Bob Hunter of the Dispatch says they apparently drew considerably less than 45,000 for Arkansas State last week and now they're considering a lot of the things that have been discussed here:

Attendance for Illinois’ season opener against Arkansas State was announced as 45,154, and reporters said the actual attendance was considerably less. It’s probably not surprising that new Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas, recently of Cincinnati, is talking about getting heavily involved in football scheduling and also playing one game a season in Chicago.

Although the nonconference schedule is filled for 2012, holes remain in 2013 and 2014, and Thomas said “I’ll be the key person” when it comes to filling them. Thomas is given some credit for increasing attendance at Cincinnati, but he acknowledges that on-the-field success was the biggest factor.

As for playing games in Chicago, Thomas said that in addition to getting the Illini in a city teeming with alumni, “we want to play someone up there that makes sense geographically.”

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/sports/2011/09/09...

 

Sucks for them, I'm thrilled with our slate.

Illinois is much more likely to grace a future Ohio schedule than Pitt -- at least as long as the current AD is at that school in the Keystone State.  We have an interesting history playing Illinois and hold a 3-2 all-time record against them.  The interesting part is that two of these victories over the Illini are back in the Peden era.  Coach Peden was an Illinois alumnus and enjoyed nothing more than beating his alma mater.  As I've mentioned before, when I was a kid, on game day they flew all the MAC pennants plus an Illinois pennant at Peden Stadium -- in honor of Peden and the victories over the Illini. Another interesting aspect of Peden's victories over Illinois is that they were both 6-0, and one of them featured a catch, long run and TD by Jim Snyder, future Ohio basketball coach.  I, for one, would love to see a 1-1 set up with the University of Illinois.

So, would their "home" game be in Chicago and our "home" game be in Cincy or Cleveland?