Pregame: Illinois vs Michigan State, Saturday, November 5th, 2:30pm CT, BTN

jrichisamazing said:

We will be fired up after being "disrespected" by the CFP committee. MSU won't be ready to play after all the distractions.

24-0 good guys at the half

We cruise in the 2nd half, MSU scores a TD against our 2nd string making this one a little closer than it really was.

30-13

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DeonThomas said:

With the suspensions, MSU certainly seems beaten down on defense. Still, I have a difficult time believing a Vegas spread of 16 points.

30 ILLINI
16 MSU

We win, but do not cover. I'm at a Saturday wedding and will miss the game. That means a lot of peering down at my cell phone on silent during the ceremony.

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Mr. Tibbs said:

Mr Roberts - you are confusing games

The game on Thanksgiving in 2001 was against NW. I was there with wife and the family of 3 kids ages 11, 9,& 7 then . not the ideal way to spend the day , and not near a "sell out" . attendance wise. seeing it was a great year on the field for the boys .

Disappointing crowd actually . and the weather was ok - cloudy but not cold.

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IlliniInBuckeyeState said:

I've been tracking the ticket sales for MSU in a spreadsheet for the last two weeks. I've checked the ticket site on average 10-15 times per day and have taken inventory of what seats/rows/sections are listed for sale. I've also noted what seats/rows/sections are not listed for sale.

According to what I've seen, and it depends on the section, but anywhere from 11-20 of the top rows in the East Main stands have not been listed for sale yet. Assuming the unavailable rows are 100% unsold and counting the available tickets, there are approximately 4,252 unsold tickets in the East Main stands. There could be some additional in section 101 depending on what the student ticket overflow situation is. The East Balcony is completely sold out. I've seen tickets in every other section/row come and go. The Horseshoe, West Main, and West Balcony have had some one-off tickets appear, but they are effectively sold out. All told I think there have been at least 56,416 tickets sold (assuming the student tickets sell out...I have no data there).

I guarantee this game looks like a sellout (weather permitting), and as others have said, maybe that is what is most important.

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Saturdaze said:

You’re either a troll or my hero.

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Fighter of the Nightman said:

The problem you alluded to in your last sentence will unfortunately just take a generation growing up with good Illini football teams, IMO. Too many Illini fans (especially ones outside of the Champaign MSA) view that game as an inconvenience on a holiday weekend, and that is of course VERY unfortunate ... we need to get to the point where a long Thanksgiving Weekend and Illini Football are intertwined! For perspective, I am back at my parents every year in Iowa City for Thanksgiving. EVERY Friday after Thanksgiving, whether the game is in Lincoln or Iowa City, I party with all of my friends for the Iowa/Nebraska game - either tailgating in the cold or drinking in a bar. I'm not even an Iowa fan, but I look forward to it each year. On an even bigger scale, do you think any Michigan/OSU or Alabama/Auburn fans would miss that last game on Thanksgiving Weekend?? I've heard two main arguments for why the NU game will rarely if ever pull a big crowd.

Part of the problem is our ~rival~ Northwestern just isn't very exciting ... however, a lot of the teams we SHOULD be final-weekend-rivals with already have rivalries that we won't replace (namely, Iowa/Nebraska or Wisconsin/Minnesota). We blew our chance at that one with years of sucking and partial bad luck that our only other instate team is a tiny private school with few fans and a historic tradition of sports futility ... so, unfortunately, that isn't going to change.

