Northwestern to offer free tickets and transport for all undergrads to Indy
Associate AD Paul Kennedy announced at the team’s weekly press conference that Northwestern will be offering free tickets and transportation to any undergraduate student that wants to attend the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis. Students are scheduled to receive an email today and need to respond by Wednesday to reserve their requests.
That's pretty cool and a good way (maybe the only way) to ensure a good crowd for Northwestern.
November 13th, 2018 at 9:01 AM ^
Given unbalanced schedules that’s a terrible idea
November 13th, 2018 at 9:30 AM ^
They should at least rotate between Ford Field, US Bank, and Lucas Oil.
Of course, then Delany might get ideas of playing outside in NY and DC.
November 13th, 2018 at 9:57 AM ^
I do agree with having in dome stadium. I know the weather is part of game, but in championship games, seeing a blizzard or extremely cold will not bring out the best football. But you could rotate Ford Field, Indy and Minnesota.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:29 AM ^
While it's a cool concept, I don't think it'll ever happen. The last thing the conference wants is a snowstorm to blow through Ann Arbor, Columbus, Madison, State College, or wherever the game may be played, on what would already be a fridgid December night. People don't come to the game because its too cold, and I doubt the conference wants to put on a conference championship game where you can see half the stadium is empty. Just a bad look.
Safer to go to a neutral site, inside a warm dome, where everyone has equal access to tickets. Also, how do you decide who gets the home game if both teams come in with a tied conference record? Or both come in undefeated? Who's more deserving of the home game? Are you going to leave it to external pollsters or the CFP committee?
Again, not saying I wouldn't find a way to get on board with this idea. Definitely has its merits, but just a ton of moving parts to it.
November 13th, 2018 at 8:21 AM ^
Northwestern gives undergrads free student tickets for all home athletic events with their student ID, and yet most of them still don't show up for anything. Should be interesting to see how many of them line up for this in contrast.
November 13th, 2018 at 8:26 AM ^
Well, you know many people jumped on the bandwagon as soon as they locked the division, so I'm fairly certain there will be a larger than expected crowd for them.
November 13th, 2018 at 8:40 AM ^
You expect there will be a larger crowd than you expect? Same here.
November 13th, 2018 at 8:51 AM ^
Bando, are you a prof there? I wonder if faculty get free tickets too.
November 13th, 2018 at 9:21 AM ^
I'm not. And as far as I know, this is undergrad-only.
November 13th, 2018 at 9:04 AM ^
They aren’t free, it’s an activities fee built into the cost of tuition that every student has to pay regardless of whether they ever intend to go to a game
November 13th, 2018 at 9:20 AM ^
Which is, for all intents and purposes, free. They don't have to pay more than they would ordinarily pay to be a student.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:02 AM ^
It makes the cost of being a student more expensive and is incredibly unfair for students who don't have interest in attending football games. It is a better model to allow students to seperately pay for football games if they want to go rather than to force them all to pay.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:37 AM ^
uh... I don't know why you're so fired up about this, but it's essentially NU writing off what they'd make on student tickets. It's not just football-it covers every athletic event. It amounts to a small part of an activity fee of about $250 at a university with an annual sticker price of well over $50,000. And you might also want to look at the ways Northwestern has changed their approach to financial aid while you're at it.
In other words, this is just a very small cost designed to encourage students to be a part of the campus community. If a student chooses not to take advantage of that, well, whatever.
November 13th, 2018 at 8:40 AM ^
I think that is pretty damn cool... Good for them... Hope they drink plenty of adult beverages because ( hopefully ) our boys will be handing them a fresh HOT L from Shannon Sharpe's restaurant lol
November 13th, 2018 at 9:32 AM ^
There will be a lot of Purple Drank drunk on those buses, my friend.
November 13th, 2018 at 8:46 AM ^
But will the busses have wifi? /Brandon'd
November 13th, 2018 at 8:47 AM ^
I think at most, Northwestern will be able to fill a quarter of the stadium even with a 2 week head start. UM/OSU will still have a home game in the Big Ten Championship game.
November 13th, 2018 at 8:52 AM ^
That’s cool for all 100 of them?
November 13th, 2018 at 9:23 AM ^
If Michigan gets to the BTCG, it’s going to be at least 75% Michigan fans at the minimum.
Man I hope they beat OSU. It’s our time, damnit.
November 13th, 2018 at 9:30 AM ^
So, here's my forward-looking question, does Northwestern if it wins the Big Ten championship game then give its fans a Taco Bell reward trip to their bowl game as well?
And if that happens, over a one-loss Michigan and/or Ohio State, does Northwestern then get an invite to the Rose Bowl including a free pass to the all you can eat Lawry's Beef Bust. Asking for a friend.
November 13th, 2018 at 9:36 AM ^
Pretty sure they were giving out free bowl tickets last year and had some kind of cheap transportation from Evanston to the Music City Bowl, but it's tough when so many of their already-small student body are scattered across the country/world, as opposed to a school like Michigan where a fair chunk of the students comes from in-state.
November 13th, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^
ooooo I love this moooooove. It's like the school actually wants to give back to their students (and not because no one will go otherwise, hahaha)
November 13th, 2018 at 10:45 AM ^
Kudos. It's great to see something like this for the students. And man, what a blast that's gonna be for these kids! Until, well you know, the game happens. And we beat them again.
GO BLUE!!
November 13th, 2018 at 11:04 AM ^
That’s actually a great idea on there part.
November 13th, 2018 at 11:31 AM ^
For what they pay in NW tuition, their tickets should be free.
Come to think, for what out of state students pay at Michigan, their tickets should be free too.
November 13th, 2018 at 12:08 PM ^
Very cool. Long bus trip there and back. Long day. Totally worth it if you're a NW fan.
November 13th, 2018 at 1:19 PM ^
Very cool. If we happen to make it we should do it for the students, we can afford it.
November 13th, 2018 at 1:45 PM ^
That is sweet, really cool of the school.
still will be about 30,000 fans lopsided compared to a Michigan or osu team making it.