6. INDIANA

Indiana football is to the Big Ten as 7th Heaven is to the WB. "Those guys are still around?" So, thank God for the men's soccer team, which has turned itself into a regular contender and stole the national championship in 2003 and '04, and thank God for men's basketball (Mike Davis + make-or-break year = gotta be good, no?), and thank God for a classically Big Ten student fan base that will party like it's 1967-- the last time the Hoosiers won the Big Ten football title -- despite the fact that their team will struggle to win five games in 2005.

7. PURDUE

Maybe it's their rep for uninteresting football players (Kyle Orton? Drew Brees? Taylor Stubblefield?). Or their Wilford Brimley--like coach. Or their drab colors. But in frat-speak, most translate Purdue to mean "boring." How wrong. At 8 a.m. on a football Saturday, while dreams of Lee Corso and Amstel Light are still dancing through your head, West LaFayettans are already two cold ones up on you.

8. MICHIGAN STATE

Sofa burning ... car tipping ... and that's after an MSU loss. In describing an East Lansing fete, former Cold Pizza and Road Rules sorority girl Kit Hoover once told SIOC simply, "All the freaks come out," and that they do. Just not in September. Or October. For now the Spartans' wily energy is all focused on basketball (see Final Four appearances by both the men and women), but don't let that keep you from checking out Spartan Stadium --if not for football then for hockey. Spartan Stadium hosted the largest crowd ever to watch a hockey game, an outdoor affair in 2001.

9. ILLINOIS

Always has been, always will be a basketball school -- even with all its stars but guard Dee Brown off to the NBA. Still, even in mid-March, Urbana-Champaign was far from the bubbling cauldron of cheer and chaos one would have expected of a team on its way to the championship game. U of I's an alumni school in a lackluster town (two actually: Champaign and Urbana) and with no big city within realistic driving distance.  

10. MINNESOTA

If the U. of Minnesota is going to make a name for itself in a big city that has had bigger (read: Super Bowl and NBA title) aspirations for what seems like a decade, now's the time. While the Vikings and Timberwolves rebuild, the Gophers' football offense is gelling (welcome back, All-America Laurence Maroney!), the men's and women's hockey teams each made it to their respective Frozen Fours (the ladies were at the White House on July 12; the men weren't) and the women's basketball team is churning out WNBA lottery picks. Still, there has to be something wrong with a campus that drew the most attention in 2004 when hundreds of Gophers road-tripped to Madison, Wisc., on Oct. 31 and --allegedly-- turned a city-wide Halloween party sour.

11. NORTHWESTERN

The 11th-most desirable road trip in a conference called the Big 10 -- how appropriate. We won't say a road trip to Evanston isn't worth a few good moments of your time, but we will inform you that Chicago, with all its kielbasas and big-city culture, is just an end-around away.