(09-27-2022 09:26 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 08:36 PM)Big Red Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 05:25 PM)HUSKiESbelieve Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 03:15 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 12:32 PM)Big Red Wrote:  And yet, people can't figure out why UofI isn't interested in having an in-state rivalry series with us.

NIU and U of I are both FBS. SIU is FCS. While ESPN gets excited about any P5/G5 rift that exists, we are in the same subdivision as Illinois and as such a more logical and equitable matchup.

Exactly. We have a D1 FBS football program! U of I and NW football wants to pretend they are in a different league in the state of Illinois and constantly playing us with some wins and losses would give us the credibility that in the state of Illinois, there is actually 3 D1 FBS football programs.

Remind me again of our record against those teams?

We haven't played them enough in the last 2-3 decades for any record to matter, and they have never played us at home.

If we played them home+away every 3 years each, I think you would see a healthy W/L balance evolve, maybe even in our favor. Also, we beat NU the last time we played them (as always at their house). There is ZERO noticeable or constant talent gap between the 3 Illinois FBS programs, period.

Well, Illinois crushed a a Wyoming team……who beat Tulsa…….who beat us.

(09-27-2022 09:46 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:26 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 08:36 PM)Big Red Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 05:25 PM)HUSKiESbelieve Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 03:15 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  NIU and U of I are both FBS. SIU is FCS. While ESPN gets excited about any P5/G5 rift that exists, we are in the same subdivision as Illinois and as such a more logical and equitable matchup.

Exactly. We have a D1 FBS football program! U of I and NW football wants to pretend they are in a different league in the state of Illinois and constantly playing us with some wins and losses would give us the credibility that in the state of Illinois, there is actually 3 D1 FBS football programs.

Remind me again of our record against those teams?

We haven't played them enough in the last 2-3 decades for any record to matter, and they have never played us at home.

If we played them home+away every 3 years each, I think you would see a healthy W/L balance evolve, maybe even in our favor. Also, we beat NU the last time we played them (as always at their house). There is ZERO noticeable or constant talent gap between the 3 Illinois FBS programs, period.

Well, Illinois crushed a a Wyoming team……who beat Tulsa…….who beat us.

So... Kevin Bacon thinks Illinois is better than NIU this week?

There are plenty of other recent weeks/seasons where you could reverse engineer our prominence over them in that fashion if you actually cared to. Especially years when we beat Pig10 teams who may have gone on that same year to beat Illinois. No quality gap through-line in FBS Illinois, it just doesn't exist, not for the last several decades, especially if/when home field advantage is ripped away.

Also, NU just lost to the MAC's Miami of Ohio last week AT HOME, guessing we're at least similar in quality to Miami this season if not better, especially with Lombardi. Your logic would suggest we take care of NU this season then, especially if playing in Dekalb, no?

(09-27-2022 10:33 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:46 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:26 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 08:36 PM)Big Red Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 05:25 PM)HUSKiESbelieve Wrote:  Exactly. We have a D1 FBS football program! U of I and NW football wants to pretend they are in a different league in the state of Illinois and constantly playing us with some wins and losses would give us the credibility that in the state of Illinois, there is actually 3 D1 FBS football programs.

Remind me again of our record against those teams?

We haven't played them enough in the last 2-3 decades for any record to matter, and they have never played us at home.

If we played them home+away every 3 years each, I think you would see a healthy W/L balance evolve, maybe even in our favor. Also, we beat NU the last time we played them (as always at their house). There is ZERO noticeable or constant talent gap between the 3 Illinois FBS programs, period.

Well, Illinois crushed a a Wyoming team……who beat Tulsa…….who beat us.

So... Kevin Bacon thinks Illinois is better than NIU this week?

There are plenty of other recent weeks/seasons where you could reverse engineer our prominence over them in that fashion if you actually cared to. Especially years when we beat Pig10 teams who may have gone on that same year to beat Illinois. No quality gap through-line in FBS Illinois, it just doesn't exist, not for the last several decades, especially if/when home field advantage is ripped away.

Also, NU just lost to the MAC's Miami of Ohio last week AT HOME, guessing we're at least similar in quality to Miami this season if not better, especially with Lombardi. Your logic would suggest we take care of NU this season then, especially if playing in Dekalb, no?

