In Reply to: Champaign-Urbana =/=Chicago posted by HarborBruin on April 15, 2026 at 20:51:22
Played there in our state championship game as a senior in HS. Also was there on a basketball recruiting visit and later was there visiting one of my younger brothers who was there when he was going to the U of I on a baseball scholarship. It's not an extremely large area, with both cities combined totalling around 150K population. I really didn't care for the area and the weather in general isn't the best with hot humid summers and cold snowy winters. You couldn't pay me to move back to Illinois after living in the clean air, low humidity very benign climate of the 4 corners area of New Mexico. But with these youngsters now days and with NIL in place, I'd guess the right amount of $$$$ thrown their way can make anyplace look good, regardless of the environment.