Crimson Crank: Nitpicking Indiana’s 38-0 win over Western Kentucky, Memorial Stadium

After a slow start, Indiana found its rhythm and took care of business in the second half against Western Kentucky, winning 38-0 and moving to 3-0 on the season. Indiana now has a two-game shutout streak on top of a 19-game winning streak heading into Friday's matchup with Northwestern.

Now, because I think too many people are overreacting to a game in which Indiana held an opponent to under 200 yards of total offense, I'm gonna take a break from talking about the team this week. Northwestern will be a worthier opponent for evaluating the real weaknesses of the 2026 group.

I also had the privilege of attending the game in person, my first time at Memorial Stadium since Indiana lost to Cincinnati in 2021. Seeing a Curt Cignetti-coached team play in-person is impressive and I'm not tempted to complain about the team's performance on a day that it was so hot that sitting in the bleachers felt uncomfortable.

Instead, I would like to nitpick the parts of the stadium experience that are still lacking the polish you'd expect for a championship-caliber team. Ohio State will be here in under a month, and there are parts of the stadium unfit for a game of that magnitude.

Before getting to the unsavory, I want to acknowledge that it's a near-perfect experience from your seat. There aren't really any bad seats in the stadium, the experience is revamped with a mascot and an IndyCar intro, and the towel waving on third and fourth downs makes a sold out crowd look even more intimidating.

I sat near the south end zone, making it difficult to catch replays on the bigger of the two screens in the arena, but having a perfect view of the action in real time made that feel negligible in the grand scheme of things.

The real problem was, as others have noted online, the lack of concessions and bathroom access. Installing troughs instead of urinals helped speed some things along in the men's room, but there were also only two sinks available, creating a long line for the hygienic among us and encouraging college students to lean into their already dubious hygiene routines.

The lines for the women's room did not move as quickly, likely due to the fact that there are also only two sinks in the women's bathroom, as my wife confirmed.

Lines for concessions were similarly long, meaning you'd have to miss a good chunk of the action to refresh on beer or the much-needed waters when temperatures are what they have been this season. There were beer vendors in the concourse that could get you a beverage faster than some of the kiosks, but they never wandered into the aisles of the stadium like you'd expect at a baseball game.

As somebody who went to school when it was still illegal to buy alcohol on Sundays in Indiana, let alone at Memorial Stadium, the novelty of the very-real upgrades the school has made over the last decade is not lost on me. I know the school is probably working to remedy everything I've mentioned here, I just would have expected it in this past offseason, with the National Championship sealing the fact that the football Hoosiers are the new must-see event in town.

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