I do understand the sentiment. After the IU game I had pretty much succumbed to the fact that nothing had changed. Decided to listen to some of the UVA game while working on stuff instead of wasting 4 hours of my life watching it. Glad that I paid attention, and have watched since, but that IU game was pretty disheartening, particularly for a program that has struggled like we have. Made it pretty easy to think, "just the same old Illini."Yeah for me it shows we got to 50k+ without making any price adjustments. This is actually really impressive and portends big things should we keep winning. I'll tell you why.
Did some quick desktop research this morning on Google Trends to get a gut check of what the interest level is for the football team. (Google trends measures the search volume for specific terms or topics). Interest in Illinois football isnt as high as many of us probably think. The IU game did lots of damage in that regard.
For example, before IU, Illinois indexed higher than Minnesota, 53 to 47 (out of 100). Then we lost and this happened.
Week 2
UI: 31
MN: 48
Week 3
UI: 16
MN: 64
Week 4
UI: 18
MN: 86
Week 5
UI: 45
MN: 100
People are still hesitant to jump on the bandwagon. If we can just keep winning and crack the top 25, we'll start to see more people climb aboard which will equate to near sell outs.
Again, the fact that we're 13k tickets away from a sellout for a team with relatively low interest from casual fans shows just how much support our fanbase has for this team and this staff.
With that said, I'll be making the trip for the game on Saturday.