You're twisting simple statistics into subjective nonsense. A full 28% of Iowa undergrads are from Illinois. What does that mean to you.
Ownership (proverbial) is where the flag is planted.
And that says nothing about the asserted reducing opportunities for Nebraska natives to attend. I see and hear just as many Nebraska ads in Chicago as I do for Creighton. It’s better for the State to bring in as many as possible, regardless of school.
Agreed on that last point.
I do see a lot of Illinois students in my classes here at UI, but of course, the majority of students here are from Iowa.
What it means to me is that Iowa — just like the other public universities where I've worked — is getting less and less of its revenue from the state coffers and thus must charge more and more for tuition, and the greatest potential source for that revenue is wealthy suburbanites from the Chicago area.
And, of course, the plurality of students at CU are Nebraskans, even if the percentage of them is dwindling and they aren't even close to being a majority.
To me, unless you're an Omahan by birth or residence, CU is not a local team, so I have never felt a desire to root for them, having grown up in Lincoln and having lived in Florida, New Jersey, Colorado, Kansas and Iowa in my adult lifetime.
In addition, the vast majority of CU students (nearly 75 percent) have no natural geographic connection to Nebraska, and thus have no affinity for UNL, my alma mater.