This will be my last post for The Ypsilanti Eleven. Let me start by saying I’m very thankful for the readers that I’ve been able to entertain and help keep updated on their #1 most favorite college football program in all the land: those Eastern Michigan Eagles of Ypsilanti. Whether you’re an EMU alum, an active student, a parent of one of the players, or somebody in a far away land that’s never even been to Rynearson Stadium — a lot of you chose to trust me and my words for a reason.

I don’t 100% how I viewed my goals when I first fired up Y11, I just remember that it couldn’t have come at the worst possible time. It was January 2020, and I think had planned on just sometimes writing about this team from an afar every once in a while. I didn’t realize I’d end up moving back to Ypsilanti and have better access to the team to try and make this newsletter grow. Going to games turned into going to the Monday morning press conferences too. The way my newsletter moved meant that I had to change the way I viewed my goals.

Ultimately, to whatever goals I set for myself, I think I’ve fallen way short of what I want to see from Y11. That, and I’m just not enjoying the process anymore. With the combination of the two, I’ve known since September that this was going to be my last season keeping this newsletter active.

That’s not to say I’m totally done writing, or that I’ve done my last MAC football post. I’m sorry to say that I’ve got plans to blog, but that’s about all I can really say about that right now. If you’re subscribed here now, you’ll get updated on when I’m ready to tell you about that.

Speaking of subscribers, I should note something to all of the nice people who chose to subscribe with their wallets: I’ve already paused all future payments from occurring and went back and refunded monthly and annual subscription payments made October through today. Some of you should have already gotten an email about that.

Seriously, it’s been a pleasure to write about EMU football over the 10+ years as a sports writer. Not all of it was done with incredible consistency, but from my time as a student reporter to blogging about the league for Hustle Belt to eventually starting this newsletter — I’m happy to know that I’ve more than put my time into covering one of the most overlooked areas in all of college football.

I know some of you were wondering, and I did my best to count-up the totals. I’ve been to 78 Eastern Michigan football games since 2010. That does and doesn’t feel like a lot of games to me. I didn’t go to any games in 2016 and 2017 (moved to Indiana and covered Division 3 football and preps sports on Saturdays) or 2020 (couldn’t). Of those 78 games, 10 were road games, and 2 more were bowl contests. The rest came in home games, 21 of them were when EMU still played on green turf.

For as unjoyous as the gray turf can be, I’m a weirdo who’s come to love it as a recruiting tool. Beyond saying ‘we’ll play anybody anywhere, even on a parking lot’ and beyond the self-deprecating joke of being seen as a commuter school just a few short miles away from the birthplace of cars, you can do one of two things with acknowledging the gray turf. You can either obsess about how colorless it is, or you can focus on the actual football being played on the field. And if you love football enough, then hopefully you love the sport because of how close we can get turf to look like green grass. Enjoying EMU football isn’t easy, and to do so, you really got to love yourself some football.