remaining game is a free-for all. 3 schools of each division would have 2 division home games, 3 schools would have 3 division home games, the schools with only 2 division home games would host one of the remaining 3 other schools in match ups made by the committee. These match ups should be made to balance strength of schedule, create TV matchups, or reinforce regional rivalries. They should also be used to balance out schools that have not played for a while.

Again, you are wondering: "Ok, that's great, you play 3 schools from your region each year, and 4 other division schools, so there are 4 random schools you can only play 1 of each 2 year cycle?"

I will say again, this is why divisions are fluid. Regional competition can be reinforced via my 3 traveling trophy proposal. Divisions are meant to spread out games, allow rivals to meet in the finals, and ensure geographic distribution of games each week. You play 3 schools EVERY year, and you play 5 of the remaining 8 schools every 2 years. In rare cases to make divisions even schools might go 4 years without playing, but that should only be for geographically far-flung opponents, and avoided at all costs (if we go to 16 schools, it will be more often, which is the nature of the beast).

So... scheduling

Step 3: Idealized Schedule.
There are 8 rounds of play, and 13 weeks in the season (schools play 12 games) between Labor Day Weekend and Thanksgiving Weekend. Because you don't want to have a "dead" week midseason, and you don't want have week 2 or 3 Bye's, the league schedule should be spread out. Spreading out as far as 10 weeks (from week 4-13) allows for league games to be split fewer ways each week, allow for focusing of advertising dollars and less use of overflow channels. Schools also currently have non-conference games for 2011 scheduled as late as week 13 (Northwestern hosting Rice on thanksgiving weekend).... so matchups will have to be pushed around.

What follows is an "idealized" schedule for the league. It is comprised of 8 weeks of play (the
actual league schedule will be spread across at least 9, and preferably 10-11 weeks of play.

The following basic tenants were followed:

Schools from each division are paired by their key rival (Illinois/Northwestern, Indiana/Purdue, etc. When one school has a home game, the other has an away game. This is to reduce having competing games in any region (for example, fans in Illinois will have 1 home game to go to, and ideally teams won't play opposite one another).

The schedule follows the following format:

Week 1	Out of Conference Opponent (random)
Week 2	Division Game #1
Week 3	Division Game #2
Week 4	Division Game #3
Week 5	Secondary non-division Rival
Week 6	Division Game #4
Week 7	RIVALRY WEEK (primary non-division rival)
Week 8	Division Game #5

Week	Away	Home
1	Ohio State	Nebraska
1	Wisconsin	Illinois
1	Northwestern	Penn State
1	Purdue	Michigan State
1	Michigan	Minnesota
1	Iowa	Indiana
2	Ohio State	Wisconsin
2	Indiana	Michigan State
2	Minnesota	Northwestern
2	Michigan	Iowa
2	Illinois	Penn State
2	Nebraska	Purdue
3	Wisconsin	Northwestern
3	Michigan State	Minnesota
3	Indiana	Ohio State
3	Iowa	Purdue
3	Penn State	Nebraska
3	Illinois	Michigan
4	Michigan State	Ohio State
4	Minnesota	Wisconsin
4	Indiana	Northwestern
4	Michigan	Nebraska
4	Iowa	Illinois
4	Purdue	Penn State
5	Illinois	Indiana
5	Purdue	Northwestern
5	Penn State	Ohio State
5	Michigan	Michigan State
5	Iowa	Wisconsin
5	Nebraska	Minnesota
6	Northwestern	Ohio State
6	Minnesota	Indiana
6	Michigan State	Wisconsin
6	Purdue	Michigan
6	Nebraska	Illinois
6	Penn State	Iowa
7	Northwestern	Illinois
7	Indiana	Purdue
7	Ohio State	Michigan
7	Michigan State	Penn State
7	Minnesota	Iowa
7	Wisconsin	Nebraska
8	Ohio State	Minnesota
8	Wisconsin	Indiana
8	Northwestern	Michigan State
8	Penn State	Michigan
8	Nebraska	Iowa
8	Illinois	Purdue

Step 4: Fitting it into the Calender
Below is my proposed 2011 league calender. All out-of-conference games are preserved. the light green cells (two TBA's and Eastern Michigan for Penn State) reflect games that are not scheduled

League play is mostly concentrated in weeks 5-13, although a couple games are played in weeks 3-4. The "idealized" schedule was broken up quite a bit to create bye's midseason and fit around non-conference games that are already scheduled. For example, Illinois and Northwestern both have home league games on one day.

Unless I made a mistake (which i spent a freaking hour tweaking this) no school plays 3 games home or away in a row, although a couple schools do have a travel heavy stretch (which happens). Probably the biggest violation is that I moved Minnesota/Iowa and Indiana/Purdue to earlier in the season to make things fit. This is regrettable, although when schools have a better idea of what they are dealing with, "rivalry week' can be better protected( and in Iowa's case, they do finish against their new rivals Nebraska at home).

Click Here or on image to enlarge

Thoughts?

What a 16 Team Big Ten Might Look Like: Football

2010-06-08T15:51:00.005-05:00

Football

Football is the engine that drives the league. A 16 team football league isn’t unprecedented, the Western Athletic Conference was 16 teams until the Mountain West schools broke away in 1999 (With TCU joining in 2001).

Sixteen schools, put bluntly, is tricky. The obvious solution is to have two 8 team divisions. I’ll get into alignment in a minute, but let’s think about this for a second.

Two 8 team divisions...

FBS schools have a 12 game season. Divisional play would take up 7 games. If the Big Ten follows what what practically every other league in the nation does (Except Pac 10 and what used to be the Big East), it would play 8 game conference slate. This means that if you have permanent geographical division (East/West or North/South) , then you play schools in the other division once every 8 years. This means that if you are Illinois and in the Big 16 West… that Ohio State comes to town to play for that turtle once every 16 years. Now, there are two solutions. One is to tinker with the number of games, maybe play a 9 or 10 game conference schedule.
More games?

Want to play more Big Ten teams more often? How about we play more league games? Big Ten gets more conference games to broadcast, and the conference season is more intriguing. So what about playing 10 conference games? Under this scenario, schools play opponents from the other division 6 out of 16 years, or a little more than once every 3 years, on average.

The downside? Well.

Last year the league went 32-12 in outside of Big Ten play (not including bowls), or won 72% of non-conference matchups.

So?

Well, as has been the case in every single season of big ten play ever, league schools have won 50% of games against themselves. 50% is less than 72%. Simply put, playing more Big Ten games means Big Ten schools LOSE MORE GAMES. These loses won’t be evenly distributed, but you start converting wins to loses, and it means a lower percentage of Big Ten/16/whatever schools will get 6 wins in a given year, or maybe that 10 win school gets knocked down to 9 wins… it has an effect. This is especially problematic when presumably all of our rivals will still play 8.

Let’s do a bit more math with this. If in a 16 team league, there are 8 league games each year, then there will be 64 non-league games. Using last year as a measuring stick, you would expect the Big 16 to go 46-18 in those games. This is just under 3 wins average per school, meaning that 3-5 teams should go to bowl games, and the “average” big ten school should finish 7-5.

If you have 9 Big Ten games, then you have 48 non-league games annually. The league would be expected to win 34 or 35 of them, just over 2 per team. With 9 league games the “average” school would be 4.5-4.5 in the conference (with schools with 5 home games having a slight edge), and with the “average” Big Ten school getting 2 non-conference wins, the “average” Big Ten school should finish with just over 6.5 wins and just under 5.5 loses… meaning fewer bowl eligible teams.

If you have 10 league games, then you have just 32 non-conference games. The Big Ten should win 23 of those, or just under 1.5 wins per school. Using the same numbers, in a ten game schedule, the average big ten school would finish with just under 6.5 wins, meaning closer to half of the league would be bowl eligible, and schools would have to go 4-6 in the league to be able to “back door” into bowl eligibility.

Schools like to play 7 home games. Last year the Big Ten had 77 home games and two neutral site games. That’s exactly 7 home games per school. If you play 10 league games a year, that is 5 home and 5 away games with two games left to schedule. That means that every team in the league either plays FCS or MAC schools each year, and NEVER (or once in a blue moon) plays a road game in the non-conference season, in order to get to 7 home games. Increasing the number of league games means fewer home games for league schools. This means less gate (less season ticket revenue) and fewer games for the league to broadcast.

Basically, going to 10 games is not going to happen. Playing 9 games is semi-feasible, but it has its own issues. An 8 game schedule is the likely future for the Big Ten.

Division Alignment

In order to have a championship game, there needs to be divisions. With 16 teams, this means two groups of 8 teams, with the champion of each group squaring off in a Big Ten Championship Game which is sure to make all the schools even richer.

The methodology, and politics, of choosing good divisions, is complicated. For reasons I’m about to highlight, simple geographic divisions (east/west, north/south) are not doable. The ideal scenario will have constantly shifting divisions, with a school potentially able to win one division one year and the other division the next.

Geographic Divisions

Here is what the alignment would be with Geographic Divisions:

Big 16 with East and West Divisions

Big 16 East
Indiana
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse

Big 16 West
Illinois
Iowa
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
Northwestern
Purdue
Wisconsin

Big 16 with North and South Divisions

Big 16 North
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Northwestern
Rutgers
Syracuse
Wisconsin

Big 16 South
Illinois
Indiana
Missouri
Nebraska
Ohio State
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Purdue

Obviously there are a multitude of problems with the scenarios outlined above.

For starters, no matter how you slice it, Big Rivalry Games will be broken up. Indiana/Purdue or especially Michigan/Ohio State happening once every 8 years can’t happen. Purely geographic divisions CANNOT happen, plain and simple. So what are the alternatives?

“Pod” System
In this system, the Big Ten is broken up into 4 “pods” of four teams each.

Western
Iowa
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska

Central
Illinois
Indiana
Northwestern
Purdue

Northern
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Wisconsin

Eastern
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse

With this system, there would be two non-geographic division, which for the sake of argument we will call the “Great Lakes” and “Heartland” divisions. The pods would be paired interchangeably, with groups of four schools always playing in the same division. Each pod would be matched against another pod, which would rotate every two years, as shown below.

Years	Great Lakes Division	Heartland Division
2013-14	Western and Eastern	Northern and Central
2015-2016	Western and Northern	Eastern and Central
2017-18	Central and Western	Northern and Eastern

This will give schools 7 conference games each year. The eighth game could be used to reinforce rivalries or create TV matchups. It could be used to balance schedules, with traditionally strong teams pairing off and traditionally weaker teams playing each other. It could also be purely random, and used to balance the number of times schools square off over a long period of time.

The advantage of this system is that teams will ALWAYS play the same three opponents within their pod. They will play the other 12 schools at least twice in a six year period. Depending how the 8th game is used, it could make sure that schools play rivals outside their pods more often, or used to ensure an additional game against each big ten opponent once every 8 years.

The disadvantage with this system is that rivals in a pod can never play each other in the Big Ten title game (so no Michigan vs. Ohio State). In theory, the pods could be realigned every 6 years to reflect changing strengths of programs.

Rivals System

In this system, schools are paired up into rivals. The divisions can be aligned a number of ways, but the basic premise is that traditional rivals CANNOT be in the same division. Instead, the 8th game (the non-division game) is played between rivals and all other division games are played amongst

Method A: Historical Strength

The list below ranks the schools in the Big Ten by the average number of wins in the last 10 years.

To create divisions, the highest ranked team (Ohio State) is chosen, and put into Division A. It’s rival (Michigan) is then put into Division B. The highest ranked team remaining is then put into Division B, with its rival put into Division A. This alternating method is repated for all 16 schools:

Group A averaged 6.66 wins and Group B averaged 7.01. To even these numbers out, Rutgers and Syracuse were swapped, creating the divisions below.

In this system, the idea is that the league would use the same divisions four two years, and then re-align them using a system to ensure ideally even strength. The upside is that rivals always play each year, rivals could play in the Big 16 Championship Game, and divisions should be even.

The downside is that in theory two schools could go VERY VERY long stretches of time without playing each other

Method B: Random Pairs

In this method, schools would be paired just like above, and put into opposite divisions. Instead of resorting teams into

Before – four pairs chosen at random to swap

After – new division alignment.

Here, every two years a school would play (regardless of whether they swapped divisions or not):Their Rival

3 games against teams they played the prior year
4 games against schools they had not played for at least two years.

Now, in practice some schools would go 4 or 6 years without playing, but across a long period of time, schools would play each other 50% of the time, even if its 4 years on, 6 off, 2 on, 2 off, 4 on, 2 off, and so on.

Big Ten Championship Game:
The Big Ten Championship game is the crown jewel of the football season.

Locations:
Here’s a list of NFL stadiums located in the Big 16 footprint. (Green indicates “core”, Red indicates “fringe”)

The stadiums listed in green above are, at least in my opinion, ideally suited to host a centralized Championship game. Having a Big Ten title game out in the New York Metro area is a bit of a stretch, but since no other conference would claim it, and there is a new Meadowlands Stadium, it might work out. Not counting the Carrier Dome, there are four domes which could be used.

Indianapolis seems like the most logical site, it is central, new, and of at least decent capacity.

Another random thought is this…. There are three stadiums with at least 100,000 seats in the Big Ten footprint, and 10 of the 16 potential league stadiums have a capacity of over 65,000 (12 with over 60,000 seats). The Big Ten title game could potentially done ON CAMPUS. With the number of luxury suites a Big Ten stadium has, it’s not a real stretch. It’s a bit crazy, but it would be cool to see the game rotate around the league (obviously seating would be split evenly between the teams, regardless who qualifies). It’s not going to happen, but it would be neat.

The Season:
Most years there are 13 weeks between Labor Day weekend (the start of the season) and Thanksgiving, with the Conference Championship games on Week 14. Traditionally, the Big Ten has started league play on Week 4, and wrapped up action in Week 12, with no games on Week 13 or 14 (unless schools schedule non-conference games then). This gives schools 0 bye weekends. Illinois obviously has tinkered with that the last couple season. Every few years (about 2 of every 7 years), the calendar aligns just right for the first weekend to be August 30 or 31st, and there are 15 weeks to the season. This is when the NCAA allowed a 12th game before making 12 permanent a few seasons ago.

This year will be the first season the Big Ten schedule has stretched to Week 13, and will allow each school a bye game. While Illinois and Wisconsin will play in December in 2011 and 2012, when (if) the Mega-Conference arrives, the league in most years will have 13 weeks of play to schedule 12 games for 16 teams.

Adding it up, 16 schools playing 8 conference games each is 64 games (8x8). Another 64 games would be played involving non-conference opponents (16x4). So there will be, in an average year, 128 Big Ten games.
If you assume an average of 7 home games, then the league has 64 conference and 48 non-conference games (that’s 112 games) that it owns each year…. and needs to find a way to squeeze into 13 weekends of overage.

League Play starts Week 3
In order to maximize revenue, conference play should start in week 3. This still gives teams 2 weeks to warm up, but allows for 11 weekends for schools to play 8 league games, allowing for the most profitable of games to be spread out more evenly. This would make for 5.82 league games per week (meaning 10 or 12 schools play conference games weekly).

ESPN and ABC
Right now the Big East and Big 12 have of their “national” games on ESPN or ABC, so it fits well into ESPN’s lineup. With 5 extra teams (and therefore 24 extra games), the Big Ten should pick up at least one game on the major networks each week. Considering we just slaughtered the Big East and castrated the Big 12, it should be expected.

On a typical weekend during league play nowadays, there are 5 conference games and 1 non-conference game. Typically, 3-4 of those league games are on ESPN or ABC, with 2-3 games on the Big Ten Network. Usually there will be split coverage on the BTN at 11AM, with 1-2 games on ESPN and ESPN at the same time. At 2:30 ABC has a Big Ten game, and there is a primetime game on either the BTN or ABC (at least until November)

The first thing the Big Whatever needs to do is drop the stupid objection to November Night games.

In a typical Big 16 weekend there will be 5-6 league games (under my plan), with 2-4 non-conference games. Because there are 8 or 9 games each week, “exclusivity” needs to go. Ideally there will be 4-5 games on the ESPN family of networks each week, and 4 games on the Big Ten Network.

ESPN would have two 11AM games, a 2:30 game on ABC, and a primetime game on ABC or ESPN. There would also be a fifth “floating” game some weeks either at 2:30 or primetime on either ESPN or ABC.

Non-Conference games each week would typically be at 11AM on BTN (3 games, split by geography) with a Prime Time or 2:30 BTN game (either low-mid tier conference game or a non-conference game) each week.

Embrace Thursday… kinda
Playing games on Thursday is pretty controversial, I will admit. Frankly, I can’t say I’m a fan, but I’m also a realist. The league should aim to have “a few” Thursday (or maybe Friday) games each year. Indiana has opened the season Thursday night last season and will this season too. I would operate it this way: The league would not force ANY school to play Thursday games, but it should offer a cash incentive ($100-200,000 maybe?) for schools to move games to Thursday. It gives the league a game it can sell at a premium, and reduces congestion on Saturday, making each of those games more profitable.

If schools want to take the money, great. IF they don’t, no problem.

Opening Weekend Blowout:
Presumably most Big Ten schools will have a home game the first weekend of the year. This creates a big mess for the league. Right now about 9 schools open up the season at home, meaning the league has to sell or produce 9 games on Saturday. Indiana playing on Thursday helps, but 8 in one day, with about 6 on the BTN is still a mess. Adding 5 non-conference games to the mix, presumable 4 of which in a league stadium, makes it even harder. Instead of trying to see if DirecTV can give them 9 overflow Channels, the BTN needs to figure out a way to spread out the games, and market Labor Day weekend as a way for schleps like us to spend as many hours as possible glued to the TV.

Proposed Solution: play games Thursday to Sunday (maybe Monday). The NFL season starts on the following weekend, and they don’t even play preseason games on that Sunday anymore. So why not?

