Illinois-Notre Dame series 2027-2028

#126      
Mr. Tibbs
Illiniindian said:
Was BB consulted about this?
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in the presser on Wednesday, he said how he & JW discussed it two months ago & how excited he was about it . said he was at Wiscy when they started negotiating with ND about pkaying each other and was at Arkansas when they started negotiating playing each other
 
#127      
band camp
chiefini said:
These fans are called “Subway Irish.” My parent’s best friends loved Notre Dame and went to lots of games with their only connection being they were of Irish descent. Even though my mom (and I) are Irish, we got very tired of their loyalty to ND and disloyalty to their state school…
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Protestant Irish.
 
#129      
aaeismacgychel
TheChief4Life said:
I'm excited for this series, but you're either not understanding the point people are making or intentionally glossing over it.

Everyone agrees that a win over ND is the best scenario. It's also unlikely.

The big question in reality is this:
Which is better?
a) getting blown out by ND, or
b) a close loss to Missouri

Playing ND and getting blown out does nothing to help us. Maybe losing to either team in either fashion doesn't help us. But I have to imagine we will have a much better shot beat Missouri than play ND close.
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If we’re going to go the defeatist route, I vividly recall the Illinois Mizzou games in the 2000s and how little joy I took from those games. I certainly didn’t shed a tear when that series was cancelled. So if we’re going to lose, I’d much rather lose to an annual Top 10 team that is nationally recognized as good than a Mizzou team that nobody cares about nationally and who most would consider a mid tier SEC team (fair or not). Plus Notre Dame does lay some stinkers, and blowing teams out isn’t really their calling card. So while unlikely we win these games if you know you’re going to lose ahead of time, losing to Notre Dame is probably the better option.

And if you do want the silver lining here, during the Bielema era we have beaten:
2026- Oregon
2025- USC, Tennessee
2024- Michigan, Nebraska (South Carolina)
2022- Nebraska
2021- Penn State, Nebraska

Those are some of the biggest names in football since the 90s. Yes Nebraska has fallen off and South Carolina isn’t quite the same tier national recognition wise. But 2000s-2010s defeatist Illini fans would give us no shot to even pretend we could beat those teams. I mean hell, go back 1 year and I’m way more scared of Oregon on the schedule than Notre Dame. USC, Tenn, Michigan? Those schools are at least comparable to Notre Dame. Sooooo I mean, yeah we’ll go in as steep underdogs, but it’s not like we haven’t shocked the world and ourselves.
 
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