Bowl comes early

True story.\nEight years ago, I thought college football was quite possibly the worst sport ever invented. And this is with soccer in the running.\nMind you, my only real exposure was to the early 1990s Northwestern Wildcats. My brother went to school there from 1993-1997, and let me tell you, the first two years were atrocious.\nNot that I could really get into detail about how bad it was, but I read a book through the games that my family attended. You would have too, had you been forced to sit through the Northwestern-Air Force game in 1994. Competitive game it was not.\nBut it was also Northwestern that changed my mind about college football. In 1996, the year after the Wildcats completed their fateful Cinderella season, they were making a valiant effort to repeat. One Saturday afternoon, I started watching a game by default; I had nothing better to do.\nAnd in some odd twist of fate, I found myself in a rant of screams and foot-thumping.\nNorthwestern was losing to Wisconsin late in the fourth quarter at Madison. All the Badgers needed to do was protect the ball. Instead, Wisconsin running back Ron Dayne fumbled the ball, and Northwestern scored the winning touchdown on the next play.\nAt this point, I was seizuring from excitement, and my poor dad, who was trying to nap, woke up all confused.\n"You hate football," he said. "Why are you yelling?"\nI had no idea, but from that moment on, I was hooked.\nBut being a Northwestern fan is like being a Chicago Cubs fan. You never really get full satisfaction from rooting for the team. As a colleague of mine put it, your life is full of "almost there's," and "doh's!"\nSo at the beginning of this Big Ten season, my brother Derek and I were comparing notes about Northwestern and IU.\nAs he put it, the game was shaping up to be the battle of the worst two teams in the Big Ten.\nBut hey, there is a bright side to that. Replace "battle" with "bowl," and the Hoosiers can boast that they made it to a bowl game this season.\nI can see it now. "2002 Big Ten Worst Team Bowl Champions."\nI vowed I would make no more predictions about the Hoosiers after I said they could upset Iowa and Illinois would be a cake walk.\n0-2, and I'm done.\nWell, after reading ESPN.com, and noticing that Northwestern was listed as No. 5 in the Top 10 bottom teams in the college football, I'm thinking of reconsidering.\nEspecially since the Wildcats grace from above seems to have disappeared in a plethora of losses that last year, they would have miraculously pulled out.\nUnfortunately for IU, which has the talent to be five million times better than Northwestern, the two teams are comparable on paper. That may mean nothing, but Illinois was better on paper, and we all know what happened there.\nEven worse, Northwestern averages more rushing yards than they do passing yards. Yikes for the Hoosiers, who forgot to integrate a single rush defense play into the playbook this season.\nBut luckily for IU, its passing game is way stronger than Northwestern's, and an even bigger positive is that head coach Gerry DiNardo didn't screw things up by replacing starting quarterback Gibran Hamdan with back-up Tommy Jones. \nUnfortunately, I won't be at this "bowl" game on Saturday. My brother and I both are going to be in a wedding this Saturday.\nBut I can just see us once again comparing notes. Me, about IU not understanding the importance of scoring in the red zone. Derek, about how the Wildcats get over 400 yards, and still don't win ... wait a second, that's the Hoosiers forte. Oh man, here comes trouble.