That's a wonderful photo; I don't believe I've ever seen it. Thanks for posting it.
Whole lot of orange in that photo!! I remain impressed that we brought a very large following both times we have played in the Rose Bowl in the "modern era," even though both were against literal LA schools. The fan base is there.
On that note and responding to some other comments since my last one ... fair enough on some points. I guess the question becomes does Illinois get included in a 30-team "super" league? I obviously don't know and we are not a shoe-in, but I would argue many fans saying no right away are being too harsh on us. I admit this relies on optimistic forecasting, but I think "Illini Football" after 5-6 seasons under Bielema where we are going to bowls and now consistently filling a 60k+ stadium has as much value as most programs. Really, I would say the list of programs that provide practically non-debatable,
intrinsic value to a conference that absolutely every league would move heaven and earth for is not all that long ... I think these schools (using current conferences) are the only ones that check off multiple boxes (huge national fan bases, massive alumni bases willing to pony up for NIL, great facilities, fertile instate recruiting, large instate populations with which they are the most popular teams, etc.) on a hypothetical "conference entrance" checklist:
Big Ten
Michigan
Ohio State
Penn State
SEC
Alabama
Florida
Georgia
LSU
Tennessee
Texas A&M
Big XII
Oklahoma
Texas
Pac-12
USC
ACC
Nobody ...
maybe Florida State
Independent/Other
Notre Dame
Some people will think I am being too harsh leaving off programs like Oregon, Nebraska, Auburn, Wisconsin, Clemson, etc., but I would argue those schools aren't inherently above us ... they have just been better. I choose to imagine an Illinois after 3-4 more years of Bielema that we have not been able to imagine since the late 1980s ... and it's not really unrealistic anymore. Illinois scored just as good of ratings as Nebraska or Wisconsin in certain slots last year. Auburn will always be little brother in a small state. Oregon seems reliant on Nike funding that might not last forever. Wisconsin is literally just a version of us that had better coaches for a while. Clemson is riding an absolutely unprecedented dynastic ride, and nobody would have seen them as some type of coup 20 years ago. Etc., etc., etc.
Don't get me wrong, I think we would have a lot of competition for those next spots, but so would everybody else. We have new facilities that are comparable with the TRULY elite programs. We have one of the largest alumni bases in the country and a as-of-yet still untapped MASSIVE instate population with no real instate threat for fans ala something like Oklahoma/Oklahoma State.