BEER AND CIRCUSES. Northern Illinois University's football team overcomes Western "We Scored First" Michigan to earn a spot in the Mid-American title game at Ford Field with an invitation to the GMAC Bowl or the Motor City Bowl at stake. First prize: a trip to Detroit. Second prize: two trips to Detroit.

Earlier that day, the university commenced construction of the Academic and Athletic Performance Center, a long-winded way of describing fancier locker and weight rooms with a study hall upstairs.

The director of athletics trots out an annoying metaphor, again.

Athletics is the front porch for the university. It's the most visible. This is a strong re-investment in the front porch. The front porch is not the most important part of a home, but it is the most visible part.

I repeat: those of us who are in the kitchen, or perhaps relegated to the broom closet, have been doing our work, even when the front porch was 0-for-the-late-1990s.

Here's what the new front porch will look like.



Leni Riefenstahl and Albert Speer could not be reached for comments on the presentation.