Illinois Football Uniforms

#51      
Fighter of the Nightman
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I mean, while I find it pointless to ever deride our own "brand," I can at least understand our fans having some type of inferiority complex toward a Jordan Brand school like Michigan, but...

Marquette?? Cincinnati?? Houston?? Good LORD, we have a confidence problem as a fan base if we think our "brand" is inferior to those schools. The only one that has anywhere close to our level of success over the past five years is Houston, and they have a notoriously small and fickle fan base (based on reading their boards last year), mostly restricted to alumni. We're a state flagship school for a massive state, we have relatively little instate competition for fans, a MASSIVE alumni base, as much exposure as anyone being in the Big Ten and (finally, most importantly) the recent success and status to back it up. Hard disagree from me on your assertion there.
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EDIT: Just to add on to this point, I saw after this past season ended that this was the most watched NCAA Tournament since 1993, with an average of 10.9 million viewers. A great season for us to finally break through and play in front of 14.2 million viewers at the Final Four, as well as high-profile victories against Iowa and Houston along the way!

FWIW, we ended 2026 as the fifth most watched team in the nation, with an average viewership across the entire season of 2.4 million per game.
 
#52      
Det_Illini_fan
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I mean, while I find it pointless to ever deride our own "brand," I can at least understand our fans having some type of inferiority complex toward a Jordan Brand school like Michigan, but...

Marquette?? Cincinnati?? Houston?? Good LORD, we have a confidence problem as a fan base if we think our "brand" is inferior to those schools. The only one that has anywhere close to our level of success over the past five years is Houston, and they have a notoriously small and fickle fan base (based on reading their boards last year), mostly restricted to alumni. We're a state flagship school for a massive state, we have relatively little instate competition for fans, a MASSIVE alumni base, as much exposure as anyone being in the Big Ten and (finally, most importantly) the recent success and status to back it up. Hard disagree from me on your assertion there.
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Wasn’t aware of Cincinnati or Marquette, I was going off the Nike website’s “Jordan Schools” page or whatever and it’s all schools (outside of Howard) that have won a major sport national championship within the past 50 years. And have a good deal of brand recognition. Bro I wear Illinois merch damn near everyday. You are preaching to the wrong choir, trust me lmao. All I’m saying is based on the listing of schools I saw from Nike’s “Jordan College Teams” it’s Michigan, Oklahoma, Florida, North Carolina, UCLA, etc. I think we’re big but still clawing back from Post-2005 era, and years of futility in football. Hell, an “alumni” just donated a fat stack of cash to a conference rival so they could get a top QB, and they just took our big QB recruit this year for after him.
 
#56      
RabidDawgClassic
altgeld88 said:
IMO less is more.
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Not always. 🫤

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#58      
fuddrules
Joel Goodson said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2087929929501643023

didn't see a sponsorship thread, so think this belongs here
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Guess this answers my questions. Also, it also excludes Nike which already includes the Swoosh symbol on the uniforms.

"The subsection on jersey patches specifically extends that exclusivity to all companies, not just financial services firms, meaning Busey will be the only brand with patches on these jerseys.

However, there’s an exception for a conference-wide jersey patch deal that the Big Ten strikes, suggesting how schools may handle league-wide deals in the future."
 
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