Pregame: Illinois at Iowa, Saturday, February 4th, 1:30pm CT, FOX

[BlindLoyalty]

The Orange Krush was worried that Iowa would not sell a block of 200 seats to a rival student group. To avoid this possibility, their solution was to obscure their real identity/affiliation and falsely claim they were the "Illinois Chapter of the Boys and Girls Club? Some of the brightest students this State has to offer decided the best course of action was to lie and impersonate a children's charity? People are defending this unethical behavior? The Orange Krush most certainly needs to issue a public apology.

 

[Ramrod2010]

The Orange Krush was worried that Iowa would not sell a block of 200 seats to a rival student group. To avoid this possibility, their solution was to obscure their real identity/affiliation and falsely claim they were the "Illinois Chapter of the Boys and Girls Club? Some of the brightest students this State has to offer decided the best course of action was to lie and impersonate a children's charity? People are defending this unethical behavior? The Orange Krush most certainly needs to issue a public apology.

I gotta say, you're not living up to your username here.

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

The Orange Krush was worried that Iowa would not sell a block of 200 seats to a rival student group. To avoid this possibility, their solution was to obscure their real identity/affiliation and falsely claim they were the "Illinois Chapter of the Boys and Girls Club? Some of the brightest students this State has to offer decided the best course of action was to lie and impersonate a children's charity? People are defending this unethical behavior? The Orange Krush most certainly needs to issue a public apology.

[Username does not check out.]

In all seriousness, the Orange Krush always picks a fake organization for the exact reason you mentioned, right? I think this was a case of being stupid/not doing their homework rather than some malevolent attempt at impersonating a charity. After all, there is no Boys and Girls Club in Illinois, so it's possible they just picked a random youth group-sounding name to fly under the radar. Of course, having lived in Iowa City for a good chunk of my life I was aware of the Boys and Girls Club (which is pretty big in Eastern Iowa), so the optics look bad. If the Krush intentionally picked a known Iowa charitable group to pretend to be (and then also publicly blasted the Iowa AD, not thinking that would come out), then I agree - that is dumb and beneath them and pretty embarrassing. However, if they simply picked a name for a group to obscure their identity, that is not condemnable at all. When they went to Michigan several years ago, they were a fake junior high group from Detroit ... big deal.

 

[illini0440]

The Orange Krush was worried that Iowa would not sell a block of 200 seats to a rival student group. To avoid this possibility, their solution was to obscure their real identity/affiliation and falsely claim they were the "Illinois Chapter of the Boys and Girls Club? Some of the brightest students this State has to offer decided the best course of action was to lie and impersonate a children's charity? People are defending this unethical behavior? The Orange Krush most certainly needs to issue a public apology.

Your history of bad takes continues!

 

[illini0440]

[Username does not check out.]

In all seriousness, the Orange Krush always picks a fake organization for the exact reason you mentioned, right? I think this was a case of being stupid/not doing their homework rather than some malevolent attempt at impersonating a charity. After all, there is no Boys and Girls Club in Illinois, so it's possible they just picked a random youth group-sounding name to fly under the radar. Of course, having lived in Iowa City for a good chunk of my life I was aware of the Boys and Girls Club (which is pretty big in Eastern Iowa), so the optics look bad. If the Krush intentionally picked a known Iowa charitable group to pretend to be (and then also publicly blasted the Iowa AD, not thinking that would come out), then I agree - that is dumb and beneath them and pretty embarrassing. However, if they simply picked a name for a group to obscure their identity, that is not condemnable at all. When they went to Michigan several years ago, they were a fake junior high group from Detroit ... big deal.

And they were a fake boy scout troop when they went to purdue.

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

Just one other small piece from me on the whole ticket debacle….I don’t know how many people Carver Hawkeye holds and I’m not going to look it up, but a group of 200 is at most less than 2% of capacity. That’s not enough to take away any home court/crowd advantage.

Back to the game…we will need to play probably our best game to win but I actually think we match up pretty well. If we can hug their 3 pt shooters and make Rabraca and Murray shoot tough 2’s we have a chance. Think Hawkins and Dain can slow down Murray and Rebeaca and if Dain gets into foul trouble should be able to slide Coleman and Mayer over. Only potential mismatch I see is Perkins or Ulis bullying our frosh guards, but if that turns out to be a problem, think Ty can slow them down. We will need to play well but we’ve got a shot!