Actually, if the talent gap was pretty close (some years its pretty close while other years its not and its rarely, if ever, in our favor in a lop-sided way), this is even more incentive for either of those programs not to schedule us for some kind of regular rivalry game.

Mainly because our conference is beneath the Big Ten. Plain and simple. Playing us only benefits us. When P5s beat G5s, no one cares. But when G5s beat P5s, it's always on ESPN and it's talked about as a big deal.

Neither Illinois nor Northwestern have anything to gain by scheduling us on a regular basis.

(09-27-2022 10:33 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:46 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:26 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 08:36 PM)Big Red Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 05:25 PM)HUSKiESbelieve Wrote:  Exactly. We have a D1 FBS football program! U of I and NW football wants to pretend they are in a different league in the state of Illinois and constantly playing us with some wins and losses would give us the credibility that in the state of Illinois, there is actually 3 D1 FBS football programs.

Remind me again of our record against those teams?

We haven't played them enough in the last 2-3 decades for any record to matter, and they have never played us at home.

If we played them home+away every 3 years each, I think you would see a healthy W/L balance evolve, maybe even in our favor. Also, we beat NU the last time we played them (as always at their house). There is ZERO noticeable or constant talent gap between the 3 Illinois FBS programs, period.

Well, Illinois crushed a a Wyoming team……who beat Tulsa…….who beat us.

So... Kevin Bacon thinks Illinois is better than NIU this week?

There are plenty of other recent weeks/seasons where you could reverse engineer our prominence over them in that fashion if you actually cared to. Especially years when we beat Pig10 teams who may have gone on that same year to beat Illinois. No quality gap through-line in FBS Illinois, it just doesn't exist, not for the last several decades, especially if/when home field advantage is ripped away.

Also, NU just lost to the MAC's Miami of Ohio last week AT HOME, guessing we're at least similar in quality to Miami this season if not better, especially with Lombardi. Your logic would suggest we take care of NU this season then, especially if playing in Dekalb, no?

Well, our all-time record is 1-6-1 with Northwestern and 0-4 with Illinois, so, over the last several decades, there does in-fact appear to be a quality gap.

1-10-1 hardly screams equality.

(09-27-2022 11:15 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  Well, our all-time record is 1-6-1 with Northwestern and 0-4 with Illinois, so, over the last several decades, there does in-fact appear to be a quality gap.

1-10-1 hardly screams equality.

I think one must take the head to head records with a grain of salt. NIU isn't playing those teams every season or on a regular basis where you get natural sampling of both schools up and down in their programs. U of I doesn't want to schedule NIU when the program is on an upswing for instance.

If they played every year, I think that gap in records is less. The sad part is that the state of Illinois has two perpetually bad Big Ten programs.

(09-27-2022 12:15 PM)GeorgeBorkFan Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 11:15 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  Well, our all-time record is 1-6-1 with Northwestern and 0-4 with Illinois, so, over the last several decades, there does in-fact appear to be a quality gap.

1-10-1 hardly screams equality.

I think one must take the head to head records with a grain of salt. NIU isn't playing those teams every season or on a regular basis where you get natural sampling of both schools up and down in their programs. U of I doesn't want to schedule NIU when the program is on an upswing for instance.

If they played every year, I think that gap in records is less. The sad part is that the state of Illinois has two perpetually bad Big Ten programs.

I only referenced it in regard to the statement that there has been no quality gap over the past several decades.

(09-27-2022 11:15 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 10:33 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:46 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:26 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 08:36 PM)Big Red Wrote:  Remind me again of our record against those teams?

We haven't played them enough in the last 2-3 decades for any record to matter, and they have never played us at home.

If we played them home+away every 3 years each, I think you would see a healthy W/L balance evolve, maybe even in our favor. Also, we beat NU the last time we played them (as always at their house). There is ZERO noticeable or constant talent gap between the 3 Illinois FBS programs, period.

Well, Illinois crushed a a Wyoming team……who beat Tulsa…….who beat us.

So... Kevin Bacon thinks Illinois is better than NIU this week?

