Not to bump down Loretta's Q/A with Illini people, but, a bowl in three days is a bowl in three days. 

• But before we get to that, more coverage of NU's top 25-ness. USA Today ran two pieces, one on NU, one on our chances of going tourney, meaning hotel-stayers the nation over are aware of NU, while ESPN joined the ranks of people who loved Loretta's moderately unrelated article. Meanwhile, as predicted, not much pub in the Chi-town area media: the Sun-Times managed to squeak in this, while the Trib used the AP Wire story while focusing on the basketball team's bowl-bound counterparts. Clearly the paper just simply doesn't have the space or resources to cover things like an Illinois vs. Northwestern basketball, but if they did, they'd surely focus on the more successful of the two teams rather than running a story on Bruce Weber's rotation. (in all seriously, my tone may be whiny at times, but it's good to be the talk of the town.)
• Of course, I was write that something crazy had to happen in last night's Bears game. Some people are trying to spin it as being a good omen for NU sports because Nick Roach recovered a fumble in overtime to give the Bears the ball, but, these people ignore that the receiver of the game winning pass was ex-Auburn Tiger Devin Aromashodu. So it's a moot point. 
• Todd McShay says the best pro talent in the Outback Bowl wears purple. It's interesting to hear the pro hype for "Michael Kafka" beginning to develop - the Trib ran a story on this as well. Hopefully, he doesn't Chase Daniel his way out of a decent chance at becoming a rare NU quarterback in the league - with his really shocking development in the accuracy department this season and speed, it's actually not surprising to see him considered a potential NFL-er next year. 
• An old football adage says, to win a football game, a little girl has to pick your team in a self-posted internet video based on your uniform color. (I think it was Vince Lombardi who said that.) Well, folks, Northwestern is in luck:
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• I can't argue with the logic, although it feels necessary to point out that if anything, the boy resembles a tiger. In other news, I'm sooooo glad I didn't have an older sister growing up, because that kid is going to begin regretting that video around the time he hits eight years old. 
• In Journalism 202, you learn how to take photos very briefly. However, I've never been able to be a good photographer for some reason, I just don't have it in me, but I've always wanted to have that ability to be able to capture a beautiful image, one that tells a story by itself, one that doesn't need explanation, one that captures your eye and your imagination. For example, here is a photo of Northwestern defensive tackle Marshall Thomas with a sloth.   
• I probably should have ended on that world-altering photo, but, I feel sharing extraordinarily minor bowl news: I wrote about how I feared Auburn's h-backs (in addition to other things), but, no worries: blocking h-back Eric Smith is out for the bowl due to academics, and his backups John Douglas and Jason King have matching DUI's, meaning only Mario Fannin will be playing, with no real backups. These guys figured into the pass offense quite a bit actually, and their absence should hurt Ben Tate's ability to run the ball as well. For once, recruiting a team of players who go to class and don't enjoy D'ing under the I pays off for Northwestern.

I got another post for later, so, stay tuned, punks.