This is a weekly spotlight that highlights a trash football tradition of Ohio State's upcoming opponent. This week, we're focusing our attention on Illinois.
Looking at the Illini's recognized traditions left me feeling a bit hollow.
There's a reason for that, of course. For most of its program's history, many of Illinois' traditions centered around the culture of American Indians.
That created obvious issues. In 2005, the NCAA identified Illinois among several universities around the country whose mascots (and other aspects of their athletic programs) were "hostile and abusive" in the way they depicted American Indians.