There are plenty of other recent weeks/seasons where you could reverse engineer our prominence over them in that fashion if you actually cared to. Especially years when we beat Pig10 teams who may have gone on that same year to beat Illinois. No quality gap through-line in FBS Illinois, it just doesn't exist, not for the last several decades, especially if/when home field advantage is ripped away.

Also, NU just lost to the MAC's Miami of Ohio last week AT HOME, guessing we're at least similar in quality to Miami this season if not better, especially with Lombardi. Your logic would suggest we take care of NU this season then, especially if playing in Dekalb, no?

Well, our all-time record is 1-6-1 with Northwestern and 0-4 with Illinois, so, over the last several decades, there does in-fact appear to be a quality gap.

1-10-1 hardly screams equality.

Half of those games were 1 score victories and all the of them were road games. I think if you swung half the games to dekalb you may be looking at something like 5-7 or 4-8.

(09-27-2022 11:08 AM)Big Red Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 10:33 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:46 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:26 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 08:36 PM)Big Red Wrote:  Remind me again of our record against those teams?

We haven't played them enough in the last 2-3 decades for any record to matter, and they have never played us at home.

If we played them home+away every 3 years each, I think you would see a healthy W/L balance evolve, maybe even in our favor. Also, we beat NU the last time we played them (as always at their house). There is ZERO noticeable or constant talent gap between the 3 Illinois FBS programs, period.

Well, Illinois crushed a a Wyoming team……who beat Tulsa…….who beat us.

So... Kevin Bacon thinks Illinois is better than NIU this week?

There are plenty of other recent weeks/seasons where you could reverse engineer our prominence over them in that fashion if you actually cared to. Especially years when we beat Pig10 teams who may have gone on that same year to beat Illinois. No quality gap through-line in FBS Illinois, it just doesn't exist, not for the last several decades, especially if/when home field advantage is ripped away.

Also, NU just lost to the MAC's Miami of Ohio last week AT HOME, guessing we're at least similar in quality to Miami this season if not better, especially with Lombardi. Your logic would suggest we take care of NU this season then, especially if playing in Dekalb, no?

Actually, if the talent gap was pretty close (some years its pretty close while other years its not and its rarely, if ever, in our favor in a lop-sided way), this is even more incentive for either of those programs not to schedule us for some kind of regular rivalry game.

Mainly because our conference is beneath the Big Ten. Plain and simple. Playing us only benefits us. When P5s beat G5s, no one cares. But when G5s beat P5s, it's always on ESPN and it's talked about as a big deal.

Neither Illinois nor Northwestern have anything to gain by scheduling us on a regular basis.

Illinois and Northwestern may need to schedule us on a regular basis---with the transformation of those conferences they are going to be permanent 2-3 win games a year into perpetuity. You think they stand a chance against the USC, UCLA, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, etc of the world? Those conferences are going further evolve into the haves and have nots-----and Illinois and Northwestern (Purdue, Indiana, Rutgers, etc) fall squarely into the have nots.

(09-27-2022 12:35 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 11:15 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 10:33 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:46 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:26 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  We haven't played them enough in the last 2-3 decades for any record to matter, and they have never played us at home.

If we played them home+away every 3 years each, I think you would see a healthy W/L balance evolve, maybe even in our favor. Also, we beat NU the last time we played them (as always at their house). There is ZERO noticeable or constant talent gap between the 3 Illinois FBS programs, period.

Well, Illinois crushed a a Wyoming team……who beat Tulsa…….who beat us.

So... Kevin Bacon thinks Illinois is better than NIU this week?

There are plenty of other recent weeks/seasons where you could reverse engineer our prominence over them in that fashion if you actually cared to. Especially years when we beat Pig10 teams who may have gone on that same year to beat Illinois. No quality gap through-line in FBS Illinois, it just doesn't exist, not for the last several decades, especially if/when home field advantage is ripped away.

Also, NU just lost to the MAC's Miami of Ohio last week AT HOME, guessing we're at least similar in quality to Miami this season if not better, especially with Lombardi. Your logic would suggest we take care of NU this season then, especially if playing in Dekalb, no?

Well, our all-time record is 1-6-1 with Northwestern and 0-4 with Illinois, so, over the last several decades, there does in-fact appear to be a quality gap.

1-10-1 hardly screams equality.