Below is a proposed “opening Weekend” schedule, it takes into account who Big Ten teams are playing this season on the first weekend (except Illinois and Missouri, where future schedules are used)

Thursday
7:30 ET/ 6:30 CT – Towson @ Indiana (BTN)
Friday:
8 ET/ 7 CT – Norfolk State @ Rutgers (BTN)
Saturday:
12 ET / 11 CT – Eastern Illinois @ Iowa (BTN)
12 ET / 11 CT – Western Kentucky @ Nebraska (BTN)
12 ET / 11 CT – Western Michigan @ Michigan State (BTN)
12 ET / 11 CT – Marshall @ Ohio State (ESPN)
3:30 ET / 2:30 CT – Connecticut at Michigan (ABC)
7 ET / 6 CT – Arkansas State @ Illinois (BTN)
7 ET / 6 CT – Middle Tennessee @ Minnesota (BTN)
Sunday
1 ET / 12 CT – Youngstown State @ Penn State (BTN)
4:30 ET / 3:30 CT – Murray State @ Missouri (BTN)

In addition, there would be the following away games:
Purdue – at Notre Dame – Saturday 1PM on NBC
Wisconsin – at UNLV - Saturday 10PM on Versus
Syracuse – at Akron – probably Saturday untelevised or on ESPN U or ESPN+.
Pittsburgh – at Utah – Thursday 7:30PM on Versus
Northwestern – at Vanderbilt – Saturday TBD

My thoughts:
As far as number of games goes, shockingly, only continuing to play 8 games makes sense.
Either the “pods” system or the “random pairs” makes the most sense. The “historical strength” option has its merits, but the fact that it does not guarantee schools play each other doesn’t make it feasible. The ideal alignment system should have schools play rivals slightly more often, and ensure they play all other schools in the Big Ten

What would a 16 team Big Ten Look Like: Intro

2010-06-08T15:48:00.000-05:00

What would a 16 team Big “Ten” Look like?

Remember the last few years, when we all laughed at how large and unstable the Big East was, and asked how a league could survive with such an unwieldy number of schools? Well, if the rumors are right, the Big Ten is going to murder the Big East in the name of achieving the same size.

Six months ago I said wasn’t convinced the Big Ten was serious about expanding. Now it is a question of whether the Big Ten is going to go for the Nuclear Option, become the first all-sports mega conference.

This should be, at a minimum, a little exciting and a little unsettling, to ALL Big Ten fans. The Big Ten prides itself on academic excellence and being close knit. There have been only 3 membership changes since the 1910’s (Chicago leaving , MSU joining, and Penn State joining).
Right now Illinois has a 9.09% share in a very valuable and prestigious group. With the addition of 5 members, Illinois’ stake in the conference drops to 6.25%. Put another way, we are giving 31.25% equity in the league away to schools who are just joining the league, who don’t have a century (or even 15 years) of history to keep them in place. Schools don’t leave the Big Ten, they commit to this league for life, at least that is the image we want to project. The Big Ten is taking a risk. It’s not a terribly big risk, but we, as a league, are wagering our identity, image, and prestige in order to grow a very valuable sports and entertainment property. This is the reality we live in.

The fact of the matter is that the academic reputation of the Big Ten is a convenient tool to market what is a multi-billion dollar sports machine. YES, Missouri and Nebraska are a bit below the median in terms of academic reputation, but they are good schools and bring a lot to the league (especially money, which is what we are after). YES, Syracuse has Nancy Cantor as a chancellor, get over it. YES, Rutgers isn’t exactly an athletic powerhouse, well, we need someone to be competitive against.

Expansion
The point of this little writing exercise is to take a look at what a 16 team conference would look like. For the sake of argument, I’m going to go with the 5 schools that have been getting the most press lately: Missouri, Nebraska, Rutgers, Syracuse and eh…… let’s say Pittsburgh. Notre Dame might be in the mix, especially once they realize what is going to happen to the Big East, but for now I will assume they stay where they are, which is fine, it’s their call, I will not waste my time wishing them into the Big Ten or laughing at their potential misery.

Other schools, like UConn, could be in the mix for one of the 5 spots, but the point of this exercise is to look at the mechanics of a 16 team league, not chose new members, so MU, NU, RU, SU, and Pitt it is.

The Consequences

So the Big Ten adds the 5 schools mentioned above. What happens to Division I? Well, for starters, the Big Ten has just straight up murdered the Big East. As a football conference, it is likely dead. At a minimum they need to get to 8 football schools. With 5 members, they will have to claw after Conference USA schools. Central Florida is a pretty logical addition, as they would be a good rival for USF, and are a large campus. After that, the Big East is pretty screwed. They could jump after Memphis, maybe come crawling back to Temple, or go after a MAC school… but there is no hope of the football league putting much fear into, well, anyone.

The Big Ten, with 16 football schools, will probably campaign to strip the Big East of automatic status and argue that they should be able to get 3 schools into the BCS. As a basketball league, the Big East would still be “ok”, but Syracuse and Pitt are huge losses… and except for possibly Memphis, nothing they could get would give much credence to the league.

What of the Big 12? Well, they would need to find 2 schools fast or the 2013 Football Season won’t have a Big 12 Championship Game…. Something that would make them lose that fat income from the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

Doomsday scenario the schools going different ways… Texas, TAMU, Oklahoma, etc get fought over by the SEC and Big 12, Kansas and K State could either be screwed or wind up in the Pac 10. Iowa State will be lucky to land in the MAC. A less bleak future would have the Big 12 calling up Utah and Brigham Young and having things “fixed” quickly.

*DISCLAIMER: a word on nomenclature, I use “Big Ten” and “Big 16” to describe the future league interchangeably, mostly because I’m scared and confused by all of this, hopefully you can figure out what I’m saying*

2008/09 Big Ten Men's Basketball Season

2008-12-29T08:54:00.002-06:00

Current Big Ten Standings:

Attendance:

2008/09 Schedule:

Illini Basketball Future Depth Chart

2008-12-19T11:24:00.002-06:00

An attempt at a depth chart.

NOTE: No assumptions about future players are made... players are layered by class, and within a class by the order I typed them in... so just because Paul is ahead of Richardson doesn't mean that i think Paul will start over Richardson... we'll have to wait and see

UPDATE

2008-12-18T10:39:00.001-06:00

Ok, so I don't update this thing very often with articles/posts... but that wasn't really the point of this blog when I started it....

The roster information should be up to date though, leave comments if you see anything that needs to be changed.

Big Ten Pick 'em week 10:

2008-10-30T12:24:00.001-05:00

Make your picks here:
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Madison Road Trip: Part III

2008-10-27T10:51:00.002-05:00

time for more aimless wandering. In this section I walk to Camp Randall, and then back through campus.

leaving the Kohl Center, the staple of college campuses, construction.

Finishing touches on one building.

old and new. A tall academic building located behind older single family homes.

Coal Power Plant on Campus

More construction off in the distance

Coming up on Camp Randall.

sign above the arch says "Camp Randall". This is the entrance to the large block which includes the stadium, practice facility, field house, and some academic/support buildings.

plenty of this all over Madison.

looking down the Street.

Close up of the Arch. Camp Randall was a Civil War military encampment.

closeup of one of the statues

closeup of Union Army Statue

plaque with the list of Union Army units organized in Wisconsin during the Civil War.

I think this is an indoor practice facility or the indoor track and field venue, or something like that.

not a particularly attractive building.

North endzone of the stadium. this is the student section end.

One of several stones dedicated to Rose Bowl Teams.

again.

and again.

looking down the tunnel to the field.

One of the entrances. every part of the stadium is named for someone.... part of the fund raising process to pay for the recent renovations.

moving to the west side, which is where the main stands and press box are.

Even the local Native American Tribe is in on the advertising.

This is across the street from the stadium... 2-3 story frat houses located 60' from the front steps of the stadium.

Looking up at the ramps to get to the upper deck.

along with the strap on my camera... you can see that the stadium bows out over the sidewalk.. the ramps are located near the endzones so that they can fit. You can also see that there are additional rows of seats near the endzones, both because there is more room and

our seats were in the secon section from the left near the top...

As well as Madison is laid out, the stadium was clearly not thought out very well. Literally in the middle of a medium-density residential neighborhood... kind of an awkward setting for the 42nd largest stadium in the world (thanks Wikipedia).

One of the entrances... banners of former Bucky greats adorn the side of the stadium

closer look at one of the banners.

more naming opportunities.

as mentioned, the stadium is built up to the point it actually hangs over the sidewalk below.

This is Wisconsin Field House, the former home of Wisconsin basketball, and current home to the volleyball, wrestling, and gymnastics teams. It seats about 10,000

this phallic looking... eh... thing. Is situated on the southwest corner of the block Camp Randall is on.

Closer look reveals it to be a big pile of footballs... or a Payday Bar... hell if I know.

another look at the Field House.

Sign up the day before the game warning people not to be drunk in public.

also telling them why its not a good idea to be drunk in public.

Look back into the stadium.

closer view of the southwest corner of the stadium.

and again from this corner.

ok, back to wandering aimlessly around campus. I managed to figure out the bus map and $1.50 (and waiting for a bus that was 10 minutes late) got me back into the core of campus without having to hoof another mile or so. here is more construction

Nice plaza area off of University Avenue.

again

an academic building.

again, mix of different styles in this picture. Notice the observatories on the top of the building left center.

and as always, the state capital is visible from everywhere.

back on the Bascom Mall.

Bascom Hall

Land of Lincoln?

another pick of the view from the top down to downtown Madison

slightly more blown up view.

and looking down State Street into the state capital.

and again.

this building is a museum of state history.

view from a pedestrian bridge.

looking the otherway, Lake Mendota is in the background.

This plaza seems to be pretty popular.

especially for political protesters, activists, campaigning, or some frat selling pumpkins for some odd reason (probably don't want to know).

I realised after I got home this is the only picture of the main Union that I took. I walked through it through. Nice buiding, interior looks alot like the Illini Union. Its quite a bit smaller, but Madison has a couple other student unions around campus to make up for it. Anyways, the claim to fame in Madison is that they sell beer in the student union. There is a patio in the back that looks over the lake where they have a beer garden and outdoor concerts in the spring/summer.... which is pretty cool.

This is the alumni center, along the lakefront.

Looking over Lake Mendota and Unversity Bay.

you can sorta make out the white buoys for the crew course.

looking down the lake front toward downtown... with various apartments and other structures overlooking the lake.

some dude rowing a boat.

the homecoming parade was at 5. I had a meeting at 5 so I missed it, but the floats were all set up for the parade.

another look down state street.

ok, then I went back to my car and killed about an hour driving around... this is the softball stadium, way out to the west of campus near the hospitals.

again, softball field. UW-Madison doesn't have a baseball team (thank you title IX)... but they have hockey, which is much better than baseball... so its not a big deal.

The medical campus. There is the University Hospital, a Veterans Affairs hospital, and I think a kids hospital all situated back there.

large recreation fields behind the medical campus.

a residential street on the far western edge of campus.

the tennis facility.

the worst damn band in the land practicing before the game.

if you couldn't tell from the last caption, I'm not a fan of Wisconsin's marching band... unfortunately they evidently managed to not haze anyone for the last 2 weeks and they weren't suspended for the game like they were for Ohio State.

looking back at the soccer field and medical campus.

driving back onto campus from the hospitals.

looking over the lake.

again, another view with cranes in the background.

a tall building, looks like a dorm.

sidewalk leading through campus.

shrubbery.

most of the major buildings had these banners on the sides of them... promoting environmental awareness and sustainability.

Bascom Hall, for like the fifth time.

what I like to call the "john wilkes booth" view...
on a more appropriate note, i probably should have tried to get the state capital in frame as well... oh well.

Law building on the right.

and back to where my meeting was....

before going to the gameday pictures... the state capital (right next to our hotel) at night.

some weird window display next to a theater.

and the only other thing that need be said about Friday night...

Daiquiri's!

Madison Road Trip: Part II

2008-10-27T09:57:00.002-05:00

and we begin Part II with the Kohl Center. This is Friday afternoon, and I had a couple hours to kill before meeting another professor and eventually meeting up with friends who were coming to the game. The women's hockey team had a 2PM game against Minnesota.... and while I didn't give a damn about a Wisconsin women's hockey game, tickets were only $5 and gave me a chance to snoop around the building.

The west side of the building. This is the basketball practice facility.

Looking back at the entrance to the Kohl Center.

Fans had to enter at the west entrance which had the ticket offices. The red door to the left of the girl is the entrance to the team store, where you can buy Wisconsin athletics gear.

detail of the south fascade of the basketball practice facility. At least judging by these reliefs I'm guessing its the basketball practice facility.

side entrance to the arena.

looking back towards campus.

again, looking towards what appears to be a dorm building from the Kohl Center.

and finally going inside.

Kinda grainy picture of the lobby. The upper levels were closed off, but the lower level concourse was ringed with murals and display cases featuring the achievements of Badger athletics. The displays were mainly geared towards the 4 teams that play at the Kohl Center (Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Men's Hockey, Women's Hockey). But other sports (especially football) were represented.

a concession stand.

walking around the arena.

staircase up to the second level.

I think this area is behind one of the goals/baskets (you can tell that 2PM friday women's hockey games aren't huge draws)

tables offering a kickass view of some railroad tracks.

one final shot of the concourse....

and heading down the vomitory (technical name for the portals into the seating bowl) into the arena itself.

and into the arena. The facility seats 17,190 for Basketball, and 15,237 for hockey.

The arena is named for Herb Kohl, a US Senator and founder of the Kohl's department stores. He kicked in $25 million for the construction of the arena.

The building opened in 1998, and cost $76.4 million to construct. If you assume 7% inflation for construction costs since then... this building would cost about $150 million to build today.

in addition to Badger hockey and basketball, the Kohl Center is used for concerts, graduation ceremonies, and other events. Prior to it's construction, the basketball team played at the aging Wisconsin Field House (pics of the exterior later), and the hockey team played at the municipal Veterans Memorial Coliseum (now called the Alliant Energy Center) located South of downtown.

Getting on my soap box here... the Kohl Center was built to fulfill the same role that Assembly Hall in Champaign was designed for... to consolidate sports and concerts into a single, modern, multipurpose venue.

The rink at the Kohl Center measures 200' x 97'... making it just 3' narrower than international hockey standards. The National Hockey League plays on 200' x 85' rinks. Most college teams play on the more standard 200' x 85' rinks, but there are several who play at or near the international standard size, including Wisconsin.

Looking up to the upper tiers. All of the lower suites and lower bowl seats are served by one concourse... there is no dedicated area for luxury suite holders. I believe the two upper bowls are served by a single concourse, but I wasn't able to go up there and check.

Two Zamboni's

I'll give Wisconsin some credit. The 3rd tier of the arena completely overlaps the 2nd tier... meaning that the top rows of the arena are closer to the court than they would be in an arena where the seating bowls don't overlap. this would be good, except because it's a hockey venue, the endzone seats are still far away from the basketball court. To wisconsin's credit again though, the upper tier in the endzones is situated so that it provides a decent view of basketball games... at the expense of hockey games. This might be sort-of an issue for Men's hockey, which gets large crowds, but clearly isn't impacting the women's hockey exerience.

Plenty of good seats available for this one.

Center scoreboard and Zomboni's finishing their work.

Notice the difference in the slope between the endzone seats and permanent sideline seats. The endzone seats are on risers, and this seating bank is raised up, allowing for more seats in front, when the smaller basketball court is laid down.

Walking through the concourse... Illini fan's will remember this (puke)

one of the displays around the lower concourse.

hm...

some weird sculpture in the lobby.

again with the weird blown-glass thingy.

Remember how I said that the suites shared a concourse with the plebeian fans... well, here is an entrance to one of the suites. the curtains hide a coat-rack area next to each suite.

some banners.

looking around the arena.

again.

National Anthem before the game.

again.

during the game.

another photo of the game being played. Technically the teams were OK... but hockey without checking sucks.

I only stayed for the first 10 minutes of the game, I had more wandering to do... I think the final score was a 2-2 draw.

On to Part III... more wandering around Madison.

Madison Road Trip: Part I

2008-10-27T09:21:00.002-05:00

Driving Up I-39

Toll Booth just north of Rockford at the Illinois/Wisconsin Border

Passing through the Cheddar Curtain

Passing through a small river valley.

a lake.

almost to Madison.

after a 3 hour drive... finally near Madison

and I'm there....

One thing that becomes apparent as you enter town is that the major roads in the older part of town (before suburban sprawl took over the extremities of town) is that the major avenues all orient towards the state capital.

An intersection at the edge of the campus and downtown area.

Newer looking building near campus.

getting closer to campus, railroad bridge over the avenue.

bike lanes are found throughout the Madison area... in many cases, such as this one, the curb lane is reserved for bikes and right-hand turns.

From the top of the parking deck near campus looking east towards the capital.

from the parking deck looking southeast..

Looking to the south from the top of the parking structure.

The densification of urban centers...
New multipurpose building located across the street from older 2 story commercial structures. This is located in the "State Street" district, which is located between downtown and the campus. This neighborhood is very college-oriented and has a number of bars and shops aimed towards young adults. This part of town is doing well, and this new 13 story building is proof.

looking to the northwest. I think this building on the left is the Main Library. (our library is better!)

Looking east down State Street. The road is a pedestrian-only thoroughfare, and is open only to emergency vehicles, buses, and little other traffic.

the "Red Gym"... this is the oldest gymnasium on campus, and served as the Armory and from what I was told the original home to the basketball team.

looking to the west, the red building is called "Science Hall".

Bascom Hall, which is probably the iconic building on the UW-Madison Campus. It is located at the top of a rather long and steep hill (at least long and steep in the eyes of someone who lived in East Central Illinois for 4 years)

The green space in front of Bascom Hall is called the Bascom Mall. It empties out into State Street, and offers a view straight down to the capital rotunda. The rest of the campus is much more compact and less formal, but this space is very well oriented.

Old Music Building. I was in town early to look into Graduate School options, and the department I would be in is located in a wing of this building.

details on one of the buildings. I think that is the State Seal, which would explain those stupid "Forward. Thinking." commercials Wisconsin has.

I think this is the back end of Science Hall.

switchback in a road leading up a hill. You can see Lake Mendota in the background. More on the lakes later.

public hearing notice in front of one of the buildings.

Looking out over Lake Mendota.

A small natural park is wedged up against the lake at this point in campus.
There are three lakes that are close to downtown Madison: Lake Mendota, Lake Monona, and Lake Wingra. Lake Mendota is the largest lake and is located to the north of downtown and the Campus. The entire UW Campus overlooks Lake Mendota, and part of the lake is called University Bay.

