Week 7 Polls - Illinois #17 in AP Poll

[Illini2010-11]

I agree with your analysis. It will be interesting to see how AP voters and CFP panel treat ND going forward. The rest of their schedule is fairly soft; it’s possible they are 10-2 at the end of the year, but without a single win over a ranked team. USC game is their biggest remaining challenge.

Definitely will be interesting. We will be rooting for USC to continue to win throughout the season (as will ND...with exception of when they play each other).

I tend to think a 10-2 ND team would be a near lock for the CFP as a road team.

 

[Noblesville Illini]

In your opinion, what would our record be if we played their schedule and what would theirs be if they played ours? Be honest. Context matters.

We would be 4-1. They would be 5-1.

 

[DeeIL89]

Pre-season 1 and 2 Texas and Penn State are out of the ranking completely. Yikes. Lol.

 

[TheChief4Life]

I am shocked we jumped that much and Texas and PSU fell that much. I stand corrected!

 

[Illini2010-11]

I have zero gripe with our ranking. I live 40 minutes from Notre Dame and have for 14 years! I see every game whether I want to or not and only one season in 14 have I agreed with their ranking. I am sick and tired of the preferential treatment that UND gets by voters. Even last year I knew that once they played any real team, they would lose!

I think your disdain for Notre Dame is blinding you of what Notre Dame actually accomplished last season. Yes, they had the ugly loss vs NIU, but they had the following wins: @#20 Texas A&M, #15 Louisville, #24 Navy, #19 Army, @USC, #8 (AP) Indiana in CFP, #2 Georgia in CFP, and #4 (AP) Penn State in CFP.

That is quite the contrary to your perceived narrative. I am not fan of ND at all, but I can at least give them credit for what they put together last season.

 

[Rebounding Dog]

5 top 20 teams lost…. up 5 spots! I am good with that!

 

[Epsilon]

How many 4 & 5 star recruits on those Texas, Penn St rosters? Feel like our coaching in certain areas could be improved for sure, but yet not nearly as poor as it could be / people claim it is

I don’t really know where we stand talent-wise on the defense but our defense is objectively bad. We are worse than 80th in many categories including rushing defense (90th) and passing defense (111th). Things that help us win are offense and turnovers in critical moments (with an amazing ability to punish teams on those turnovers). Edit: and an outstanding field goal kicker.

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Illinois Fighting Illini

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[BretMyBeachHouse]

I am shocked we jumped that much and Texas and PSU fell that much. I stand corrected!

Me too!

Franklin has even killed PSUs benefit of the doubt.

 

[the juiceman cometh]

We would be 4-1. They would be 5-1.

Which of the two top 5 teams on there schedule would we have beaten?

 

[NarrowJ]

I don’t really know where we stand talent-wise on the defense but our defense is objectively bad. We are worse than 80th in many categories including rushing defense (90th) and passing defense (111th). Things that help us win are offense and turnovers in critical moments (with an amazing ability to punish teams on those turnovers). Edit: and an outstanding field goal kicker.

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Illinois Fighting Illini

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I’m not exactly sure either, I had asked the question as to how many 4 & 5 stars Penn St and Texas have. Because I’m guessing it’s many, many more than what we have

I certainly agree with you that the defense is bad, and like I had said, plenty of room for improvement coaching-wise

My opinion is just that it probably isn’t nearly as bad as some have said

 

[lstewart53x3]

How many 4 & 5 star recruits on those Texas, Penn St rosters? Feel like our coaching in certain areas could be improved for sure, but yet not nearly as poor as it could be / people claim it is

Texas is ranked #4 in 247s team composite rankings with (14) stars and (44) 4 stars. Penn St is ranked 9th with (4) 5 stars and (58) 4 stars. We’re ranked #64 with (0) 5 stars and (7) 4 stars. Us being ranked top 30 in the advanced metrics and top 20 in the AP poll is us exceeding expectations based on talent big time.

2025 College Football Team Talent Composite

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.

247sports.com

I don’t really know where we stand talent-wise on the defense but our defense is objectively bad. We are worse than 80th in many categories including rushing defense (90th) and passing defense (111th). Things that help us win are offense and turnovers in critical moments (with an amazing ability to punish teams on those turnovers). Edit: and an outstanding field goal kicker.

NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA FBS Football leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.

www.ncaa.com

Illinois Fighting Illini

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www.teamrankings.com

Those stats are useless because they aren’t opponent adjusted. SP+ has our defense ranked #51, which sounds about right to me. That’s an average defense. SP+ has our offense ranked #18. So an elite offense and average defense.

Likely not a playoff contender, but an 8-9 win team that’s a lot of fun to root for.

2025 college football SP+ rankings for all 136 FBS teams

The final SP+ rankings, plus strength of schedule and résumé SP+, for the 2025 season.

www.espn.com

 

[Epsilon]

Texas is ranked #4 in 247s team composite rankings with (14) stars and (44) 4 stars. Penn St is ranked 9th with (4) 5 stars and (58) 4 stars. We’re ranked #64 with (0) 5 stars and (7) 4 stars. Us being ranked top 30 in the advanced metrics and top 20 in the AP poll is us exceeding expectations based on talent big time.

2025 College Football Team Talent Composite

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.

247sports.com

Those stats are useless because they aren’t opponent adjusted. SP+ has our defense ranked #51, which sounds about right to me. That’s an average defense. SP+ has our offense ranked #18. So an elite offense and average defense.

Likely not a playoff contender, but an 8-9 win team that’s a lot of fun to root for.

2025 college football SP+ rankings for all 136 FBS teams

The final SP+ rankings, plus strength of schedule and résumé SP+, for the 2025 season.

www.espn.com

Our class rankings have been around 40-50, but I think last year was vvg (10th?), so it would seem were slightly underperforming for our talent, unless those rankings are positively skewed towards our offense and less for our defense. Obviously those rankings are impacted by number of players in each class but that’s as far as I’m willing to dig.

