Sunday Afternoon Quarterback: A Weekend with the Purple People

As an Ohio State Buckeye fan, I feel I should make some kind of public announcement as to why The Ohio State University—the Unstoppable, Prestigious, Undefeated, Sweater-Vest-Wearing Ohio State University—lost...to the Fighting Illini, of all teams.

I should explain why a guy named “Juice” who can't throw the ball passed for four touchdowns and made our defense look silly.

I should explain why our darkhorse Heisman candidate Todd Boeckman inexplicably threw for three interceptions.

I should explain why Ron Zook now has a legitimate shot for the Coach of the Year.

But you know what?

It's beyond all plausible explanation why Ohio State's fairytale season is over, and I'm still in shock...so I'm going to act like it didn't happen.

Maybe when I wake up on Monday, I'll realize that it was all a big nightmare.

So when I buy my tickets for the BCS Championship in New Orleans, I'll hope to see a great game between my OSU Buckeyes and the LSU Tigers, right?

Right?!?

Before I could realize that Ohio State's upset loss at home was actually a reality, I decided to drive up to Chicago (more specifically Evanston, Illinois) to see Northwestern University play Indiana University in the last home game for the Northwestern seniors.

Since I'm still extremely upset at the Big Ten Network for not allowing me to watch the Wisconsin–Ohio State game last weekend, I decided to go and see a Big Ten game for myself—just to guarantee that I wouldn't get shut out.

Not only would I see a spirited competition between two teams playing inspired football to honor their recently-deceased head coaches (Terry Hoeppner of Indiana and Randy Walker of Northwestern)—I could also get my revenge on the Northwestern admissions office for rejecting my undergraduate application.

Not that I'm not bitter or anything.

As in many other games this week, there were bowl implications for both teams.

The only difference is that the winner of this game would be playing for a spot in the Motor City or Meineke Car Care Bowl.

To give you a sense of the optimistic Northwestern perspective, one of the people I stayed with asked me, "Dude, what if we made the Champs Sports Bowl?"...and was completely serious.

But hey, a bowl game is a bowl game, right?

I guarantee you Vanderbilt fans would travel across the country and give up some of their winter break if their team got to play in the San Diego County Credit Union Bowl.

This wasn't exactly a juggernaut matchup like Ohio State-Michigan (more on that later), but I got a chance to cheer with the purple people of Northwestern, including some random guy with a purple-and-black Dr. Seuss hat and Northwestern cape draped around his shoulders.

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