Half of those games were 1 score victories and all the of them were road games. I think if you swung half the games to dekalb you may be looking at something like 5-7 or 4-8.

I would strongly suggest that actual results are far more meaningful than “if and but” results.

(09-27-2022 12:37 PM)Milwaukee Pilot Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 11:08 AM)Big Red Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 10:33 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:46 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:26 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  We haven't played them enough in the last 2-3 decades for any record to matter, and they have never played us at home.

If we played them home+away every 3 years each, I think you would see a healthy W/L balance evolve, maybe even in our favor. Also, we beat NU the last time we played them (as always at their house). There is ZERO noticeable or constant talent gap between the 3 Illinois FBS programs, period.

Well, Illinois crushed a a Wyoming team……who beat Tulsa…….who beat us.

So... Kevin Bacon thinks Illinois is better than NIU this week?

There are plenty of other recent weeks/seasons where you could reverse engineer our prominence over them in that fashion if you actually cared to. Especially years when we beat Pig10 teams who may have gone on that same year to beat Illinois. No quality gap through-line in FBS Illinois, it just doesn't exist, not for the last several decades, especially if/when home field advantage is ripped away.

Also, NU just lost to the MAC's Miami of Ohio last week AT HOME, guessing we're at least similar in quality to Miami this season if not better, especially with Lombardi. Your logic would suggest we take care of NU this season then, especially if playing in Dekalb, no?

Actually, if the talent gap was pretty close (some years its pretty close while other years its not and its rarely, if ever, in our favor in a lop-sided way), this is even more incentive for either of those programs not to schedule us for some kind of regular rivalry game.

Mainly because our conference is beneath the Big Ten. Plain and simple. Playing us only benefits us. When P5s beat G5s, no one cares. But when G5s beat P5s, it's always on ESPN and it's talked about as a big deal.

Neither Illinois nor Northwestern have anything to gain by scheduling us on a regular basis.

Illinois and Northwestern may need to schedule us on a regular basis---with the transformation of those conferences they are going to be permanent 2-3 win games a year into perpetuity. You think they stand a chance against the USC, UCLA, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, etc of the world? Those conferences are going further evolve into the haves and have nots-----and Illinois and Northwestern (Purdue, Indiana, Rutgers, etc) fall squarely into the have nots.

But to go back to talent gap, why would they schedule someone who could potentiall beat them?

I'm guessing the number of conference games they'll be required to play is going to increase meaning that instead of 3 or 4 OOCs, they'll have 1 or 2 putting an emphasis on those games being wins.

One of those games will probably be an FCS school and then the other will be an FBS who they know they can beat making, again, NIU not an attractive foe.

(09-27-2022 12:48 PM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 12:35 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 11:15 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 10:33 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:46 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  Well, Illinois crushed a a Wyoming team……who beat Tulsa…….who beat us.

So... Kevin Bacon thinks Illinois is better than NIU this week?

There are plenty of other recent weeks/seasons where you could reverse engineer our prominence over them in that fashion if you actually cared to. Especially years when we beat Pig10 teams who may have gone on that same year to beat Illinois. No quality gap through-line in FBS Illinois, it just doesn't exist, not for the last several decades, especially if/when home field advantage is ripped away.

Also, NU just lost to the MAC's Miami of Ohio last week AT HOME, guessing we're at least similar in quality to Miami this season if not better, especially with Lombardi. Your logic would suggest we take care of NU this season then, especially if playing in Dekalb, no?

Well, our all-time record is 1-6-1 with Northwestern and 0-4 with Illinois, so, over the last several decades, there does in-fact appear to be a quality gap.

1-10-1 hardly screams equality.

Half of those games were 1 score victories and all the of them were road games. I think if you swung half the games to dekalb you may be looking at something like 5-7 or 4-8.

I would strongly suggest that actual results are far more meaningful than “if and but” results.

True enough. It’s basically hyperbole, but there is a reason they don’t schedule all 7 games of the World Series at one team’s ball park.

Little known fact - of all the major US sports, NCAA football holds the greatest winning margin for the home field advantage.

(09-27-2022 01:11 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 12:48 PM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 12:35 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 11:15 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 10:33 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  So... Kevin Bacon thinks Illinois is better than NIU this week?

