You can blame:
1. Illinois' insistence on maintaining admission requirements far higher than NCAA qualifying standards (and far higher than many other B1G schools);
A wildly overrated talking point when it was in vogue and it's yesterday's news now. NCAA qualifying standards have gone up and the leadership and attitude of UI admissions has changed as a result of state funding issues as well as a broader culture change in higher education.
2. Illinois' insistence on attempting to maintain a self-funding DIA - even if somewhat illusory;
Illusory indeed.
Only Rutgers, Maryland and Minnesota have more of their budget coming from institutional funds in the B1G than Illinois. Significant school subsidy is rare in the Power Five and it should be.
3. Illinois' insistence on changing the student populace gradually toward international students vs. Illinois kids;
Illinois' percentage of in-state students is behind only Rutgers in the Big Ten. That percentage has declined in recent years, but enrollment has also increased. There are as many Illinoisans enrolled at UI as there ever were.
4. Illinois' insistence on dismantling of many historic gameday traditions 10 or so years ago;
Certainly hasn't helped from a fanbase perspective, but the Chief thing was out of our hands unfortunately.
5. The NCAA sanctions in the 80s;
Football has two B1G titles since then and basketball has three.
6. Isolating the student section in the North Endzone; and
The entire MS renovation was a monstrosity that will hamstring us for decades to come, though it's worth noting that the students being shunted into worse seats than they used to have is a broad national trend. Student attendance is down everywhere.
7. A state and administration that overall wants to be more like a Cal-Berkeley model rather than Michigan or Ohio State model.
Cal has been significantly better than us in both football and basketball over the past decade.
I think all of that gets us to the awful gameday experience we currently have.
Gameday atmosphere is down across the country in all sports really, as is attendance generally. A sign of the times. But Illinois has swan-dived even below that trend and the reason is that the teams on the field and court have been total garbage and have relentlessly failed to meet even the most modest of expectations, period.
A loyal attendee (or TV watcher, or message board warrior) of Illini football and basketball over the past decade has been not just disappointed but embarrassed and humiliated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
We. Deserve. Better.