While football might not be as big in Illinois as it is in the South, particularly the Southeastern Conference -- where University of Alabama Head Coach, Nick Saban, made $5.4 million last year -- coaches at Illinois' public universities are still earning six-figure salaries.

You graduate college and enter the real world, and then reality hits. You need to pay rent, pay for utilities and, most likely, start paying back your loans.

For the better part of a decade, Illinois' public universities have been battling ever-shrinking state funding. That's driven tuition costs up.

Students at the Eastern Illinois University are taking a stand and writing a petition since an incident that occurred last month has left many feeling that the university does not care enough about rape survivors on campus.