Edit: okay one more comment- with 68 P4 programs (and 84 teams that made a bowl game in 2024), 51st seems on the low side of average to me for a P4 program. Am I looking at this the wrong way?

 

[the juiceman cometh]

Our class rankings have been around 40-50, but I think last year was vvg (10th?), so it would seem were slightly underperforming for our talent, unless those rankings are positively skewed towards our offense and less for our defense. Obviously those rankings are impacted by number of players in each class but that’s as far as I’m willing to dig.

Edit: okay one more comment- with 68 P4 programs (and 84 teams that made a bowl game in 2024), 51st seems on the low side of average to me for a P4 program. Am I looking at this the wrong way?

Not sure what class you thinks was #10 in anything. 247 has us as the #46 class for 2025. Highest ranked composite class Bielema has ever pulled in was the 2023 class, which the composite ranked as #38.

 

[Piotyr]

Our class rankings have been around 40-50, but I think last year was vvg (10th?), so it would seem were slightly underperforming for our talent, unless those rankings are positively skewed towards our offense and less for our defense. Obviously those rankings are impacted by number of players in each class but that’s as far as I’m willing to dig.

Edit: okay one more comment- with 68 P4 programs (and 84 teams that made a bowl game in 2024), 51st seems on the low side of average to me for a P4 program. Am I looking at this the wrong way?

There are 136 FBS teams, so 51st is slightly above middle overall. The 68 P4 teams aren't ranked 1-68 in defense, so it's not really the low side of average overall.

 

[lstewart53x3]

Our class rankings have been around 40-50, but I think last year was vvg (10th?), so it would seem were slightly underperforming for our talent, unless those rankings are positively skewed towards our offense and less for our defense. Obviously those rankings are impacted by number of players in each class but that’s as far as I’m willing to dig.

Here’s some stats:

Our total talent composite rating according to 247 which takes into account every recruiting class on the team is 64th:

2025 College Football Team Talent Composite

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.

247sports.com

Diving deeper into those numbers:

Of the top 30 highest ranked players on our team, 20 are freshman or sophomores and aren’t quite ready to contribute.

Continuing to look at those top 30 players, only 6 are juniors or seniors on the defensive side of the ball.

Could coaching be better? Probably. But experienced talent on the defensive side of the ball (especially when factoring in the injury to X) is severely lacking.

It is improving. We have a ton of young talent, but it’s going to take some time to develop.

Being ranked where were ranked with this level of talent is a miracle and a testament to the program and staff Bret has built.

 

[Epsilon]

Not sure what class you thinks was #10 in anything. 247 has us as the #46 class for 2025. Highest ranked composite class Bielema has ever pulled in was the 2023 class, which the composite ranked as #38.

Blame it on AI summary from a lazy google search. Not sure I could even replicate the response lol.

 

[Epsilon]

Here’s some stats:

Our total talent composite rating according to 247 which takes into account every recruiting class on the team is 64th:

2025 College Football Team Talent Composite

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.

247sports.com

Diving deeper into those numbers:

Of the top 30 highest ranked players on our team, 20 are freshman or sophomores and aren’t quite ready to contribute.

Continuing to look at those top 30 players, only 6 are juniors or seniors on the defensive side of the ball.

Could coaching be better? Probably. But experienced talent on the defensive side of the ball (especially when factoring in the injury to X) is severely lacking.

It is improving. We have a ton of young talent, but it’s going to take some time to develop.

Being ranked where were ranked with this level of talent is a miracle and a testament to the program and staff Bret has built.

Thank you for the detailed and data-driven response. I’ll keep that in mind while I’m pulling my hair out on Saturdays (what’s left of it anyway).

 

[Epsilon]

There are 136 FBS teams, so 51st is slightly above middle overall. The 68 P4 teams aren't ranked 1-68 in defense, so it's not really the low side of average overall.

For the record I’m not quite dumb enough to think that all P4 teams are ranked 1-68th, but I didn’t have enough context otherwise.

 

[illinifan1987]

 

[bavanga3]

This is an absolute delusional comment from somebody who claims to watch all their games. They were 7-1 last year against ranked teams including 3 top ten wins and a national championship appearance.

 

[purcy51]

I live 40 minutes from Notre Dame and have for 14 years! I see every game whether I want to or not and only one season in 14 have I agreed with their ranking. I am sick and tired of the preferential treatment that UND gets....

This is entirely the reason I left Northern Indiana. (Well, maybe not entirely, but @90% of the reason.

 

[Calvin]

With ND at 3-2 and ahead of us is not logic. It’s branding!

ND should be an interesting case for the playoff committee if they win out. They have 2 losses to ranked teams, but their schedule does not have another game against a ranked team. USC is receiving votes so they could climb in. How do you put a team in that doesn't have a single ranked win when it's likely that other 2 loss teams will?

 

[Dan]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1974949022986375680

 

[lstewart53x3]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1974949022986375680

3 top 10 teams no longer ranked. 5 top 10 teams no longer in the top 10.

 

[pruman91]

We take care of purdont and climb up 5 spots to # 17.........I like it a lot........

psu and tx fall out of the rankings................I like it a lot...............

numerous teams had bye weeks and rose 5 or more spots..........puzzling stat to me..................I don't like it a lot......I really really don't....

I;m already preparing for next weeks game.....gonna watch the plethora of podcasts and pressers this week to get a fair and balanced approach to our game against osu......but it ain't gonna change my homeristic prediction at all................... more later........

there's no place like home , there's no place like Gies Memorial Stadium........there really really isn't.....................

GO ILLINI , Show bucknuts what it's all aboot ..........