Final Four Friday: Halloween Costumes for the Minnesota Game

Michigan State will be the first Halloween visitor at Minnesota's new TCF Bank Stadium, and if you're going to go you might want to dress the part. But what Halloween costume to wear? That's where we come in, and that's this week's Final Four Friday.

Eric Decker - Minnesota is generally an hospitable destination for visitors, but this outfit might be pushing your luck. The Golden Gophers' best player, wide receiver Eric Decker, is out of the game with a foot injury. Make the costume with a pair of crutches, and exaggerated plaster cast on your left foot. Problem is, you'd have to wear Gophers colors to pull off the outfit, and it is a bit subtle unless you've got a Decker jersey, and that makes it a very expensive costume indeed.

King Leonidas - It's a typical one for Spartan fans since the movie 300 came out, but King Leonidas is always a popular getup. Roman sandals, a Spartan-style helmet, short shorts, leg and arm shields are mandatory for this one. Most costumes come with a red cape, you'll want a dark green one instead. Be careful because some folks consider a shield a weapon - and every stadium security guard will take issue with a spear.

Mark Dantonio - This is probably the easiest costume on the list. Start with a green MSU sports polo or hoodie and khaki pants. Complete the ensemble by finding an old set of aviator headphones with a mouthpiece (check your local thrift or pawn shop) and removing one of the earpieces.

You'll want to make sure to have a constant scowl on your face, or people won't quite get it. For extra oomph, find a gaudy ring to double as his 2002 Ohio State national championship ring.

Lou Anna Simon - This is one of the best ladies costumes, and very very easy to do. The key is to find a green suit, and again I'd check the thrift stores for that. Put a black turteneck under it and a simple piece of chain jewelery, preferably with an MSU charm on it. Glasses are optional.

The nice thing about the Simon costume is that it's a ladies costume that doesn't have the word "sexy" in front of it. Typically, good costumes are either sexy or funny/creative, with the trend for women going toward sexy at all costs. There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but it's nice to have alternatives like this one. However, if you decide to make a sexy President Simon costume, be that on your own conscience.

And the winner is... King Leonidas.

Anyone willing to stand in Minnesota weather in late October wearing little but a Speedo in the name of MSU should get a medal - and a psychological evaluation.

MSU-Michigan Could Be a Night Game

Update: Joe Rexrode reports that this game has been finalized as a 3:30 p.m. kick. From an answer to a question in his LSJ chat today:

Joe Rexrode: Thank you for asking, BNS. to make this clear, the Michigan game is NOT a night game and will not be. It will be noon or 3:30. Night games for that weekend on the networks are already established.

Honestly, that's probably for the best. I love night games, but I stand by my analysis below that night games involving the University of Michigan are a bad idea given student safety concerns. Still, two night games this year is enough to be getting on with, surely.

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Michigan State, for the first time in its history, could play a pair of home night games this season.

The Iowa game on October 24 has been confirmed as a 7 p.m. kick. That will allow for maximum TV exposure on either ESPN or ABC, one of which I'm pretty confident will pick up that game (likely ABC, if Iowa and MSU play as expected).

But in an interesting policy shift, MSU officials said there's a chance Michigan will be a night game too. The Lansing State Journal reported yesterday that it's a done deal, and that the game will kick at 8 p.m., though officials at MSU this morning told me that the start time has yet to be finalized and they "don't know where the LSJ got their information from."

Still, the fact that they're even discussing a night game against Michigan is a massive change of plans for a university that at one time considered banning night games altogether. Incidents of drunken debauchery and sexual assaults after previous night games led Ron Mason to all-but swear them off - backed to the hilt by the president's office.

In 2005, when I was on the East Lansing Riot Review Commission, we talked at length about "disturbances" and MSU football. The consensus was basically that it wasn't really an issue, though MSU and East Lansing police did say that their incident calls increased dramatically around night games.

The one thing that did worry us, again, not on the riot level but on a student safety level, was a night game against Michigan. People already pre-drink the Michigan game to a level not generally seen for other games, and being able to go until 8 p.m. would be a staggering amount of time for one to get one's buzz on.

I don't know if the LSJ's account is accurate - it wasn't written by Joe Rexrode, but it hasn't been corrected either - but if it is right, that will be one crazy night. I'm just hoping in a good way.

By the way, it's worth mentioning that MSU has an away night game scheduled as well. We'll be playing Minnesota at 8 p.m. on Halloween in their brand new TCF Bank Stadium.