Downtown Madison itself is wedged in between Lake Mendota to the north and Lake Monona to the South. The capital is located at the center of a narrow isthmus... more pics of that later. Lake Wingra is smaller and located SW of downtown and south of campus... I didn't really see it.

Bus service on Campus.

the College of Business.

I think this is called the "Humanities Building"... although i'm not sure, and I'm too lazy to look it up. This is a fine example of 1960's Brutalist Architecture... and a fine example of kinda-interesting but not functionally good architecture being thrown up in the middle of college campuses next to older clasically proportioned buildings.... which happened everywhere.

back to the tall multipurpose building I walked by earlier... with a paratransit bus driving down University Avenue.

closeup of the shops and upper floors.

looking down the street towards downtown Madison.

The end of Part I of my ridiculously long photo tour of Madison.... the front steps to the Kohl Center.

Big Ten Pick 'em Week 8:

2008-10-17T10:46:00.002-05:00

Week 7 Results:

Overall Standings:

Week 8 Picks can be made here:
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Big Ten Pick 'em week 7:

2008-10-10T10:29:00.000-05:00

Big Ten Pick 'em Standings:

2008-10-07T15:25:00.001-05:00

Week 5 Results:

Week 6 Results:

OVERALL Standings:

Week 6 Pick 'Em

2008-10-03T07:16:00.001-05:00

I've been out of town all week, the picks for last week are safe, and will be scored and put up in the new few days.

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Big Ten Pick 'em week 5:

2008-09-25T15:23:00.002-05:00

Standings:

NOTE: Last week's bonus question was "what school playing this weekend would have the fewest yards of total offense. For picking a school that WASN'T PLAYING LAST WEEKEND
JRock'sIllini, phytynlini, MrHershey, jlkraft got a 15 point deduction.

Make your Week 5 Picks here:
Remember, Big Ten games have double points.
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Big Ten Pick 'em week 4:

2008-09-19T10:02:00.001-05:00

Standings:

Make your Week 4 Picks HERE:
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Eastern Illinois @ Illinois Pictures:

2008-09-16T09:25:00.004-05:00

Pictures from the EIU @ Illinois game on September 6, 2008:

tailgating in the Research Park

Marching Illini visiting various tailgate groups in the Research Park

New I-Hotel and Conference Center, which opened last month.

I-Hotel... Houlihan's Restaurant is also located in the complex.

The new look of Memorial Stadium from First and St. Mary's Road

People hawking goods in front of the new Hotel

There must have been a sale on these things at Wal-Mart... they are everywhere this year.

The Assembly Hall

Memorial Stadium ready for the game

View of the new west pavilion.

Loyalty Circle parking has been moved to the NW lot of Assembly Hall (where it belongs)

west side of Memorial Stadium, some of the construction equipment remains...

One of the 5 new "portal" entrances to Memorial Stadium. there is one at each corner of the stadium and 1 at midfield on the west side.

again with the west side.

Looking back at the ticket takers.

once you get through the portals you are "in" the stadium, and can rattle about freely. Note to those who haven't gone to a game yet this year... once kickoff approaches the portals get REALLY backed up... if you want to see the pregame head for the doors about 45 minutes before kickoff.

Irwin Drive is now within the stadium. You still need a ticket to get into the north endzone though.

west steps to Memorial Stadium

Looking up at the colonnade and detailing of the west facade.

Center Section of the west side

The two middle doors are now the Luxury Seating entrance... through these doors there is a small lobby with elevator banks that will take you up to the Colonnades Club and the new press box/suites/77 club area.

Inside the west Great Hall. Banners of All-Americans adorn the columns. Giant posters front the wall on the right with the concession stands, murals have been painted on the outside walls.

lighting was a pain, but I tried to get a few pics of the murals. For better pics I'd suggest looking at the photos on FightingIllini.com

Butkus Mural. Grange and Butkus are all over the stadium

1983 Rose Bowl mural on the left.

Selected Illini head coaches, including White, Tepper, Turner, Zook, Mackovic, Elliot, Zuppke, and others.

again, the banners are all for Illinois All-Americans.

From the north end of the Great Hall looking South. The brick wall directly in front of you is for the elevator lobby.

The North Ramp Tower in the West Great Hall. Notice the ramp on the left leads to the Colonnades (and ONLY the

skylight at the top of the NW Ramp Tower.

at the top of the ramp leading to the west colonnades. Notice how there are parts of the stadium that are "ready" but not finished. Also, this ramp used to lead to the center of the west balcony, but is cut off because of the new press box tower. This means that there is no longer a direct route from the Colonnades to the Balcony.

unpainted drywall.

West Colonnades from North Looking south.

Looking over the west stadium terrace from the west colonnade. Notice the construction staging area is being cleaned up. Abbot Power Plant is in the background.

Looking Southwest. Next season a wall and grand entrance will be constructed, with a grange statue approximately where the tent and gravel walkway are located now.

Again with the colonnade.

The name of one of the students, alumni, or faculty who died in the First World War. The 200 columns bear the names of 182 Illini that died in World War I (the team was renamed from "Illini" to "Fighting Illini" after the war). Memorials to those who died in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and other conflicts can be found in the rooms at the end of each colonnade.

Even though the colannade is a bit of a pain to get to now, one benefit of the renovation is that the elevator stack that used to run right through the middle of it has now been removed.

again, more columns.

Leaving the colonnade on the south side.

ramp down to the lower concourse level.

SW Ramp Tower.

is this door supposed to be open? this is part of the new Mechanical Mezannine level that was built below the Colonnade to provide support for the new structure.

Back in the West Great Hall.

Mural to the 2008 Rose Bowl Team.

Like I said, Grange and Butkus are everywhere.

close up.

Robert Zuppke tribute.

not sure what the point of this is... but go America!

ok, here is the story on this one:
This paintin is of an early Illinois football game (I want to say Illinois vs. Chicago, but I forget who the opponent is supposed to be). It was commissioned in the 1920's painted by a UI professor, and installed in a bank in downtown Champaign in the entrance lobby.

the bank, like many, failed in the late 20's and the Athletic Association bought it from the bank (there was a compaining painting, that appears to be lost, that was placed opposite it in the lobby, but that's another story). The painting was installed in Huff Hall (then known as the Men's Gymnasium) and overlooked Illinois basketball, wrestling, volleyball games for several decades (if you've been to volleyball game in the last several years you'd know it was hanging on the south side of the arena above the balcony).

This year it was taken down, restored, and moved the elevator lobby for the luxury seating at Memorial Stadium, where overzealous dicks in sweatervests prevent you from getting a clear shot of it unless you have paid several hundred dollars for your ticket.

at the top of the ramp leading up to the West Balcony.

Looking back at folks making their way up to the West Balcony.

the new West Balcony Concourse.

and finally, a view of the new playing field, taken from the West Balcony Concourse.

looking back at the student section (its at least an hour before kickoff at this point)

players, wearing the throwback uniforms, warming up.

more players standing around warming up.

the score board. I assume tickets are still available for Carrie Underwood.

notice the curve of the new press box.

people with disabilities no longer have to be stuck in the endzone, which is a big improvement. The TV cameras have been moved from baskets hanging in front of the endzone to the upper concourse level as well.

this large mural is located at the center of the west balcony concourse. (the elevator shafts are located directly behind it)

J Leman, immortalized (or at least remembered for a few years until the paint starts to fade)

Dick Butkus, again.

a little help here?

Dike Eddleman.

plenty of room in the new WB concourse.

TV monitors next to the concession stands, to the best of my knowledge these things aren't working yet, at least they weren't turned on when I walked through, and the ones in the east hall still had plastic over them.

looking back over the playing field.

view of the horseshoe.

players waiting for the game.

looking back to the north over the new North Endzone with Campustown in the background.

again, if you look closely you can see there is still some work to do, even though the stadium is certainly ready for games.

East Stands

looking up at the press box from the south side of the upper concourse.

The SW ramp tower to the right, over looking the east side and the field of play.

one final picture of the upper concourse.

from the ramps looking down at the colonnades and the west terrace.

folks treking up to their seats.

some great views of the surrounding fields are available throughout the stadium.

walking down the ramps.

these windows used to look over the west stands, and are now filled in because of the new tower.

view of the field and stands can be had as you walk down the ramps

Eastern Illinois Panthers warm up before the game.

looking up at the Colonnades Club (below the balcony) the West Balcony, and press box from the lower bowl.

Illinois stretching before the game.

nothing new for fans in the horseshoe... (for the record, the restrooms in the west stands are fantastic).

on the concourse level in the horseshoe looking over the east stands.

again, looking at the new west structure.... which 2 years ago was identicle to the east side, except for the tiny press box at midfield.

people start to file into the rich seats in the colonnades club.

another close up of the west pavilion.

the scoreboard.

the stadium could really use a new videoboard over the north stands.

notice the "Zuppke Field" plaque at the middle of the north endzone. The Zuppke Wall was installed before IMPE was built, and was actually located about where IMPE stands now. It was moved to its old location (about the back of the north endzone structure) in the 1960's to make room for IMPE... and was moved a second time last year to be next to the field and allow for the construction of the North Endzone structure.

West Side

East Side

new section numbers throughout the stadium, here in the

a very blurry, for some reason, picture of the east great hall. If you are straining to see what is new, don't bother... not much is.

the concession stands have been rebuilt, and are larger, which is cool, but the East Great Hall has NONE of the decoration that the West Side has... presumably most of the East side renovations where struck from the project when it got too pricey. Since luxury seating, not us plebes in the regular stands, pay for renovations, I wouldn't hold my breath on seeing it done any time soon.

as mentioned earlier, as of the EIU game the TV's weren't hooked up.

back cover of the game program, with Red Grange.

trumpets lining the ramps in the North East Tower as fans head to their seats.

waiting to play.

this picture is looking from the ramps heading up to the balcony (remember the openings that were blocked in on the west side?)

not much new on this side... still have the old scoreboards up in the rafters because the video board is out of view.

looking over IMPE (I'm not calling it the "Arc", i don't care if its big enough that there is two of every type of weight machine in there)

the changing skyline of Champaign. The 24 Story 309 E. Green Building rises up behind whatever-the-hell Century21/University Inn/Presidential Towers is called these days. To the left of the building formerly known as Presidential Towers (the black octagon) you can see the 14 story Burnham Tower building.

looking down at the east main stands as I walk up to my seat.

students are slowely starting to show up, its about 35-40 minutes before kickoff now.

Illini going through pregame drills.

stadium is starting to fill up.

lookin back at the horsehoe, with Assembly Hall in the background.

The East Balcony Concourse (this is what the west concourse used to look like too... scroll up and notice the difference)

and for the record, absolutely NOTHING has changed about the west concourse. Nada, Zip, Zilch, Squat.

The West Side. In the press box (we need to find a new word for it, because the "press" occupies like 1/9th of that behemouth, but I digress...):
First Level: South and North Sections - Suites, Middle Section - 77 Club (indoor club seating)
Second Level: Suites
Third Level: South Section - Suites, Middle Section - Public Address, broadcasting, coaching boxes, replay official. North Section - Written Press.
Upper Level - Security.

Looking at North stands... notice the arched entrance to the "Activities and Recreation Center" (it's still IMPE to me damnit!)

closeup on the press box. A couple people sit in their plush seats. Notice the broadcast booth at the top middle. The broadcast booth includes a place for the commentators and spotters to work, along with a room to place a backdrop or green screen.

north section.

middle section.

South Section.

17 minutes before kickoff, which means the band is on the field (horray!)

the band. the best thing about Illinois Football from 2003-2007.

American Flags on the posts above the stadium. There used to be 12 flags between the east and west side (enough for 11 Big Ten school flags and a general conference flag).

Form Of: United States of America!

Star and banners.

ILLINI

William Tell before the start of the game:

band waiting for the team to enter.

stadium is getting full, but it will take a while to fill up because of the traffic jam at the entrances.

Intro Video and Team Entrance:

Team huddles up at midfield before the game.

Marching Band plays the national Anthem before the game (they did the anthem after the teams came out today, instead of before)

National Anthem Video:

Kickoff.

the top 10 players at 8 positions (Specialists, Defensive Backs, Linbackers, Defensive Linemen, Receivers, Running Backs, Offensive Linmen, and Quarterbacks) were honored throughout the game.

legendary UI players stand in the endzone during a media timeout.

UI on offense.

More players heading on to the field.

The only person to wear #50 in Memorial Stadium now or ever again, Dick Butkus.

#47, J Leman, also appeared.

5 of the 10 linebackers were able to appear.

Kickoff after Illinois Touchdown.

EIU backed up in their own territory.

Touchdown Illinois!
id

Illinois preparing to kick the extra point after a touchdown, the large Block I flags run across the field.

I think its supposed to say "Zook"... they need more practice.

halftime.

more halftime.

Block I doublefisting some odd-looking beer mugs.

CHUG!! CHUG!! CHUG!!

almost done.

During the Three in One.

Three in One Clip:

Playing "Alma Mater"

student section.

the wave makes it through the stadium.

Video:

after the game, i thought these were cool, these are on one of the buildings in the research park...

Pick 'Em Standings

2008-09-15T15:58:00.000-05:00

Finally:

Big Ten Pick 'em week 3:

2008-09-11T14:17:00.001-05:00

Standings coming soon... I wanted to get the form out there though.

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Illinois-Mizzou Photos

2008-09-04T15:51:00.003-05:00

Pictures from the Arch Rivalry Game:

standing at the train platform in lovely East St. Louis, looking over at the Edward Jones Dome

Just remember, 205 years ago, the land across the river was part of France.

Alumni Association Tailgate

this is probably 3:30-4:00PM

Federal Reserve Building a block or two from the stadium

I do'nt know either...

crowd picking up later in the afternoon

people tailgating up in the parking deck

by about 5-5:30 the Alumni tailgate was packed

Inside the Stadium (not bad for Tomah- I mean Captain's Club)

no clue how I got these seats.

Vontae Davis

more flying women

pregame stretches

The Marching Illini enter the building

Missouri leaves for the locker room

Marching Illini coming back into the stands while Missouri's band plays before the game

captains come back out for the coin flip.

Captains (L-R): Ryan McDonald, Isiah Williams, David Lindquist, Brit Miller

Missouri enters the stadium

view of the TV booth

Marching Illini after halftime

Drumline

blurry pic looking back into Missouri as we walk over Eads Bridge

View of Illinois

Halfway across the bridge... finally back in God's Country.

A Little Bit of Everything:

2008-09-04T09:01:00.003-05:00

Week 1 In College Football by the numbers:

Games Played	116
Average Game Length	03:04.3
Average Number of Plays	133.32
Plays Per Minute	0.72
Points Scored	5,948
Points per Game	51.28
Avg. Points for Road Team	16.91
Avg. Points for Home Team	34.37
Total Yards Rushing	33,439
Per Team/Game	144.13
Total Yards Passing	46,621
Per Team/Game	200.95
Total Yards Passing	80,060
Per Team/Game	345.09
Total Attendance	4,008,405
Average Per Game	34,555.22

The game length numbers will become alot more significant later in the year since the first week is known as cupcake feast-week.
This site has some relavant data for number of plays from scrimmage and game length for the last couple years... because Week 1 is such an outlier, its touch to make any real conclusions.

The 5 longest games last week:

1. Adams State - Montana State - 4:13 - 123 plays from scrimmage and rain delay.
2. Chattanooga - Oklahoma - 4:09 - 137 plays from scrimmage and a rain delay
3. Eastern Washington - Texas Tech - 3:40 168 plays from scrimmage
4. Illinois - Missouri - 3:39 - 159 plays from scrimmage
4. Tennessee - UCLA - 3:39 - 150 plays from scrimmage, 1 overtime
4. Stanford - Oregon - 3:39 - 147 plays from scrimmage

Only 2 games had more plays from scrimmage than the Illinois-Missouri game

and the 94 points put on the board was more than any other game in Division I last weekend (11 more than the 83 put up when Rice pounded SMU

...so we got our money's worth.

Week 1 Unit Ratings:
Quarterback - A - Very good outing from Juice, threw for the 3rd most yards in school history (451) and put up a 181.87 QB Rating, which is fantastic (see more below for more on QB ratings, Juice threw more passes than the 2 Big Ten QB's who put up a higher rating). We need more of the same in October and November
Halfback - C - It seemed like most of the game they were frenetically trying to throw themselves at rushing Missouri linebackers than running. Dufrene broke a couple in the 2nd half to salvage a respectable 75 yard outing, but consistency is a major issue.
Offensive Line - D - Yikes.
Receivers - A - Where the hell did Will Judson come from? Even though we were down by multiple possessions, I spent halftime gushing over that grab in the endzone. When is the last time an Illinois QB and receiver completed a pass like that? 2001 maybe? The entire corp was as-advertised, and that was refreshing... with Juice FINDING them, I think we have something to be excited about.

Defensive Line - C+/B- - I think this unit received some unnecessary criticism... getting to Daniel was going to be a challenge no matter what, there were several times I watched our D-Line get a good rush, get around their defender, only to have the ball already been thrown downfield.
Linebackers - C - Weak tackling gave up too many extra yards in a game where we couldn't afford to lazily give up an inch... play recognition wasn't very good, and we got burnt on too many draws.
Secondary - C- - again, made a few plays against a very tough team to defend, but overall not very impressive. I think we will do better as the season progresses, and face different offenses, but not much to be thrilled about Saturday.

Placekicking - incomplete - frustrating watching the first XP of the season go into the back of the line... other than that, nothing else to mention, no FG attempts last week.
Punting - B+ - Good day from Santella, couple booming punts.
Coverage - Fail - Jeremy Maclin, 'nuff said. We got guys downfield to pressure the return, but composure broke down after the first level.
Returns - Pass - decent, nothing spectacular, no screwups.

