#75 Indiana

Bloomington, IN

Memorial Stadium

November 9, 2024

Indiana 20 - Michigan 15 (ESPN Recap)

Made it to Bloomington to catch a Top 10 undefeated team host the defending national champions. Amazing experience thanks to Papi, Mike H, Isaac, and Adam: tour of Assembly Hall, field passes for the game, and great recommendations on where to eat and watch games.

This was a belated birthday present to Papi and a belated 10-year work anniversary present to myself. Indiana is a basketball and diving school, but is rapidly inserting itself into relevance in football thanks to Coach Cignetti (if you don’t know who he is, Google him).

Met a Senior named Ben while tailgating who had a bit of overconfidence on his game prediction, but it’s worth a listen and he got some pieces of it correct and he's funny.

Elijah Sarratt #13 was locked in from pregame and made a great TD grab in the 1H. Had a couple uncharacteristic drops later, but IU got out to a nice halftime lead and held on just enough for the biggest win in at least 25 years. Michigan defense really turned it on in the 2H, thanks to their two projected Top-10 picks on defense, but their comeback stalled out on a 4th down play that came up 1 yard short (Video Below). Lost a small bet on Indiana -14, but avoided a syndicate play of Indiana 2H which felt like breaking even.

"Not since 1968 had Indiana, the team with the most losses in FBS history (713), been favored against Michigan, the team with the most wins (1,009). But Indiana opened as a two-touchdown favorite -- befitting a team that had won its first nine games by 14 points or more and leading the FBS in scoring margin." - ESPN

Isaac told us that the stadium was the most electric he has ever seen it in his 8 years on campus. It was definitely a capacity crowd with the white towels waving for key plays, but the Hoosiers fan base doesn’t get nearly loud enough to compete with the big boys yet. I think there was a lot of nervous energy in the building...probably because a couple Western Mass fans for the Mike Hixon Bowl.

Great to see MAC-legend Kurtis Rourke in person. Taller than I expected and gave him a Veterans Day salute for all the Unders he cashed while at Ohio University.

The win earned Coach Cig an 8-year extension and 2x salary bump (from $4m/yr to $8m/yr), which feels like a smart call to not lose him to the SEC. Next up for the Hoosiers is a Top 5 show down in the Horseshoe! Picked up a Coach Cig shirt and some IU pajamas.

Really enjoyed the TV and bar scene at The Upstairs Pub which we went to Friday night and for the early games on Saturday (we did not join the Breakfast Club). Also, had a great meal after the game at Uptown Cafe. Bloomington is funny in that they have one segregated street (E 4th St) with all their ethnic restaurants Thai 3x, Indian, Tibet, Sushi, and an International Market. The rest of the town has the eateries you would expect in a Big Ten midwestern town.

Bloomington is just an easy 55-minute drive south from Indianapolis, which I have now been to a total of twice in my life. One more of the remaining stadiums on the list are in the state, and will figure out how to get to Ball St when the time comes. One student Uber driver told us that he doesn’t do rides to Indianapolis because it’s so dangerous of a city, he doesn’t even feel safe driving through it…we aren’t sure where he gets his information from, but Indy highways seemed perfectly safe to us.

Videos below of a 1H IU touchdown, the last defensive stop of the game on 4th down, and a sack fumble for Indiana's defense on a 3rd and G from inside the 5, forcing Michigan to kick a FG.