Northwestern Football Making a Big Statement on Campus

One of my roommates does not care about sports at all. He grew up in Florida in a family that was passionate about sports, but that fervor turned him off entirely.

After I returned from Champaign Saturday night, I sat down to watch Pittsburgh beat Notre Dame.

He entered the living room a little later.

"I really hope we can go to a bowl game in Orlando," he told me.

I nearly fell out of my chair.

It may have taken back-to-back road wins over Iowa and Illinois, but Northwestern football fever is sweeping through our campus.

Even the die-hard fans were jumping off the bandwagon after the Wildcats suffered back-to-back defeats at the hands of Syracuse and Minnesota.

The mood was so bad, I had to write an article pleading for fans not to abandon all hope of a Bowl game.

Now everyone is fired up.

People who said to my face that we were going to lose to Illinois (something about a let-down game against our rival, which makes no sense), are now confident we can definitely beat Wisconsin!

Students who were convinced after the disappointing loss to Michigan State that Detroit would be NU's best destination for the holiday season are now gleefully predicting NU will go to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando.

Isn't it funny how an upset over a Top-5 team on the road and a solid victory over our in-state rival can turn the attitudes of a fickle fan-base around oh-so-quickly?

A note on the nature of our fair-weather fans: During the first half of the Penn State game, the student section was mostly full, although there were a bunch of empty seats towards the back.

When NU took the lead into halftime; those previously empty seats were suddenly full at the start of the second half.

Expect the place to be packed to the rafters against Wisconsin.

Of course, if NU falls behind 28-3 to the Badgers as they did against the Hoosiers, expect that place to empty out.

That's the nature of the NU student body. But right now everyone is very happy indeed.

Winning cures all.