QB Ratings (for Quarterbacks who have thrown more than 5 passes)

Team	Player	Rating
Ohio State	Todd Boeckman	191.09
Penn State	Daryll Clark	189.74
Illinois	Juice Williams	181.87
Minnesota	Adam Weber	173.06
Penn State	Pat Devlin	149.65
Wisconsin	Allan Evridge	146.00
Northwestern	C.J. Bacher	139.89
Iowa	Jake Christensen	136.99
Indiana	Kellen Lewis	124.80
Iowa	Ricky Stanzi	118.29
Ohio State	Terrelle Pryor	115.67
Michigan	Nick Sheridan	108.06
Michigan State	Brian Hoyer	100.55
Michigan	Steven Threet	89.98
Ohio State	Joe Bauserman	80.80

How the Illini Stack Up: (Against all 204 Division I schools that have played)
Rushing Yards - 81 - 147th in the nation
Rushing Defense - 226 - 166th in the nation
Passing Yards - 451 - 5th in the nation
Pass Defense - 323 - 185th
Total Offense - 532 - 18th in the nation
Total Defense - 549 - 191st in the nation
Yards Per Offensive Play - 6.909 - 32nd
Yards Per Defensive Play - 6.695 - 170th
Points Scored per 10 Offensive Plays - 5.455 - 60th
Points Conceded per 10 Defensive Plays - 6.341 - 165th
Points for - 42 - tied for 38th in the nation
Points against - 52 - only 7 teams gave up more points.
Plays on offense - 77 - tied for 35th
Plays on defense - 82 - tied for 187th

After 1 week there are 21 teams
that are average more than a TD per 10 offensive plays:

Rnk	School	Pts.	Plays	Per 10 Plays
1	Florida	56	55	10.182
2	Penn State	66	69	9.565
3	Sam Houston State	58	63	9.206
4	Montana State	59	65	9.077
5	The Citadel	54	61	8.852
6	Arizona	70	80	8.750
7	Liberty	49	57	8.596
8	Ball State	48	57	8.421
9	South Dakota	52	64	8.125
10	Stephen F. Austin	56	69	8.116
11	Miami (FL)	52	65	8.000
12	Weber State	62	78	7.949
13	South Florida	56	71	7.887
14	Stony Brook	42	55	7.636
15	Georgia	45	59	7.627
16	Boise State	49	66	7.424
17	West Virginia	48	66	7.273
18	Iowa State	44	61	7.213
19	Tulsa	45	63	7.143
20	Sacramento State	45	64	7.031
21	Nebraska	47	67	7.015

Big Ten Power Rankings:

Ohio State - very impressive win... limited YSU to just 39 snaps of the ball and the Penguins went BACKWARDS 11 yards on the ground.
Penn State - another dominating win... they blew the doors off of Coastal Carolina
Iowa - Gotta give credit where credit is due, they took care of business and beat the tar out of a team they should of.
Wisconsin - not an overwhelming effort, but they ran for 400+ yards, so maybe the 75 yards passing won't matter (Illinois certainly survived without it last year)
Illinois - very good offensive performance, but still lost, so hard to put us in the top 4... i think we are a pretty good team though.
Indiana - Beat an almost-Division I team by 18...
Northwestern - Started out ugly, but finished strong
Michigan State - Good game from Hoyer, close game with a decent cal team on the road...
Purdue - by not playing they did much better than Minnesota or Michigan
Minnesota - needed a minor miracle with 22 second left to prevent losing the NIU Huskies... they could be walking into a buzzsaw @ Bowling Green this week. I didn't see anything that says Minnesota is anything but "suck" this year, despite a good game from Weber.
Michigan - watching the rest of the game is my "to-do" item when I get home today, but what I saw wasn't pretty. They aren't the worst team in the Big Ten, but they are the most pathetic given their talent.

Big Ten Pick 'em week 2:

2008-09-03T14:49:00.003-05:00

For people who need a review of the rules, go here:

Here are the current standings

CURRENT STANDINGS:

Use this form to submit your picks for week 2:
(please be careful about submitting twice, that happened alot last week when people got a little trigger-happy on clicking "submit")
Loading...

Good luck!

Week 1 Big Ten TV Listings:

2008-08-27T19:23:00.002-05:00

(Click on the picture to go to the Gamefinder on the Big Ten website)

11:00 AM Games		DirecTV	Dish
Akron @ Wisconsin	Big Ten Network	623	440
Coastal Carolina @ Penn State	Big Ten Network	617	443
Youngstown State @ Ohio State	Big Ten Network	610	439
Syracuse @ Northwestern	ESPN2	209
Western Kentucky @ Indiana	Big Ten Network	611	442
Maine @ Iowa	Big Ten Network	617	441

2:30 PM Game
Utah @ Michigan	ABC on ESPN		Check local Listings

Evening Games
Northern Illinois @ Minnesota	Big Ten Network	610	439
Michigan State @ California	ABC on ESPN		Check Local Listings
Illinois @ Missouri	ESPN	206

For Fellow Excel Nerds:

2008-08-27T15:06:00.003-05:00

view the full sheet here.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p99xqYtyCwsvZHcdENoblNw

Comprehensive Division I football schedule, with game times where avaialable. Games involving only FCS schools are in light blue, games where a FBS school is involved are white. All games have the location and capacity of the stadium listed (except for a couple obscure FCS games)

Column Headings:
Game # (order I typed them in)
GW = Game Week (I consider game weeks to start at midnight on Tuesday and last until the following Monday Night)
Date = Date of game: Peach-ish with black text means the game is tomorrow, orange with white text means the game is today, black with white text means the game has already happened, and blue with white text means the game is in the future.
Day = Day of the week... Mon, Tue, Wed, etc...
Time = Kickoff time, where available, All times Central (unless I screwed it up)
Away Team = away team, this might not be entirely accurate for neutral site games
Score = away team score*
Home Team = home team, again, don't read too much into this for neutral games
Score = home team score*
N? = A "Y" will be present if this game is neutral-venue.
Location = the Stadium the game will be played in (list of stadiums can be found in the team data section)
Capacity = capacity of the stadium the game will be played in
Att. = Game attendance, as lifted from posted box scores.*

*NOTE ON SCORES/ATTENDANCE: This will be updated periodically, but not necessarily often

Also, a table with list of basic data for all Division I football schools. (School, Nickname, City, State, Stadium information, school information)

Column Headings:
# = Index Number
School = School Name
Games = Number of games scheduled
Nickname = School athletics nickname
City = City where school is located
State = State where school is located
Conference = Conference
2007 Att. = Average home game attendance for the 2007 Season
Stadium = Name of primary home stadium
Surface = Artificial or Grass
Type = Outdoor, Dome, Retractable Roof
Capacity = Stadium Capacity
Built = year stadium was built
Enroll = University Enrollment (undergraduate and graduate)
Type = Public or Private School
Founded = Year school was founded
Stadium Notes = notes on stadium construction/renovation/replacement
Growth/Year = Enrollment divided by age of school
Subdivision = Football Bowl Subdivision or Football Championship Subdivision

NOTE: BCS Conference schools are Dark Green, Mid-Majors are Light Green, Independents are Gray, and FCS schools are Orange.

this concludes "how I spent my summer vacation".

Awesome

2008-08-27T08:48:00.002-05:00

The Big Ten with a very cool advertisement scheme this year...

Long PSA:
(where the hell did they find a beach?)

Illinois Version

watch them all here:

Even more roster updates: Week 1:

2008-08-26T14:47:00.003-05:00

mostly lifted from here

Greg McClendon has left the team (he would have been a Senior this year)
Tad Keely is going on Scholarship. Derek Dimke and/or Anthony Santella might.

Roster Updates: Week 1.

2008-08-26T09:32:00.002-05:00

Mark Jackson and Brian Gamble are both gone... 2 more scholarships for 2009 I guess. Also, Evan Frierson isn't on the roster, so he has been removed, hopefully he comes back next season.

The depth chart has been updated to reflect the one on FightingIllini.com (page 7 of that link).

I need to figure out some method to show week to week injuries, for now I'll just keep an "ideal" depth chart here... so guys like Cumberland are still up top, even though they might be out a couple weeks.

Couple Redshirting Notes:

Jeff Allen and Corey Lewis are in the 2-deep on the offensive line, its assumed htey will not RS. No word on Graham Pocic. Its a bit odd to see that... but I guess since we have lost some depth (Jackson and Jordan, in particular), we need it.

Other Freshman in the Depth Chart (and therefore presumably not redshirting:
- Fred Sykes
- Cordale Scott
- AJ Jenkins
- Walkon FB Zach Becker
- Jason Ford and Mikel LeShoure
- Hubie Graham
- Tavon Wilson
- Russel Ellington
- Corey Liuget

I'm going go through the participation report in the box scores each week and cross of players who have redshirted.

Updated depth charts can be found here

Scholarship grid here

Projected Starting lineup for this year here

Depth Charts: Defensive Line

2008-08-25T14:53:00.000-05:00

Depth Charts: Defensive Backs

2008-08-25T14:51:00.002-05:00

2008 Big Ten Football Season - Standings

2008-08-20T09:45:00.000-05:00

Big Ten Pick 'em week 1:

2008-08-19T15:48:00.000-05:00

Week 1 of the 2008 Big Ten Pick 'em is upon us... the form you need to fill out is at the bottom of the page...

CURRENT STANDINGS:

PLEASE NOTE:
Enter a username for yourself (strongly prefer you keep it similar to what you use on whatever message board you post on, so people can identify you) and a PIN number, the PIN number can be any text string you want, but when it comes time for me to add together scores across weeks, I will make sure the PIN Number matches, this is to prevent someone from hijacking your picks. If you are off by a character or two, I will probably find it and correct it for you.

Illinois vs. Missouri
Akron @ Wisconsin
Coastal Carolina @ Penn State
Maine @ Iowa
Syracuse @ Northwestern
Western Kentucky @ Indiana
Youngstown State @ Ohio State
Utah @ Michigan
Northern Illinois @ Minnesota
Michigan State @ California
BONUS #1: Alabama vs. Clemson
BONUS #2: Oklahoma State (abbreviated "MAN", here's why) vs. Washington State
Bonus Question: Who will have the higher QB Rating in the 2008 Arch Rivalry Game between Illinois and Missouri, Chase Daniel or Juice Williams (click here for the college QB rating formula)

Loading...

The Triumphant Return of the Big Ten Pick 'em Game: Week 1

2008-08-19T15:45:00.000-05:00

For those who have been posting on the IB for a while, you might remember I tried to do this a few seasons ago. Basic premise, you try and guess the final margin of victory for a game, and you get points based on how close you are. Whoever has the most points at the end of the year wins..... nothing, but hopefully it will be fun along the way.

Here's how the scoring will work: Each game is worth 25 points.

- 10 points for correctly picking the winning team
- up to 10 points for correctly picking the margin of victory.
- 5 bonus points if you pick the margin of mictory on the nose (example, you pick Illinois to win by 7 and Illinois wins by exactly 7)
- For each game you can chose for a team to win by "more than 20 points". By doing this you are predicting a BLOWOUT. Different scoring rules apply if you select this option. If the team you select to win by a blowout wins by 21 or more points, then you receive 10 points for correctly picking the winning team, 10 points for Margin of Victory (regardless of the actual margin), and 5 bonus points for correctly selecting a blowout. If you select a team to win by blowout, and they win by 1-19 points, then you will only receive the 10 points for selecting the winning team, regardless of what the margin of victory is. IF YOU CHOSE A TEAM TO WIN BY BLOWOUT, AND THEY LOSE THE GAME... not only will I laugh at you, but you will LOSE 5 points from your total score (henceforth known as the "Appalachian State Rule")... so be careful.

Also, each week there will be a bonus question, and bonus points will be given to those with the top scores each week. Each week you will get up to 25 points for how well you judged the fate of each Big Ten team (this means that Big Ten Conference games are worth double), plus 25 points for a bonus game. If any Big Ten team has a bye, then another game will be selected.

That means each week you can get:

up to 300 points guessing the score of games
up to 40 points for how you fared in THAT week.
up to 10 points for a bonus question.

For a total of 350 points.

Over the 13 week football season, that is a maximum total of 4,550 points.

Good luck.

Illinois Basketball Scholarship Chart

2008-08-01T21:36:00.001-05:00

Tuesday afternoon committment, crime, and Charleston report

2008-07-29T13:27:00.002-05:00

Depth Charts: Linebackers

2008-07-26T11:14:00.002-05:00

Depth Charts: Specialists

2008-07-26T11:07:00.000-05:00

Big Ten Media Day Part 2:

2008-07-24T12:14:00.005-05:00

Michigan State - Mark Dantonio

I missed the first bit... bunch of coachspeak about academics, recapping last year, integrity, blah blah.

They got the "first base" last year... (a bowl game) (huh?)

Q: How do things change with Ringer being the go-to guy?
A: *coachspeak* he says that today it has to be a 2-3 tailback system.

Q: Move from Big East to Big Ten?... how will it be with DickRod?
A: DickRod brings awareness(?), did great job at WVU, used the word "outstanding" a lot. He sees the Big Ten as a conference where anyone can rise up and play. Mentioned Illinois coming from "wherever they came from" to the top.

Q: How realistic is it to believe you can go from first base to home this year? (*shudder*)
A: *coachspeak* *one game at a time mantra* "It's not as far away as you think, it's not as close as you imagine." "our goal will be to win a big ten championship this year"

Q: Can you be this year's Illinois?
A: "they are fattening us up" "everybody has an opportunity in this conference"... mentioned they lost close games last year.

Q: I missed it :(
A: something about rebuilding, making your own mark... blah blah blah. Previous MSU coaches made their mark and left... they are looking for longevity.

Q: How will you replace Devon Thomas?
A: *name dropping* cunningham had a good year, Fred Smith might be a good incoming freshman.

Q: Ohio State, Wisconsin, Illinois question... is Big Ten in transition... is this an anomoly before Michigan and PSU get back to the top?
A: Any team can rise up... mentioned Illinois.

"We have time for one more question... *crickets*

Tim Brewster - Minnesota

...went straight into boring coachspeak speech...

"We want to become... a better football team"... no shit.

"we felt like we recruited one of the top classes in the nation"

his voice keeps getting louder and louder... I need an advil.

...still waiting for him to get past his opening remarks... now talking about change.

I just turned the volume down 3 notches...

...

...

Ok, I'm pretty sure Tim is going to try and use the entire 15 allotted minutes to talk without answering any questions.

- talked about Adam Weber, has become a better student of the game, has put on weight.
- talked about Eric Decker (who in NCAA 09 caught 2 touchdowns and ran a kick back against me... its ok though, I beat them like 65-30)
- "If you really love football, football will love you back"

more name dropping.

now he's talking about his kicker's.... good grief.

talking about the stadium now... TCF Bank Stadium "it will be an amazing place"... Brewster says it will help with recruiting.

I just noticed... somewhere in the last 5 minutes he buttoned up his gold pin-striped jacket.

FINALLY!!! Questions!

Q: Emphasis on Defense, how will the D change
A: "I don't think its about style or scheme... its about players". "we talk about Alignment, assignment, and tackle"... (uh tim, alignment (style) and assignment (scheme) is what the question is about)

Then Brewster started name dropping and yelling even louder... christ almighty.

Q: the schedule
A: Its important we start first..." all we are looking at is August 30th against Northern Illinois, thats as far as we are looking "

Q: Do you have the personelle to better impliment the spread offense?
A: long boring ancedote about Marquis Gray... then more name dropping.

I officially hate any serious question, because coaches aren't going to actually answer them...

Q: Do you feel young coaches can change the balance of power? (from a kid from Northwestern)
A: "You're a young kid aren't you?.... DID YOU KNOW minnesota has won 6 national titles?! Minnesota is truely one of the top schools in the Big Ten... blah blah)

and we're out of time...

Penn State - Joe Paterno

thank god... hopefully less coach speak.

Joe Pa decides to skip the monologue and go straight to questions... nice move.

Q: What do you want to see from Deven or Clark? (QB)
A: I hope we can make a good decision... I'm not looking for any one thing.

Q: Thoughts on being in the Hall of Fame?
A: "You hang around long enough they have to do something with you"... "It's a great honor... to be recognized by your peers" tough to enjoy it when he's concentrating on football.

Q: question about Pryor and Ohio State
A: "I don't think thats my decision to make, I think its a dumb question to be honest with you" "I think its up to Jimmy"
* side note, JoePa couldn't find the guy asking the question in the crowd

Q: Boilerplate "joe tiller thought highly of you, please stroke his ego back" question.
A: predictable

Q: Do you feel badgered by retirement questions?
A: "I get tired of answering the same old question... you can only say "I don't know" so many times." "I want to get out when I think its appropriate," and he wants to give the next generation a really good football team.

Q: Is the passion/dedication still there?
A: "all i tell you is how I fell today... ..I feel really good, health wise I feel good, I'm excited"

Q: You get tired about retirement question (so here comes another one)... when you see Joe leave do you think about leaving?
A: "he does it his way, I do it my way"

Q: another fucking retirement question.
A: joe is about to choke a bitch.

OK, at this point someone in my office merciflly had pizza, so I got away from this crap for 20 minutes.. so...

Iowa - Kirk Ferentz
I missed it... shoot.

Now DickRod is up and talking...

Michigan - Rich Rodriguez

I walked into this one with coachspeak for his opening statements.

Q: General question about the transition from WVU
A: General boilerplate answer.

Q: Do you have any regrets about the WVU lawsuit
A: "there is a lot of things I would like to talk about, but I want to move on..."

more boring questions about the lawsuit that Mr. Rodrigues isn't going to answer...
...
...
...

Q: What changes have been made to the strength and conditioning program
A: another mention of BBQ at coaches house (see: Pat Fitzgerald)... basically, not really an answer to the question other than a different way to do things.

Q: ANOTHER question about Pryor (urge to kill rising)
A: "I only talk about players that play for michigan"

Q: Speed and athleticism in the Big Ten?
A: boilerplate.... stated that his offense isn't anything particularly new for the Big Ten.

LOL... question from the Bucknuts.com author...

Q: What can you do to turn results around in Michigan's favor
A: "I don't have a countdown to a particular game, other than the game that is next" he's not going to be hapy to just beat Ohio State...

Big Ten Media Day:

2008-07-24T10:24:00.006-05:00

Live streaming video:

http://www.bigtennetwork.com/livestream/index.asp?mm_file_id=1

Here's a disjointed recap and commentary on the press conferences

Illinois - Ron Zook

Opening comments:
- proud of football team, proud of what they accomplished... yada yada
- Need to move on, to keep going.
- Excited
- Talked about the "phases" of the year.
- acknowledged that there are a lot of questions, who will replace Mendenhall, Reda, Leman?

