I am sure many expect us to take a step back in "overall quality" compared to last year given what we lost; I think you could at least make the argument that last year's team was better than an 8-4 regular season team, given the screw job at Indiana, the arguable screwjob in Ann Arbor vs. a team that made the CFP and two uncharacteristically bad performances vs. MSU and Purdue ... but that is all beside the point! When you look at this year's schedule, it looks entirely likely that we could get to 8 wins again.
If we did that, we would go from 2 (regular season) wins in 2020 (still Lovie) to 5 wins in 2021 to 8 wins in 2022 and 2023. That would be the first time that an Illini team has gone four straight seasons with either the same or more regular season wins in a row since 1980-1983:
1980: 3-7-1
1981: 7-4
1982: 7-3
1983: 10-1
I really hope fans would appreciate and respond to the fact that this would be consistent competitiveness and reliability that we have not seen in literal generations! I might not expect the 73,871 average attendance we had in 1983 or the
76,056!!!! average attendance we had the following year in 1984 (I believe the 78,297 we drew for Mizzou that year is still the Memorial Stadium record), but I certainly would expect to see a very, very significant increase in fan interest ... like thousands of more tickets sold. Our staff and players frankly would deserve it at that point.
I have posted on this before, but I'm bored. Last year, we averaged 43,048. However, that is seriously deflated by the early season games where fans had not bought in yet, IMO. We drew over 48,000 for Big Ten games, and after the Iowa game (when I think people REALLY started to believe and we got our first top 25 ranking!), we averaged nearly 50,000 (drawing over 56k for the MSU game). I would like to think that if we kept winning, we could honestly get these attendance numbers:
vs. Toledo: Probably no more than 43k, but that is a huge improvement over last year's 37k for Wyoming. I would be ecstatic with anything over 45k, as I think that would be a huge gesture on behalf of the fan base that we have really bought in to this whole football thing!
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Week 2 at Kansas ... let's assume we win and are 2-0! ---
vs. Penn State: If we lose at KU, I think we will max out at 52-53k? Not sure, but either way that is not the end of the world, as it will still look full and it will be loud. However, if we win in Lawrence and are 2-0, I think we easily push 55k, given this will be an incredibly hyped game, and a little magic by the DIA could push this one to a sellout.
vs. Florida Atlantic: If we beat PSU, I think we are ranked and the hype train is fully rolling. However, our fans need time to develop the same kind of fandom we have for basketball, for football. So, I think we have like 52k for this one. But that is a remarkable improvement over what would have had for these games in the past.
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Week 5 at Purdue ... let's assume we win and are 5-0! ---
vs. Nebraska (Friday): This is a Friday game, sure, but Nebraska fans travel and we would be 5-0 overall, 2-0 in the Big Ten and likely ranked. I say a floor of 55k only because it's a Friday, but we could sell this one out.
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Week 7 at Maryland ... let's assume we win and are 7-0! ---
vs. Wisconsin (Homecoming): Okay, this is it. If we are actually 7-0 heading into Homecoming vs. Wisconsin, this thing will sell out. And all of my dreams of Champaign becoming an elite college football atmosphere will have been realized.
Past that, in November, you just never know with our fans. The November 11 home game vs. Indiana is Dads Day, so it will probably get a good crowd. However, we could be 11-0 for Northwestern on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and that crowd will be under 50k. That game cannot be permanently moved to the Bears new indoor stadium soon enough, it just simply sucks and is never well-attended.