I have been to an Illinois/Iowa game at Carver-Hawkeye several times (the years listed below), with every year in orange being a year that the Krush was there:

2004 (plus probably 1-2k more Illini fans)
2005 (plus probably 5-6k more Illini fans)
2006
2008
2010
2011 (no Krush but probably 2k Illini fans)
2013
2015
2017
2019

I could have missed some. While 200 people alone are not going to change much, there is almost always a good Illini contingent there when (A) we are good and (B) it's on a weekend ... so years like 2005 and (hopefully) this year are perfect storms. What the Krush does do is fire up the other Illini fans through their more active cheering. I'm pretty bummed they won't be there Saturday, and I hope some wealthy alumni help get those kids Stubhub tickets scattered around the arena, considering the buses are paid for!

 

[Johnny Lawrence]

The Orange Krush was worried that Iowa would not sell a block of 200 seats to a rival student group. To avoid this possibility, their solution was to obscure their real identity/affiliation and falsely claim they were the "Illinois Chapter of the Boys and Girls Club? Some of the brightest students this State has to offer decided the best course of action was to lie and impersonate a children's charity? People are defending this unethical behavior? The Orange Krush most certainly needs to issue a public apology.

I don't have an issue with the cheeky white lie. It wasn't hurting anyone and as others have noted they weren't even benefiting from an additional discount. What I do have an issue with is the execution. I'm guessing Krush members were bragging to their Iowa friends about how they pulled one over on the ticket office and word got back.

 

[Germanboxers]

The Orange Krush was worried that Iowa would not sell a block of 200 seats to a rival student group. To avoid this possibility, their solution was to obscure their real identity/affiliation and falsely claim they were the "Illinois Chapter of the Boys and Girls Club? Some of the brightest students this State has to offer decided the best course of action was to lie and impersonate a children's charity? People are defending this unethical behavior? The Orange Krush most certainly needs to issue a public apology.

Are you serious? It's a made up organization. Do you understand what real ethics entail and where it should be applied? They're a college group that wanted a block of tickets for a rivalry game. Oh the humanity! Have we lost our collective minds that their actions require of apology??? Geesh!!!

 

[21ChampaignSt]

Respectfully disagree. Don't need any of this tarnish on him. And outside of Illinois I highly doubt the Twitterverse would see the Illinois AD as universally respected and credible.

Iowa outplayed us here, pure and simple. Take the lashing and move on. I'm already expecting a higher level of douchebaggery than usual when I go to the game Saturday, and am not happy about that either. But not much to do about it now.

That's the thing. The only reason this feels like "tarnish" is because Iowa spun it that way. I don't care so much about the Twitter cesspool. I'm thinking about the media that will (has) picked this up.

I was thinking something along the lines of..

"Yesterday I was made aware that the University of Iowa canceled and refunded 200 tickets purchased by the Orange Krush at a group rate for Saturday's men's basketball game at Carver Hawkeye Arena. Unfortunately, Iowa's decision to refund the tickets three days before the game resulted in unrecoverable travel expenses for 200 University of Illinois students.

The Orange Krush's annual Big Ten road trip is a decades old tradition and one done in the spirit of healthy competition and rivalry. While the Krush has historically used the guise of a fictitious organization to gain admittance to rival arenas, this year they made the regrettable error in judgement of using the name of a legitimate non-profit organization. Although the Orange Krush did not benefit financially or otherwise from using the name of an NPO, the University of Illinois does not condone it.

The Orange Krush is the best student section in the country and has raised over $2 million for charity. We are grateful for the support they give our team both at the State Farm Center and on the road and we look forward to them continuing this tradition in the future.

Go Illini!

Iowa sucks!

JW"

 

[sacraig]

For many reasons, I'm sure JW would rather not touch this. But I would like to see him make a statement just laying out the facts. Doesn't have to condemn one side or the other. Just get the facts out in the open from a universally respected and credible source.

I'm not saying they should be directly involved, but instead, in the future, give each new batch of Krush Chairs access to like a 1 day PR course or something so they are better able to manage it themselves.

 

[21ChampaignSt]

I'm not saying they should be directly involved, but instead, in the future, give each new batch of Krush Chairs access to like a 1 day PR course or something so they are better able to manage it themselves.

Right. I got ya and agree. Was just expanding upon that thought.

 

[Illini2010-11]

Are you serious? It's a made up organization. They're a college group that wanted a block of tickets for a rivalry game. Oh the humanity! Have we lost our collective minds that their actions were somehow requiring of apology??? Geesh!!!

I am amazed that people are mad at college students for a stunt that is done every year for almost every school. Maybe the execution from the Orange Krush was lacking (should have picked a better name), but for Iowa to put out a PR statement that insinuates the Orange Krush buying tickets was an insult to the Boys and Girls Club, is laughable. To save face, they "donated" tickets to a charity...how noble of them. If they really cared about these non-profits, they would offer additional discounts to eligible charity groups instead of the standard bulk ticket discount.

Iowa being Iowa...

 

[sacraig]

[Username does not check out.]