Question: How will you lineup with running backs... will be by committee?
Answer: Dufrene will probably be starter going into practice.... but depth charts aren't important early. It will probably be by committee so far. Ford has not been in practice yet. It will be important for the staff to put them in positions where they can be successful.

Question: About Spread Offense, why the spread so popular?
Answer: "I don't have the answer to that", wanted to run an offense he hated to see as a defense coordinator. Spreading the field makes it harder to stop the run. Its a fun offense. Zook is excited about the 40 second play clock.

Question: About Juice's development.
Answer: Juice has improved over the last year. Talked about how his completion percentage should be up in the 70's. Juice has worked hard, put in the effort. Players will be better as JR's and SR's than underclassman. Juice has turned into more of a leader, he is more relaxed and confident. Said that Eddie has worked hard as well. Its good to have 2 quality QB's working so hard.

Question: About Big Ten losing in the BCS games last year. Has Big Ten taken a hit?
Answer: Its important that we (the B10) go win. there is no doubt in his mind the Big Ten is a great conference. It is important that we take care of business.

Question: Talk about Joe Tiller
Answer: Coach Tiller has a great sense of humor, was won a lot of games, has done well with purdue. He made Purdue a school that competes for recruits.

Question: Was Illinois a flash in the pan, how do they address the "one and done" philosphy.
Answer: Coming back from California, told kids they will be dissapointed when they see the tape. Said they need to take a freshman class through the system. Britt has said that his class isn't going to be the one to drop the ball.

Question: Do you like the Missouri Game?
Answer: "They aren't going to change it, so I might as well be happy about it". Its an opportunity to make sure camp is productive.

Question: Who has improved most in the off season
Answer: Hard to say. They have all progressed. Goals in the spring were to keep leadership intact and improve passing game. Zook thinks defense will be the strength of the football team, specifically the D-Line. Players are all close knit and excited for the season to start.

Question: What is different about Missouri than last year?
Answer: Last year we had to teach the guys how to win. This year the difference is the guys know they can compete.

Question: Is there one thing you have to have to run the spread, and to stop it
Answer: On defense you can't get too complicated. the spread has allowed us to do is give our players the best chance to win. We didn't run Option at Florida, we do herebecause it works for Juice.

Northwestern - Pat Fitzgerald

- He's his usual tense self.
- Talked about expectations (what?)
- Disappointing last season, though they made strides

Q: New Offensive Coordinator?
A: 8 Big Ten offenses are now spread, each one is different. Offense is about players, formation, and plays... brilliant. Able to control tempo with 40 second play clock.

Q: 8 teams run spread, spreading across the country, again another question about why it is popular.
A: Thinks its critical at QB position. Its a flexible offense. Opens up offensively. Get speed on the field. Allows staff to put best 11 players regardless of position (to an extent). difficult for defenses

Q: Who appears to be the impact newcomers.
A: Redshirt freshman, 2 on offensive line. Charles Brown had a good offseason. Vincent Brown at DE, Ben Johnson at LB. Michael Bolden and Mavin at Corner and Special Teams. Optimistic about the new players.

Q: What kind of impact/confidense does Sutton bring?
A: chance for a great bookend to his career, if he can stay healthy. They hope to get the running game back on track. (and overrated)

Q: At what point are you a month before the season.
A: *coachspeak*, needed to adjust with all the new coaches. leadership council (WTF?) had a BBQ at Fitz' house on Sunday... hopefully they will be ready for Syracuse.

Q: Finishing games was a problem last year... how do you address that?
A: Finishing is a way of life.... *coachspeak*

Q: What will you change from last year, what did you learn
A: *coachspeak*... talks about how he thinks they recruited well the last two seasons.

Q: Early on you lost to Duke and Sutton got injured... do you talk to the team about it or move past it.
A: We got what we deserved against Duke. When we finally started to play NORTHWESTERN FOOTBALL we ran out of time. Angrily shouted about how in 1993 six wins would have been a purple party in evanston. They shouldn't be happy with 6 wins anymore.

Q: same reporter trying to get the coaches to stroke Joe Tiller off.
A: predictable.

Q: Ohio State, Wisconsin, Illinois 1,2,3... what do you think?
A: Ohio State is clearly #1... after that we had 10 bowl eligible teams last year. Big Ten continues to have great success.

Q: Any fundamental change with Jim Phillips as the new AD?
A: he doesn't sleep. use of the word change a few times. NORTHWESTERN FOOTBALL. More coachspeak.

I don't condone the use of or personally use any illegal drugs, but this man needs a joint. I zoned out quite a bit with the coachspeak.

Wisconsin - Bret Bielima

My video player is going straight up crazy, and he sounds like a chipmunk. Which may be accurate.

Like Bo Ryan, he is slowly taking on the physical appearance of a badger... a very tan badger.

I missed the first question, something about injuries, and how well players are recovering.

Q: Back to back night games at Camp Randall
A: Power that be determine schedule... we are very excited, we have a great record with night games. Festive environment (I seem to recall last year he bitched about having a night game against iowa... he must have seen the light)

Q: Michigan not in the top 3?
A: Probably a misprint. Preseason predictions are based on numbers. He said he thought last year Illinois would be a suprise team, he likes the postseason accolades better.

Q: About Michigan changing its look. how do you prepare for Rich.
A: They have non-conference games first they can scout. "Its good to be at a michigan press conference"

Q: QB situation?
A: Allen has game experience, played for KSU. Name dropped the rest of their roster. Competition brings the best... 10 days before Akron they will have a 2-deep.

Q: Whats it like to not to run the spread.
A: We're unique! for us we are the team other teams have to make changes to prepare. Called his linemen big and ugly. We have to adjust defensively because we go against our own offense in practice. Spread creates spacing, one on one matchups. Every spread is different, makes it more difficult.

Q: Akron, Fresno St., Marshall, Cal Poly are the non-con... isn't that below your standards?
A: Snappy remark. When we signed marshall they were a good team... tried to polish up Akron. Talked about how tough Fresno State is (which is a true statement, its going to be a tough game for Wisconsin). Got out of Virginia Tech to create a bye week before michigan, then Cal Poly was all they could find.

Q: Ohio has had a run of dominance... they lost big in BCS title games. Does that reflect on the conference?
A: No one can argue with their history and tradition. As a conference, we need to win our games. Capital One Bowl is a huge bowl, largest non BCS bowl. Michigan won its last year. As a whole the Big Ten is strong.

Q: You talked up the Illini last year... is there anyone this year?
A: *coach speak* *coaches are high quality*... mentions Michigan State as a challenging game. They don't play Purdue, Northwestern. Indiana is waiting to jump up.

Q & A: Prempts the Joe Tiller Question by answering it. Dodges the slob fest by saying joe isn't wearing a tie and he beat him they one time they played.

Q: About your QB's.
A: Allen has to hit receivers. He wants to see how the rest react to being hit, how they handle the pressure.

Q: Feelings about 40 second clock?
A: Great idea. Its going to make things more consistant. Every official moves at a different pace. Eliminate issues with clock. He doesn't like the clock starting on out of bounds. He doesn't like changing the game.

Purdue - Joe Tiller

Last year he coached is the most unusual spring he has had. 15 starters or significant players missed most of practice. Said summer and camp will be vital.

Good to have a 3.5 year starter. Kicker had good game last year

Q: What is your legacy?
A: "People are still curious about me" "The fact we were able to bring Purdue from the depths to being more competitive".

Q: how does the succession plan make you adjust how you coach
A: NOT AT ALL! Danny Hope has been on the staff before, he thinks they might have suffered when they left. Long rant... says it will go "extremely well"

Q: Share your thoughts on your most endearing relationship with staff... and other coaches.
A: "uhm... I've met few coaches I haven't liked. Seems to gravitate to coach Paterno... their wives are close. " "If you can't get along well with Joe Tiller (yes, he refered to himself in the third person), there is something wrong with you, not Joe Tiller". If you don't genu-wine-ly like your staff there can be issues.

Q: Do you take pride/amusement schools have adopted your offensive style?
A: No, it was going to happen sooner or later, players like to play it. Spread offense is a reflection of society (huh?), it fits into an instant gratification society. They did their part to make America better? (WHAT THE FUCK!?)

Q: Is there a possiblity Paterno won't be back
A: yea, he'll have to quit someday... so there is a possibility, but he should stick around. He has been a real leader and visionary. college football will miss him when the time comes. Compares him to the "Everready Bunny... keeps on ticking"

Q: Boring retread question on the Big Ten and perception.
A: Something about bloggers, Tiller doesn't have an email address, my video is choppy again. He's been in Wyoming for 3 weeks... blah blah blah. teams beating each other up happens in "every damn league"

Q: I missed the name, something about a recruit being on campus...
A: He will be fine. (no clue what its about)

Ohio State - Jim Tressel
HOLY CRAP!
Tressel is in a suit and tie...

opens with a bunch of coachspeak.

Q: you are 6-1 against Michigan, predecessor was 2-10-1, why?
A: good players... (rant from there, good thing Zook was first, coach speak is starting to wear on me)

Q: Carson Palmer's comments.
A: He's very proud of where he played... I'm sure he's excited about us getting to play his alma mater.

Q: How soon will Pryor be in your offense?
A: August 4th, first day of practice. Needs to pick up the signs and system. From day 1 he will be someone you take notice of.

Q: Difference in preseason prep coming off the 2 national title games?
A: Make sure you continue to challenge guys. Not let them think its the same. They will challenge them physically and intellectually (I about fell out of my chair at this)

Q: USC game?
A: We always wanted to have a national home and home series in every 2 year schedule (Texas, USC series), its good for recruiting. its a huge challenge.

Q: No michigan, penn state in the top 3, how accurate is the poll?
A: It hasn't been in the past, which is frightening.... *coachspeak*

Q: Is there any pressure being picked #1?
A: *coachspeak* doesn't know that it adds anything.

I've noticed he has never said "the" ohio state university... someone in Public Affairs might want to send him a memo.

Q: Boeckmann
A: no price tag on experience. Easier for Boeckmann to step up and take charge this year.

Q: JoePa question again... can you imagine Penn State without Joe?
A: boring question, I've zoned out.

Q: can you pickout a darkhorse in the Big Ten?
A: *artful dodge* *coachspeak* *head falls into keyboardddddddddddddddddddddddddd*

Q: has big ten perception been pinned to 4 BCS games?
A: From our standpoint its fair, we haven't been successful... I don't think it should reflect on the conference. The only thing that matters is the game.

Q: Would losing the NC game again have a positive outlook... would it make for a dissapointing season?
A: IF it were to happen again it means we were Big Ten champions, so I couldn't be dissapointed with that. Would be dissapointed if we didn't play to our ability.

Indiana - Bill Lynch
First bowl experience in a number of years.
Confidence on campus.

Nobody is gonna watch the shitty basketball team so maybe we will sell tickets (ok, he didn't say that)

40 second rule is an opportunity to control Tempo (IU will be no-huddle this year)

Q: Now that Kellen is back, what is his ceiling
A: outstanding player, he can play within the framework of the offense (their framework is him running around for his life?). They have worked hard to develop the offensive line... and to be good defensively. Need to not be reliant on one guy like Kellen.

Q: Who are the players who should step up in the secondary
A: The answer consists of a bunch of name dropping.

Q: running game?
A: We'll continue to play a number of guys with Thigpen as the starter. He really thinks O-Line will be better (sounds like a cry for help)

Q: how quickly do you think Kellen will be back to speed. What do you think the bowl experience taught the team?
A: Kellen missing spring gives others the chance to step up... it will be competitive amongst QB's. With respect to the bowl game: gave them confidence that they can be a bowl team. The game proved they still need to be better.

Q: is there a different feel on campus because of last year.
A: yes. *coachspeak* talked about how the north end zone structure will improve their facilities.

Q: talk about the "play 13" mantra
A: Play 13 was Hoeppner. It became big because Hep could only communicate with emails near the end and signed emails with it. It became the cry for the team. It will always be there. Now we want to play AND win the 13th game.

Q: Any talk of playing in Lucas Oil Stadium
A: no, we want as many games in Bloomington as possible (no shit, look at their pathetic schedule). "We gotta defend the rock!" "The buckeyes don't lose in Columbus"... hehe. We are fortunate to have 8 home games. Down the road maybe (in Indy)

Q: With new AD, are you confident football will get its support?
A: I'm not going to bother listening to this answer, there is only one possible answer he can give. There was a vague reference to the basketball melt-down.

Q: Can you give us a personelle update, will anyone be out?
A: "minor repair" surgery is best done before spring because you don't want to risk them not being ready in early august. Everyone is back and healthy.

and now a 30 minute intermission.

Memorial Stadium (and Champaign) photos.

2008-07-23T10:06:00.003-05:00

Regularly scheduled countdown post will come tomorrow...

until then, pictures of the stadium (and a few of campus) I took yesterday.

Newly renovated IMPE (or ARC, i think is what they call it now) about to open.

again with the (FINALLY!) renovated Rec Center at the north end of Memorial Stadium

Memorial Stadium from 1st Street

again with Memorial Stadium from 1st street. It looks like they are about to start putting the Brick on the center section. the elevators to the press box will open to the west, allowing people to step out to a great view of the Stadium Terrace fields.

a not-so-great picture of the new Khan Tennis Stadium being build on the west side of the Atkins Tennis Center. The facility will have 12 outdoor courts and hopefully allow Illinois to host the National Championships as soon as 2010.

you can see the new locker rooms and some of the concrete bleachers are built already.

this is the old Horse Barn, along with one of the Chicken Coops, which used to stand behind the Atkins Tennis Center and Eichelberger Field (at Martin Stadium). These were both moved to a plot near the corner of Race and Windsor last week. The Mumford House, which is the oldest building on campus, currently located next to Temple Buell Hall on the South Quad, will be moved here as well. This will be a welcome center for the college of ACES.

again with the old buildings.

you can see the new 310 Burnham building rising up in the Champaign skyline (this picture taken from Springfield Avenue).

This is taken from Wright Street and Springfield Avenue. the new building being built is where Tonic used to be.

View of Campustown from 6th and Chalmers. The Penn Station building used to be Kinkos, the building behind it on 6th and Green was built on top of an old Wendy's in 2006. The new building rising up in the background will be an Urban Outfitters and UI office space.

a closer view of the Urban Outfitters/Office building on the 500 block of East Green Street.

View of 6th street from between Green and Chalmers looking South.

View of Green Street looking west from 6th Street. The 24 story 309 E. Green building looms in the distance. A 20 story building will be built in front of it (from this view).

The new (and about to open) I-Hotel and Conference Center at the corner of 1st and St. Mary's, located just to the Southwest of Assembly Hall.

The hotel is supposed to be a 4-diamond hotel, and is operated by the same people who are building the Research Park.

A Houlihan's restuarant is included

on the east wing of the building is a new conference center (creatively named the "Illinois Conference Center") which will be operated by the University.

Memorial Stadium from the South. Notice the new light standards are in place. Construction workers were doing something to the scoreboard, but I have no idea what.

progress on cladding for the press box structure continues, the new light standards have been set in place.

again...

view from the southeast.

closeup of the light standard and corner of the press box.

inside the stadium, the north half of the new press box structure. Nearly all of the curtain wall for the stadium-side of the structure is in place

picture of the press box, and the new field being installed.

From what I can tell, the only real major changes to the field are the addition of orange and blue stripes at the 20 yard lines, and the team boxes are now orange, instead of white.

somewhat tilted view of the west stands.

crews work to install the new playing surface behind the south endzone.

closeup of the concourse in the west balcony. I can't say I'm a fan of the 80's-esque Orange/Blue band next to the Classical Revival ornamentation of the SW ramp tower.

still a bit of a mess to clean up. The colonnade club outdoor seating area looks done except for some brick on the columns... and seats.

The North Endzone

closeup of the west side.

again, with the press box.

closeup of the north section of the press box. notice the divders inside the suite seating area, and how the center section on the 3rd floor is slightly recessed.

SE tower with the lights removed.

Looking at the scoreboard.

the seats have been renumbered to reflect the new seating arrangement. The section names haven't been changed yet.

a picture that needs to be rotated... showing the details of the SE Ramp Tower.

again, renumbered seats.

Opening day is 45 days away.

Countdown to 2008 - 6 Weeks to go: The changing landscape of college football:

2008-07-16T11:15:00.003-05:00

7 Weeks till Kickoff: Recapping 2007
6 Weeks till Kickoff: Changing landscape of college football
5 Weeks till Kickoff: What needs to change about college football
4 Weeks till Kickoff: What to Worry about in '08
3 Weeks till Kickoff: Expectations
2 Weeks till Kickoff: Goals
1 Weeks till Kickoff: Rating our opponents
GAME WEEK: Predictions

Its a common rant,

"What the heck is XXXXX school doing in the Bowl Subdivision".
"Why is XXXXX school moving up to Division I?!"
"XXXXX school needs to move down!"

...and so on.

Answer the following:

Florida is:

A state in the southern US.
unable to NOT screw up an election.
God's waiting room.
A state with a an above average demand for electricity.
Home of 4 of the 17 largest four-year universities in Division I football.

The correct answer:

All of the above.

Florida is home to some very large schools, and some very large football programs.

Lets try another:

This school is the 6th largest school in NCAA Division I football. They play in a brand new stadium, average 44,000 fans per game, lost to Texas by only 3 points at home last year, and have been to a bowl game 2 of the last 3 seasons.

The school? The University of Central Florida.

Not bad for a school that is ready to begin its 13th season of Bowl Subdivision football.

The landscape of college football is changing. At one point last season, South Florida possiby was a contender for the National Title. USF's first football game EVER was a 80-3 win over Kentucky Wesleyan, in 1997. The 49,292 people that showed up for the inaugural game in Houlihan Stadium was the largest crowd to witness a USF game until last fall.

To say the landscape of college football is changing might be a bit disingenuous, it has always been changing. When Memorial Stadium was built Illinois was striving to match the facilities of east coast powers like Yale and Penn. Army and Navy were forces in the world of college football until the post-WWII years when recruiting and more demanding competition made it impossible for the service academies to be National Championship contenders.

The power base of football in the United States has undoubtedly shifted though, and changes to the composition of Division I football is starting to reflect that.

