1) Florida State (who played Maryland, today)
2) Tennessee (at Arkansas)
3) Virginia Tech (hosting Miami)
4) Florida (at South Carolina)
5) Kansas State (at Nebraska)
6) Nebraska (hosting Kansas State)

Clear skies, light breeze, temperature in the 50’s.  Perfect weather, great matchup, but one problem.  I didn’t have a ticket - and the pickin’s were slim.  Earlier, I had seen a pair go for $300 each, which left me in a state of shock.

Then, a sincere fellow had one for $150, “a prime seat,” located “right in the middle.”  I pulled out my trusty stadium chart, just to confirm.  Yeah, it was right in the middle all right – the middle of the goalposts.  The seat was in the end zone.

As I walked away, several people were giving the guy a large load of grief for his attempted fraud.  And now, nobody was holding up a single for sale – only pairs, and few of them.  My prospects were bleak.

Then, I spotted two student-types coming my way.  Big Man On Campus (BMOC) and a Coed, together.  He was holding up a single ticket while the Coed, wide-eyed, scanned the crowd for any takers.  I inquired.  Looked like a nice seat location.  They wanted $100 – about twice what I had budgeted.  But, the teams were taking the field for warm-ups, and I wanted to be in there, not out here.

“Isn’t this a student ticket?” I asked.  “Uh…yeah,” he said.  “Well don’t you need a student ID to get in?” I replied.  She took over.  “No, the ticket is validated,” she said, showing me a seal on the back.  “So you don’t need an ID to get in.”

I was paranoid.  “Are you sure?”  “Ask them,” she said, pointing toward the ticket windows.

Sure enough, not 30 feet away was a ticket window with a pleasant looking lady smiling at me.

“It’s true,” the woman said.  “Nebraska students can pay an additional fee the week of the game, have the ticket validated with a seal on the back, then sell the ticket if they want to and the buyer doesn’t have to have a student ID to get into the game.  It allows people to get into the game that otherwise couldn’t, and it gives our students a choice.”

Convinced, I turned around.  But to my dismay, BMOC and Coed had three prospective buyers, and one of them had a fistful of cash trying to close the deal.  I hurried up behind Cash Man.  Coed was handling the negotiations.  As I approached, she stopped in mid-sentence and pointed at me.  “But he was first,” she said.  She had my vote for Homecoming Queen and I had a ticket.

I breezed into the stadium with no problem, and found it: opposite the press box, 35 yard line, 25 rows up - great seat.

Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium is not a perfectly symmetrical bowl.  The old stadium has character and to Cornhusker purists, an unmistakable charm.  It was built in sections over the years, and some sections sit at a slight angle to the adjacent section.

So it was not surprising that a short cyclone fence protruded between my section and the section to my left, which was packed with students - the guys with no shirts on.  On the fence they had hung a large sign:

TEMPORARY
TERP
GAMECOCK
‘CANE and
HOG FANS

They knew what could happen, and they were believers.

The atmosphere was charged, a constant rumble, surging to a deafening roar with the action.  During the game, each time the PA announcer gave a score of another contest, the crowd would hush, then give out a collective groan if the wrong team was winning, or explode if they approved.  At one point, Nebraska blocked a punt out of the end zone for a safety, and the noise level dropped as the teams came back down the field to set up for the free kick.  The PA man seized the opportunity:

“We have a final in Fayetteville.  Tennessee 24, Arkansas…28”

Nebraska fans were delirious.  Husker chances were hanging in the balance right in front of them, while they followed other life-or-death struggles, from across the country.  It affirmed again what I already knew: it just doesn’t get any better than this.

Nebraska rolled, 41-15, and the Faithful were happy, to say the least.  Back in the car, I caught the local sportstalk radio show, where one Husker called in just to sing the fight song,

“There is no place like Nebraska
 Dear old Nebraska U...”

beginning to end - with no flaws.  Made sense to me.  And, the guy could sing.

I stopped in at Misty’s No.  2, on Old Nebraska Highway, for a bite to eat on my way out of town.  As I entered, the place was packed to the rafters and pandemonium reigned.  I squeezed in at the bar and ordered a burger.  “What’s goin’ on?” I asked the guy next to me.  “Miami’s ahead of Virginia Tech, 10-0!” he said with an ear-to-ear grin.

Well, Michael Vick led Virginia Tech back to beat Miami, but it was a great day for Dear old Nebraska.  They had survived and gained ground, and next week the saga would continue, nationwide.  And it was another great autumn showdown Saturday on the college campuses of America.

As I drove through the darkness toward Kansas City, I felt a debt of gratitude to the Coed, to the Temporary Fans and, upon reflection, to the framers of the BCS.

And, I had to wonder about those who have said that they want to change college football - want to add games at the end which would diminish the now-or-never intensity of those autumn Saturdays.  Where were they today?  Did they miss it? 

To them I can only say, wake up folks.  Pay attention - there’s nothin’ else like college football.

- Cap

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