Big Ten Title: Iowa at Ohio St.

Saturday morning started early. Hawkeyes Bryon woke me up at 7:00 am ready for game day. We checked out of the Red Roof Inn, parked our car at the Renaissance downtown, grabbed breakfast and headed over to Ohio Stadium.

Pre Game Dining
We arrived at the Original Varsity Club at 8:45 am. However, the Varsity Club was not opened even though their website stated they were opening at 8:00 am. Instead we walked next door to Thirsty “I”. Thirsty “I” had a patio where we could ask scalpers how much tickets were. One guy said $200 to “get in” and a second guy said $150.

After about an hour there we headed back to the Varsity Club and grabbed a table until it was time to buy tickets.

Obtaining Tickets
It was not the easiest scalping market and I ended up paying $130 for a $63 ticket. However, rather than sit in my seat in section 37A, I was able to sneak into the club level of Ohio Stadium and eventually into one of the luxury boxes. As was the case with the FOX Soccer Channel’s luxury suite at the Home Depot Center where I attended some games, this box had multiple sets of people in it who did not know each. Thus, I could stand in it for part of the game.

However, I decided I should leave the luxury box at halftime rather than be caught without a ticket (I was checked for my luxury suite ticket when attending the CONCACAF semifinals this past summer in a luxury box at Soldier Field).

The Game
During the second half of the game, I sat directly at the 50 yard line in the platinum section of Ohio St.’s Club Seat Program. One seat for each season costs $3300 which equates to $471.43 per game based on Ohio St.’s seven home games this season.

Ohio St. won the Big Ten title by defeating Iowa 27-24 after one period of overtime. The fourth quarter was by far the most exciting of the game as Ohio St. scored two touchdowns to take the lead 24-10 and Iowa matched coming back with two touchdowns of their own to send the game to overtime at 24-24 (one touchdown coming on a 99-yard kickoff return – the fourth longest in Iowa history).

However, Iowa could not perform in the overtime session as they threw an incompletion on first down, lost 6 yards on second down and was sacked for a 10-yard loss on third down which took Iowa out of field goal range. Rather than kicking a field goal, Iowa QB James Vandenberg, threw an interception on fourth down. This gave Ohio St. the perfect chance to win the game and they took advantage, kicking a 39-yard field goal to win 27-24.

As the kick went through the uprights, I decided to run on the field at Ohio Stadium with the Ohio St. fans. Not too often will you be able to storm the field at Ohio Stadium.

Northwestern Upsets Unbeaten Iowa

My alarm went off at 4:25 am. Hawkeyes Bryon, his wife and daughter were picking me up at 5:00 am to make the three hour and 45 minute drive to Iowa City to watch the Northwestern Wildcats take on the “first time in school history 9-0” Iowa Hawkeyes. In my opinion this game was just a warm-up for Iowa’s game next week against Ohio St. However, Bryon and Julie were not as confident as Northwestern had won in Iowa City in 2006 and 2008. In a scheduling fluke, Northwestern was heading back to Iowa City.

I hopped in the car and we were off for Iowa City. At 8:45 am we were pulling into a parking lot off of Melrose Ave. where Hawkeyes Bryon and Julie have a season parking pass. Since their family was not tailgating this week (it was Northwestern after all) we had figured out other tailgating options:

1) 1215 Melrose Ave. - www.normstailgating.com @ 8:30 am.
2) North of north end zone by the big Iowa tractor trailer @ 9:30 am.
3) Iowa friend tailgate we would need to find.
4) A tailgate my Northwestern friends had that was not at the top of the list for my Iowa friends.
5) The Magic Bus.

Norm’s Tailgating
Since 1215 Melrose Ave. was only a few blocks from where we parked we planned to meet Hawkeyes Jim there first and then head out for other tailgates. However, since we did not arrive at Norm’s Tailgating until 9:00 am we decided to stay at Norm’s since the game started in only a couple of hours. We did not want to waste our valuable pre-game time looking for the other tailgates.

Obtaining Tickets
Another reason I did not need to find the other tailgates was that Hawkeyes Jim sent me a text message asking if I needed an extra ticket while we were parking. I did since I always show up at the stadium without a ticket unless absolutely necessary. I told him I did and he said the ticket cost him $45. We headed over to Norm’s Tailgating immediately.

Also, it was a good thing Hawkeyes Jim offered me his ticket. As we walked from Norm’s tailgating to the stadium at 10:30 am there were a lot of people who were looking for tickets – meaning I would have had to pay more from a ticket scalper. Most Iowa fans would not sell their extra ticket to a fan wearing Northwestern colors.

The Game
As a Northwestern fan the game started out just as I thought it would as Iowa’s QB Ricki Stanzi hitting Marvin McNutt for a 74 yard touchdown pass one minute into the first quarter. Northwestern was able to hold Iowa to only a field goal through the rest of the first quarter.

However, the entire game changed with one play in the second quarter. In that play:

First, Stanzi was sacked by Northwestern’s Corey Wooten.
Second, Wooten also caused Stanzi to fumble the ball.
Third, Northwestern’s Marshall Thomas recovered the ball in the end zone for a Northwestern touchdown.
And fourth and most important for Northwestern was that Stanzi left the game with a high ankle sprain injury making him miss the rest of the game and most likely the remainder of the season.

After that play Northwestern was able to keep Iowa from scoring for the rest of the game and in the meantime took a 14-10 lead heading into halftime before taking a 17-10 lead in the fourth quarter. Iowa turned the ball over on downs with 48 seconds left in the fourth quarter and Northwestern beat their first top 10 opponent since defeating #6 Ohio St. in Evanston on October 2, 2004.

Post Game Dining
Since we did not eat before the game and only had a snack during the game, we grabbed food at the temporary food stands on Melrose Ave. after the game. Some of the stands lowered their prices since they would have to throw out the food if not purchased.