The Purdue athletic department, cunning and skillful as we know them to be, has scored another coup with the scheduling of Northern Illinois as the black and gold's first victim at the new and improved Mackey Arena.

On 11/11/11 (why we're all so hell bent on it being that date is still lost on me), the Boilermakers will open the new arena (well, technically the volleyball team will christen it a few days earlier -- makes perfect sense to Morgan Burke) against the Huskies.

Remember, this is the university that humbled Danny Hope's Boilers two years ago and led to truly professional cheering in the pressbox by those "covering" the Huskies. Well, after lecturing Boilerdowd on his tawdry pressbox behavior (we're still trying to figure out why he was talked down to by the athletic department but those stooges were apparently not), the school has done their best to find a way to get back at Northern Illinois by rubbing a win in their faces.

Hey, it was this or diving.