Pregame: Illinois vs Kansas, Saturday, September 7th, 6:00pm CT, FS1

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#251      
CaptainCrutch
Glaurung44 said:
lol, that's crazy. I do think you see a good group though. Between 5K to 8K more than likely. Chicago is the 2nd largest KU alumni base. I know a lot of KU fans in Chicago who are going to the game.

Oddly enough, KU football fans tend to travel fairly well. Yet we struggle to sell out our 50K stadium every week. The fanbase isn't huge, but there is a dedicated contingent of hardcore KU football fans who have stuck it out over the bad years and travel a lot. But predicting 20K is crazy.
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Predicting 8k still seems a little wild. That would mean over 10% of the crowd is KU fans, and over 20% of your home sellout crowd is in attendance.

I think 3k-5k sounds reasonable but man that would be nuts if you guys had that much.
 
#254      
TheGMan
Glaurung44 said:
It will take time to move some of the casual fans to start going to games. So many KU fans still think the football team is bad or think a good year or two was a fluke. Not to mention, KU lost a whole generation of football fans due to that terrible decade. It will take time to build the fanbase back up. I'm fairly confident we aren't going back. KU's AD leadership is much improved and has made football a priority. He's the guy who hired Lance Leipold, and I'm confident if he has to replace LL, he'll make a solid choice. KU also has a wealthier alumni base and will be able to offer more in NIL than a lot of Big XII schools, which should help keep things competitive. But KU will never be one of those schools who will just be able to be a dominant program that wins 10 games every year. They don't have the resources or tradition for that.
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You could replace KU with Illinois and basically all of this would be true for us. So we get where you are coming from.
 
#256      
Fighter of the Nightman
BZuppke said:
How confident we are as fans is irrelevant to the outcome. It’s just fun for us. It will be very interesting for both teams.
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Fair, I guess? As a college sports fan, I guess I just have a sort of inherent respect for every different team we might play - all with their own rivalries, traditions, instate dynamics, campuses, stadiums, etc .... okay, maybe not Mizzou. ;) In FOOTBALL, given how terrible we have been for the better part of 30 years, I certainly think that way. Our 2022 season looked pretty similar to KU's season last year ... and I can honestly say I never got cocky from having ONE year where we started off 7-1 and had a top 20 ranking, haha.

Like you said, though ... the results on the field are what will matter. Let's hope the boys are jazzed for this one and come ready to play from the opening kick!
 
#257      
Clngpl94
Illini IndyCar Fan said:
I think renting a seat back chair is a solid idea for this game. My row was very packed at a few games last year, and we had to squeeze into a spot that was about half of our actual ticketed space. I saw a lot of people last Thursday bring in those extra wide seatbacks Costco sells, so I expect this sellout might be even less comfortable.

So I'm planning on getting into the stadium a little early and setting up the rentals, so we don't get too squeezed when everyone else gets to their seats.
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I purchased an extra season ticket this year just for extra space...🤷‍♂️
 
#258      
Fuze
Glaurung44 said:
It will take time to move some of the casual fans to start going to games. So many KU fans still think the football team is bad or think a good year or two was a fluke. Not to mention, KU lost a whole generation of football fans due to that terrible decade. It will take time to build the fanbase back up. I'm fairly confident we aren't going back. KU's AD leadership is much improved and has made football a priority. He's the guy who hired Lance Leipold, and I'm confident if he has to replace LL, he'll make a solid choice. KU also has a wealthier alumni base and will be able to offer more in NIL than a lot of Big XII schools, which should help keep things competitive. But KU will never be one of those schools who will just be able to be a dominant program that wins 10 games every year. They don't have the resources or tradition for that.
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What you're basically describing is Illinois in a different font. It's part of why the cockiness from KU twitter is so weird. Our programs are in a nearly identical state. We both hit a high in 2007 and then fell off the face of the Earth until we made our coaching hires in 2021. Even in the 3 seasons so far under these coaches have been similar. Both with a near 50/50 year going into an 8-win regular season. We have the additional 5-7 while KU had the 2-10 season, but it all adds up to about the same record over the same time. Everything you said could be swapped with Illinois, Bielema, our AD, and the Big 10 and it would still be 100% accurate. We've had the same issues with past coaches and on field performance and then made hires in the same years that created a similar stability in the two programs. We've of course had similar attendance issues with fans being incredibly casual and refusing to buy in despite on field performance being exactly what they said they expected in order to return to games. Nighter compared our 2023 attendences, but if you compared our 2022 with your 2023, it paints a much more similar story. Wins and rankings followed by a proportionally increase in attendance.
 
#259      
illinifan31
I would love nothing more than an Illini win this weekend. However, we got steamrolled last season, it seems everyone here has blocked that game out of their memory. They are basically the same team as last year and I'm not sure we have improved enough to surpass that. I am not very confident we win here. Sorry if I'm a buzz kill lol.

But it's college football. Anything is possible.
 
#260      
OrangeBlue98
Illini IndyCar Fan said:
There was a post I saw on the Phog that estimated that over 1/3 of the crowd would be KU fans because of how many Jayhawks live in Chicago. 🤦‍♂️ If there's one thing KU football fans are known for, it's traveling ~2.5 hours to see an away game when their KC fanbase doesn't even bother traveling 20 minutes to go to their home games.

Was going to screenshot it this morning to post here but I got busy at work, and now I can't find it.
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Hey, don’t knock them! They had a sellout in their first game.