There are plenty of other recent weeks/seasons where you could reverse engineer our prominence over them in that fashion if you actually cared to. Especially years when we beat Pig10 teams who may have gone on that same year to beat Illinois. No quality gap through-line in FBS Illinois, it just doesn't exist, not for the last several decades, especially if/when home field advantage is ripped away.

Also, NU just lost to the MAC's Miami of Ohio last week AT HOME, guessing we're at least similar in quality to Miami this season if not better, especially with Lombardi. Your logic would suggest we take care of NU this season then, especially if playing in Dekalb, no?

Well, our all-time record is 1-6-1 with Northwestern and 0-4 with Illinois, so, over the last several decades, there does in-fact appear to be a quality gap.

1-10-1 hardly screams equality.

Half of those games were 1 score victories and all the of them were road games. I think if you swung half the games to dekalb you may be looking at something like 5-7 or 4-8.

I would strongly suggest that actual results are far more meaningful than “if and but” results.

True enough. It’s basically hyperbole, but there is a reason they don’t schedule all 7 games of the World Series at one team’s ball park.

Little known fact - of all the major US sports, NCAA football holds the greatest winning margin for the home field advantage.

Understood, but kind of misleading, when comparing to pro sports for a competitive advantage.

Those are one league, with drafts and rules like free agency to level the playing field.

Football has is multiple conferences across multiple divisions. And yes, more big boys play more home games with more talent they play lesser, even FCS at home.....like NIU does.

(09-27-2022 11:08 AM)Big Red Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 10:33 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:46 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:26 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-26-2022 08:36 PM)Big Red Wrote:  Remind me again of our record against those teams?

We haven't played them enough in the last 2-3 decades for any record to matter, and they have never played us at home.

If we played them home+away every 3 years each, I think you would see a healthy W/L balance evolve, maybe even in our favor. Also, we beat NU the last time we played them (as always at their house). There is ZERO noticeable or constant talent gap between the 3 Illinois FBS programs, period.

Well, Illinois crushed a a Wyoming team……who beat Tulsa…….who beat us.

So... Kevin Bacon thinks Illinois is better than NIU this week?

There are plenty of other recent weeks/seasons where you could reverse engineer our prominence over them in that fashion if you actually cared to. Especially years when we beat Pig10 teams who may have gone on that same year to beat Illinois. No quality gap through-line in FBS Illinois, it just doesn't exist, not for the last several decades, especially if/when home field advantage is ripped away.

Also, NU just lost to the MAC's Miami of Ohio last week AT HOME, guessing we're at least similar in quality to Miami this season if not better, especially with Lombardi. Your logic would suggest we take care of NU this season then, especially if playing in Dekalb, no?

Actually, if the talent gap was pretty close (some years its pretty close while other years its not and its rarely, if ever, in our favor in a lop-sided way), this is even more incentive for either of those programs not to schedule us for some kind of regular rivalry game.

Mainly because our conference is beneath the Big Ten. Plain and simple. Playing us only benefits us. When P5s beat G5s, no one cares. But when G5s beat P5s, it's always on ESPN and it's talked about as a big deal.

Neither Illinois nor Northwestern have anything to gain by scheduling us on a regular basis.

Not to take away from Miami's win over Northwestern but SIU even beat Northwestern at Evanston. And just remember 2 weeks before they played Northwestern, SIU was demolished by the University of Incarnate Word.
Which, if we are really playing Kevin Bacon, Northwestern's only win so far this season was against Nebraska which really shows how much the Cornhuskers have fallen.

(09-27-2022 12:32 PM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 12:15 PM)GeorgeBorkFan Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 11:15 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  Well, our all-time record is 1-6-1 with Northwestern and 0-4 with Illinois, so, over the last several decades, there does in-fact appear to be a quality gap.

1-10-1 hardly screams equality.

I think one must take the head to head records with a grain of salt. NIU isn't playing those teams every season or on a regular basis where you get natural sampling of both schools up and down in their programs. U of I doesn't want to schedule NIU when the program is on an upswing for instance.

If they played every year, I think that gap in records is less. The sad part is that the state of Illinois has two perpetually bad Big Ten programs.

