Pregame: Illinois vs Toledo, Saturday, September 2nd, 6:30pm CT, BTN
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“Traditional” Big Ten race.The Big Ten will move away from the East and West division format in 2024, so it's one last chance to watch a traditional Big Ten race before the former Pac-12 schools join the fray.
Big Ten football predictions 2023: Conference standings, impact players, best games | Sporting News
Michigan will overcome Jim Harbaugh's season-opening suspension and win the league title in the final season before the Big Ten expands to 18 teams.www.sportingnews.com
SuperMetroid
- Evanston
Richard Johnson of SI has us winning the West: College Football Crystal Ball
Ooh, I wanna click....
I don't know why, but I want to say that anything short of "an obvious" winner is going to be disappointing to me. I get it.... Toledo is not your average MAC team or whatever, but that's Beckman/Lovie era pre-excuse making. Are we better than Toledo? We sure as hell better be. Then why are we even questioning this?
34-14 in a game where Toledo is never even a thought, and scores a final TD in garbage time.
34-14 in a game where Toledo is never even a thought, and scores a final TD in garbage time.
We’re down 3 and we have a true freshman in? Seems like a coaching issue.
yup Beliema said he's going to play
the national
- the Front Range
Rest assured. The students are doing thier best to represent.
Edit: Dan beat me to it
Our two comments are not mutually exclusive. Students are the last to arrive and the first to leave. I stand by that.
Prove me wrong this year, student section.
Toledo is bringing the band... that may help attendance by 120 or so
Are they also bringing their instruments?
Well, we are in West Balcony on the 50. It I think it’s sold out.
Lower the field. Do we need the track anymore?Thanks!! And yes, responding to yours and other comments on my MS Paint handiwork, plus some other random thoughts of my own...
1. I could not agree more that it is not really about how MANY seats we have; it is about the layout. As another poster said, the Big House's 110k+ are not much louder than our 48k vs. Iowa ... it's all about how the stadium is built. And loud stadiums are enclosed to trap the noise. Consider the following two stadiums that are materially smaller than ours but look more complete, trap the noise better and generally make better use of the seats they do have (you'll notice neither has any seats underneath a balcony overhang).
Minnesota: 6,523 fewer seats
Baylor: 15,530 fewer!!!
2. On that note, people shouldn't think of relocating capacity to the Horseshoe as KEEPING the Horseshoe ... the Horseshoe needs to be demolished. The fact that you have twice the seats in the Horseshoe as you do in the student section shows just how inefficiently and architecturally lame we made that structure. If you took all the seats from underneath the East Balcony overhang and added it to the Horseshoe but built the structure below, I bet you would actually have a net REDUCTION in capacity, as newer stadiums/seats just have lower capacities because they're less cramped in:
View attachment 27853
Now that is just a thing of beauty. The problem with the current Horseshoe (and the NEZ, to a lesser extent) is that the seats/design of Memorial Stadium between the end zones is truly "grand" in its appearance. When the seats in the end zone are as mundane (at best) or even ugly (at worst) as the Horseshoe, it looks like we have two different stadiums mashed together, and (in my humble opinion) starts to take away from some of the beauty of Memorial Stadium.
The first picture below looks like we have a stadium comparable to Ohio State (specifically) or another Blue Blood, as your mind fills in the rest of the stadium looking that grand ... the second one looks like a (kind of) nice high school stadium in Texas, lol.
View attachment 27854
I know I complain about the Horseshoe a lot ... but I only do it because I care, and I see such limitless potential in our stadium. Perception is crafted by a game of inches, and improvements that might not seem that essential (like renovating the Horseshoe) can end up making a massive difference. Once Bret strings together some more winning seasons and our attendance/donor money keeps increasing, I think Josh definitely sees the value in renovating Memorial Stadium in a way that maintains its classic look while improving on it. It really could be one of the most iconic venues in the Big Ten ... we are gifted with an absolutely incredible and unique starting point, we just have to touch up some areas.
My son’s little high school had a strong marching band program for decades, coached by alumni of the Marching Illini. Last year they took best in show among all 1A-6A classes at ISU, with 130 members in their little 2A band. Morton marching band takes top spot in ISU’s statewide competition.
They always performed in another statewide competition in Memorial Stadium every year, winning their class there each time as well. Tomorrow my son will join me for the Toledo game and we’ll catch the 375-member MI‘s march to the stadium from the Armory at 5:40. Great memories.
Illinois 23
Toledo 13
Gonna be close for awhile, Illini pull away late
Toledo 13
Gonna be close for awhile, Illini pull away late
Pretty rare for a nonconference opponent to bring their band. Will be a homecoming for Band Director Rhodes.
If you're interested in seeing them, they'll be rehearsing around 1:30 at our band practice field (1st and Gregory, on Google Maps as Marching Illini Practice Field). The drumlines will also probably try to play together around 5:15 outside the southeast corner of the Armory. I know their schedule says march out is 5:00, but every band to visit Champaign ever has marched out behind the Marching Illini and their march out is at 5:50.
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