Memorial Stadium, Fighting Illini style enters our list at #9. It was pretty tough trying to figure out the last 3 spots on the list between Northwestern’s Ryan Field, Indiana’s Memorial Stadium and Illinois’ Memorial Stadium. Almost like pulling teeth we were trying to rank 3 venues visiting teams commonly viewed as a break from the gauntlet of intimidating stadiums they face week in and week out in the Big Ten schedule. Let’s face it, if you could select your away conference games, odds are Northwestern, Indiana and Illinois would top your list.

Even when these teams field competitive squads, playing them away is much safer than playing a mediocre team elsewhere in the Big Ten simply because their home venues may make a bigger difference. So it’s not exactly surprising that Illinois’ Memorial Stadium sits at #9 on our list simply by default.

ATTENDANCE: 2

Memorial Stadium (Capacity: 71,000)
	Home Games	Overall attendance	Avg. attendance/ game
2007	6	329,229	54,872
2006	7	304,118	43,445
2005	6	287,113	47,852
2004	7	340,381	48,626
2003	6	305,766	50,961

Ouch. When you attract about 55,000 fans a game during a Rose Bowl season, you have a long way to go before you can declare yourself a big time Big Ten program. Like a shooting star, Illinois has shocked and awed, but will eventually simmer away to its place in the Big Ten. Much like Boise State had 2006, and Hawaii had 2007, 2007 will be one and done for Illinois. How can I make such a declaration?

When you only attract just under 56,000 fans a game, the numbers speak for themselves. The football program just doesn’t generate enough revenue to compete with the Michigans, Ohio States, and Penn States of the Big Ten. As energetic a recruiter Ron Zook is, when you are operating on a limited budget competing with the big time programs with unlimited resources, the future looks bleak.

Eventually it all boils down to attendance. While Illinois attracts more fans per home game than Indiana, Illinois was penalized for attracting such a low number of fans despite proportionally greater success than Indiana. Was that fair? Maybe. But it sure isn’t a statement for a growing program when you can’t consistently fill seats even during down seasons (look up Penn State 2003 and 2004).

TRADITION/HISTORY: 4

Illinois actually has won 4 undisputed national championships in football. Yeah, I was scratching my head at that one as well. Although most of them were won way back in the years where the forward pass was still considered a breakthrough and Joe Paterno was still in grade school, but a title’s a title. The Fighting Illini actually holds the 1914, 1919, 1923 and 1927 national titles.

Not impressive enough? Illinois also boasts the first collegiate fight song, ‘Illinois Loyalty’ and the first marching band (performed in 1907 against the University of Chicago).

Its just too bad the NCAA had to stick its nose where it didn’t belong and messed with the long time tradition of Chief Illiniwek. It was such a major issue for the NCAA to rule on the supposed ‘culturally insensitive’ mascot, while they turn a blind eye to rampant violations at USC. Chief Illiniwek, racist and stereotypical. Fighting Irish, perfective fine. Yeah, doesn’t make sense to me either.

FANS: 2

Illinois actually has the fan base to make Memorial Stadium a hostile environment when they want it to be. Just this past season, Illinois fans has shown their ability to make some noise with upset wins over #5 Wisconsin and #21 Penn State at home. Unfortunately, those were the only times they made a difference in the past 5 years as Memorial Stadium has become the common stomping grounds for ranked teams the last half-decade with 10 of them dancing their way through.

With the relocation of the student section into the north end zone since the last renovation of Memorial Stadium, the Illinois athletic department also relocated the main source of crowd noise and isolated it into one section of the stadium. The relocation also affected the student’s influence when the teams are playing at the opposite end of the stadium, making it hard on them to see the plays as well as project their sound to that end of the stadium.

Illinois fans are for the most part some of the more courteous in the Big Ten. This may be due in large part to their futility on the gridiron making Illini fans less prone to belittle visiting fans simply because there isn’t much to brag about. But most visitors to Memorial Stadium have found their fans to be extremely welcoming.

VENUE: 3

Dedicated to the men and women of the state of Illinois that gave their lives during the First and Second World Wars, Memorial Stadium is actually a candidate for National Landmark status. Currently only 4 other college football stadiums; Yale, Harvard, the Rose Bowl and the LA Coliseum have earned that distinction. So Memorial Stadium automatically gets points just for being considered for the prestigious status.

But the venue itself is much like the horseshoe configuration reminiscent of Ohio State with the exception of open North end zone or more similarly Texas’ Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium . Almost 71 percent of the seats at Memorial Stadium are between the goal posts. This allows for great views of the action on the field, but noise isn’t amplified with an open end zone.

But since their last renovation which added seating in the north end zone (which will hold the new Illini student section), Memorial Stadium allows more fans to watch their teams, and the students to funnel their noise directly down the field.

WIN/LOSS RECORD: 2

	Home				Away
	W	L	W vs ranked	L vs ranked	W	L	W vs ranked	L vs ranked
2007	5	1	#21 Penn St #5 Wisconsin	#25 Michigan	4	1	#1 Ohio St	-
2006	1	6	-	#14 Iowa #1 Ohio St	1	3	-	#17 Wisconsin
2005	2	4	-	#17 Michigan St #12 Penn St #15 Wisconsin	0	5	-	#15 California #12 Ohio St
2004	3	4	-	#15 Purdue #13 Michigan #24 Iowa	0	4	-	#20 Wisconsin
2003	1	5	-	#20 Minnesota	0	5	-	#13 Purdue #4 Michigan #12 Iowa
overall	12	20	2	10	5	18	1	7

It was hard ranking the win/loss record of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium above Indiana’s. Why? In the past 5 seasons, Indiana has managed to pull off 2 ranked upsets at home with just 7 opportunities. Illinois achieved the same 2 upsets, but had 12 chances to do so and both upsets happened this past season during their astonishing run to the Rose Bowl. Not exactly a record of consistency.

Even Northwestern, with the wost home field advantage at Ryan Field, managed to upset ranked opponents 3 times in 7 tries. Illinois also holds a worse home field record than Indiana which we ranked on the bottom. The only reason why we awarded Illinois a 2 in the win/loss category was because they actually earned a Rose Bowl bid once in the last 5 years, in 2007. The last time Indiana attended the Rose Bowl? As far back as 1968 during the Lyndon Johnson administration.

As long as Illinois continues to maintain success under the guidance of head coach and recruiting monster Ron Zook, they will be a much tougher team to beat especially at home. The more games they win, fans will start to flock to Illini games. Remember this is not Indiana. Illinois is actually rich in history and tradition on the gridiron and fans are simply waiting for a reason to enjoy fall Saturdays again.

TOTAL: 13 OUT OF POSSIBLE 55

Have you attended a game at Illinois’ Memorial Stadium? Share your experiences with us. Your memories of the venue might differ greatly from our perspective and we would like to know.