Just like that. Poof. Magic happened. Indiana’s Memorial Stadium, a place I once referred to twenty-five years ago as the ‘Safest Place in America’, is now a goldmine. Recently I have heard some talking heads on TV and the interwebbers put this place down. Shame on them. I have said it before. Saying it again. I show up at a stadium to watch the game. I am not there to party. I am not there as a social caller. This place is the “friendly confines” of college football. If you are there to WATCH a game, there is no other stadium I have been to that is better with perhaps the exception of Wake Forest.

Coach Cig and other powers at be in Bloomington are making noise about expanding the place. I ($) get it. One day the entire west stands, the side with the press box, will be top of wall to top of wall with luxury boxes on both sides of the press box. Also, there will be a new press box. A new press box, I can attest, will not be a bad idea. An upper deck on the east side? Maybe. That’ll be decided after the numbers are run on just how lucrative those future luxury boxes will be. Either way, my apologies to Bob Dylan, the times they are a-changin.

More Indiana Memorial Stadium goldmine evidence is the “get in” price on one secondary market, Ticketmaster for the October 17th tilt between Indiana and the visiting Ohio State Buckeyes. Two tickets through TM start at $1110 as I put these words down. Most are MUCH more than that. Though it saddens me, looking at all the resale offerings, there will probably be more Ohio State Buckeye fans in Bloomington this year than any other visitors that comes to town. Times being what they are, I don’t begrudge anyone who would sell this game to finance next year’s seats. Me? I can’t do it. Games like these are the ones a guy like me has dreamed about for fifty years.

This was the opening kickoff of the 2017 Rutgers game. I realize it was Rutgers. Still. This was bad. Bad bad. Not unlike the bad bad of having this year’s game against Howard figured in with season tickets. Indiana should pay the fans to watch a practice game against Howard. Still, the place will be packed and that is a very good thing.

Being there (Memorial Stadium) to watch the Hoosiers will be at a premium this year. All games are completely sold out except the, wait for it, Howard game. I don’t know Howard. Is Howard a college or university or a community college. No offense, Howard. I was shocked to find they were the Howard Bisons. I was hoping for the Howard Cosells. Regardless, when the Hoosiers run out of the tunnel at noon on the first Saturday of the season, there will be thunder heard as some players from last year’s National Championship Team will return with a new edition filled with a great deal of promise. Folks like me are still getting used to all of this. That may never happen.

In the irony department, I received an email from Michigan State University trying to entice me to come to East Lansing on November 14th to watch Sparty take on the Washington Huskies. Tickets to this one can be had for 20 bucks. I just chuckled again.

You won’t be able to park in Bloomington for 20 bucks that day.

Go get’em Fernando.

Last week I watched Fernando Mendoza make his debut with the Las Vegas Raiders. Muscle memory had me reaching for the “O” as in Oakland. A man can dream.

I thought Fernando played well. The speed of the NFL is something you manage, or you don’t as an NFL quarterback. I will be shocked if he is not under center starting for the Raiders in late October. I hope not. I’ll never root against Kirk Cousins. He’s earned that.

Looking back on Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks from the last 30 years, the list of didn’t do so well in the NFL to did well in the NFL is much longer. Danny Wuerffel, Chris Weinke, Matt Leinart, Troy Smith, Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford, RG III, Johnny Manziel; they had their struggles. The last ten years of Heisman winners have fared much better. Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow have done well. We’ll have to wait and see about Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams, and Bryce Young. They certainly have not dropped the ball yet.

Next week: The 2026 College Football Preview.