I took an easy $20 off a guy who worked for me who didn't believe me when I told him Illinois is one of the best engineering schools in the world
Not everyone at Illinois is in the engineering program. Very very few of the basketball and football players are. They don't give a crap about "how good a school" Illinois is. And, Illinois has it's share of dog colleges too. Also, Illinois has fallen in the rankings in the past several years as the state gets broker and broker, and the better talent is leaving for better schools. Plus, a lot of the rankings of how 'good' a university is are based on how good of a research institution the school is - which is graduate level and above. Nothing to do with undergrad.
But I digress!
Oh, and for the record, I DO have a degree from the U of I... (from one of the more horsecrap colleges within the U).
