To sum up this article put out by the NIU Athletics site, we face the cruel reality that we will have to wait until 2011 to have our "home game" against Wisconsin in Soldier Field. 

"For the past several months, we have been working with the folks at Wisconsin on finalizing the details for the continuation of our series, highlighted by the tremendous opportunity to play another home game at Soldier Field," said NIU Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics Jeff Compher. "The comments I've received regarding the Soldier Field experience versus Iowa last year have been overwhelmingly positive. For our football program, our athletic department and especially for our university to be able to create a college football atmosphere in downtown Chicago was tremendous.

"Given the opportunity to engage with tens of thousands of Huskie alumni in the city and the chance for our student-athletes to play in an NFL stadium where many of them dreamed of playing while growing up, we felt strongly that Wisconsin is the right opponent at the right time for our return to Soldier Field. In addition, we will once again be garner extra attention from the Chicago media outlets, which is great for recruiting."

"We're going up to play a program that is respected throughout the country and certainly in the Big Ten," Kill said. "We look forward to the challenge. We have a lot of players from Wisconsin, it's a recruiting area for us and it's important to our program to play these types of games."

A few of the fans don't like the idea of our games in Soldier Field.  They don't see it as a home game, because in reality the majority of fans at the game will be Wisconsin fans.  The same thing happened with the Iowa game at SF in 2007.  There's only so many opponents we can have these Soldier Field matchups with, so I hope in the future we can continue success and possibly secure better home matchups against top opponents.

"Soldier Field is an amazing venue and the people there, led by [general manager] Tim LeFevour, were fantastic hosts in 2007 and have worked closely with us to secure the 2011 date," Compher said. "This is an opportunity for our fans to fill the stadium and make it a true home field advantage for the Huskies. I have every confidence that they will make this a great event for our team."

A true home advantage?  Really?  I don't believe so.  This whole Soldier Field thing has to do with $$$$$ and I'm all for us gaining some extra funds as long as it is invested right back in our program.

Here's a snapshot of the upcoming opponents we play in future years.

2009:

9/5 - NIU @ Wisconsin
$800,000 payout

9/19 - NIU @ Purdue

TBA - Idaho @ NIU

TBA - Western Illinois @ NIU

2010:

9/4 - NIU @ Iowa St

2011:

9/3 - NIU @ LSU

9/17 - Wisconsin vs NIU @ Soldier Field

2014:

TBA - NIU @ Wake Forest