IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
STL has 300k people. Chicago has 2.7 million. I imagine that has a lot to do with it.
Pregame: Illinois at Iowa, Saturday, November 23rd, 11:00am CT, BTN
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STL has 300k people. Chicago has 2.7 million. I imagine that has a lot to do with it.
I agree 100 % Illinois attendance problem is performance based, my point was Iowa, Alabama, Mississippi weren't the best examples by using states that college football is the ONLY thing to look forward too 12 months out of the year.
BMoreIllini
- Baltimore, MD
That's a bit disingenuous. STL City proper only has 300k, but the the STL metro area has over 2.8 million. For comparison, Chicago's metro area comes in around 9.5 million.
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A welcome change from cow tipping and cow pie tossing, I bet.
Deleted member 746648
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Speaking as a person from southern Illinois. The farther away from Chicago you get (especially now that the Rams are gone) the less people care about professional football/the bears. If we could at least win 6 or 7 games every year instead of being a complete embarrassment of a program like we have been the fans will show up. A region of a few million people should be more than enough to fill a 60,000 seat stadium. Having people come from Chicago is great but not necessary.
IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
So we still have them by 70% instead of 89%. Cool.
Bottom line, there are more people in Chicago/Chicagoland and a bigger media market. In terms of sheer numbers, it matters more.
EDIT: I'm not trying to knock STL. I've visited and enjoy it greatly, and my husband and I have talked about it as a city we'd be willing to relocate to if necessary. But, STL and Chicago aren't equivalent cities.
I would bet that there's a lot of Illini support in STL, but like Chicago, it gets watered down by support for Mizzou and other colleges. Illinois will never dominate the city the way the Cardinals or Blues do. It's the nature of college athletics. If you're going to play it by numbers, you're better off focusing on the larger metro area.
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I don't know if this gives any insight but I think my perspective is different because I didn't actually go to UIUC but UIC. I was happy for UIC when they got the basketball upset but I was, in reality torn. I know what UIUC can represent for the state as a whole. It's something NW can never do because it's just not an iconic school from a population perspective. It's tiny, private, and overly elite.
Illinois has HISTORY. They have ICONIC LEGENDS. There is no reason we shouldn't be on the CFB map and we are in the best position to be. I love the school even though I got rejected(OK maybe that's just my own fault).
GO ILLINI.
Illinois has HISTORY. They have ICONIC LEGENDS. There is no reason we shouldn't be on the CFB map and we are in the best position to be. I love the school even though I got rejected(OK maybe that's just my own fault).
GO ILLINI.
What happens first the Bears win the NFC title or the Illini win the Big Ten west, i say next year should give us a answer
My thoughts
My thoughts exactly. We undoubtedly suffer from lack of success recently, but NOT lack of tradition! If we build it, they will come. I think (not so far back) to the energy/atmosphere in the stadium during the ASU game in 2011.
DrewD007
- Woodridge, IL
Sorry to rehash this, but this comment had me wondering. According to this site:
3,479,419 within 100 miles of Champaign (1,512,624 within 75, 763,545 within 50)
2,002,981 within 100 miles of Iowa City (1,411,783 within 75, 564,854 within 50)
1,813,825 within 100 miles of Lincoln (1,534,104 within 75, 1,248,974)
Look at the rest of the big ten. Nebraska has won multiple national championships and has 300 plus consecutive sellouts. We are not the same. Iowa is probably most like us. Analysis complicated by Purdue-Ind, Michigan-Mich State, etc. Indiana's attendance also bad, Purdue has improved with Brohm. Not denying winning is important. Where are the highest number of Illinois alums. I can only guess but I will guess Chicago and suburbs. Why would we think that area is not important?
Deleted member 645583
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Here's another one from famous literature: "Love means never having to say you're sorry." Pass me the Pepto, please.
But I met Mr. Segal in St. Louis while he was touring to promote "Love Story". My manager at B. Dalton wasn't happy when I asked him about THE BEATLES (he was co-writer of "Yellow Submarine"). He was genuinely interested in my questions about the FABS! Nice man.
I have only one quote in mind right now: "Beat Ioway! Just beat 'em!" (I just came up with that one! O. Leo : wordsmith).
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Sounds like it. Not sure on Jake, anyone have any news there?
Deleted member 533939
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Time for everything to come crashing back to earth. The turnover gods don't hand out another miracle this week. Iowa by 20+.
The turnover gods aren't handing out anything. Our guys have just been coming in prepared. Luck is preparation followed by execution. You don't wind up number one nationally week after week on luck.
I would rather have a bye week after a loss, but given our recent injuries maybe it came at a good time.
IF we lose, there is no reason to be discouraged. We are playing on the road against a ranked team. This season is a success either way. However, if we can pull the upset we will all be sh*tting in tall cotton. Let’s give these bastards a game!!
IF we lose, there is no reason to be discouraged. We are playing on the road against a ranked team. This season is a success either way. However, if we can pull the upset we will all be sh*tting in tall cotton. Let’s give these bastards a game!!
Deleted member 533939
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I agree on forced fumbles, there is an art to that. Fumble recoveries are by definition, luck. There are 11 guys on the field, it's basically a 50/50 proposition. Currently, Illinois is recovering 73% of opponents' fumbles (16 of 22). That just isn't sustainable. They also are returning 23% of turnovers for TDs, which is just staggering and also not sustainable. For comparison, opponents are only recovering 44% of Illinois fumbles and only returning 8% of turnovers for TDs.
BananaShampoo
Captain 'Paign
- Phoenix, AZ
Robert from IB did an analysis on this and determined we were only +3 based on where should be based on TO margin assuming neutral "luck". Not that dramatic. We are just very good at forcing fumbles in the right places where we have opportunity to recover, and good at being in position for INTs. Will we regress to the mean somewhat? Sure, but no reason to think our turnover generating D won't continue to do its thing.
TOs aren't a miracle, they are taught and practiced. You don't lead the nation in TOs by luck.
Deleted member 746648
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We tend to force fumbles on the defensive side of line of scrimmage where the defense will have more guys around to recover it. In contrast it seems like when our offense fumbles it tends to be near the offensive side. At least it seems this way when I'm watching games.
We have to stop their run game. We can't allow them to string first downs. It would be great to get to go three and out several times. Would love to see us get up the margin odds maker have us losing. The same Saturday we beat Wi IA was playing Pu. Pu almost beat them and we beat Wi. I was listening to the Pu game on radio driving through Ind. I believe it was field goals that beat Pu against Ia. During the win streak who was the toughest Def we have played to date? Who had the best offense we have played during the win streak? Beat IA tomorrow.
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