RE: Illinois not being a “big market” … ridiculous.
1) There are about 2 million people in Central IL alone (and more in pretty major metros/TV markets like C-U, B-N, Peoria, etc. than people think … i.e., it’s not very rural, population-wise). Whatever people want to say about our instate fan support, it’s as rabid in Central IL as anyone’s anywhere in the nation.
2) There are about 4.5 million people in all of Downstate IL, which is pretty big for a “fairly dominant territory” for a team. As an example, even assuming Wisconsin had no instate competition for fans (obviously not true with Milwaukee and Marquette), we’d already be barely below them before counting ANY of Chicagoland.
3) We SHOULD count Chicago as our market. Not only do we have 250,000 alumni in the area (FAR more than any other school), but we are also one of VERY few teams that non-alumni Chicago fans (like me!) will support. The Illini gear and coverage REALLY picked up last spring as we were hitting our stride.
4) None of this counts the more basic fact that we are in one of the most high-exposure conferences in the country and coming off of a season that truly reinvigorated our fan support. This isn’t about “best,” it’s about “biggest” … and we are as big of a “market” as anyone but about a handful of schools, IMO:
BLUE BLOODS
1) Kentucky
2) North Carolina
3) Duke
4) Kansas
5) UCLA
6) Indiana
7) Louisville
TEAMS CLEARLY “BIGGER”
8) Syracuse
9) Ohio State
10) Michigan
11) Texas
You can make arguments for additional schools like MSU or Arizona depending on what you’re valuing, but the media markets in which you are covered is going to matter more, and that SHOULD favor us if we play our cards right. If Ayo plays for any other school, there isn’t a billboard of him in Downtown Chicago that says “Illinois’ Own Draft Pick.” We will still lose to the Blue Bloods a lot (what’s new?), but this benefits us more than the vast majority of schools.