Northwestern's Away Locker Room Inside Their Brand New $875M Stadium is a Thing of Beauty
It's perfect. Everything about it. The visitor's locker room inside of Northwestern's brand new $875M stadium is everything that a visitor's locker room should be. In my opinion, it's even better than Iowa's famous pink locker room.
Iowa's locker room might be funnier. It might be more creative. But that's the problem. Michigan walks into Iowa's away locker room and has a team-wide chuckle. It's funny. It's something the whole team can immediately have a laugh about and bond over. It also highlights the fact that Iowa is trying to engage in some sort of mental warfare. If anything, it probably serves as a reminder that they can't fall victim to Iowa's cheap pink tricks.
Northwestern's away locker room on the other hand... there's nothing notable about it at all. It's just a little bit sad. It has the vibe of a hotel basement that's primarily used for storage because whatever their original intention was didn't pan out. The lockers + walls are positioned in a way that divides the team. The sight lines are terrible. The DB's probably won't even know where the WR's are seated. Who knows where the team might gather for a pre-game meeting. I don't think Northwestern's away locker is as "insulting" as the internet makes it seem. But that's why it's perfect. It's as unremarkable and as slightly inconvenient as a football locker room gets.
Meanwhile, across the hall in Northwestern's home locker room...
And to top it all off, the Northwestern Wildcats might actually be good this year. They're coming into the brand new stadium with a real football team. At least that's what I'm telling myself as an Indiana fan (as opposed to coming to terms with the fact that Indiana might not be close to what they were last year).
The Northwestern Wildcats are 3-1 with a blowout over Colorado and a close loss to Indiana. Aiden Chiles is a pretty good quarterback. And they're about to be playing in one of the nicest stadiums in all of college football.
Which come to think of it… if Northwestern is about to be selling out football games… well isn't that the opposite of what's made them "good" in year's past? Teams historically roll into Evansville for an 11 AM EST game that takes place in a library. They're lulled to sleep, and before they can even be shook away they're down 3 scores at halftime
It's beautiful stadium. I love what Northwestern has done with their locker rooms. Yet I'd still be a little nervous giving up my home field library. I suppose having fans who care about your team is always better than the polar opposite. But Northwest may no longer have that element of surprise that get them in a 6-point game at halftime with #1 Ohio State… (before Ohio State inevitably pulls away and wins by 30)