Northwestern Links

ESPN.com Big Ten Blogger Adam Rittenberg today blogs about Northwestern's attendance problems despite its ability to field a competitive team. Last season, Northwestern finished 83rd nationally in average attendance at just 24,190 per game, even though the team won 8 games this year. NU's struggle to draw fans motivated me to write a blog post ten days ago about why you should go to a NU game this season. So far it seems, NU has made a valiant effort to improve its marketing, hiring former Chicago Rush exec Mike Polisky and launching the school's first large scale sales and marketing campaigns. Northwestern's poor attendance has been a point of mockery for other Big Ten fans to laugh at, so I hope the campaign goes well. Season ticket sales are up, in part to NU's game at Wrigley Field, but I think they have to wait and see what the actual attendance is like, regardless of how many tickets they sell. Hopefully people didn't just buy season tickets for the NU-UofI game and are planning to discard the rest

Big Ten Conference Divisions for 2011, should be announced sometime in September, and for now it looks like the Northwestern-Illinois rivalry will be protected , according to the Tribune's Teddy Greenstein. As far as the conference divisions are concerned, I hope that Michigan and Ohio State are separated in order to have them meet in the Big Ten Championship, like Alabama and Florida do in the SEC. I also hope that they split up Penn State and Nebraska, so there is a good competitive balance. Whatever happens, playing in a stronger Big Ten conference can only benefit Northwestern.

Also, Northwestern has new uniforms. Click here to see the new and old uniforms.

Allstate Wrigleyville Classic

Today, it was announced that the Northwestern/Illinois football game scheduled for November 20th at Wrigley Field will be sponsored by Allstate and called the Allstate Wrigleyville Classic. NU also unveiled the logo for the game, which is a purple mock-up of the classic stadium's marquee.

The Northwestern/Illinois game will be the first football game at Wrigley Field in 40 years (The Bears played at the Friendly Confines for an extended period). I'm pretty sure I'm going to be there on November 20th. The only way to get a ticket for NU-Illinois is through season tickets, so I'm contemplating a season ticket purchase. I can't wait to see the set up. I know recently officials have given clearance for the use of rooftop seating on the gameday. The Allstate Wrigleyville Classic definitely promises to be a classic game in a great environment.

Also as the press release noted, Northwestern football is going through its most successful stretch in school history.

Northwestern opens the 2010 season on Saturday, Sept. 4 in Nashville, Tenn., vs. Vanderbilt (6:30 p.m. CT).

News in Skokie

Since I'm back in Skokie for the time being, I'm going to try to blog more about some of the things going on around here...

The Backlot Bash, a 3 day event considered one of Skokie's signature events, is this weekend from Friday the 27th through Sunday. The Backlot Bash will feature free live music on the main stage, a carnival, silent movies at the Skokie Theatre, a classic car show, food vendors and a beer tent, a 5K run, bingo and a sidewalk sale. The Rocky Horror picture show will also be playing on Saturday Night.
Full details can be viewed at The Backlot Bash website.

High School Football starts tomorrow, with Niles West traveling to Vernon Hills and Niles North playing at Elk Grove, both games start at 7:30

Niles West Football Schedule

Niles North Football Schedule


Oakton Community College will begin teaching Hindi and Urdu, though it should not come as a surprise.

It looks like a Kosher Italian restaurant is about to come to Skokie.

Ke$ha/Rihanna at the UC

I've been a little sports-heavy with my posts lately so I'm going to try to get some more non-sports articles into my blog.

Last night at the United Center was a Rihanna concert, opened by Kesha. The Chicago Tribune gave it a good review, 4 out of 5 stars. The Tribune called Rihanna "impressive" during her 90 minute performance. You can click here for pictures.

Northwestern Practice at Great Lakes

Northwestern football practiced yesterday at the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago. The Naval Station, is the US Navy's Training Headquarters and 50,000 recruits pass through it annually. Great Lakes also has a lot of college football history , and was even considered a powerhouse when it played college football from the 1910s to the 1940s. Part of the reason Northwestern was at Great Lakes, was to promote their Sept. 11th home opener against Illinois State, which is also "Heroes Day," but Pat Fitzgerald also took his team there to connect with the tradition at Great Lakes. Great move for NU.

Derrick Rose makes Team USA for Worlds

As expected,Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose made the final roster for the USA team at the 2010 World Championships that will take place in Turkey starting on the 28th. The defending Olympic gold medalists, the United States has not won the World Championships since 1994, and are not the runaway favorites that they were in Bejing. The Team USA roster simply doesn't feature the starpower lineup that the 2008 Olympic team featured with the likes of LeBron James and Co. The starting lineup in Turkey might look like this: Guards Rose and Chauncey Billips, Forwards Andre Igudola and Kevin Durant, and Lamar Odom at the Center position. Those are all pretty good players, but not necessarily on par with some of the past Team USAs.

On Sunday, Team USA struggled to beat Spain in a warmup , narrowly winning 86-85. Team USA has one more exhibition, against Greece tomorrow, before the World Championships begin on August 28th.

The FIBA World Championships are structured similar to the soccer World Cup. There are 24 countries divided into 4 groups of 6 teams, with a preliminary round and a knockout stage. In the preliminary round, each team plays games against the other five teams in their group. The USA in Group B will play Brazil, Croatia, Tunisia, Slovenia, and Iran. The top 4 in each group move on to the knockout stage, which is like the "Sweet 16."

It looks like the USA, despite their inexperience should easily make it into Knockout Stage, but from there who knows. Obviously the close win against Spain, proves their vulnerability. Winning the World Championships, would make a strong statement of USA Basketball, especially since the caliber of Team USA's squad is not the best that it could field.

Follow the 2010 World Championships via the FIBA America's Website

Jim Caple's "Baseball in my Backyard" Series

Seattle-based ESPN writer Jim Caple has completed a five-part series of articles about different levels of baseball "in his backyard." The series "Baseball in my Backyard" illustrates the tremendous differences between various levels of baseball, from the luxuries present in Major League Baseball to the struggles present in independent ball. If you are a baseball fan, or simply interested in the lifestyle of professional baseball players, Caple's series really shows how becoming a major league is truly and unglamorous road.

There are 5 articles, and each article has the link to the rest. I'll link my two favorite articles:

One Last Chance: profiles the Victoria team in the Golden Baseball League, an independent baseball league.

Life of Luxury in the Majors: profiles the Seattle Mariners Clubhouse