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3 days 14 hours ago not really

they would be in the middle of a heated IU-Northwestern rivalry. This other one takes I-69 northeastish from Indianapolis. (I believe the planned route for interstate expansion will follow IN-37's current route from Bloomington to Indianapolis.)
1 week 1 day ago Reminds me of a Dilbert cartoon

Dilbert.com
1 week 1 day ago After 1981

I kind of lost my taste for early-season conference snackycakes. It wasn't as bad as losing to Notre Dame, but it still started the Big Ten season 0-1.

But in the '70s, yeah, they were pretty sweet. (Aside from the narrow escape against Northwestern in '72; I was too young to be aware of that at the time.)
3 weeks 17 hours ago Yes, they've been around

The change to Outback Bowl and Tampa (in 1986) was followed shortly by a move to January 1 (for the 1987 season on 1/1/88). I was at the 2000 game (grr failed two-point logic walrus grr blown lead), but didn't realize it went back so far on New Year's.

The Citrus Bowl actually started on New Year's as the Tangerine Bowl, so in those days, I guess it had a legitimate claim to the date. It slid back in 1960 toward mid-December, but then after becoming the Citrus Bowl, it moved to New Year's for the 1/1/87 game.

The Gator Bowl also dates back to the '40s and also started on New Year's, then slid back to December, then was pushed forward onto the 1st, but it didn't rejoin the club permanently until 1/1/96.

So ... for younger people, yeah, those bowls are pretty much NYD fixtures. For older people, not so much (most likely defined by the Cotton Bowl: if you remember it as a big deal, you probably think of these other bowls as interlopers).

I think it's the simultaneity that makes it so obvious these days. The fact that there are garbage bowls played nearly a week afterward doesn't help either.
8 weeks 6 days ago that is odd

considering they don't seem to me to be that common in the Indianapolis area.

But apparently you weren't hallucinating: they're also available in Delaware (??), Pennsylvania, Maryland, Tennessee, and Texas.

What's interesting is that most Big Ten states, including Michigan, don't allow out-of-state plates (Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana prohibit them as well), so maybe that explains why they're elsewhere - schools can focus efforts on fewer states. If Purdue can round up enough interest in NC, certainly Michigan can as well.
8 weeks 6 days ago not gonna happen

They went out of their way to exclude out-of-state schools:

  1. 1)  The group shall be based, headquartered or have a chapter in Indiana;

  2. 2)  The group has made broad and significant civic, community, and charitable contributions across and exclusively in Indiana, or are descendants of native or pioneer residents of Indiana under IC § 9-13-2-170;

Anyway, they've been trying to push a bill to kill off most specialty plates as it is ... while it would make sense to offer more (and thus collect more revenue), it's unlikely to happen, especially with no surrounding states allowing out-of-state school plates.
8 weeks 6 days ago they don't allow any out-of-state schools

but obviously UM would not be allowed no matter what. (I don't know that I'd want a UM plate on my car if I lived in Ohio. Targeting? No thanks.)
9 weeks 3 days ago Disappointing tournament losses are not new to Purdue fans

although this recent one was actually a far closer game than it had any right to be: if it hadn't been against Bill Self, Purdue probably would have been down double digits most of the game. Painter played Inanimate Carbon Rods #1 and #2 for 29 minutes total and got not-bad performances out of them, particularly Marcius. It took Kansas 20 minutes to figure out that that #4 guy is pretty good and perhaps they should make other Boilers carry the scoring load, and to figure out that a team that shoots well from beyond the arc and attempts a fair number of 3s is perhaps a team you should defend beyond the arc.

But after 1986 and 1988 and 1990 and 1994 and 1995 and 2000, what's one more nail in the coffin? Plus it's hard to avoid thinking about what could have happened the last couple of years if only the parts for that bionic knee had arrived in time. It would have been nice to have made a serious run with a loaded lineup, not just to perhaps snag an elusive title, but also to have something to hold up when obnoxious Indiana fans do their obnoxious thing. (Great, you have five old titles, that's awesome, no one cares, and P.S., we still lead the series.)

It was a nut punch, though. Not as bad as Everette Stephens (IIRC) dribbling off his foot in Pontiac in '88, but with Michigan's loss just two days prior, it did pretty much poop all over the weekend. (But IU and MSU and OSU won. And Wisconsin. woo big ten. woo. At least Duke lost.)
12 weeks 1 day ago Population isn't a requirement if there's interest

Bloomington is significantly smaller than Ann Arbor, yet IU averages more per game at Assembly Hall (larger than Crisler by a few thousand) and has for decades. The reasons are simple: basketball is the big sport here, and IU's been good enough often enough that interest can be sustained even through down times. (The same is true to a lesser extent at Purdue; much less national success, but enough conference success to combine with general basketball interest to put ticket sales in the top 25 despite having a significantly smaller arena than IU does.)

The thing is not that Ann Arbor isn't a big town - it's that Ann Arbor isn't a basketball town. Neither is Columbus. (Even with a larger, newer arena and significantly better teams than in the past, OSU struggles to outdraw Indiana and Wisconsin.) Neither is Minneapolis. (Minnesota hasn't drawn capacity crowds since 1999.) In 1989, Michigan was sixth in the Big Ten in attendance; in 1990, they were seventh. In neither season were they drawing capacity crowds. Basketball success is cool, but football success is paramount, and if there's a secondary sport, it's hockey, right?

At OSU, I doubt there's a secondary sport behind football. At Minnesota, I doubt there's a secondary sport behind hockey. Unless someone comes in and develops a program that takes the conference by storm, that won't change. (Look at how long it took Sparty to draw sellout crowds, and watch what happens when Izzo leaves.)
13 weeks 1 day ago It would be more accurate ...

to say "refs who haven't called Big Ten games" because there are no Big Ten refs, just guys who do some Big Ten games. (Poorly.)

I don't think it has anything to do with the NCAA tournament specifically - even some of the worst refs don't seem to call more fouls in March - but more with adapting to a crew that the players might not have seen before, and doing so in a single-elimination environment. A bad call or two in January doesn't have much of an impact unless you're looking at seeding; a bad call in March can dig a hole for a team that it can't escape.
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