For the most part, colleges in Division I football can be sorted into the following categories:

Land-grant colleges or large public institutions founded before the 1880's. (most of the Big Ten, Florida, Virginia, California, etc..) These schools are typically BCS-conference schools.
Private institutions in BCS leagues that have been rivals with larger schools for many years (Notre Dame, Duke, Vandy, Northwestern, USC)
Smaller regional schools founded in the late 1800's or early 1900's. (North Texas, Louisiana-Lafayette, Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois, etc). These schools are either in mid-major leagues like the Sun Belt, MAC, WAC, or are FCS.
Land-Grant schools formed in southern states post-civil war for African-Americans during Segregation (Florida A&M, Grambling, etc...) these schools are all in the MEAC or SWAC conferences in FCS football.
Small Private schools in FCS, alot of whom are in non-scholarship football (like the Pioneer League)
Baby-Boomer schools. Schools either founded during the post-war years or smaller schools that were significantly expanded to meet the demands of the GI Bill, and the baby boomer generation.

What we saw in the last couple years, and will continue to see, is the rise of schools from obscurity into the established ranks of Bowl Subdivision college football. What was noted above, and is important to distinguish, is the difference between smaller schools who have always been mid-major schools, and rapidly growing universities that are bursting onto the national stage.

Schools like Louisiana-Monroe, which is located in upstate Louisiana with 7,200 students, or Wyoming, which is in the least populated state in the Union, aren't going to be competing for BCS games anytime soon. They just aren't. But schools like San Diego State (founded 1897, rapidly growing, tied with Illinois and Wisconsin for #38 in the Nation in last year's US News College Rankings) very well could.

The Sun Belt Conference, which is right now the weakest conference in the nation, could very well see a surge in the next few years. FIU and FAU are both building new stadiums, and schools like North Texas, Troy, and South Alabama are rapidly growing. The national population shift to Sun Belt states is starting to seep into the composition of division I football. Sun Belt schools have the benefit of being close to the talent.

These schools (USF was founded in 1955, UCF in 1963, FAU in 1964, and FIU in 1965) are all young colleges, but collectively have 155,751 students. Many of these post-war schools are evolving slowely from being essentially glorified community colleges to large public universities. Sure, they are communter schools, but they have less stringent entrance requirements, are located in large urban areas (great potential for exposure), and are investing quite a bit into their growing football programs.

What does this mean for the Big Ten? Directly, probably not a whole lot. Illinois, with a good coach, will still be an attractive destination, and will be able to recruit fairly well regionally and nationally. There is still plenty of talent in the upper midwest and northeast. As schools like USF and UCF become "acceptable" destinations for talented players to attend, it could put a squeeze on northern programs trying to import southern talent. The schools that could really be affected by talent and population shifts would be smaller schools who are, and have been, stuck in the lower tier of Bowl football.

Some General Predictions:

Central Florida could very well see itself in the Big East in a couple years. the BEast needs football schools, UCF in the league means a natural rival for USF, and if scheduled properly, a guaranteed trip to florida each year for the other 7 Big East Schools.
The Sun Belt and Conference USA might trade teams in the next few years. With a couple sun belt schools growing fast and putting alot of resources into football, and a couple CUSA programs barely keeping their head above water, we might see some changes.
The MAC isn't going to like what happens when more and more kids start staying home to play for Sun Belt schools.
Schools like Buffalo, Temple, Louisiana-Lafayette, and others are going to really have to question whether or not its worth it to continue playing football, or continue playing football in the FBS subdivision.

Realignments:
No changes in Bowl Football this year.

In the Championship Subdivision:
- North Dakota State and South Dakota State Universities join the newly named "Missouri Valley Football Conference" (nee: Gateway Conference).

- North Dakota and South Dakota (note the absence of the word "state") join the Great West Football Conference this fall to replace NDSU and SDSU... they are in the process of moving up from Division II.

New programs:
Remember when Title IX was supposed to be the end of small college football? Well, Title IX has certainly taken its toll on college wrestling and other sports, but college football is making a comeback.

Most ironic of them all is Western Kentucky, which actually cites moving from the former I-AA to Bowl Subdivision football as a way to GAIN Title IX compliance.

some recent and up coming additions to the world of college football:

- Western Kentucky is in the final transitional year of its move from Championship to Bowl Subdivision Football. The Hilltoppers will be the ninth football member of the Sun Belt conference in 2009.

- Also in the Sun Belt, the University of South Alabama will be starting a football program next fall in the Football Championship Subdivision. They hope be a FBS team in the Sun Belt in the fall of 2013.

- Campbell University (home of the Fighting Camel's) will reinstate football this fall as a non-scholarship Pioneer League program.

- Georgia State University, which has 27,000 students, will begin playing football in 2010. They will play in the Colonial Athletic Association with home games in the Georgia Dome.

- Old Dominion University will start up a football program next year, playing Colonial Athletic Association.

- Lamar University in Texas is expected to bring back its football program it dropped in 1989. The team will begin play in 2010 or 2011.

- The University of Texas at San Antonio has seriously considered adding football. The team would play its games at the Alamo Bowl. They hope to start in the FCS in the fall of 2010 or 2011.

More postseason bids...
The NCAA recently voted to expand the Division I Football Championships from 16 to 20 teams, giving the Big South and the Northeast Conference automatic bids into the NCAA tournament, and giving 2 more at-large schools entrance into the tournament.

At the same time, two new bowl games will be played in 2008/09, with the Congressional Bowl and the St. Petersburg Bowl being added. The Congressional Bowl, which will be played at Nationals Stadium, will have Navy (if eligible), Army, or a MAC team face off against an ACC opponent The St. Petersburg Bowl will have a Conference USA vs. Big East match up.

While the Big Ten dropped the ball by failing to get an additonal bowl game, either of these games could very well have open slots this winter, which may help the Big Ten indirectly should 10 schools become eligible again this fall.

2007 Recap, continued:

Week 3:
Illinois (1-1) @ Syracuse (0-3, would finish 2-10, 1-6)
Win 41-20 (Carrier Dome - Syracuse, NY - 34,188)
FI.com - Video - Box Score

The 1-1 Illini headed to New York state for a showdown with hapless Syracuse. This was the final game of a two game series between Illinois and the "Orange". In 2006, the Illini lost 31-21 in Memorial Stadium, giving up 17 points in the 3rd quarter before Isiah Williams cemented his role as the starting QB for the Illini by throwin 2 long touchdown passes in the fourth quarter.

It was pretty clear heading into the game that Syracuse, was, well... aweful. Their first game of the year was a 42-12 throttling at the hands of Washington, and they followed it up with a 35-0 loss at Iowa. If Illinois was going to ever move out of the basement of college football, this was the day to do it.

Illinois started fast. The first drive was a beautifully executed 6 play 70 yard dash where Juice went 4-4 for 41 yards, including a 22 yard lob to Jeff Cumberland to give the Illini an early 7-0 lead just 2:04 into the game. Illinois would force Syracuse to go 3 and out twice before a 9 play 45 yard drive gave the Illini a 14-0 lead. The Illini defense kept Syracuse from getting anything accomplished for the rest of the first half, and the Illini marched into the lockerroom with a 17-0 lead.

After a rather unmemorable botched onside kick attempt, Syraucse managed a 44 yard field goal to make the game 17-3. Illinois then explodesd scoring a field goal and then 3 touchedowns on their next 4 possession to put the game away for good. 10 points by Syracuse in the final 4:28 made a 41-10 game a slightly less embarassing 41-20, but the Illini accomplished something they had not done in a long time, thouroughly beat the crap out of on opposing team. Furthermore, they did it on the road, and in a dome no less.

At the end of the game Illinois had accumulated 508 yards of offense, with 378 of them coming on the ground. Juice only passed for 97 yards, but he was a very effective 13-18 with no INT's and no sacks. Illinois so thouroughly dominated Syracuse in the trenches that we really didn't need to pass the ball at all. On defense the Illini gave up only 63 yards on the ground to Syracuse. The Orange managed to pass for 223 on 19-29 passing plays.

Week 4:
Illinois (2-1) @ Indiana
Win 27-14 (Memorial Stadium - Bloomington, IN - 34,707)
FI.com - Video - Box Score

Another big game for the Illini. Illinois, fresh of its second road win in 4+ years needed to shake another demon: opening weekend of the Big Ten season. Not since 1993 had Illinois started the Big Ten season with a win.

(on a personal note, the last time I had been in attendance to witness Illinois defeat a FBS opponent was September 10, 2005, when we beat San Jose State 40-19, *shudder*)

After trading turnovers to start the game, Illinois moved the ball well, but couldn't finish a drive, as the Illini had to settle for 45 and 38 yard kicks from Jason Reda to lead 6-0 at the end of the First Quarter.

Once again, Illinois ran the ball very effectively (288 yards on the ground, 214 from Rashard Mendenhall). Once again, the passing game left something to be desired. Unlike the week before when Illinois didn't need to pass, against Indiana the passing game was just not very good. Juice finished 13-28 with 2 INT's and 2 TD's. To be fair, the Illinois receivers didnt' help much, most notably when Joe Morgan (correct me if I'm wrong) failed to catch a sure-fire touchdown pass late in the 3rd quarter that would have iced the game.

Ultimately, the game was won in the trenches. Rashard Mendenhall was awarded Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week for his 214 yard, 2 touchdown (1 rushing, 1 receiving) performance, while Will Davis was awarded Big Ten Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors for sacking Kellen Lewis 4 times. Illinois threw Lewis into the turf 7 times, holding the star QB to just 35 yards net rushing (including 58 yards lost). On plays where IU gained ground the Hoosiers racked up 198 yards rushing, but finished the game with a net of 134 yards on the ground, and 263 yards passing. The Hoosiers ultimately outgained Illinois 397-386, but a Vontae Davis interception, 3 lost fumbles, and a blocked punt killed any chance Indiana had in this game.

Also during the game, Freshman Troy Pollard tore his ACL, ending his season. Pollard, who ran for 32 yards, and had 97 yards against Syracuse the week before, was able to receive a Medical Redshirt and will be a RS Freshman this fall for the Illini.

Depth Charts: Offensive Line

2008-07-14T13:10:00.000-05:00

2008 Football Preview: Week 3 vs. Louisiana-Lafayette

2008-07-12T14:19:00.001-05:00

2008 Illini Football: Week 3

versus
Location: Memorial Stadium (61,500), Champaign, IL
Gametime: 11:00 AM CT
Television: Big Ten Network (specific channel TBA)
Game Type: buy game
All Time Series Record: First Meeting

About Louisiana-Lafayette:
Nickname: Ragin' Cajuns
Athletic Conference: Sun Belt Conference
Location: Lafayette, LA
Founded: 1900
Enrollment: 15,564
Colors: Maroon and White
Home Stadium: Cajun Field (31,000)
2007 Record: 3-9 (3-4 in the Sun Belt)
2007 Attendance: 16,651

Ragin' Cajuns Team Previews:
New York Times (116th in the nation, 7th in the Sun Belt)
Rivals (97th in the nation, 4th in the Sun Belt)
College Football News

Overview:
TBA

Stadium:
Memorial Stadium (61,500)

View Larger Map

Tickets:
Single Game Tickets go on sale July 22nd at 9AM CT. Only sideline tickets remain, the cost will be $45.

Season tickets are still available through FightingIllini.com, the price is $225.

Series History:
Illinois has never played the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Future Games:
ULL and Illinois do not have any future games scheduled.

Illinois presumably will schedule a similar "buy" game against a Sun Belt, MAC or similar-stature program at Memorial Stadium next season. In the past Illinois has played Ball State (2007), Ohio U (2006), San Jose State (2005), Western Michigan (2004) in this slot.

2008 Football Preview: Week 2 - vs. Eastern Illinois

2008-07-12T14:00:00.003-05:00

2008 Illini Football: Week 2
Memorial Stadium Rededication Day
1950's era throwback uniforms will by worn by the Illini

versus
Location: Memorial Stadium (61,500), Champaign, IL
Gametime: 11:00 AM CT
Television: Big Ten Network (specific channel TBA)
Game Type: buy game
All Time Series Record: Illinois Leads 1-0
Last Meeting: September 2, 2006 (42-17 Illinois win)

About Eastern Illinois:
Nickname: Panthers
Athletic Conference: Ohio Valley Conference
Location: Charleston, IL
Founded: 1895
Enrollment: 11,651
Colors: Blue and Grey
Home Stadium: O'Brien Stadium (10,000)
2007 Record: 8-4 (7-1 in the OVC) (Lost 30-11 to Semifinalst EIU in the first round of the NCAA FCS playoffs)
2007 Attendance: 7,411

Overview:
TBA

Stadium:
Memorial Stadium (61,500)

View Larger Map

Tickets:
Single Game Tickets go on sale July 22nd at 9AM CT. Only sideline tickets remain, the cost will be $45.

Season tickets are still available through FightingIllini.com, the price is $225.

Series History:

Future Games:
EIU and Illinois do not have any future games scheduled.

The EIU game is part of the annual series of games between Illinois and a Division I Championship Subdivision Opponent. Illinois is scheduled to play Illinois State in 2009, and Southern Illinois in 2010.

The dates for future games are: (check back soon)

2008 Football Preview: Week 1 vs. Missouri

2008-07-12T13:54:00.002-05:00

2008 Illini Football: Week 1
State Farm "Arch Rivalry" Game

versus
Location: Edward Jones Dome (66,000), St. Louis Missouri
Gametime: 7:30 PM CT
Television: ESPN
Game Type: Year 2 of a 4 year contract to play in St. Louis
All Time Series Record: Missouri leads 14-7
Last Meeting: September 1, 2007 (40-34 Missouri Win)

About Missouri:
Nickname: Tigers
Athletic Conference: Big 12
Location: Columbia, MO
Founded:
Enrollment: 28,477
Colors: Black and Gold
Home Stadium: Faurot Field (68,349)
2007 Record: 11-2 (7-1)
2007 Attendance: 60,232

Tigers Team Previews:
New York Times (not yet ranked)
Rivals (not yet ranked)
College Football News

Overview:
For the second year in a row, Illinois will open the season in St. Louis in front of a split crowd against the Missouri Tigers. For the second year in a row, Illinois will be facing a ranked opponent hungry for a BCS bid.

Stadium:
Edward Jones Dome (66,000)

View Larger Map

Pregame Events:
Friday August 29, 2008
Arch Revelry on the Landing - 5:30 to Midnight, Laclede's Landing
Battle of the Pep Bands
Live music.

Saturday & Sunday August 30-31, 2008
Big Muddy Blues Festival - 2:00 to 11:45PM, Laclede's Landing

Saturday August 30, 2008
Illinois pregame tailgate (sponsored by the UI Alumni Association)
3:00PM to 7:00PM, Broadway and Convention Plaza

Tickets:
The game is soldout. Good luck.

Series History:
This will be the 22nd meeting all time between Illinois and Missouri. Missouri leads the alltime series 14-7. Missouri is currently on a 3 game winning streak, defeating Illinois in 2002 and 2003 at the Edward Jones Dome, and defeating Illinois last year in the first game of the renewed series.

This will be the 6th game all-time between the two schools played in St. Louis. In addition to the 3 game winning streak in the dome for the Tigers, Missouri defeated Illinois 37-6 in 1969 at old Busch Stadium, and Illinois defeated Missouri 10-0 in the first ever meeting between the schools back in 1896.

Future Games:
As of now, Illinois and Missouri have 2 games remaining on the contract. Both athletic departments have the option to continue the series after the 2010 game.

The dates for future games are:

September 5, 2009 - Missouri vs. Illinois (Illinois will be home) - Edward Jones Dome

September 4, 2010 - Illinois vs. Missouri (Missouri will be home) - Edward Jones Dome

Countdown to 2008 - 7 Weeks to go: Look back at 2007

2008-07-09T10:30:00.007-05:00

8 weeks until 2008:

7Weeks till Kickoff: Looking back at 2007
6 Weeks till Kickoff: Changing landscape of college football
5 Weeks till Kickoff: What needs to change about college football
4 Weeks till Kickoff: What to Worry about in '08
3 Weeks till Kickoff: Expectations
2 Weeks till Kickoff: Goals
1 Weeks till Kickoff: Rating our opponents
GAME WEEK: Predictions

This is Part 1 of an 8 part countdown to the 2008 season. Each week, I will rant on about my thoughts on various aspects of the upcoming Illinois season, the Big Ten, and college football in general. To make it more exciting on my part, I've created the 8 pages which will automatically post themselves at 10:30AM CT each Wednesday from now until 3 days before the Missouri game. So no matter what there will be new content on this page at 10:30AM each Wednesday... even if its a blank post. (note to self: quit being lazy)

This week: Recapping the 2007 Season.

The 2007 campaign was obviously a turning point for Illinois football. Going into the season, I was wondering if we could finally win at least 5 freaking games. Or better yet, win 6 games and somehow sneak into the Motor City Bowl. We faced a tough opening game in Missouri in St. Louis. Of our 6 home games, 3 were against the likely top 4 teams in the league, and our "easiest" opponents were mostly on the road, where we had won just 1 game in the previous 4 years.

So what do we do? We haul off 9 wins, throttle Minnesota and Syracuse in their houses, gut out memorable wins against Penn State and Wisconsin (the later to snap the longest winning streak in America), and beat Ohio State in the freaking horseshoe, giving the program its second BCS bowl berth ever.

For a program that has been up and down (mostly down) over the last decade, only Ohio State and Michigan have been to more BCS games (with Wisconsin also qualifying for two BCS games all-time). This is more a testament to the wacky roller coaster that's been Illinois football over the years than it is a statement of our power, but it speaks to our potential.

