Illinois vs Nebraska, Friday, November 6th, 7:00pm CT, FOX
Neidermeyer
- Faber College
I assume Nebby wears red helmet white uni. Good call on blue.
While I do love the all blue, one of the best parts of playing a red team at home is that their fans blend into ours so you can't tell how many visitors there are.
I'm not a fan of the idea of the "blue out" (at the very least, could we call it something else?), but will be interesting to see. I can appreciate doing it against a red team, and I can appreciate doing something different, but I just don't think it will work. Like others have alluded to, any smattering of orange in the crowd will be very noticeable. Any red in the crowd will be very noticeable, and it would have disappeared in a sea of orange. Anyway, I hope I'm wrong and it looks cooler than I'm thinking it will. Either way, I don't care if our fanbase collectively decides to wear neon pink, as long as we can secure a bowl bid.
TheFlyingIllini1317
- Chicago, IL
I know it's a Friday but a bit surprised this isn't a sellout. If we took one of Duke or Purdue I think it would be.
Friday games just are not working out at Illinois. I think a big part is how far so many fans have to travel to make it and how late the game finishes. Combine that with $500/night hotel rooms, and people are just not willing to do it. Then toss in 40 degree weather at kickoff, and the crowd is going to be pretty sparse tomorrow. It's unfortunate, but we would have to be 7-1 and ranked to be pulling in a sellout.
I think Friday P4 games are lame. Let the non-AQ conferences have their time during the week. The games are actually really good lately.
If it was up to me we it would be Saturdays and moving rivalry games away from Thanksgiving weekend.
But but...Friday night lights 
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I'm just going to be super curious to see what it will look like. The pessimist in me says that (A) far too many people will wear something other than navy and (B) our shade of navy is not truly designed to "pop" in a color theme game like this. However, I will retain some hope that it looks really cool, and I am all for trying something slightly different (as long as we don't cash in on "White Out" and "Black Out" trends when we are a school that actually has two "real" / bold team colors).
FWIW, these are the only things I could find that might possibly give us a preview.
While this was far from a "Blue Out," this old picture of a night game back when a MUCH larger percentage of our crowd wore navy provides an interesting comparison.
I don't know why this game sticks in my memory so distinctly, but this was an "Operation Blue Out" we did during Weber's final season (IIRC, this upset win vs. a top 10 MSU team was one of our only wins down the stretch of our abysmal finish to the 2012 season). Unfortunately, I think this photo might do a good job of confirming both of my fears, as the navy looks surprisingly "dull" or "normal," and you can see the orange specks very easily. With that said, I feel like the all-navy underneath the lights at a football game might pop a little better, and I am sure our special effects squad will have the lights working overtime!