In all seriousness, the Orange Krush always picks a fake organization for the exact reason you mentioned, right? I think this was a case of being stupid/not doing their homework rather than some malevolent attempt at impersonating a charity. After all, there is no Boys and Girls Club in Illinois, so it's possible they just picked a random youth group-sounding name to fly under the radar. Of course, having lived in Iowa City for a good chunk of my life I was aware of the Boys and Girls Club (which is pretty big in Eastern Iowa), so the optics look bad. If the Krush intentionally picked a known Iowa charitable group to pretend to be (and then also publicly blasted the Iowa AD, not thinking that would come out), then I agree - that is dumb and beneath them and pretty embarrassing. However, if they simply picked a name for a group to obscure their identity, that is not condemnable at all. When they went to Michigan several years ago, they were a fake junior high group from Detroit ... big deal.

There's a zero percent chance they picked "Boys and Girls Club" because it was "youth-sounding" and somehow didn't know there is an actual charity with that name. There are Boys and Girls Club locations all across the country and there are multiple Krush Chairs involved in this decision. There is a vanishingly small chance none of them had heard of it before.

I do honestly think it's in bad taste for Krush to pick a name that is so similar to a real organization. But it's also in bad taste for Iowa to imply that's how they got their rate.

 

[Battle89]

That's the thing. The only reason this feels like "tarnish" is because Iowa spun it that way. I don't care so much about the Twitter cesspool. I'm thinking about the media that will (has) picked this up.

I was thinking something along the lines of..

"Yesterday I was made aware that the University of Iowa canceled and refunded 200 tickets purchased by the Orange Krush at a group rate for Saturday's men's basketball game at Carver Hawkeye Arena. Unfortunately, Iowa's decision to refund the tickets three days before the game resulted in unrecoverable travel expenses for 200 University of Illinois students.

The Orange Krush's annual Big Ten road trip is a decades old tradition and one done in the spirit of healthy competition and rivalry. While the Krush has historically used the guise of a fictitious organization to gain admittance to rival arenas, this year they made the regrettable error in judgement of using the name of a legitimate non-profit organization. Although the Orange Krush did not benefit financially or otherwise from using the name of an NPO, the University of Illinois does not condone it.

The Orange Krush is the best student section in the country and has raised over $2 million for charity. We are grateful for the support they give our team both at the State Farm Center and on the road and we look forward to them continuing this tradition in the future.

Go Illini!

Iowa sucks!

JW"

Nicely written. If JW responds, that sounds good. I still hope he doesn't though.

All credit to @CDRUSN (from an earlier Iowa thread, ironically):

 

[Iloveorangekoolaid]

At first I just wanted to beat Iowa this weekend; now I wanna kick their ***

 

[sbillini]

i agree using the B&G club is in bad taste. and it provides an easy out for iowa to kick the Krush out.

as i said before, the best way to handle it is for someone (rich alum?) to come in and buy the tickets straight up and give them to the Krush. Everything else is apparently already paid for.

If you can't do that, then the next best thing to do is order 300...400...500...as many as you can for the next game at Iowa, and make it official that you're ordering them for the Orange Krush, and see what they do about it.

Call their bluff. Iowa just put themselves in a tough spot.

 

[Dan]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1621204588559753217

 

[One Man Fast Break]

Whitman should absolutely not touch this with a 100 foot pole. These kids made their own bed, their espionage trip got exposed, which is no doubt a bummer for them, especially with the charter being non-refundable. They chose to go into a PR war with a professional professional organization and got a big dose of reality dropped on them. The Illinois Athletic Department doesn't need to get involved in this situation that is just bringing bad attention and will certainly not be perceived well by neutrals if the statement is anything other than "Orange Krush BADDDDDDDD".

I do agree that it'd be a good idea to help the Krush apprised of how to conduct good PR moving forward. Good or bad, they are seen as representatives of the University and the "embodiment" of Illini student fans.

 

[aaeismacgychel]

The Orange Krush was worried that Iowa would not sell a block of 200 seats to a rival student group. To avoid this possibility, their solution was to obscure their real identity/affiliation and falsely claim they were the "Illinois Chapter of the Boys and Girls Club? Some of the brightest students this State has to offer decided the best course of action was to lie and impersonate a children's charity? People are defending this unethical behavior? The Orange Krush most certainly needs to issue a public apology.

There is a very long history of precedence here. Home teams don't just sell large groups of tickets to the opposing student fan group for obvious reasons. So the fan group says they are some other made up organization. If the school realizes based on location of purchase that this is likely the student group they won't sell- there is precedent to this as well. When I was at Illinois, the Krush at times would need multiple attempts to get the tickets needed to "sneak in" to opposing stadiums under various group names. It's not like the fan group is posing as a charitable organization to garner donations or publicity, they simply gave a different name of the group they want to purchase under than their own with no additional benefits for the standard ticket rate cost. Something that has similarly been done by most B10 fanbases (including Iowa) for over 25 years.

