The Chicago Bowl

You would think that on this Friday, we would be discussing the Bears garnering their 700th win, moving them to 7-3, or Illinois basketball falling a few buckets short in the garden against Rick Barnes' Texas Longhorns. But, believe it or not, like it or not, Northwestern vs. Illinois is the buzz topic with the weekend fast approaching. Norhwestern, who is sitting at 7-3 coming off their biggest win of the season in knocking off Rick Stanzi and the Iowa Hawkeyes convincingly at Ryan Field are rewarded with a change in venue for their home field in their annual 'rivalry' game against Illinois. On the other hand, you have the Ron Zook led Fighting Illini squad who seem to be wilting further away from bowl eligibility by the week. In fact, when you look at the teams involved in Saturday afternoon's tussle in the city, you see two programs in very different positions in terms of falling and flying (thanks Jeff Bridges). Northwestern is building one of their best seasons in recent memory, sitting at 7-3 and a few 4th quarter crumbles away from being 8-2 or 9-1. Evanston is rallying around Pat Fitzgerald's purple Cats and Northwestern looks to be poised for a successful future. Adversely, you have an Illinois bunch that laid an egg last week against Minnesota at home, losing their 5th game of the season and the self-respect that comes with beating the bottom-feeders of the Big 10 consistently. Nevertheless, records are thrown down the garbage disposal with last night's leftovers when these two bitter college rivals meet (if you think I'm being serious, you need to watch more college football).

One thing this game would have featured is perhaps the 2 best Freshman quarterbacks in the Big 10 this season in Wildcat QB, Dan Persa, and Illinois signal-caller Nathan Scheelhaase. You never know, maybe the best Big 10 QB in this year's Freshman class is sitting behind veteran Terelle Pryor at Ohio State or Kirk Cousins in East Lansing. But as far as we know, Persa and Scheelhaase have been the cream of the Freshman crop, balancing memorizing complex playbooks while still finding time to attend Freshman mixers and "welcome to campus" stoplight dances. But disappointingly, Persa's season was cut short in the late moments last Saturday as he ruptured his Achilles tendon and will now be tagged as "Freshman clipboard guy" for the rest of the 2010 season. On the other side of the football, the Illini boast QB Nathan Scheelhaase, who sounds more like a member of Hitler's Gestapo than the Illini football team, has produced big numbers this season. Scheelhaase has racked up nearly 1,500 yards through the air this year (1,482),has thrown for 15 TD's, and has also used his feet as his carriage for 3 more scores. Although Persa is out, Scheelhaase will use Wrigley Field as his stage to showcase his talents Saturday in front of 30,000 fans who presumably haven't watched either team play a full game all season.

Wrigley Field should be used to hosting meaningless events to cash in for the Cubs and the Rickett's family. Wrigley has gone from hosting the good (the Winter Classic), to the bad (Rascal Flatts concert), to the downright ugly (U of I vs. NU) all in the span of a couple of years. It's an obvious marketing scheme. People love going to Wrigley Field, regardless of the event, the weather, or the Cubs mid-summer record. Why not hold multiple events in the city's most historic venue? I get it, I'm not that much of a mossback to say that I only want Cubs baseball to be played in the "Friendly Confines". But football? Not for me. Trying to force the Northwestern/Illinois rivalry on us so desperately is kind of pathetic. Both coaches complained about the endzone's proximity to the right field wall so that now both teams have to attack the West endzone on offense. Think about the problems this is going to cause? What happens on a pick-6? What happens if it's exceptionally windy? Both teams get the wind advantage? Dumb. Stupid. Crazy. Dangerous. Stinks (please watch this). It's like making Illinois and Northwestern's men's basketball teams (would be a much better game) play a half-court game of 2-on-2 to decide the state's supremacy in basketball.

Sure, the game and the rooftops are sold out (thanks to Groupon), Clark St. will be buzzing, and it's a great excuse for a slew of "young 20 somethings" to go downtown, drink 11 beers and pretend like they give a damn about the outcome of the game. Not to mention, the famous Wrigley Field marquee is painted "Wildcat Purple"--it looks like Wrigley is more poised for a Prince concert than a college football game. Ladies and gentleman...the Chicago Bowl. Eat your heart out College Gameday.

As for Pick of the Day, the Pulse Man covered another spread last night, this time skating by with a half point to spare as Loyola won by 11. For this weekend, his Saturday is listed below as he makes the drive north to take in the sights of the beautiful city of Milwaukee.

Saturday 6 Pack

2-Team Parlay:
1. Wisconsin (-4) @ Michigan- WISCONSIN
2. Duke @ Georgia Tech, total points 61- UNDER
Total: (+273)

3-Team Parlay:
1. Kent St. @ Western Michigan- WESTERN MICHIGAN, moneyline
2. Florida Atlantic @ Texas (-21)- TEXAS
3. Idaho @ Utah St.- UTAH ST., moneyline
Total: (+450)


'Big Ticket' Pick of the Day
Illinois (-8) @ Northwestern- NORTHWESTERN (-105)

Now I'm done. Rack me

Frost