Seconds to Illinois' Season Kickoff: Is Champaign a Football Town Now?

It's unthinkable, isn't it?

Highly unlikely, at the very least.

A little too early, for sure.

Or is it?

Moments before Illinois football kicks off its 2025 season in Friday's opener against Western Illinois at Memorial Stadium, with the beloved 2004-05 Illini hoops team reuniting at the Legacy Lounge on the north side of the building, the Marching Illini parading down Florida Street on the south side of the building and orange-clad, goofy-smiled, gobsmacked fans reveling in the surrounding parking lots, gathering outside Grange Grove and piling into the stands, the questions seemed suddenly fair to ask:

Champaign, are you in danger of turning into a football town?

Stepping into the season. pic.twitter.com/rAuss9xGnf
— Illinois Football (@IlliniFootball) August 29, 2025

The simple answer – spoiler alert – is no. Coming off a 10-win season, a Citrus Bowl victory and one of its best recruiting efforts in recent memory, the football team is indisputably hot. Like, Hailee Steinfeld-in-a-1930s-Deep-South-juke-joint hot. Bret Bielema and his staff, players and program deserve all the recent recognition they've been receiving lately, but that doesn't answer the question.

Urbana-Champaign: Have you changed?

Not by a long shot. The University of Illinois and the surrounding communities – and we'll even include Chicago, basically an alumni satellite station – are still fully, hopelessly, shamelessly hoops-mad. Basketball still rules the roost around these parts, and the group Brad Underwood has put together to run out on the State Farm Center hardwood this winter should be worth the fuss.

But has football – which hasn't had a Flyin' Illini or a 2004-05 team in our lifetimes – closed the gap? Made up ground? Laid the foundation for a lasting contender?

Truth: We don't know yet. It has been one year, guys. Before last season, Bielema had compiled an 18-19 record in three seasons running the show at Illinois. Western Illinois isn't Ohio State, but Memorial Stadium at kickoff on Friday was roughly half-full. These things don't happen at Michigan or Penn State, let alone Tuscaloosa or Clemson.

There's nothing that says Illinois can't become both a basketball and football school, and a community that's equally bonkers about each program, somewhere down the line. Even that future, however, may be at least a couple years away. These things can take generations to build.

But if you listen to someone who knows a little something about winning over a crowd, building a following and becoming a Chambana icon, there is hope.

"These people are passionate about their sports," said Dee Brown, the leader of that 2004-05 Illini squad who is, to this day, a local celebrity in the area. "They're passionate about you. So if you win, you become a rock star. You become the people, the person, that everybody wants to be around."

Champaign, Urbana, all of the surrounding farm towns and villages and pass-throughs waving I Block flags from rural route mailboxes – they want to be around this football team.

Now it just needs to keep winning.