While the name choice wasn't the most innovative for this one, whether they call themselves a non-existent Boys and Girls club, the Fran McCaffery drinking buddies club, the Iowan Pig Wrasslin' Consortium, or the Actual Whores from Ann Arbor, LLC it really shouldn't matter when there are no benefits to it other than being allowed to buy tickets that that you're legally allowed to buy. There really is no need to apologize here. If the B10 wants to ban opposing fan groups from making road trips to other venues they can do so, and similarly if they want to ban schools from attempting to restrict sales of tickets to opposing fanbases, they can do the same. Until that happens, this is just the song and dance that occurs.

 

[john1952]

For many reasons, I'm sure JW would rather not touch this. But I would like to see him make a statement just laying out the facts. Doesn't have to condemn one side or the other. Just get the facts out in the open from a universally respected and credible source.

The more you feed the social media trolls and Facebooks warriors the longer it takes for them to go away, probably best to manage on backstage.

 

[john1952]

Rather than questioning the ethical transgressions of the Krush, we need to bring the collective wisdom of the alumni to bear on this issue, and help them more effectively plan this type of subterfuge in the future.

 

[socalini]

How petty and insecure do you have to be to block an opposing team's fans from attending a game? Will they be blocking entry for orange wearing ticket holders? Arresting anyone attempting to enter with an angry Fran head?

If I were a multi-billionaire alum, I think I'd cover that $6,000 and throw in another $6,000 just out of spite.

 

[21ChampaignSt]

Whitman should absolutely not touch this with a 100 foot pole. These kids made their own bed, their espionage trip got exposed, which is no doubt a bummer for them, especially with the charter being non-refundable. They chose to go into a PR war with a professional professional organization and got a big dose of reality dropped on them. The Illinois Athletic Department doesn't need to get involved in this situation that is just bringing bad attention and will certainly not be perceived well by neutrals if the statement is anything other than "Orange Krush BADDDDDDDD".

I do agree that it'd be a good idea to help the Krush apprised of how to conduct good PR moving forward. Good or bad, they are seen as representatives of the University and the "embodiment" of Illini student fans.

You're kind of contradicting yourself though.

Saying these kids made their bed and have to deal with the consequences on their own insinuates that they are independent of the university and thus shouldn't receive support from the university.

But then to say they are seen as representatives of the university who could use some PR support from the university implies that they aren't apart from the university, in which case the bed they made is not just theirs to sleep in.

To me, it's a bad look for the university to support and promote the Krush in their triumphs while abandoning them and staying silent during their struggles.

 

[Illini2010-11]

Whitman should absolutely not touch this with a 100 foot pole. These kids made their own bed, their espionage trip got exposed, which is no doubt a bummer for them, especially with the charter being non-refundable. They chose to go into a PR war with a professional professional organization and got a big dose of reality dropped on them. The Illinois Athletic Department doesn't need to get involved in this situation that is just bringing bad attention and will certainly not be perceived well by neutrals if the statement is anything other than "Orange Krush BADDDDDDDD".

I do agree that it'd be a good idea to help the Krush apprised of how to conduct good PR moving forward. Good or bad, they are seen as representatives of the University and the "embodiment" of Illini student fans.

I agree with your general premise, but I actually think the Krush is getting exactly what they want in this situation. They do not necessarily need the national audience to pity them. This will end up being a good opportunity for them to get grassroot donations from Illini fans, which will in turn help them donate back to other causes. They will easily be able to recover the non-refundable charter bus losses. The only "loss" will be the Krush students who are unable to attend the game.

 

[One Man Fast Break]

You're kind of contradicting yourself though.

Saying these kids made their bed and have to deal with the consequences on their own insinuates that they are independent of the university and thus shouldn't receive support from the university.

But then to say they are seen as representatives of the university who could use some PR support from the university implies that they aren't apart from the university, in which case the bed they made is not just theirs to sleep in.

To me, it's a bad look for the university to support and promote the Krush in their triumphs while abandoning them and staying silent during their struggles.

I'm saying they've already brought some negative attention to the University, best to not get the athletic department entangled in this mess and make a minor situation worse. I just don't see any benefit to the athletic department to put themselves in the situation. So just say nothing on this particular incident, and allow it to blow over until the internet gets into its next frenzy over something someone somewhere did.

I'm saying go forward, the athletic department should take preventative matters to try and ensure that more negative press does not result in the future (Lesson One - do not go to PR War with professional organizations, they are more experienced and have more resources, they will beat you and make you look bad).