Illini Football 2023
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Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Agreed. Obviously, PSU has one of the biggest fan bases in the country. However, for comparison, they drew 1.88 million last year for Big Noon Kickoff vs. Maryland ... so at least theoretically, Illinois provided a 70%+ increase over what Maryland brought.
I don't have all of the data in the world, but I am very interested in all of this TV ratings stuff ... and this is my tentative conclusion. Illinois' viewership has a relatively low floor compared to its VERY high ceiling. Our game vs. Michigan last year was one of their best ratings, for example.
I'm of the opinion we have a humongous latent fanbase. Our 2005 basketball season straight up broke the internet. The fervor and support nationally for that team was positively unreal and as a longtime espn boards forum poster back then, I can say that without any doubt whatsoever, that outpouring of support has never been matched. Yes it was a very special team, with a media darling in Dee Brown, but there have been a lot of special teams and none of them have even come close to garnering that level of support.
While we are a "basketball school", I do think if we were to start stringing together consecutive winning seasons, we'd start regularly pulling some really solid ratings. And I think if this were to culminate in a special season where we start out 9-0 with a gigantic win over say a top 5 Michigan, a team that not only is projected to win the B10, but make the CFP and have a solid shot at winning it all, I think fans would similarly be coming out of the woodwork to support. I'd expect nothing less than Memorial Stadium selling over capacity and top end ratings at that point.
We have a giant fandom, we just need to give them something to actively cheer for. And I think the ratings are showing that Bielema is pushing us in that direction
I've heard Warner say that on his site MBB traffic trounces FB traffic, which suggests we are.
Yeah, just look at the statues outside the football stadium for proof of that.
So so for a few decades, but the history is there
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Here, it’s pretty even.
The Kansas football game thread a few weeks ago had 58k views.
On March 2nd last year, we beat Michigan in basketball in 2OT and that thread got 56k views.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I think the perception comes from the assumption that football "should" be way higher.
Either way, the point stands and I agree with it ... we have a large fan base, and a VERY large "latent" fan base (great adjective!). Chalk it up to whatever you want, but we are the type of program that can struggle to sell 30,000 tickets in Champaign on a beautiful day when there's no excitement, and yet we can bring nearly 40,000 to the Rose Bowl when we make it. Huge variance in interest that schools like Iowa don't have, but it also means we have a higher ceiling!
Look at the 5 national championships 15 conference championships, and 2 of the top players of all time. All this done with OSU and scUM being in the conference
Plus 6 NFL hall of famers
Compare that to basketball 1 national championship in 1915 and 18 conference championships
Most of success in both sports occurred before 1970.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I have to kind of agree with the last part, and I think this is the reason people think of us as a "basketball school." Sure, basketball has only been to two Final Fours and won zero National Championships since 1970, but other than a stretch that comprised Weber's downfall, the failed Groce experiment and the two years it took Underwood to rebuild, the consistency with which we have had a program appearing in the top 25, competing for a Big Ten title and routinely making the NCAA Tournament with a good seed has been remarkable. I saw a state circa 2017 or whenever during our coaching search after Groce that we were the ninth winningest team in the nation since 1980. While that definitely took a hit during 2018 and 2019, it probably rebounded at least to even in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Put simply, people alive now have seen Illinois basketball rarely be bad and put together some stretches of elite results during their lifetimes ... meanwhile, they have seen our football team win 2 or fewer games an embarrassing number of times. Add on top of that the fact that Assembly Hall has been absolutely packed for even a semi-decent time while Memorial Stadium has sold out once in the last decade even for ranked teams, and it's easy to understand the perception.
Historically I absolutely agree. If anything we're a football school and the one most important for founding the NFL along with 5 claimed Nattys. Currently though? Most people under 40 wouldn't have a clue and know us as a doormat in football if they know anything at all. At some point historic success changes to historic futility if you consistently lose long enough.
For example, very few people talked or even knew of the "dynastic" Cubs of the early 1900s but they certainly knew of 100 years of losing. I don’t think that’s necessarily being fairweathered, I think it more has to deal with people's opinions being formed from their own experience, i.e. if they haven't seen it, it hasn't happened for them. And 40 years of losing is a long time...
I liken our history to that of a worse version of Pitt. Pitt is still technically a football school, but it's mainly in name only. Despite more championships than us, a more recent championship than us, and winning more consistently than us in the 2000s (though also suffering from not winning consistently), they similarly struggle with getting seats in the stands, averaging attendance in the low 40,000s during that time period. It's just difficult to retain attendance and high opinion of a program when your fanbase just hasn't seen much of any success in a half century.
So while I agree we historically are more a football school than a basketball school, it's very difficult for me to argue with the current "we're a basketball school" opinion as that's really the only success our last 2 generations of Illini fans have personally seen.
Historically, Britannia rules the waves, but not recently. We can resurrect and rebuild our program however.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
As Nebraska has shown, "history" definitely helps (their recruiting is still pretty good for having a recent record literally worse than ours!), but it's more like a perk than a material advantage. With that said, we have other advantages (nice facilities, great instate recruiting, a huge alumni base with some deep pockets, large state population that has jumped on the bandwagon when we are good, etc.), and should we ever win consistently ... the history might actually turn into a selling point that can tip the scales between us and a similar program.
That just proves people like to !!!!!
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
- Lots of team SP+ rankings normalizing comparative to preseason rankings. Only Minnesota is sticking out as trending substantially worse than expected.
- Crux of B1G schedule starts today, the rankings movement could start to accelerate.
- As of this week, three top-10 defenses on Illinois' schedule, two top-5.
- On the flip side, there are five remaining offenses on Illinois' schedule ranked 79th or worse. Only one top-40 offense.
- Offense has to make some progress in the next two weeks, two of the worst three remaining defenses before the bye week.
Illinivek23
- Gurnee
This is great. That Kansas D sure didn't live down to it ranking
In my opinion. football is life. Basketball is a video game. I appreciate the grind it out, take your lumps nature of football scoring versus the continuous reset of basketball scoring. That's why I'm a football fan. Illinois fans claiming we are a basketball school does nothing for me.As Nebraska has shown, "history" definitely helps (their recruiting is still pretty good for having a recent record literally worse than ours!), but it's more like a perk than a material advantage. With that said, we have other advantages (nice facilities, great instate recruiting, a huge alumni base with some deep pockets, large state population that has jumped on the bandwagon when we are good, etc.), and should we ever win consistently ... the history might actually turn into a selling point that can tip the scales between us and a similar program.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Quarterback Luke Altmyer, Illinois offense turning the page after rough conference opener
Offensive Barry Lunney Jr. has confidence Luke Altmyer will bounce back after throwing four interceptions against Penn State.
I still easily see seven wins for the season.
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