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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Two schools in one day — Purdue and Illinois. Both are massive, 40,000-student campuses like Michigan. Both tackle those numbers in their own successful ways. That’s how the “Lost in Big Ten” tour ends this summer.
First, Purdue, located in West Lafayette, Ind., about two hours south of Chicago and an hour northwest of Indianapolis. To enter the town, you veer off onto a road that winds through a soldier’s cemetery and cornfields. A pastoral beginning to the experience. Then there are two or three more roads winding through the town. But the campus, well-insulated from Interstate 65, is worth the jaunt.
With buildings new and old mostly done in brown brick, Purdue presents a cohesive, almost 1950s vibe to visiting fans. …
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The campus. The facilities. The trees. The parking situation. And, of course, the Big House.
From its central hub, all of The University of Michigan is immense, crowded and, shall we say, adventurous by car. It’s a lot to take in. There are 41,000-plus students here. That’s roughly twice the number of students attending the University of Nebraska in a town roughly half Lincoln’s size. Another 22,000 students attend Eastern Michigan eight miles away. Walking and driving around, you can feel the weight of it. I imagine graduating from here feels almost akin to surviving a battle of sheer bustle. The pond isn’t even that big, but you’re a small fish anyway.
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Ann Arbor, like Lincoln, is not exactly a paragon …
EVANSTON, Ill. — Just outside one of several grass fields at which Northwestern’s football team practices, there’s a long, brown rectangle of old condominiums. Tenants can theoretically peer out their windows or stop in the walkway and enjoy a bit of Wildcat practice. The school doesn’t own the building, so there’s not much that can be done about it.
How do you suppose Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini would enjoy a few afternoons of that arrangement?
Life at Northwestern — an elite, private institution of roughly 8,400 undergraduate students — is certainly different.
The densely-packed, architecturally-diverse campus tightly hugs Lake Michigan, while the city of Evanston — think of Omaha’s Dundee neighborhood for miles on end — encroaches from the other side. Landlocked is a …
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MADISON, Wis. — They call it Mad City for a reason. It’s three in the afternoon, I’m going around the State Capitol building for about the 26th time in 24 hours, and there are people buzzing, buzzing, buzzing everywhere.
Hunger artists and makeout kings and politicians and students and old hippies and young hipsters and families and cabbies and this dude on a bicycle, swerving around in traffic, with a sign on his back that says “Save Our State.” Almost of all of them have that, you know, Wisconsin accent.
Buzzing. I’ve heard this word several times up here. Is it a local thing?
Not sure. But it’s apt. Madison buzzes with activity and tension. Here is a place nothing remotely like Lincoln. Madison …
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MADISON, Wis. — Now this is the Big Ten, turned up to 11.
If Iowa on Tuesday was a friendly, mom-and-pop gateway to Nebraska’s new league, Wisconsin on Wednesday is the bigger, cooler, tougher brother with a fried walleye sandwich, a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon and a red sweatshirt that looks a whole lot like yours.
Bucky Badger is bolder. Burlier. This bustling, vibrant capitol city is alive and so is the campus. It feels crowded and urgent, but friendly. The state’s politics may be in turmoil, but UW athletics is steady and ascendant, if bound by the same Midwestern modesty you recognize in Nebraska.
I see the success of the last two decades in the facilities, highlighted by Camp Randall Stadium and the …
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Lost in the Big Ten hopes to find road food favorites suited for the Husker heart.
In Iowa City, it’s not complicated. It’s pizza and beer. I don’t know that the town raises it to an art, but it’s absolutely the stock and trade.
Wig and Pen. The Airliner. A & A Pagliai’s. Sam’s. Gumby’s. The Pizza Pit. Pizza on Dubuque. Falbo Bros. I’m forgetting several. There are a ton, for this small of a college town, to remember.
The pie of choice around town seems to involve a doughier, thicker crust — although thin-crust versions are generally available. It’s greasy and warm and filling and it goes well with sugary soda or malted hops.
My brother-in-law told me once about his theory on pizza: …
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Yet another “sign” that the world Nebraska is joining is a completely different climate than the one it left: Towns are relatively obsessed with their conference affiliation. The Big Ten Inn is located near Interstate 80 in Iowa City/Coralville.
Oh, yes, I know about that Big 12 Motel in Broken Bow. I wonder if it changed its name yet.
IOWA CITY, Iowa — First stop on the Lost In Big Ten tour is Nebraska’s newest neighboring rival. The University of Iowa: Hawkeye stomping grounds.
The campus is bisected by the Iowa River, running high right now like most of the Midwestern rivers. Husker fans who haven’t already been here — or can’t remember it well — will find it comfortably lived in and perhaps a bit disheveled like the excellent doctors and literary writers this school frequently turns out. You’d gladly sit down with Iowa City for a pizza and beer — which seems to be the meal du jour around here. It seemed relaxed and unforced. Of course, in the summer, it’s sleepy like college towns not in big cities usually are. You …
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