I only referenced it in regard to the statement that there has been no quality gap over the past several decades.

Yea, I agree with you that one can't say there has not been a quality gap over the last several decades.

(09-27-2022 03:07 PM)Schaefer Beer Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 11:08 AM)Big Red Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 10:33 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:46 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 09:26 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  We haven't played them enough in the last 2-3 decades for any record to matter, and they have never played us at home.

If we played them home+away every 3 years each, I think you would see a healthy W/L balance evolve, maybe even in our favor. Also, we beat NU the last time we played them (as always at their house). There is ZERO noticeable or constant talent gap between the 3 Illinois FBS programs, period.

Well, Illinois crushed a a Wyoming team……who beat Tulsa…….who beat us.

So... Kevin Bacon thinks Illinois is better than NIU this week?

There are plenty of other recent weeks/seasons where you could reverse engineer our prominence over them in that fashion if you actually cared to. Especially years when we beat Pig10 teams who may have gone on that same year to beat Illinois. No quality gap through-line in FBS Illinois, it just doesn't exist, not for the last several decades, especially if/when home field advantage is ripped away.

Also, NU just lost to the MAC's Miami of Ohio last week AT HOME, guessing we're at least similar in quality to Miami this season if not better, especially with Lombardi. Your logic would suggest we take care of NU this season then, especially if playing in Dekalb, no?

Actually, if the talent gap was pretty close (some years its pretty close while other years its not and its rarely, if ever, in our favor in a lop-sided way), this is even more incentive for either of those programs not to schedule us for some kind of regular rivalry game.

Mainly because our conference is beneath the Big Ten. Plain and simple. Playing us only benefits us. When P5s beat G5s, no one cares. But when G5s beat P5s, it's always on ESPN and it's talked about as a big deal.

Neither Illinois nor Northwestern have anything to gain by scheduling us on a regular basis.

Not to take away from Miami's win over Northwestern but SIU even beat Northwestern at Evanston. And just remember 2 weeks before they played Northwestern, SIU was demolished by the University of Incarnate Word.
Which, if we are really playing Kevin Bacon, Northwestern's only win so far this season was against Nebraska which really shows how much the Cornhuskers have fallen.

Which is yet another reason Northwestern has no interest in playing NIU.

(09-27-2022 03:52 PM)GeorgeBorkFan Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 12:32 PM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 12:15 PM)GeorgeBorkFan Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 11:15 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  Well, our all-time record is 1-6-1 with Northwestern and 0-4 with Illinois, so, over the last several decades, there does in-fact appear to be a quality gap.

1-10-1 hardly screams equality.

I think one must take the head to head records with a grain of salt. NIU isn't playing those teams every season or on a regular basis where you get natural sampling of both schools up and down in their programs. U of I doesn't want to schedule NIU when the program is on an upswing for instance.



If they played every year, I think that gap in records is less. The sad part is that the state of Illinois has two perpetually bad Big Ten programs.

I only referenced it in regard to the statement that there has been no quality gap over the past several decades.

Yea, I agree with you that one can't say there has not been a quality gap over the last several decades.

I think there is a little gap. Not much. Since NIU rejoined the MAC we are 1-1 vs NU (Score total for both games was NIU 40 - NU 50) and 0-2 vs Ill ( NIU 34 -Ill 45). We've had bad luck as far as scheduling Illinois as they have only been over .500 eight times in the last 30 years yet somehow we have scheduled them during half (4) of those years. We caught Illinois during their best season of the last 30 years, 10-2, and only lost 12-17.

(09-27-2022 05:41 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 03:52 PM)GeorgeBorkFan Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 12:32 PM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 12:15 PM)GeorgeBorkFan Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 11:15 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  Well, our all-time record is 1-6-1 with Northwestern and 0-4 with Illinois, so, over the last several decades, there does in-fact appear to be a quality gap.

1-10-1 hardly screams equality.

I think one must take the head to head records with a grain of salt. NIU isn't playing those teams every season or on a regular basis where you get natural sampling of both schools up and down in their programs. U of I doesn't want to schedule NIU when the program is on an upswing for instance.



If they played every year, I think that gap in records is less. The sad part is that the state of Illinois has two perpetually bad Big Ten programs.

