You’ve all been wondering, the suspense has been cut and the answer is here: ThunderStix will be back!

You asked for them and they are coming back, and this time maybe twice as many.

The first 5,000 fans at the football game against Toledo Nov. 23 will get them, and it is in the works to make that number 10,000.

“That was the best game that I’ve been to ever at NIU,” said NIU Athletics Director Cary Groth, who’s been at NIU for 26 years; four as a student and 22 as a tennis coach and an administrator. “I’ve never seen that much school spirit in Huskie Stadium. And weren’t those ThunderStix so cool?”

With the first student section (east side bleachers) sellout in school history, the university is planning for an even larger student crowd.

Against Toledo, the visiting team’s crowd, which formerly would be placed with NIU’s students in the east side bleachers, now will be moved to the west side.

Imagine now, an even larger student crowd, situated behind the opposing team’s sideline, making the game hell for them. In the Bowling Green game, aside from thousands of students screaming obscenities at the other team’s players and coaches, BG coach Urban Meyer got hit in the head with a full beer can, according to an NIU administrator.

While the NIU athletics department is doing its best to make the game atmosphere a zoo during the game, they are taking preventative measures to keep things at bay afterward.

Assuming the Huskies beat Eastern Michigan on Saturday then defeat Toledo on the 23rd, they would win the MAC West outright for the first year since 1983.

Knowing the fans would want to celebrate something of that magnitude, the NIU administrators will — grab your Kleenex — not allow the goalposts to be taken down.

“There are too many bad things that can happen that can take away from the fun of winning,” Associate Athletics Director Robert Collins said. “I’ve been around when people stormed White Sox park and tore up the sod. You never know what people are going to do when they get on the field.”

To make certain no fans will get on the field to tear down the goalposts, the administration will continue to keep people out of the north end zone bleachers.

Collins denies that the north bleachers are condemned, but said that no one would be allowed to sit there regardless of if the east and west end zones sell out.

The reason he says is to keep the fans further away from rushing the field to cause any potential problems.

Yet, the south end zone sod was laid down at the beginning of the season, and Groth said it will be open next year, and they would encourage fans to sit on it.

The fans would deserve something to celebrate a MAC West championship and the administration says they realize this and are working on something to suffice.

Current ideas are definitely few and far between, as of now. Existing thoughts include the ever-exciting singing of the school fight song in your seat while the team goes through its MAC West title ceremony, to reviving the NIU Victory Bell.

With the goalposts costing about $24,000, the administration said the cost is not the problem at all.

While you may be devising a plan of how to get on the field and take down the goalposts, the administration seems deathly serious about not letting it happen or being put in a situation to let it happen. Don’t be surprised if pepper spray or night sticks are used to prevent anything from escalating.

With the administration avid about disallowing the goalposts from coming down, they need good ideas … and quick. Only 10 days and counting.