ST. LOUIS – With Michigan State down 61-52 and 11:35 left in the second half, the Spartan cheerleaders started a cheer to excite the somber crowd.

“Go Green!” the Izzone shouted.

“Go White!” Orange Krush echoed.

Spurred by an Orange Krush e-mail suggesting a t-shirt trade to support each other’s teams, MSU and Illini fans exchanged high fives, cheers and school colors for Saturday’s Final Four.

“Big Ten teams need to stick together in post-conference play,” said Mary Clark, sophomore in LAS.

While there wasn’t a complete switch from orange to green, people sitting in the Illinois student section did what they could to help secure a Big Ten matchup in today’s NCAA Championship game. And although the No. 5-seed Spartans were not able to upset No. 1-seed North Carolina, the Illini Nation was happy – at least for a few hours – to back its conference foes.

“The other conferences get a lot more credit than the Big Ten, and now we have two teams in the Final Four,” Clark said. “The ACC did not hold its own in this year’s tournament.”

Most of the intraconference love sprung from a spite for broadcasters who seemed to overwhelmingly support the ACC – and put down the Big Ten – throughout the season. But with Illinois, MSU and Wisconsin in the Elite Eight, and the Illini and Spartans surviving to the Final Four, fans felt the conference has proven it was under-rated.

“We’ve got to pull for the Big Ten,” said Puja Shah, sophomore in business. “UNC’s gotten too much hype this year.”

And so they cheered. They pulled out the green, and they stayed in their seats, hoping as much as the MSU fans that, when the buzzer rang, the Tar Heels would be packing up to go back to North Carolina.

When it did not happen, they were almost as disappointed. It was in part out of hope for a conference matchup in the championship, in part out of knowing that what Illinois has done twice this season it could surely have done again.

“I’d rather face Michigan State than UNC, because we know we could beat them,” said James Hardy, sophomore in engineering.

The task now in front of the Illini seems much greater than what could have been, but that won’t be enough to bring the fans down. They have seen the team pull out stunning victories against Wake Forest, Wisconsin and Arizona, and are confident it will happen again.

They were sorry to see MSU lose, but are ready for the Tar Heels.

“It’s a shame, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it,” Hardy said. “Screw the Big Ten, we’re going to the Championship.”