A lot happened outside of Illini Nation last fall. It was an up and down year for college football, and a bad year to be ranked #2. Here's the week by week run-down of the #1 and #2 teams in college football:

Week 1 - #1 USC and #2 LSU both win comfortably... nothing out of the ordinary here...
Week 2 - #2 LSU crushes Virginia Tech... USC sleeps in.
Week 3 - #1 USC beats Nebraska, #2 LSU smokes Middle Tennessee
Week 4 - USC and LSU win again... I promise this stops getting boring soon.
Week 5 - USC squeaks past Washington, LSU beats Tulane... THEN things get fun:
Week 6 - #2 USC lost to Stanford 24-23 on possibly the play of the year. LSU defeats Florida.
Week 7 - Upstart Kentucky beats #1 LSU in triple overtime, while new #2 California lost to Oregon State 31-28 due to QB stupidity.
Week 8 - #2 South Florida (WHO!?) lost to Rutgers 30-27. New #1 Ohio State beats Michigan State 24-17 (more on South Florida and the landscape of college football next week)
Week 9 - #1 Ohio State beats Penn State, AND #2 Boston College managed to stage a late game comeback to prevent being upset by Virginia Tech... they won 14-10 with both touchdowns in the last 131 seconds of the game... pretty vanilla week all things considered.
Week 10 - #2 Boston College loses to Florida State 27-17... #1 Ohio State thumps Wisconsin (and in Minneapolis, Juice Williams has a pretty good day... not that that has anything to do with anything, or does it?)
Week 11 - #1 Ohio State, who had won like 200 straight Big Ten games, loses to Illinois 28-21... and I lost my voice. #2 LSU beats Louisiana Tech.
Week 12 - LSU, who is #1 AGAIN, beats Mississippi handily. #2 Oregon loses to Arizona 34-24 and lost Dennis Dixon... putting them out of commission for the rest of the year.
Week 13 - as the Big Ten sat and watched #1 LSU loses 50-48 (in triple OT AGAIN) to Arkansas, and #2 Kansas (yes, Kansas went to a final four and a BCS game this year, something sounds odd about that eh?) lost to Missouri 36-28 in Arrowhead Stadium.
Week 14 - Just when you thought there couldn't be any more chaos... #1 Missouri (don't worry, it only lasted a week) got torn apart by Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship Game (this is why I don't like Championship Games) and #2 West Virginia lost to Pittsburgh. That's right... BIGGEST GAME IN SCHOOL HISTORY AND YOU LOSE TO A 5-7 TEAM COACHED BY DAVE WANNSTEDT?!?

2007 was an absolutely crazy season. The rise of relative unknowns onto the scene defined the season. USF, a school that DIDN'T HAVE A FOOTBALL PROGRAM the last time Notre Dame won a bowl game, found itself #2 in the nation (and they were a pretty good team, just not THAT good). Traditional basketball powers Kentucky and Kansas jumped onto the scene, with the Jayhawks and Missouri playing perhaps the biggest game of the regular season. Hawaii had its best season ever (and with June Jones gone, a crummy stadium, and apathetic school administration, we won't hear about them again for a LONG time) and played its way into the BCS. Traditional powers like Notre Dame sagged. Michigan, the Domers, West Virginia and USC all had probably their most embarrassing loses in decades.

So where do the Illini fit into all of this? Clearly, Illinois followed the trend of non-traditional powers rising up. Unlike South Florida and Kansas, Illinois had SOME tradition to back it up. We have been here before, but in recent history (for the last 15 years) only for a fleeting moment. In the history of college football, Illinois finds itself in an odd place. Memorial Stadium stands as a reminder of a time when we were a national powerhouse. The place is a cathedral to the game, and in 1924 only a couple comparible facilities stood across the nation. Yet, over the decades Illinois has been up and down. It seems that more often that not, Illinois was either really good, or really bad. Teams like Hawaii and to some extent Kansas remind me of the 2001 Illini... a perfect storm where all the pieces came together. Kansas might have some staying power, but with a tougher Big 12 schedule this year, and Mangino "on a diet"

... with respect to the non-conference slate, Kansas is really going to have to earn it this year. They will be a decent team, but I would be beyond shocked to see them in another BCS game.

With the Illini, things seem different. As I said last year, 2007 will be the most fun any of us will ever have watching Illini football. There were few expectations (more on expectations in 4 weeks). When the Illini played Penn State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State, they were able to simply play football. I think most Illini fans knew we had a shot in those games, but they were certainly games that no reasonable person could really be too upset about if we had fought hard and lost. Yet the team played their guts out, made plays they had never made in the previous 4 seasons, forced errors they had failed to force previously, and in crunch time, didn't break. Last year was fun. I will always maintain that last year's Illinois team over achieved. Some may see that as a negative comment, but I mean it sincerely. Last year's Illinois team was the product of recruiting classed ranked (from 2007 back to 2004) 20th, 28th, 45th, and 44th.... yet we beat the eventual national runner up and earned a trip to the Mecca of College Football. We were ranked as high as #13 in the nation.... and we did it with senior leadership and underclassman talent. In 2001 there was a feeling that all the pieces had come together, and Illinois ran to a Big Ten title. In 2007, it was an Illini team that seemed ahead of schedule. The most pointed criticisms against Ron Zook revolve around his supposed lack of coaching ability, the inability of Zook to get the best out of his players. Critics argued that Zook would eventually be able to assemble enough talent to win, but that he couldn't get his players to play up to or beyond their potential. Last season serves as a resounding argument against that logic. My prediction going into the season was that we would win 1 game we had no business winning, and lose 1 game we had no business losing. We certainly got "Zooked" at Iowa, and the Ohio State game will for decades stand out as one of the greatest wins in school history.

People will always ask, did Illinois deserve a trip to the Rose Bowl? Its a loaded question. I think its safe to say Illinois wasn't one of the top 10 teams in the nation, but thats not how BCS bids are chosen. I think Missouri clearly got screwed by the BCS (more on that in 2 weeks in "What needs to change about college football"), but its not our fault they didn't make a BCS game, the system failed them. Within the framework set forth by the BCS, I think its safe to say Illinois deserved its Rose Bowl nod. If Illinois didn't go, who would have gone? Boston College (ranked below Illinois) and Arizona State are the only two real contenders, as the Big 12 and SEC had 2 teams chosen already. The ACC was awful and really didn't deserve two bids, while Arizona State got clowned by #17 Texas in the Holiday Bowl, justifying Illinois' pick (and the Rose Bowl could not have chosen Arizona State anyways). Most years a 9-3 Illinois team probably wouldn't be a BCS contender, but last year wasn't an ordinary year. The Rose Bowl was between two mismatched teams that earned thier lots. Illinois, by overachieving and winning big games against Wisconsin, Penn State, and Ohio State... Southern California by choking on Stanford (and clearly not deserving Championship consideration).

With all the up and downs, 2007 is going to be a tough year to repeat. A cursory glance at some of the preseason predictions seems to indicate that the "experts" seem to think it could be another wild year, with some of the traditional powers struggling (or at least not up to par) and some new(er) faces in the Top 25 (Wake, Cinci, USF, Fresno State, BYU are all names to remember, on top of The Beloved).

With all the "change"... the top of college football in 2007, and likely again in 2008, remained the same. LSU and Ohio State are teams that have been at the top for years. USC, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma and Florida will all be big names again this season. Illinois has cracked into being respectable, but we have a long ways to go to truly be a titan in the college football world. There will be ups and downs, we may not have a repeat of 2007 this year, the schedule isn't exactly favorable, but we will have a competitive team. We might not get some of the breaks, or make some of the plays, that we made in Champaign last year when it comes time to travel to Madison or State College.

Either way, it should be a fun year, the most important step is putting out a team that you know is capable of winning any game, and that is what we had last year.

Recapping 2007: Weeks 1 and 2

Week 1:
Illinois (0-0) vs. Missouri (0-0 entering game, would finish 12-2, 7-1)
The State Farm Arch Rivalry Series
Loss 40-34 (Edward Jones Dome - St. Louis, Mo. - 62,352)
FI.com - Video - Box Score

2007 was a season where Illinois football changed. Despite an early lead off a blocked punt, the season started where it had left off in 2006. Missouri ran roughshod over Illinois in the first half in St. Louis, Juice was sent off with an injury, McGee fumbled the ball twice, and Missouri moved down field with impunity. A fumble on the goal line, a fumble after a kickoff... the same crap we had been watching for the last half-decade reared its ugly head again. We were down 23-6 at the half, we were down 37-13 with 6:11 to play in the 3rd quarter. Yet another blow out... in the stands it felt like the optimism we had for 2007 wasn't going to make it past Labor Day.

Then... we kept playing. McGee threw to Joe Morgan for a 15 yard gain on 3rd and 19 from the Illinois 28, and Illinois marched down field for a touchdown. 37-20. Missouri tried a reverse, fumbled the ball, and on the very next play McGee found Kyle Hudson streaking for the endzone. 37-27, which would be how the 3rd quarter ended. Early in the fourth Chase Daniel coughed up the ball (controversial call, it very well could have been ruled incomplete) and Illinois scored after recovering the ball on the Missouri 4 yard line. 37-34. A Missouri field goal and a couple punts set up the drive that unfortunately wasn't to be. Eddie McGee got Illinois all the way to the 22 yard line of Missouri before throwing an interception to Corneliu Brown on the goaline with under a minute remaining.

Missouri won, but Illinois managed to save themselves.

Week 2:
Western Illinois (1-0, would finish 6-5, 3-3) @ Illinois (0-1)
Win 21-0 (Memorial Stadium - Champaign, Il. - 48,301)
FI.com - Video - Box Score

In week 2, Illinois opened up its home campaign (and the new North Endzone) with a 21-0 win over FCS Western Illinois. Offensively, Illinois was, well, pretty sad. Juice had a rough day, failing to throw the ball well, and Illinois didn't even get on the board until the second quarter, the result of a 32-yard scamper by newcomer Daniel Dufrene. Illinois did produce 400 yards of offense, but only 3 scores (Mendenhall, Dufrene, and Juice, all on the ground). The passing game was a sad 12-26 for 123 yards (Williams 12-24 for all 123 yards and 1 INT). Given how smooth Eddie McGee was in the pocket vs. Missouri, Illinois fans were getting restless.

The Illinois defense, however, put on clinic. WIU was held to only 152 yards of offense, and only completed 4 first downs. WIU managed 2 first downs on their opening drive, and only reset the chains twice during the game, with less than 4:00 to play in the first half, and with 6:30 to play in the game. WIU only threatened to score twice in the game, right after halftime when Walter Mendenhall fumbled a short opening kick on the 36 yard line (Illinois, specifically J Leman, stopped WIU on 4th and 1), and late in the fourth quarter when WIU missed a 38 yard field goal to preserve the shut out. It was the first time since a 31-0 blanking of Iowa in 2000 that the Illini had shut out an opponent.

2008-09 College Football Bowl Tie-ins

2008-07-08T12:38:00.002-05:00

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Explanation:
BCS Bowl slots are yellow.
Green cells indicate that that bowl game has that particular pick (for example, the Capital One Bowl is in the second row, so it has the second pick of Big Ten teams)
Gray cells indicate that a group of bowls share a group of picks.
The Orange cells indicate that the Gator and Sun bowl will chose either a Big East OR a Big 12 team.
The black cells indicate that the conference has priority towards a particular bowl game if a conference cannot fill its obligation.

Future Illini Schedules

2008-07-02T19:41:00.003-05:00

Depth Charts: Receivers

2008-06-27T11:12:00.001-05:00

Preseason Rankings

2008-06-27T08:47:00.002-05:00

So far I've found two sites with 1-120 rankings... the New York Times "The Quad" blog, and Rivals.

"The Quad" - New York Times
Rivals 120

Both of these are updated each morning, Rivals will announce #1 at the end of July, the New York Times at the end of August right before the season starts. I will try and update who they have each morning

Breakdown of conference strength by ranking:
"Projected Average" assumes that remaining unranked teams all have the same value.

Depth Charts: Runningbacks

2008-06-26T21:48:00.002-05:00

Depth Charts: Quarterbacks

2008-06-26T21:45:00.002-05:00

2008 Projected Starters

2008-06-26T21:39:00.005-05:00

Listed below are the projected starters for the 2008 Football Season.

The chart below, along with all the other depth charts on this site, are linked to a single spreadsheet that is currently under construction... so keep an eye on this page.

Illini Roster Page:

2008-06-26T21:35:00.012-05:00

Current Roster Information:
2008 Projected Starting Lineups
Scholarship Grid (all 85 scholarships laid out)
Number Chart

Depth Charts by Position:
Offense: Quarterbacks - Runningbacks - Receivers - Linemen
Defense: Linemen - Linebackers - Defensive Backs
Specialists

Future Projected Lineups:
2009 Projected Starters ... coming soon
2010 Projected Starters ... coming soon
2011 Projected Starters ... coming soon

DISCLAIMER ON ROSTER INFORMATION
Before you get all up in my grill about various bits of information linked below... please read the following:

Only recruits listed as "committed" by either Rivals or Scout will be included
By and large I do not assume players will redshirt until the season has started and we have a better idea if they will. I do assume that offensive linemen and quarterbacks will normally redshirt though.
As a general rule, I try not to speculate on if incoming recruits will jump established players or not. That means a hot-shot 4* recruit might be listed below an established 3* player... I won't switch them until we see it on the field.
The depth charts are a work in progress... if you have input on them leave a comment in the appropriate page and I will update it if I feel you know what you are talking about.
Information will be posted semi-regularly... but it might occasionally be a couple days or even a couple weeks before corrections/updates are made.

After reading that, if you want to get up in my grill over something, feel free to leave comments in the respective pages and I will make corrections as soon as I can.

Don't put this on the Internet

2008-06-20T08:43:00.002-05:00

Yesterday the Illini summer speaking tour landed in Peoria... here's a recap from the PJStar.

Some good stuff there.

Zook wants to play Notre Dame at Soldier Field (probably not gonna happen, but I love the chutzpah.)
Zook on Missouri: ""A year ago, our football team didn't think we could beat them. But now, even though they'll be a top 5 team, we'll step on that field and expect to win."
Evidently Weber has to keep his desk drawers locked because Jerrance "Snacks" Howard likes candy too much.
and of course the quote of the evening from Bruce:
"The league should be wide open and we can be right in the middle of it. I do know one thing, though. I think Indiana will suck. Don't put that on the Internet."

Wait, what was that last part?

Well, don't blame me, I got the quote off of the internet.

Ok, so... predictably, IU fans have their candy-striped pants all in a wad over this, which isn't necessarily a reaction unique to IU fans, but part of the greater internet trend of looking for something to be offended by and then flying off the handle over it (read any partisan political blog for 30 seconds).

Now, this whole story is awesome on a couple of levels.

As a card carrying Illini fan, I find both the quote, and the downfall of IU basketball that lead to the quote, hilarious.
Some IU fans, the people who embraced Bob Knight as a god, are now ranting about how "classless" Bruce and Illinois fans are... a situation I also find hilarious AND ironic.

All this for a throw-away quote that got a few chuckles from an all-Illini crowd in the heart of Illini basketball country. Was it the brightest thing for Bruce to say? Probably not, but oh well.

Gotta love the summer season, and its only June 20th. At least we aren't spending this year wondering if some snot-nosed 17 year old was going to keep his word or not.

IU fans can rant all they want, but one thing they can't accuse Weber of is not being honest. As an evidently much classier coach once said:

"If rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it"

At least with all of their recruits on campus they can start having 4 on 4 drills during the summer. They just better hope noboby gets hurt.

Everything is fine, goodnight!

Illinois Football Scholarship Grid

2008-06-19T14:31:00.000-05:00

Get your Zook Zone Towels, Brewster leaves Minnesota.

2008-06-17T14:51:00.002-05:00

Press releases from University SID's are usually something special...

For example, here's Illinois latest marketing gimmick. At least a dollar from each is going to charity.

On another note... always entertaining are the press releases when a player decides he doesn't want to play for you anymore. The fun doubles when the kid leaving is the COACHES SON, such is the case at Minnesota where RS Freshman QB Clint Brewster (who if you recall defected from Illinois a couple days before Signing Day to play for dear-old-daddy after a full month of "I'm solid with Illinois" banter) decided it was time spread his wings. No clue where he might be headed.

In da Hood

2008-06-11T17:51:00.004-05:00

From FightingIllini.com, tour of the new stadium additions with Assistant AD Warren Hood.

LINK (Windows Media)

Predict the final 2008 Big Ten standings:

2008-05-23T10:14:00.005-05:00

"interactive feature" time... I want to know how people think the Big Ten standings will end up...

I also want to toy around with Google Docs and their "live form" feature

This is also in anticipation of actually doing and following through with a "Big Ten Pick 'em" this fall... and the only way that will work is if i don't have to do any work... so behold the wonders of the internet.

Here's what you do:

CLICK ON THIS LINK

1.) Enter a name for yourself (so people can see what you have chosen)

2.) Select what school you root for (at some point if we get a couple lurkers i'd be interested to see what their predictions are)

3.) Select a school for First through Eleventh place. Make sure you pick a different school for each slot and you fill out the form, because if a school shows up twice your vote won't be counted (and there are no hanging chads here).

4.) Watch the table below grow:

How the fans of each school voted

Its time for Crean Cleaning!

2008-05-22T15:14:00.003-05:00

Ok, I'm a streak updating this site...

A little while ago (yesterday) I posted about how IU is doing something right, and I felt guilty about it and promised to come up with something showing how pathetic they are in the near future...

well, just when you think we'd have to wait for more high-comedy... another rat has jumped ship, as Brandon McGee has now been booted from IU.

Lord knows if anyone is actually reading this, but if there is someone who is stumbling across this block of text, then someday an IU fan is bound to stumble across it... and they are probably wondering "Haven't we suffered enough!? Why are you picking on IU? blah blah banners blah..."

Its a fair question, and the answer is simple enough: No they haven't suffered enough.

This is a program who's fans were non-existent my first two years at Illinois (2003/04 and 2004/05)... but all of sudden once Mike Davis was fired, out of seemingly nowhere IU fans started to pop up and rant about the return to glory for IU and how the rest of the Big Ten should be shaking in our banner-less arenas because IU was back to pwn our asses.

Then they settled for Kelvin Sampson.

Then that little SOB Eric Gordon proceeded to lie to our entire fanbase for a summer, and stab us in the back. IU fans then laughed at us, proclaimed victory and the return of IU to its "rightful" place atop the Big Ten, where they would no longer have to deal with us unwashed peasants ever again.

They said Sampson was a great recruiter, he had learned from his "mistakes", and promised to bring fine, upstanding young men to Bloomington to represent Hoosier Nation.

Well, that was a wonderful fantasy, except Sampson wasn't requiring kids to go to class, overlooked countless team violations, and apparently did very little actual coaching (remember Eric Gordon's "he lets me do whatever I want" statement the week IU came to Champaign?). Not to mention he couldn't figure out exactly what NCAA calling rules were.

