Eric Block and Brit Miller are roommates and teammates, but this weekend, the Illini football players will be on opposite sides of Sunday’s NFC Championship game.

Block, a sophomore offensive lineman for the Illini, is a New Orleans native and a diehard Saints fan. Miller, a sophomore linebacker from Decatur, lives and dies by the Bears.

On Thursday, the Daily Illini headed to this broken home and posed one question for the pair:

Daily Illini: Who’s going to win Sunday’s game?

EB: OK, Saints are going to win. Period.

BM: Saints are not gonna win.

EB: Dude, Saints are going to win, no doubt in my mind. You’ve got your main weapons on offense: Reggie Bush-

BM: He likes to choke in big games, does he not?

EB: He does not.

BM: National Championship last year?

EB: He won his sophomore year. And he didn’t choke last year. Reggie’s the man. He’s a beast. He didn’t choke last game, he’s not choking this game. But besides him, we’ve got Deuce McAllister: unstoppable. Drew Brees, Big Ten quarterback, showing my respect for the Big Ten and he’s used to cold weather. They’ll throw it all over the Bears. Get a word in dude. Try it.

BM: You ready for this madness to drop on you?

EB: Let’s do it.

BM: Shake ‘n Bake.

EB: OK then, Shake ‘n Bake.

BM: OK, Brian Urlacher is a Saint stopper, not to mention a Deuce stopper.

EB: Overrated.

BM: No way. Lance Briggs, not to mention our special teams, are going to walk all over you guys.

EB: Hey, Steve Weatherford!

BM: I love Steve, I do, but bad decision on his part to be on the losing end of the Bears’ wrath.

EB: Hester can’t play in cold weather.

BM: Is that so?

EB: You see what he did last game? Dropping two balls?

BM: Who won last game?

EB: By luck, by luck. Against a terrible Seattle team. You guys have played terrible teams all year.

BM: That’s not true.

EB: You think they’re awesome, they’re not. And the Saints are America’s team.

BM: The U.S. Saints? What, the U.S. Olympic Saints? The U.S. ‘Aints. Any team that has a history where they were called the ‘Aints and you guys wore paper bags over your heads, you should be kicked out of the NFL.

EB: Why? We still went to the games to support them, we just didn’t want people to see us. Those were rough times. Don’t criticize those times. I was there.

BM: I know, your daddy put a little paper bag over your head. That forty paper bag.

EB: Baloney.

BM: No, you’re baloney. The Saints are baloney.

EB: You made me lose my train of thought.

BM: Exactly, just like the Saints.

EB: What?

BM: There you go. Who lost the argument?

EB: Whatever. You’re terrible dude. My prediction on the score is 35-0. I’m calling a goose egg on the Bears.

BM: Whatever. You’re wrong man. You’re wrong.

The battle will rage in Block and Miller’s living room Sunday, as they have not found tickets to the game. They’d love your help getting to Chicago.