I only referenced it in regard to the statement that there has been no quality gap over the past several decades.

Yea, I agree with you that one can't say there has not been a quality gap over the last several decades.

I think there is a little gap. Not much. Since NIU rejoined the MAC we are 1-1 vs NU (Score total for both games was NIU 40 - NU 50) and 0-2 vs Ill ( NIU 34 -Ill 45). We've had bad luck as far as scheduling Illinois as they have only been over .500 eight times in the last 30 years yet somehow we have scheduled them during half (4) of those years. We caught Illinois during their best season of the last 30 years, 10-2, and only lost 12-17.

(09-27-2022 01:11 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Little known fact - of all the major US sports, NCAA football holds the greatest winning margin for the home field advantage.

Isn't it something like home team wins 70% of the time? I think posters on this thread are devaluing the fact that playing in your home stadium is an advantage and we don't get to regularly play NW or UofI and they have never played at Huskie Stadium.

Everyone who says what do they stand to gain playing NIU, I would flip that question to what does UofI stand to gain playing Wyoming? What does NW stand to gain playing Miami? At least when they play NIU they get 15k extra fans in their stadium vs. playing other Illinois FCS schools or other G5 schools. I don't know what their ticket prices average but $40 x 15,000 NIU fans is another $600k in their pocket.

(09-27-2022 07:25 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 01:11 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Little known fact - of all the major US sports, NCAA football holds the greatest winning margin for the home field advantage.

Isn't it something like home team wins 70% of the time? I think posters on this thread are devaluing the fact that playing in your home stadium is an advantage and we don't get to regularly play NW or UofI and they have never played at Huskie Stadium.

Everyone who says what do they stand to gain playing NIU, I would flip that question to what does UofI stand to gain playing Wyoming? What does NW stand to gain playing Miami? At least when they play NIU they get 15k extra fans in their stadium vs. playing other Illinois FCS schools or other G5 schools. I don't know what their ticket prices average but $40 x 15,000 NIU fans is another $600k in their pocket.

Most of those OOCs are scheduled a few years in advance so its hard to predict when a team like Miami or Wyoming might be all of a sudden good.

With that said, what do they get? They're hoping for a win to help them get bowl eligible. Obviously it doesn't always happen...but that's the goal.

Their TV deal pays each school roughly $60M per year. A few thousand fans in the seats by scheduling NIU over Wyoming isn't enough to push the needle in favor of a win.

If that wasn't the goal, they wouldn't pay the teams to come play them.

(09-27-2022 07:56 PM)Big Red Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 07:25 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(09-27-2022 01:11 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Little known fact - of all the major US sports, NCAA football holds the greatest winning margin for the home field advantage.

Isn't it something like home team wins 70% of the time? I think posters on this thread are devaluing the fact that playing in your home stadium is an advantage and we don't get to regularly play NW or UofI and they have never played at Huskie Stadium.

Everyone who says what do they stand to gain playing NIU, I would flip that question to what does UofI stand to gain playing Wyoming? What does NW stand to gain playing Miami? At least when they play NIU they get 15k extra fans in their stadium vs. playing other Illinois FCS schools or other G5 schools. I don't know what their ticket prices average but $40 x 15,000 NIU fans is another $600k in their pocket.

Most of those OOCs are scheduled a few years in advance so its hard to predict when a team like Miami or Wyoming might be all of a sudden good.

With that said, what do they get? They're hoping for a win to help them get bowl eligible. Obviously it doesn't always happen...but that's the goal.

Their TV deal pays each school roughly $60M per year. A few thousand fans in the seats by scheduling NIU over Wyoming isn't enough to push the needle in favor of a win.

If that wasn't the goal, they wouldn't pay the teams to come play them.

Few thousand? Wyoming came to NIU last year and brought maybe 500 fans. If we bring 10-15k to UofI that's more than a few thousand.

If UofI and NW are going to schedule G5s anyway they might as well make a bunch of money off our fans filling up their own stadiums.

If it's a fear of losing to other Illinois schools then UofI and NW should stop scheduling EIU/WIU/SIU/ISU. Considering how poor their program (especially UofI) is most of the time they should fear losing to everyone on their schedule.