Big Ten announces attendees for luncheon

Published 10:02 pm Wednesday, July 12, 2017

ROSEMONT, Illinois — The Big Ten Conference announced the 42 students scheduled to attend the 2017 Big Ten Football Media Days and Kickoff Luncheon, Monday and Tuesday, July 24 and 25, at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place and Convention Center in Chicago.

The list of students scheduled to attend features 25 returning All-Big Ten selections from last season, including a pair of first-team honorees in Ohio State’s Billy Price and Tyquan Lewis. Attendees who have earned second- or third-team all-conference accolades include Indiana’s Tegray Scales and Rashard Fant, Iowa’s Josey Jewell and Sean Welsh, Michigan’s Mason Cole, Michigan State’s Brian Allen, Minnesota’s Steven Richardson and Rodney Smith, Northwestern’s Godwin Igwebuike and Justin Jackson, Penn State’s Marcus Allen and Jason Cabinda, and Wisconsin’s Troy Fumagalli.

Honorable mention All-Big Ten honorees scheduled to appear at the event are Indiana’s Richard Lagow, Maryland’s Jermaine Carter Jr., Michigan’s Mike McCray, Minnesota’s Jonathan Celestin, Nebraska’s Chris Jones, Northwestern’s Clayton Thorson, Penn State’s Mike Gesicki, Purdue’s David Blough and Wisconsin’s Jack Cichy and T.J. Edwards. A complete list of student attendees appears below.

The 46th annual Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon begins at 11 a.m. on July 25 with an autograph session with the head coaches and College Football Hall of Fame inductees Tom Cousineau of Ohio State and Tim Krumrie of Wisconsin, while select students will participate in brief, live interviews, conducted by FOX Sports’ Jenny Taft. Around 11:50 a.m., fans can get group pictures of the Hall of Famers, all 14 coaches and all 42 students in attendance.

The luncheon begins at 12:30 p.m. and will be hosted by Joel Klatt of FOX Sports, who will sit down with the coaches in small groups to discuss the upcoming season and also interview Cousineau and Krumrie. The luncheon will feature speeches by Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and Tournament of Roses president Lance Tibbet, while Purdue’s David Blough will speak on behalf of the students in attendance. The event will also feature highlight videos, additional student interviews by Taft and much more, including door prizes highlighted by a free trip to the Big Ten Football Championship Game and to the Big Ten’s top bowl game destination.

Individual tickets or full tables to the luncheon are on sale at bigten.org. Tickets are priced at $110 each, with a table seating 10 for $1,100. All fans, regardless of age, must have a ticket for entry to both the autograph session and the luncheon.

The Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon annually attracts some of the most talented names in college sports.

The event has drawn legendary coaches as well as each of the conference’s Heisman Trophy winners since 1970. In all, approximately 1,000 of the conference’s finest players and 80 head coaches have celebrated the start of a new college football season at the Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon with nearly 54,000 supporters.