When USC joins that will be the fourth member of our own conference whose football stadium was named and dedicated for its WWI veterans. (Indiana's retained the name of a previous facility, but still)
I don't want to be churlish about fallen soldiers of any era, and our Memorial Stadium truly is a grand and special piece of architecture in a way most college football stadia aren't, but an incredible unique history with WWI veterans is still just not something the University of Illinois has in any meaningful sense.
UNLESS you're sweatily thumbing your nose at the NCAA about how "Fighting Illini" doesn't actually reference any Native American symbology, which was always the driving force of the doughboy stuff and which feels like about nine zillion years ago now.
I think our columns, the way we can tie it into the logo, the specificity of ILLINOISANS who died and - yes - the connection (arguable to what degree if that’s something that for some reason interests you) to the nickname Fighting Illini … coupled with the COMPLETE lack of identity our logos and such currently have … makes our situation a bit different. Those schools aren’t in search of the same things we are, and I therefore think it’s an opportunity for us in a way it isn’t for them.
Who cares what Fighting Illini originally meant? We completely scrapped any identity with the Native American tribes of our state long ago now, and we even removed songs like the War Chant that absolutely didn’t have to be associated with the Chief at all … for God’s sake, we completely made it up, and it doesn’t have words! Lol, repurpose it!
The opposition to the Doughboy on any grounds other than just not liking the aesthetics outed the people who simply want to complain vs. those who took offense to the Chief, IMO.