The other problem I see people cite is that too much of our fan base lives far away, especially the thousands and thousands of Illini alumni/fans in the St. Louis and especially Chicago MSAs; they are unlikely to drive to Champaign on that weekend, especially vs. a rival they perceive as lame and (way too often) for an Illini team whose season is over). I went into detail in another post that there are significantly more people within a 1-hour drive of Champaign than there are West Lafayette or Iowa City (both of which outdraw us regularly, with Iowa putting almost 70k in the stands the DAY after Thanksgiving ever year...), so I don't actually buy this argument either! I think if it became "more of a thing" in Champaign, we'd fill it up ... but it'll take more than one good year. IF you accept this argument as an insurmountable obstacle to Illinois ever getting a good crowd for the last game of the season, even when we are good, then I don't see how you can argue for any other solution other than making the investment right now in making Illinois/Northwestern an annual holiday tradition in Chicago, regardless of who the home team is. That not only shifts the game to a market with tens of thousands of our alumni/fans (and a majority of our current students), it shifts some of the ticket burden to Northwestern's side, as well. Honestly, it's never going to be Georgia/Florida or Texas/Oklahoma, but I would 100% support this.

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Captain 14 said:

Is there any other "rivalry" potential for us than Northwestern? When exactly did this become our rivalry game? Hearing our previous coaches (with little if any B1G or Illini chops) refer to "the team up north" as if this was some huge highly anticipated annual showdown, was laughable if not embarrassing IMHO. A true rivalry game is one that fans talk about ALL YEAR, not once a year. Thank you....I feel much better now.

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willillini said:

I know it dates me, but I was a student when the Illini beat Michigan for the big ten championship on halloween in 1983.
They closed green street. Kids hung from the light poles. Nothing too violent, I think maybe a sofa might have been burned
if i remember correctly. i sat in the temporary bleachers 10 yards behind the south endzone where David Williams dove into
the corner for the winning score. Jack Trudeau, Thomas Rooks and Craig Swoope are a few of the Illini on that all big ten team.

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Timj83 said:

You sir are a madman and I love it

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Illinir1 said:

My most favorite Memorial Stadium game. I talked my way into my hometown newspaper getting me a field sports photographer pass (we had a player on the team). With 76,000 loud fans in the stand, I still vividly remember the Michigan punter having to punt out of his own (South) endzone early in the game. I was on the endline at the back of the endzone immediately behind him and it was like a jet engine down on the field. The punter was looking to the referees and making signs like "I can't hear", to no avail. Memorial Stadium rocked that day more than any in my now 42 years as a season ticket holder.

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trtl said:

Can’t he be both?

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Orangeandbrew said:

Eat ham balls if you’re from Iowa. No one else in the nation likes them. Google them and judge for yourself. They taste like graham cracker turdlets

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Orangeandbrew said:

Eat ham balls if you’re from Iowa. No one else in the nation likes them. Google them and judge for yourself. They taste like graham cracker turdlets

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Jimbo said:

No. You record it, stay in isolation, then watch it later.

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jrichisamazing said:

We will be fired up after being "disrespected" by the CFP committee. MSU won't be ready to play after all the distractions.

24-0 good guys at the half

We cruise in the 2nd half, MSU scores a TD against our 2nd string making this one a little closer than it really was.

30-13

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illini80 said:

Having lived in a Swedish colony area (of Illinois) for many years, Ham balls and Ham loaf are somewhat popular in my area. Made correctly, they are actually quite good! Interesting to me that you associate them with Iowa.

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DeonThomas said:

OK. Deal.

The wedding is in Charleston, SC. I have it tivo'd and I return home late Sunday evening. However, I will continue to pop onto Illinois Loyalty for my daily "fix". Would therefore appreciate if Dan and all of you can avoid posting about the game until I've viewed in its entirety.

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jrichisamazing said:

We will be fired up after being "disrespected" by the CFP committee. MSU won't be ready to play after all the distractions.

24-0 good guys at the half

We cruise in the 2nd half, MSU scores a TD against our 2nd string making this one a little closer than it really was.

30-13

Click to expand...

DeonThomas said:

OK. Deal.

The wedding is in Charleston, SC. I have it tivo'd and I return home late Sunday evening. However, I will continue to pop onto Illinois Loyalty for my daily "fix". Would therefore appreciate if Dan and all of you can avoid posting about the game until I've viewed in its entirety.

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OrangeLife said:

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RML said:

This D giving up a second half TD, at home, to a weakened conference opponent? I don't see it.

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