The Big Ten football championship game, by contract, is set for Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium for four more years.
Make it 44 years.
That's how good the setup was for Saturday's inaugural matchup. And if the future games are anywhere close to as good as Wisconsin's 42-39 theft of a victory from Michigan State, conference football fans will learn to flock to Indy.
"Wow!" was Commissioner Jim Delany's first word during the postgame ceremony. That was a fitting descriptor for the entire weekend.
Indianapolis has a dazzling, ultra-modern airport to fly into. The drive to downtown is an easy all-freeway straight shot or a $35 cab ride.
Lucas Oil Stadium is in the heart of downtown, where several quality hotels, restaurants and tonsil-washing stations are within walking distance.
The stadium is a quality experience. It's not quite JerryWorld in Dallas — no place is — but its attractiveness in combination with the next-door amenities makes it better.
The playing area itself reminded me of Reliant Stadium in Houston, another of the newer premium retractable-roof stadiums.
As for the empty seats at the game, get over it.
Yes, there were a few thousand. Yes, as some Omaha folks told me on the plane ride home Sunday, they had to dump tickets for $50 after optimistically buying them in August for $125.
But you have to factor in the newness of the event and the weak economy. Plus, the Wisconsin and Michigan State fan bases travel decently, but not to the extent that the Nebraskas and Ohio States of the league would.
I was impressed with the number of Nebraska fans who decided to grin and bear it, pull on their Husker gear and attend.
Their persistence made a positive impression. I heard a lot of stories about NU backers getting welcomed by Wisconsin and Michigan State fans.
For the Big Ten, high on the list of reasons to have a championship game was to be relevant into the first weekend in December.
In the past, when the league finished play before Thanksgiving, it was like surrendering center stage to all other BCS leagues playing showcase games on the holiday weekend and beyond.
You've got to think people who were watching the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game Saturday night started switching over to Wisconsin-Michigan State, and stayed there.
Great title games could become the norm in the Big Ten.
In the Big 12, the divisions got so out of kilter with South over North that a long run of blowouts nearly killed the interest. With the balance we've seen in the Big Ten Legends and Leaders, games that go into the fourth quarter are quite likely.
A few final thoughts as football's regular season ends:
»Heisman Trophy: May I please vote for six players? That's at least how many ought to go to New York for the ceremony.
I'm going with Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin. But you couldn't go wrong picking Stanford's Andrew Luck, USC's Matt Barkley, Alabama's Trent Richardson, Wisconsin's Montee Ball or Boise State's Kellen Moore.
»Carl Pelini: Good luck on his first head-coaching position. The way the Husker defense has struggled, kind of makes you wonder what Florida Atlantic looked at. Maybe outgoing coach Howard Schnellenberger owed Tom Osborne a favor after swiping the 1983 national title from the Huskers while at Miami.
»Recruiting: Nebraska had better put its work boots on and tie them high and tight. Wisconsin and Michigan State aren't going away. Michigan is on the rebound fast. Ohio State will be right back for a run at the top, too. All those teams are loaded with top-flight young talent. The Huskers, it seems, not so much.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1024, lee.barfknecht@owh.com
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