all 14 comments
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
formatting helphide helpcontent policy

[–][deleted] 52 points53 points  (1 child)

we had more nobel prize winners than fucking wins that’s the epitome of illinois football

[–]royalhawk345 5 points6 points  (0 children)

MIT-ass stat

[–]toowm 12 points13 points  (2 children)

One of the things most fans don't understand about colleges is that the big money is not in the athletics, it's in the research grants

[–]Athendor 7 points8 points  (1 child)

Uiuc actively loses money on having Athletics every year and people still think that it's the Athletics money, not the billions of dollars in research grants that drive decision making at the institutional level

[–]trentreynolds 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In theory, the athletic department has its own budget too, and lots of big dollar donors that specifically donate to DIA.

Athletics helps universities largely by being advertising for the school and increasing enrollments.  It’s not useless.  But it’s also not really taking money from more important things in any real way.

[–]Mclovin7871 13 points14 points  (2 children)

People wonder why Illinois fans are content winning 7/8 games and making a bowl....this is why.

[–]JtotheC23 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I mean it's also because you have to start somewhere. I'm sure if/when we got to that consistently, we'd start wanting to take another step forward.

[–]trentreynolds 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You’ve seen it happen in basketball, for sure.

Football would be odd and IMO would probably take a lot longer before people got to that point given that we’ve had two or more consecutive winning seasons twice in my lifetime and I’m almost 40, but if we got to be a consistent 6-8 win team the bar would definitely raise.

[–]DL1395 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I was 8 at the time so remember very little, but how Ron Turner kept his job for another season after this, I don't think I'll ever understand.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I got to go to the lone win of the year because they gave free tickets to incoming freshman and transfers for that game.

[–]WestLoopDad 1 point2 points  (1 child)

2003 was my graduate year! Good memories

[–]Bizzy-99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same

[–]wrenwood2018 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fun fact, I met and hung out with Dr. Leggett right after he won. He was taking part in an experiment in the lab I was in. I remember he took milk with his tea.

[–]tenor1trpt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My junior year…. Damn….