Crunch time in college football, start of college hoops highlight ‘Campus Check-In’

CHICAGO – For fans of major college athletics, this can sometimes be the most exciting time of the year.

That’s because the college football season is nearing the end, meaning that the games get a little more important and have a major impact on postseason play. At the same time, the road to “March Madness” begins for college basketball teams around the country as the regular season gets underway in the first full week of November.

Naturally, this made for a very busy “Campus Check-In” this week on WGN News Now as we featured both of those sports and others over the course of the show.

Illinois football quest for a Big Ten West title hit a bump with a home loss to Michigan State, snapping their six-game winning streak. As they try to start a new streak against Purdue in Champaign Saturday, Notre Dame will look to capitalize on a dominating upset of No. 4 Clemson at home last Saturday as they face Navy in Baltimore.

Northwestern is still looking to end its losing streak despite a great effort against Ohio State while NIU snapped its two-game skid in a mid-week game at Western Michigan.

The college basketball regular season began with men’s and women’s sweeps at DePaul, Illinois, Loyola, and UIC while North Central College advanced to the Division III men’s soccer tournament thanks to an unbelievable goal in the CCIW championship.

Along with this, Tom Fornelli of CBSSports.com appeared on the show to give his thoughts on the local college football teams.

Larry Hawley has all of that and more on this edition of “Campus Check-In,” which you can see in the video above.