Northwestern's plan made sense. Invite a bunch of their commitments and some of their top 2020, 2021 and 2022 targets to the Wildcats' Big Ten opener against Michigan State, when the students would be back on campus for the first time and a big crowd would be on hand.

The fans showed up, more than 40,000 of them. The student section was filled to the gills. But the Wildcats team laid an egg, looking listless in a 31-10 loss to the Spartans.

But while things didn't go as planned on the field, the outcome didn't matter as much as you might think to the more than 30 prospects in the stands. They were focused on different things on their visit.

We talked to a few of them to get their insights into how watching that loss influences their decision process and thoughts about the NU program.