I am an Illini grad (and fan, but mostly basketball these days). As we grow older we have choices to make and tbh I don’t even watch college sports anymore outside of Illinois basketball and maybe a little Illini football if they are interesting. I still want both to do well and be well represented (with class). I’m not sure either of our coaches is considered a paradigm of class, but they probably aren’t as bad as I’ve believed they were. I’ll own that. You rarely hear me badmouth Underwood and/or Bielema these days. As in pretty much never. They’re doing overall excellent jobs, and I’ve had no problems with their conduct in the past year or more. Again, literally the only college sports I watch these days is the Illini. I bet I haven’t watched the national title game in football more than twice in ten years.
I still like to watch the NCAA Tournament. But that’s 98% of my non-Illini watching these days. I have zero clue who #1 in the country is right now. Don’t really care that much.