In the western KC suburbs.

In a 20,000 seat soccer stadium.

(Yes, I know they are playing in the KC metro this season because of their renovations.)
 
#261      
Mr. Tibbs
OrangeBlue98 said:
Hey, don’t knock them! They had a sellout in their first game.

In the western KC suburbs.

In a 20,000 seat soccer stadium.

(Yes, I know they are playing in the KC metro this season because of their renovations.)
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and they are playing their home conference games in Arrowhead
 
#263      
Fighter of the Nightman
illinifan31 said:
I would love nothing more than an Illini win this weekend. However, we got steamrolled last season, it seems everyone here has blocked that game out of their memory. They are basically the same team as last year and I'm not sure we have improved enough to surpass that. I am not very confident we win here. Sorry if I'm a buzz kill lol.

But it's college football. Anything is possible.
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I think there are two main reasons for optimism:

1. A sold out home crowd for a night game vs. a ranked opponent simply HAS to play a role if we have a chance. If the crowd isn’t into it, just forget this point … but I think a lot are a bit excited that we will finely have a full crowd again, and we are hoping that can give us an advantage we didn’t have last year.

2. We optimists are banking on continued improvement and (more importantly) consistency since our trip to Lawrence. While KU just flat-out remains a good team, I’m optimistic that the Illini team that won in College Park and should have won in Iowa City could have at least given KU a game last year.

If both of those are not true, then yeah … there’s a reason we are underdogs. However, the optimism is coming (IMO) from a belief/hope that those two factors bring us close enough to have a fighting chance. And that’s all you can ask for vs. a ranked opponent!
 
#264      
Mr. Tibbs
they do have A LOT of alumni in metro Chicago and this is likely the closest they have come to the 312/630/847 area codes in a long time
it should become obvious during the orange out what % of fans are for KU

I feel good about a home upset, but it will be close either way. Its time for a statement win by BB, like the one he had vs Wiscy in 2022
 
#266      
BWBW
I agree with those who say this year's team is more talented than last year's. The Centennial year of Memorial Stadium and the desire to win every home game will be positive influences for our team . Add in the revenge factor and I think we have a good shot at winning. IMHO, as good or better shot than KU has in a road game in a hostile environment.

The stage is set. I think our team will deliver the win.
 
#267      
OrangeBlue98
Mr. Tibbs said:
and they are playing their home conference games in Arrowhead
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I know, and I expect Arrowhead crowds of 50,000+ if they are good like last year. I just think it’s a bit presumptuous of KU fans to think they’ll have 20K at the game. It would be like Illini fans saying we’ll have 20K at a Rutgers game just because there a lot of Illini alums in New York City. I know it wouldn’t happen.
 
#268      
Mr. Tibbs
yea
KU doesn’t travel like Neb or OSU

I expect 5000-6000 of their fans there
 
#270      
Illini in Italy
Dan said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1831779712643092518
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giphy.gif
 
#272      
BZuppke
A good point to consider is that the Illinois team that lost to KU (and PU for that matter) was a different team than the one that beat Maryland and almost Iowa. We’ll see what happens but last year’s result really doesn’t tell us much about this year’s game.
 
#273      
KUFan2000
Good luck to the Illini in your season (from a KU alum in Chicago).

Stopped by your board to get up to speed on everyone's thoughts. Seems like both fan bases are optimistic. We have more than our fair share of Twitter burners run by overzealous students so please take everything they say with a grain of salt.

I expect a good KU turnout but nowhere near 10k or whatever people are saying. We had a good showing at the United Center for the Elite 8 in '22 (probably 12-15k KU fans) but I wouldn't use that as a barometer for obvious reasons. I think 6-7k would be a good showing for us on Saturday.

Let me know if anyone has any lunch reco's for downtown Champaign. Our group is coming down early and making a day of it.
 
#274      
SixthandWhite
KUFan2000 said:
Good luck to the Illini in your season (from a KU alum in Chicago).

Stopped by your board to get up to speed on everyone's thoughts. Seems like both fan bases are optimistic. We have more than our fair share of Twitter burners run by overzealous students so please take everything they say with a grain of salt.

I expect a good KU turnout but nowhere near 10k or whatever people are saying. We had a good showing at the United Center for the Elite 8 in '22 (probably 12-15k KU fans) but I wouldn't use that as a barometer for obvious reasons. I think 6-7k would be a good showing for us on Saturday.

Let me know if anyone has any lunch reco's for downtown Champaign. Our group is coming down early and making a day of it.
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Maize and Black Dog are institutions, I've heard good things about the Space but haven't made it yet. Just about any of the bars serve good food too.
 
#275      
Battle89
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I think there are two main reasons for optimism:

1. A sold out home crowd for a night game vs. a ranked opponent simply HAS to play a role if we have a chance. If the crowd isn’t into it, just forget this point … but I think a lot are a bit excited that we will finely have a full crowd again, and we are hoping that can give us an advantage we didn’t have last year.

2. We optimists are banking on continued improvement and (more importantly) consistency since our trip to Lawrence. While KU just flat-out remains a good team, I’m optimistic that the Illini team that won in College Park and should have won in Iowa City could have at least given KU a game last year.

If both of those are not true, then yeah … there’s a reason we are underdogs. However, the optimism is coming (IMO) from a belief/hope that those two factors bring us close enough to have a fighting chance. And that’s all you can ask for vs. a ranked opponent!
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too soon
 
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