February 2nd Blog: Chicago, General Admission ticket to No. 3 Indiana v. No. 1 Michigan

For the third time in five weeks, I went to Chicago, Ill. and this time it was with the Indiana University Ernie Pyle Scholars. On Thursday night, we networked with alumni and perspective students at Maggiano’s. We visited the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune on Friday. We ended the trip by seeing “Other Desert Cities” at the Goodman Theatre, which was a play that combined three of the things that I hate the most: people arguing politics, comedians who drop f-bombs in every other sentence because they think it makes them funnier, and people who jelly bean their clothing (a.k.a. wearing a monochromatic color scheme; in this case, all of the actors wore all white clothing for the opening scene). The end of the play marked the start of one of the most exciting days of my college experience: No. 3 Indiana hosting No. 1 Michigan on ESPN at Assembly Hall.

11:04 pm CT We leave the Hampton Inn & Suites hotel and board the charter bus. I pull the classic “put my backpack in the seat next to me and pretend to sleep” move in order to get two seats. It works to perfection and I get  the luxury of spreading out for my two hour nap.

11:35 pm CT We passed a McDonald’s in the middle of the freeway outside of Chicago near a toll booth and the United States’ struggles with obesity suddenly make much more sense.

12:00 am CT The bus sings happy birthday for a girl’s 21st birthday, which only livens the older students in the back of the bus and pushes everyone’s sleep schedules back another half an hour due to the noise.

4:23 am ET I wake up as the bus pulls into Bloomington. The volume level of the bus is only a low murmur and it is safe to say that I am clueless as to where we are. As I see the parking lot in front of Assembly Hall, I realize how insane, but commendable, it is for anyone to wait outside in the snow in the wee hours of the morning for ESPN’s College GameDay.

5:15 am ET After unpacking, it’s time for a quick nap before GameDay as the snow continues to fall.

I arrived in B-town with snow accumulating on the ground, which would make waiting in line for a General Admission seat even more challenging.

6:00/6:05/6:30/6:41/6:59 am ET I wake up five times to my alarm and go back to bed after each time only to extremely regret it later.

11:03 am ET I wake up, this time for good, to realize that I slept through the start of College GameDay and my heart  shatters into a million pieces. I hop on to my laptop and get on Twitter to catch up on all of the clever signs and the cream and crimson-filled student section that I missed.

11:23 am ET My Twitter session is over and I am still trying to figure out what to do with my life. I decide that to redeem myself, I must get in the general admission line by 3 pm.

2:00 pm ET I order a burrito and a bag of Lays for lunch at the Wright Food Court before stopping in the Wright C-Store for a bag of sour gummy bears and a box of junior mints. Nice to meet you Freshman Fifteen!

2:41 pm ET One of my friends and I make the trek across campus to Assembly Hall to wait in the General Admission, where the daunting “pre-line” has formed. The GA line does not start until 3 pm and IU event security personnel defend the parking lot outside of Assembly Hall from the masses of IU students.

Indiana University students with General Admission tickets line up across the street from Assembly Hall in the “pre-line” before the GA line officially starts at 3 pm.

2:51 pm ET A group of fifteen to twenty kids manage to sneak past security and they make a mad dash to Assembly Hall behind Cook Hall, which is where the IU men and women’s basketball teams train. The students lining East 17th Street follow suit and it’s literally every man/woman for him/herself. With only three security personnel at the GA line, there are close to no rules. Cutting in line is rampant. Students hop fences and pack together in line like sardines even though the doors won’t open until 7:30 pm. We make it reasonably close to the door yet seem so far away, with nearly five hours to kill and a few hundred students in front of us. When the dust settles, no one has any room to move and one IU fan spends five minutes painting the white snow with his regurgitated breakfast of ramen noodles.

Our spot in line earned us 17th row seats after six and a half hours of waiting. I sat in the same row for the Indiana-Wisconsin game after arriving at Assembly Hall only 45 minutes early.

3:30 pm ET A sneaky Hoosier fan thinks that he can get away with cutting most of the GA line but with the help of two new, whiskey-loving friends we made in line, Leo and Oliver, we call attention to the cutter and the event staff kick him out of the line.

4:45 pm ET IU event security is severely outnumbered but manages to get the students in the GA line to spread out  after nearly an hour of arguing with students who cling to their spots in line as if it is their most prized possession.

Their is no shelter for fans in the GA line. Event staff tell students that they risk their spot in line by leaving to go to the bathroom.

6:32 pm ET ESPN college basketball analyst and former University of Michigan star basketball player Jalen Rose stops by the GA line to greet Indiana fans. He is met with mixed reactions; some ask for pictures with him and his autograph while others heckle him for his Michigan ties.

7:47 pm ET After hours of not feeling my toes and dealing with fans trying to cut the GA line, I make it inside Assembly Hall with my friends. We have 17th row seats that are close enough to see the expressions on the faces of players in their shoot-around and the hosts of ESPN’s College GameDay as they film their pre-game show.

ESPN’s College GameDay pre-game show is filmed with Indiana and Michigan players warming up in the background.

11:08 pm ET Yogi Ferrell’s late free throws seal the deal for the Hoosiers as they knock off a No. 1 team at home for the second year in a row. Indiana wins 81-73 and will likely be No. 1 in next week’s polls after No. 2 Kansas lost earlier in the day to Oklahoma State. (If you watch the video closely, you can see Victor Oladipo doing a windmill dunk as time expires, which he later apologized for in Indiana’s post-game press conference.)

11:10 pm ET Indiana Coach Tom Crean celebrates with IU fans as photographers surround him in Assembly Hall.

Indiana Coach Tom Crean was not taken by surprise with this year’s win over the No. 1 team as he was with last year’s last second three-point shot by Christian Watford to defeat No. 1 Kentucky. After the post-game handshakes, he acknowledged the crowd and celebrated the victory with Indiana fans.