(05-10-2022 11:49 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote: (05-10-2022 11:45 AM)PeteTheChop Wrote: (05-10-2022 11:35 AM)Big 12 fan too Wrote: It’s as much a quality supply issue as cost. Residential education is trending towards luxury goods. Illinois has a shortage of spots for what the number of quality students are looking for.
My personal opinion is college athletics plays into that.
Illinois has a lot of colleges that have generally always been fast food quality, now charging casual dining prices, and most students are looking for better
In that context, would Illinois State making the jump to I-A and the MAC be a good thing for the "Prairie State" moving forward?
Would the MAC embrace such a thing (say with WKU in tow as Nos. 13 and 14)?
It would make zero difference. Illinois State (FCS) is a more popular school for IL students than NIU (FBS).
IL high school students don't care about G5 or FCS football. They care that there's not a Purdue to Indiana's Illinois.
Agreed. Illinois State has always been higher on the pecking order than NIU with in the state. That wouldn't be impacted at all by a G5/FCS change. If anything, MVC basketball membership has more of an impact than MAC football membership locally.
As for other states:
Indiana has IU and Purdue.
Iowa has UI and Iowa State.
Michigan has Michigan and Michigan State.
Kentucky has UK and Louisville.
These are all states bordering or, in the case of Michigan, within an hour of the border of the State of Illinois that have multiple public P5 schools. The State of Illinois has U of I and Northwestern, but that's an elite private school that has a fraction of the enrollment spots and has a national admissions profile. So, our state has a combination of a lot fewer P5 public university slots with a much larger population than any of our neighbors. (I'm not saying that being a P5 school is the only way that a school can be a high-profile public university, as there are plenty of examples like UConn, UCSD, etc. However, there's a strong correlation and even a place like UConn is in the Big East for other sports.)
At the same time, that's not the only reason why a lot of students leave the State of Illinois, but it's assuredly the case that a lot of people want a traditional Big Ten/P5 large school experience and that's actually something that is in limited supply on a per capita basis for in-state Illinois students compared to a lot of other nearby states.