The result, he left IU in shambles... and as of today there are freaking TWO scholarship players left... (if you could former walk-on Kyle Taber)

the roster at IUHoosiers.com is hilarious:

THREE freaking players with numbers next to their name... that because the rest of the 08/09 Basketball team hasn't even set foot on campus yet... IU has had to enter their recruits into the roster to make it appear less embarrassing than it really is. Only 2 players in the entire program have played NCAA basketball before.

Oh by the way.. there are at least rumblings that Crawford might be gone soon too.. (purely speculation and unverifiable)

IU's lineup for next year includes ONE FREAKING PLAYER over 6'8"... 7 footer Tijan Jobe who averaged a massive 4 pts / 4 rebounds playing for OLNEY CENTRAL COLLEGE... (also, as a sidenote, NJCAA.org has his stats listed at 3 pts/game and 3.074 rebounds/game... but hey, IU needs to inflate their spirits somehow)

The funny thing is, the second Crean was even rumored to be going to IU, Hoosier fans were already starting to pat themselves on the back and brag about how "everything is going to be just fine"...

well, it might be, but its gonna be a few years... and until then, they better just learn to deal with the ridicule and chorus of laughter coming from the rest of the college basketball world, because Indiana is truly the laughingstock of NCAA hoops these days.... and the NCAA hearings have yet to come...

...although it should be noted: is there really anything left of the IU program for the NCAA smash up this summer? The NCAA could take away 5 scholarships and STILL not make IU shuffle its roster.

Don't expect much from the NCAA... there isn't anything they could possibly do to IU that their own hubris hasn't done to themselves.

My hope is that good kids like Matt Roth and Verdell Jones don't have IU fans turn on them... because given the way the "saviour of Indiana Basketball" Eric Gordon left Bloomington, I shudder to think what will happen when the IU fans don't realize their current situation is their own damn fault and turn on kids who are left after the Spring Crean-ing in Bloomington.

It's on like Donkey Kong

2008-05-22T12:49:00.002-05:00

The opening day clash of Illinois - Missouri has been set for a 6:45 PM CT kickoff on the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

to quote Flounder:

This is gonna be GREAT!

...about the schedule

2008-05-21T15:40:00.002-05:00

sorry if this is terribly difficult to read, but below is a chart of all the kickoff times and TV clearances that have been announced thus far (accurate as of May 21, 2008, check back later for more)

First column is school name (duh)

Next 6 columns show the number of games each school has on each TV station. These are

RED: ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 Primetime game.
ORANGE: ABC Afternoon game (usually 2:30PM)
PURPLE: TV Station yet to be announced, but kickoff time announced (these are all 11AM games that will either be on ESPN or the Big Ten Network)
BLUE: Big Ten Network games (mostly 6 or 7PM primetime kickoffs)
GREEN: ESPN or ESPN2
GRAY: "Other"... right now the only one is the NBC game for Purdue @ Notre Dame... games like Illinois/W. Michigan and Wisconsin @ Fresno State could wind up on other networks as well.

The Next 3 columns represent how many games each school has at each of the 3 major time slots (Early being usually 11AM kickoffs, Midday being 2:30 or 3:30 kickoffs, Evening being anything after 5PM)

Just in case you are wondering, all times are Central... you people east of Illinois can cope.

After that is the Big Ten schedule chart, showing the games each team plays each week, colored according the method mentioned above with the kickoff time in (). Black boxes represent Bye Weeks, games that are in white boxes haven't set TV clearances or kickoff times yet.

A couple thoughts RE: our schedule.

With Michigan State @ California occupying the 7PM game on ABC, it looks like Illinois will probably be playing earlier... this backs up the rumors that we will be playing at ~6:00PM on ESPN.
Those of you hoping for Ohio State @ Illinois under the lights might want to temper that... Ohio State already has 3 games on ABC during primetime lined up... will they get a fourth? Working in favor of OSU/Illinois in prime time is the fact that no other Big Ten game that weekend comes close to standing out, unless there is a major cinderella story in the Big Ten.

People still evidently attend Big Ten basketball games

2008-05-21T15:27:00.003-05:00

yes, I got this off of the Minnesota site..

Big Ten captures 32nd straight NCAA attendance title, averaging 12,978 fans per game... 838 more fans/game than the 2nd place SEC did.

Two things of note here:

1.) Illinois, at 16,618 fans/game (thank god we sold out before the season started) was, at least on paper, the 11th most attended basketball team in the nation

2.) the ACC was NOT runner up this year... as the Southeastern Conference crept into 2nd place. This seriously questions the god-like status of the league than can do no wrong (to be fair, it also highlights the fact that schools like Duke, BC, and Georgia Tech, while popular, play in smaller gyms)

Well, at least Indiana is doing one thing right...

2008-05-21T13:21:00.003-05:00

I hate for my one post in quite a while to be about something IU HASN'T f*cked up... I'll throw together something of moderate length laughing at them in the near future...

From Peegs... their stadium expansion is starting to take shape

If it makes you feel better, I believe construction delays have pushed the project back (thankfully any delay's at the real Memorial Stadium in Champaign have been minor and the project appears to be on schedule)...

and I still can't figure out why they are adding luxury seating to the SOUTH side of the stadium (the side the sun would shine on)... maybe they wanted the open end to face campus.

so setting aside the cheating basketball program, their slime ball ex basketball coach, their screwed up athletic department, the fact they are stuck with a mediocre football coach, their pathetic non conference schedule, the impending NCAA sanctions, all the athletes who were calling the shots in the basketball program and had to be flushed out of town, James Hardy getting arrested AGAIN, Kellen Lewis smokin' the refer, and their OTHER slimeball ex basketball coach...

...at least their cozy yet-uninspired football facility is starting to look like an actual big ten venue and not an over-sized MAC stadium.

so um... we might be decent this year

2008-04-25T21:13:00.003-05:00

from FightingIllini.com

NationalChamps.net has named Vontae Davis, Ryan McDonald, and Will Davis to their preseason All-American team.

Vontae Davis was named a 3rd team all-american corner, while McDonald and Davis received honorable mention listing.

Overall, they rated Illinois to be the 18th best team in the country.

Program trends... since the 1890's.

2008-04-24T15:18:00.008-05:00

Ok, so you are probably wondering, WTF is that picture above?

Well, its a chart showing the strength of all 12 current and former Big Ten teams since 1896, the first year of league play.

The chart uses a 4-year rolling average, where the value for each school is the average place in the Big Ten standings for the previous four years (so if a school finishes 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 3rd over a 4 year period, its value will be "4.0").

The idea is to show how programs have risen and fallen over the previous 112 years.

If the above chart is way too confusing, each individual Big Ten school is listed out below. In the chart below, the red dots are how the team finished each year in the final big ten standings, and the blue line is a 4-year rolling average.

In case you are wondering, only conference games are included. If two teams finished with the same Big Ten record, they are tied in the standings regardless of their non conference record.

also, if you want year-by-year Big Ten standings, the final standings each year from the 1890's until the present are now on this site... click here.

Illinois:

Indiana:

Iowa:

Michigan:

Michigan State:

Minnesota:

Northwestern:

Ohio State:

Penn State:

Purdue:

Wisconsin:

Chicago:

2008 Fighting Illini Season

2008-04-24T13:06:00.005-05:00

Check back later for more:

Schedule:

Date	Opponent	Stadium	City
8/30/2008	Missouri	Edward Jones Dome	St. Louis, MO	Pregame - Postgame - Highlights - Box Score
9/6/2008	Eastern Illinois	Memorial Stadium	Champaign, IL	Pregame - Postgame - Highlights - Box Score
9/13/2008	Louisiana-Lafayette	Memorial Stadium	Champaign, IL	Pregame - Postgame - Highlights - Box Score
9/27/2008	Penn State	Beaver Stadium	State College, PA	Pregame - Postgame - Highlights - Box Score
10/4/2008	Michigan	Michigan Stadium	Ann Arbor, MI	Pregame - Postgame - Highlights - Box Score
10/11/2008	Minnesota	Memorial Stadium	Champaign, IL	Pregame - Postgame - Highlights - Box Score
10/14/2008	Indiana	Memorial Stadium	Champaign, IL	Pregame - Postgame - Highlights - Box Score
10/25/2008	Wisconsin	Camp Randall Stadium	Madison, WI	Pregame - Postgame - Highlights - Box Score
11/1/2008	Iowa	Memorial Stadium	Champaign, IL	Pregame - Postgame - Highlights - Box Score
11/8/2008	Western Michigan	Ford Field	Detroit, MI
11/15/2008	Ohio State	Memorial Stadium	Champaign, IL	Pregame - Postgame - Highlights - Box Score
11/22/2008	Northwestern	Ryan Field	Evanston, IL	Pregame - Postgame - Highlights - Box Score

Illini Football Archive

2008-04-23T09:38:00.006-05:00

This is a "static" page that will be linked to the right.

One thing I've found when searching the internet, is that year by year Big Ten standings are a real pain to find, the Big Ten website has basically no archival football information, and there really aren't any sites out there that show year by year standings. What there is, however, is record information online in each school's media guide. So what follows is the year-by-year Big Ten football standings.

Big Ten Standings by Decade:
2000's
1990's
1980's
1970's
1960's
1950's
1940's
1930's
1920's
1910's
1900's
Before 1900

More to come.

Uniform Number Assignments

2008-04-22T09:27:00.001-05:00

The Roster:

2008-04-21T09:49:00.003-05:00

Here's Our Current Roster Situation:

Scholarship Athletes: (63 of 85 Scholarships)

1	Vontae Davis
2	Martez Wilson
3	Marques Wilkins
5	Mikel LeShoure
6	Chris James
7	Juice Williams
9	Arrelious Benn
10	Eddie McGee
11	Jarred Fayson
13	Will Judson
14	Marcus Thomas
15	Chris Duvalt
16	Michael Hoomanawanui
17	Jeff Cumberland
18	Nate Bussey
20	Garrett Edwards
21	Kyle Hudson
22	Daniel Dufrene
26	Brian Gamble
27	Antonio Gully
28	Dere Hicks
29	Troy Pollard
30	Rahkeem Smith
31	Travon Bellamy
32	Ashante Williams
35	Darius Purcell
37	Kyle Yelton
38	Ian Thomas
43	Sam Carson III
44	Brit Miller
45	Rodney Pittman
52	Jon Asamoah
53	Dustin Jefferson
55	Anterio Jackson
56	Sirod Williams
57	Mike Garrity
60	Ryan McDonald
62	Eric Block
65	Mike Nabolotny
66	Randall Hunt
68	Xavier Fulton
71	Jeff Allen
72	Reggie Ellis
73	Jack Cornell
74	Brandon Jordan
75	Mark Jackson
76	Graham Pocic
78	Ryan Palmer
79	Craig Wilson
81	Will Davis
82	Fred Sykes
85	C.J. Jackson
85	Whitney Mercilus
86	Greg McClendon
90	Antonio James
91	Derek Walker
92	Josh Brent
93	D'Angelo McCray
94	David Lindquist
95	Doug Pilcher
97	Clay Nurse
98	Daryle Ballew
99	Jerry Brown

Signed Recruits: (21 Scholarship, 1 Walkon... 84/85 Scholarships Committed)

Jacob Charest

Hubie Graham

A.J. Jenkins

Cordale Scott

Donsay Hardeman

Tavon Wilson

London Davis

Jason Ford

Russell Ellington

Supo Sanni

Justin Staples

Tyler Sands

Glenn Foster

Ryan Sedlacek

Jack Ramsey

Nate Palmer

Evan Frierson

Corey Lewis

Corey Liuget

Patrick Nixon

Ugochukwu Uzodinma

Derek Dimke (Prefered Walk-On)

Walk Ons

10	Cody Stunkard
14	Sean Anderson
22	Andrew Harweger
23	Jack Eastman
24	Bo Flowers
30	Mike Locksley, Jr.
33	Mike Mucha
33	Mark Burgess
35	Michael Cklamovski
36	Jared Bosch
38	Matt Brandabur
39	Conor Gillen
39	Tad Keely
43	Nick Levanti
49	Tyler Pacha
51	Wisdom Onyegbule
58	Bryson Whalen
61	Cole Knuth
80	Alex Reavy
84	Matt Eller
87	Anthony Santella
88	Jaon McGoey
89	Tom Sullivan

Players Not Returning: (33)

5	Rashard Mendenhall	Left for Pro's
8	DaJuan Warren	Graduated
11	Joe Morgan	Not On Roster
12	Billy Garza	Graduated
13	Jason Reda	Graduated
14	Ryan Baise	Left Team
16	Mark Venegoni	Graduated (WO)
18	Kevin Bailey	Left Team
19	Tony Petruzzello	Left Team
19	Phil Haig	Left Team
23	Drew McMahon	Graduated (WO)
25	Justin Sanders	Graduated
32	Justin Harrison	Graduated
34	Walter Mendenhall	Graduated
36	Maurice Haney	Left Team
40	Antonio Steele	Graduated
41	Russ Weil	Graduated
42	Kevin Mitchell	Graduated
42	Justin Ijei	Graduated (WO)
46	Tyler Rouse	Graduated (WO)
47	J Leman	Graduated
48	Erique Robertson	Left Team
49	Kyle Knezetic	Graduated (WO)
51	Anthony Thornhill	Graduated
58	Dan Motuliak	Graduated
63	Will Bergen	Left Team
64	Martin O'Donnell	Graduated
69	Akim Millington	Graduated
76	Charles Myles	Graduated
76	Mike Ware	Graduated
82	Frank Lenti Jr.	Graduated
83	Jacob Willis	Graduated
96	Chris Norwell	Graduated

Breakdown of Players not Returning:

Graduation: 24 players (19 Scholarship). this number includes 3 players who did not have their scholarships renewed for a 5th year (Walter Mendenhall, Billy Graza, & Dan Motuliak)*
NFL Draft: 1 - Rashard Mendenhall
Left Team: 8 (Including 3 scholarship players: Phil Haig (will play baseball), Will Bergen (no clue) and Erique Robertson (douchebaggery)
Not on Roster: Joe Morgan (he may be gone, but I have heard he could come back, so he is in limbo)

* Note: Graduation doesn't mean a player actually earned a diploma, I hope they did. It means they have been here for at least 4 years and either used up their eligibility... or were not asked back for a 5th)

So it turns out writing about football

2008-04-20T10:50:00.003-05:00

is kinda difficult during the offseason.

well, huzzah for Spring Football.

Pics from the spring game yesterday:

Driving up I-57 to Champaign

Coming up Neil St. in Champaign.. you can see the Stadium and Assembly Hall off in the distance

West Side of Memorial Stadium... the new press box/luxury seating tower is taking shape.

Memorial Stadium, and Assembly Hall to the right

The "I-Hotel"(right) and conference center (left), which will feature a Houlihans restaurant, located just South of Assembly Hall, it will be open this fall. (memo to DIA, have a beer garden in the conference center before basketball/football games)

again with the hotel/conference center.

Assembly Hall

OK, the game itself

This is all we saw of Regis Benn yesterday, as he is still recovering from shoulder surgery.

The game is available on bigtennetwork.com, and will be rebroadcast on the Big Ten Network in the coming weeks.

Recruits sat in the student section for the game

This guy found a spot to watch the game during his break.

Isiah Williams about to receive a snap... Juice went 17-of-31 for 210 yards.

Eddie McGee, lined up with Mikel Leshoure behind him. McGee went 8-of-14 for 127 yards, including a 54 yard TD to Brian Gamble

The new Press Box rises over the stadium.

Cranes brought in steel for the center section of the press box as the game progressed.

Juice lined up with Daniel Dufrene at HB. The running game had issues yesterday. Mikel Leshoure and Jared Faysen each fumbled the ball on exchanges.

Handoffs need to be tightened up, but hopefully the lack of any long runs is more of a tribute to the D-Line (which might be the best in the Big Ten) and not a sign of ba

Inside the East Great Hall... most of the concession stands have been ripped out, and will be replaced by this fall...

eventually all the ramps will be ripped out and replaced with a walkway/staircases... I don't know if that will be done in time for the fall, however.

12,521 was the announced attendance. Decent crowd, especially since the Spring Game has never been a huge draw at Illinois, although if rain wasn't in the forecast I would imagine it would have been much more

The first ~50 rows of the lower bowl will remain intact on the west side... the upper part of the West Main Stands is now an outdoor club. This fall the "Colonnades Club" will feature over 1,000 seats with an indoor club room located behind it.

13 rows remain in the upper bowl, above it will rest 3 levels of suites, a 200 person indoor club, and spaces for coaches, the press, announcers, broadcasters, and Ron Guenther.

Illinois tightens up the formation as Juice surveys the defense.

It will cost $50,000 for you and a dozen or so of your friends to rest your ass on this beam during games this fall...

Two back set

a fullback in the game.

After the game, the view from what used to be Section M of the balcony, now Section 207.... this is where I will call home 6 Saturdays next fall.

view of the new luxury seating tower/press box from the east balcony.

Looking out over the north endzone and Champaign... in retrospect I should have gotten a shot of the "new" campus skyline...

"can't lower the field 5 feet because of sightlines"... my ass.

still, the view from the balcony is great.

Looking up at the balcony from about row ~65-70 of the lower bowl.

Out and About Champaign after the game:
While waiting for my Papa Dels Pizza to cook (drool)... took a walk down Green Street...

all I have to say is, I've been gone about 300 days, and I don't recognize it anymore, good lord.
\
This is the Burnham towers, which will be a 14 story condo building, with grocery store, built on Springfield Avenue 2 blocks north of Green Street. City planners hope this building will help connect Campustown and Downtown Champaign... the University had to move a radio transmitter because the tower was blocking the WILL signal.

309 Green Street in the front, this will be the tallest building in Champaign, and to the best of my knowledge the second tallest building in downstate Illinois (outside of Watterston Towers at Illinois State University)... 8 floors will be parking garage, with a pool on top of it, and 16 floors of high end student apartments.

another new building in the background... I'm not sure what the "name" of it is... but its being built in the parking lot that used to be across from Legends.

309 Green is slowly catching up to The Tower on Third, Presidential Tower, University Inn, Century 21, whatever that building is called now...

it was announced this week that 309 Green Building will have a second building build on the east (opposite side from this picture) side of it...

campus town, this is at 5th and Green

from 4th and Green Street I could see 4 new large commercial/residential buildings that simply didn't exist 12 months ago...