The epitome of American sports comes Sunday night — the Super Bowl.

I’ve obsessed over sports statistics for a long time. One must merely look at my extensive baseball card collection from my elementary school days to see how much I’ve overanalyzed seemingly random facets of pro athletes and their teams. But until Saturday, I’d never joined the epitome of sports fandom creations: a fantasy football league.

Sometimes, I don’t know what to think about professional athletes, and sometimes, I don’t know what to think about the people around them either.

Sports fan or not, there’s an event on Sunday that you’re guaranteed to hear about for weeks to come — the Super Bowl.

Aside from everything to do with the election, the Super Bowl is the biggest event of the year in this country. Yesterday’s media day alone drew thousands of journalists (but I had to go to class). The game is always surrounded by tons of hype, and this year that hype is justified.

This time of year most Fighting Illini sports fans are rejoicing at the end of football season and the beginning of basketball season.

If Illinois had lost to Ohio State on Saturday — as the Illini were supposed to — the men’s basketball team’s 63-55 win over Northeastern would have been the highlight of the weekend for U of I fans. But Illinois didn’t do what it was supposed to do: The Illini won.

From the squirrel that dashed across the field before the game to Kevin Mitchell's game-clinching interception, Illinois fans had reasons to cheer during the Illini's 27-20 victory over Penn State.

I was lucky enough to attend this game, which sold out, and like most other fans, I noticed many things were different this year.

In three games, the Illinois Fighting Illini football team won more games than they did in their previous 22.

Now, instead of dreading playing No. 21 Penn State on Saturday, the Illini and their fans have something to look forward to.