WIU @ Northwestern - 9/20

[ST_Lawson]

It is getting pretty late to not have a start time. I sure hope the B1G picks this game up, otherwise what the heck are we waiting for?

I'm guessing that they're waiting to see what the broadcast situation is going to be. I know that last year, some of the U of IL games didn't announce start times until the weekend right before (so...like 7 days out) because they were still working out that stuff.

If you look at ESPN's schedule for that weekend, there's only one B1G game that's scheduled so far, Miami (FL) at Nebraska at 7 PM, and that's on ABC/ESPN. All the other B1G games are TBA at this point, so they're probably trying to negotiate with the various teams, figure out times that work for everyone, so that the BTN can air as many of the games live as possible...and sometimes they like to wait a week or two into the season to see if they can figure out which games would be the most exciting, then prioritize those.

[ST_Lawson]

Gametime has been set for 11 AM. I suppose that means the pregame social starts ~8 AM. That works out well for my schedule, personally.

[wiu712]

The game will be on ESPN News.

[BobLovely]

Macomb: population 20,000..........Amtrak service? Yes.

Peoria Metro: population 380,000...Amtrak service? No.

Way to go Peoria. Every significant metro in the State has Amtrak service except Peoria. (Decatur has no Amtrak......ADM recently has moved their Headquarters from Decatur to Chicago)

Peoria is the 2nd Biggest Metropolitan area in the State of Illinois outside of Chicago and it has no Amtrak. Metro East is first outside of Chicago.

When Peoria had the Peoria Rocket the train service was not supported with ridership:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_Marksman

Bob

[ST_Lawson]

So many trains for me this weekend. Amtrak up to the suburbs Friday night, Metra into Union Station then different train up to Evanston on Saturday, then back the same way after the game and then Amtrak back to Macomb on Sunday.

Did some quick skimming around on some of the Northwestern message boards/forums and there's a lot of people saying they'll skip going to this game and people saying "put in the young guys...play for next year".
If the Western fans are loud, could end up being just about the equivalent of a "neutral site" game.

The Marching Leathernecks are going up on Friday and performing at Stevenson High School up in Lincolnshire that evening and then will be at the game on Saturday. I wonder if they'll make an appearance at the pregame social as well? That kind of stuff has happened before, but it probably depends on their schedule.

[WIU0812]

Ya I saw that there has not been much discussion about this game on their boards yet. They basically are blowing it off and I would like to see about 2,500 fans at the game from WIU. I just hope it is not like last year where we played Minnesota really well which I thought was a better team and then went to UNLV and played like we were over confident or something.

[WIU0812]

Found some pretty awesome pre-made WIU bag boards online. Figured I would share encase anyone was interested in buying some. http://www.amazon.com/Western-Illinois- ... university

[wiu712]

Northwestern uses a very unique academic calendar. Their fall semester has not started yet. The first day of classes will be Tuesday, September 23.

The freshmen are on campus this week for orientation.

Northwestern is having a Pep Rally in downtown Evanston on Thursday, September 18, 5PM-7:45PM. The Northwestern University and Evanston Township High School Marching Bands will perform at about 5:45 p.m., followed by special guests who will fire up the crowd in anticipation of the NU and ETHS football games to be played that weekend. Food trucks will be on site and there will be a limited supply of free hotdogs.

[WIU0812]

Hopefully a great deal of alumni come out for all the events! Hope to see a good game on the ESPNews channel.

[WIU0812]

Looks like they have the game listed on oddshark as us losing 21-3. I expect at least two scores on offense as long as norvell can control his throws and has time to make good decisions.