Seth Fein was born in Urbana and now lives in downtown Champaign. He owns and operates The Nicodemus Agency, is the founder and curator of Pygmalion Music Festival, and is an assistant talent buyer at The Canopy Club. He loves the Purdue Boilermakers and his wife's marinara sauce.
Last Friday, a couple years of controversy slipped away into the static of television. On the morning on August 15, channel 66 on the now Comcast-controlled cable service became the Big Ten Network.
I awoke and turned it on to find a replay of a bad football memory for me: Purdue at Iowa, 2002. The Boilers let the game slip away in the final two minutes of regulation, as Brad Banks outsmarted the Purdue line to toss a five-yard touchdown to receiver Dallas Clark, putting the Hawkeyes up for good, 31–28.
Does this type of backdated reporting sound silly? Even, perhaps, obsessive? It is.
And unsuspecting friends and wives of Big Ten sportsfreaks can expect it a lot more this year.
This is doubly true for those faithful to the Orange and Blue. This fall, Big Ten Network will feature a weekly show creatively called, "Illinois Football: The Journey." It will highlight a year behind the scenes of the current Illini football squad, the trials and tribulations of being a team with Rose Bowl expectations and learning how to settle into their role with coach Ron Zook.
The show will air once a week starting September 2, the Tuesday following the #20 ranked Illini's first game against #6 ranked rival Missouri.
Expect poor interviews conducted by underpaid reporters who are either former Big Ten players or C-level graduates of A/V schools nationwide.
