As I started to attend more and more games at each professional sports stadium, I decided to also attend a game at each Big 10 football and basketball stadium. However, one problem with attending games at Big 10 stadiums and arenas is that I only want to attend when Northwestern plays – giving me a limited number of games to attend. Another conflict that occurs is that there always seems to be some other sporting event, which I prioritize higher than traveling to see Northwestern play on the road (for example – a Chicago Cubs game which is across the street from my house rather than a few hour drive).

Saturday was a different story. With Nicole planning to teach figure skating on Saturday morning as usual and my parents planning to spend the afternoon with their friends from Naperville, I had the perfect opportunity to see a new Big 10 football stadium – Michigan St.

Kick-off was set for noon ET (11 am CT) and the drive was about 3.5 hours from Chicago to East Lansing. I left the house at 6:45 am and arrived at East Lansing around 11:15 am (10:15 am CT).

Parking
Initially I looked for free parking on some side streets around the stadium. However, all of the streets had parking restrictions so I ended up paying to park at an elementary school for $10. Most temporary parking lots in the area were also $10.

Obtaining Tickets
I only wanted to pay $10 for a ticket even though I knew face value for tickets was $49. As I was looking for a free parking space I saw a couple of scalpers on the main road. As I approached the scalpers, a fan with three extra tickets also approached them. The scalper offered the fan $30 for all three tickets. The fan said no and at the same time I offered the fan $10 for a single and the scalper offered him $40 for all three tickets. I told the fan I was going to the game (always a plus when buying tickets from a fan) and he sold me a single for $10. I did not stick around to find out how much he sold his other two tickets for but it could not have been more than $10 or $15 each.

The Game
After parking and buying tickets it was 11:40 am so I walked directly to the stadium. The ticket I bought was near the Northwestern fans section so I sat there rather than with the Michigan St. fans.

Northwestern started out the game well with a goal line stand on Michigan St.’s first drive as MSU had 1st and goal on NU’s 4 yard line but could only gain three yards in four rush attempts.

Northwestern took a 7-0 lead into halftime but that was the extent of Northwestern’s day as Michigan St. turned their play around. MSU scored 17 points in the third quarter and scored their third touchdown within 12 seconds of the 4th quarter beginning to take a 24-7 lead. Northwestern attempted a comeback but ended up losing to MSU 24-14.