Sox...You are showing your Catholic "bias"...
What you say about "all of the Catholic kids growing wanting to go to Notre Dame" was true in the '50's and '60's and that was because most Catholic schools still had nuns running the place and you were interested in Notre Dame because of their football stature...which has been virtually non-existent as a national power here recently. No one that I know ever considered ND a national power in basketball or baseball...even the years they had AD in basketball and Yaz in baseball. Great individual players but not teams.
I agree with you about ND's recent success and their recruiting prowess. I still think their schedule, in baseball, leaves much to be desired to "think" that they will perenially be a Top 25 national baseball fixture. I like what they are doing but how many times can you play Purdue and Valpo and Butler and be considered a national power?
I happen to be a big fan of the Illini and ND. Not sure why you would think that ND grads would make 2X what an Illinois grad would make in their lifetime. In engineering? Computer science? Accounting? I would think just the opposite!
I agree that Illinois will start doing better in baseball when they focus on recruiting kids from Chicagoland (from the better, more high profile programs). I don't think Itchy is up to it any more. In football, that program is now an official "disaster" in my book.