Today’s column from CBS Chicago …
(CBS) Riddle me this: If you’re really “Chicago’s Big Ten team,” can you play three conference road games in the Windy City?
The answer: No, you can’t. Not if you’re really “Chicago’s Big Ten team.”
But if Northwestern wants to continue to talk that broad-shouldered talk here in the state, then it needs to also walk the walk by taking its home football games against Illinois in 2016, 2018 and 2020 and moving them south from Evanston to Soldier Field.
You know, just like the Illini are doing with their 2015, 2017 and 2019 home games against the Wildcats.
On Monday, Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas announced that his university — which boasts the slogan “Our State. Our Team” — will be staking its own claim to Chicago by playing those three season-finale contests 138 miles north of Champaign at the home of the Bears.
“By taking these Thanksgiving weekend games to Soldier Field, we will provide a great environment for our student-athletes, fans and students who are already in the Chicagoland area for the holiday,” Thomas said. “Ending the regular season at a historical site and one of the best stadiums in the world will make for a big-time event for our student-athletes and will be a great springboard for our football program into the postseason.”
What it also should be is a great springboard for an enhanced Illinois-Northwestern football rivalry, which really has never been much of a rivalry at all. With neither program known as a pigskin powerhouse, the game has usually been more of something that happens rather than a true happening. However, perhaps it could have some added juice if the two in-state schools turned their game into an annual affair for “Braggin’ Rights” in Chicago.
Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …