Football Scheduling For Dummies: By Ron Guenther

Hey Ron, how about 7 home games? How about having back to back winning seasons and back to back bowl games before you start scheduling road games at Oklahoma? Again: 5 bowl games in 17 seasons on the job. 78-117-2.

Guenther takes a different approach. "I'm probably in the minority,'' he said. "But I'm one of the few that feel as a program gets better and is heading from one level to the next from competitive to championship — I'd like to think you'd have two BCS games."

The football Guy's problem is that he's skipping a step - you don't go directly from 5 bowl games in 17 years to suddenly consistently competing for the BCS championship.

Would the DIA screw up a 2 car funeral?

Leave it to the DIA to muck up what should be a fun event. The Daily Illini reports that someone from the marketing department shut the door to Gate 24 so fans could not enter the stadium for fan appreciation day.

I'll wait for the usual merrymen and Guenther apologists to spew some crap about the Directors' Cup and non-revenue sports. This is inexcusable.

This quote sums it up best: "Twenty-five years of being a season ticket holder. That many years donating to the I-Fund. We got here at 12:25, they shut the door at 1:25 and we were 20 people away from the front of the line,” said David. “It’s not fair, not right. This is no way to treat people.”

"Together We Can"

Can the DIA marketing department come up with a lamer slogan to put on football schedules? Terrible stuff, as usual, from the marketing department.

Why Can't Illinois Be Consistently Good In Football?

The easy answer: Ron Guenther. 5 bowl games in 17 years, no back to back winnning seasons when he's been the athletic director.

ESPN Blogger Calls Out UI Football Program

Dennis Dodd of CBS Sportsline rated all college football programs of the past decade. Adam Rittenberg thinks Dodd has Illinois too high at #59. Sadly, we agree:

I was very surprised to see Illinois ranked ahead of Michigan State, Minnesota and Northwestern. Sure, the Illini have turned in two great seasons in 2001 and 2007, but their record the rest of the decade is 23-58. That's brutal and includes four seasons of three wins or fewer. Both Northwestern and Minnesota have been much more consistent than the Illini, and Michigan State's low point is 4-8.

Did we mention UI lost 19 straight Big 10 games at one point? Failing to beat a Division 1A team in 2003? Detroit? Great job Ron!

Lousy Date for United Center game

January 2?????? Man, and you thought the United Center was empty for last year's game....

Fuzzy Math on Midnight Madness

The DIA is going to pass out 125,000 tickets for Midnight Madness in an attempt to break the NCAA record for a women's volleyball match. Sounds like a lot of ticket-holders will be mad when they can't get into Assembly Hall. Why not just give free tickets for Midnight Madness to women's volleyball season ticket holders and let everyone else stand in line?