Illini Football 2026

#77      
Dkayak
jrock said:
EA College Football 27 has Illinois ranked 3rd to last in the Big Ten. Let that sink in. We are ranked higher than 2 teams in the conference. Purdue and Rutgers. That's it. Its pathetic.
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This is simply too bad to be remotely credible, so it’s not worth reading. For example, compare it to our over/under of 7.5 (same as Iowa’s btw). Does EA has sharper insights than the oddsmakers? If you wouldn’t place a bet based on EA’s ranking, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it either. It’s nonsense.
 
#78      
IlliniCaboose
Dkayak said:
This is simply too bad to be remotely credible, so it’s not worth reading. For example, compare it to our over/under of 7.5 (same as Iowa’s btw). Does EA has sharper insights than the oddsmakers? If you wouldn’t place a bet based on EA’s ranking, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it either. It’s nonsense.
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To be fair, I've thought that 7.5 was really, really generous based on what we have coming back and the change in defensive schemes. If we get to 7 wins this year I'll be really happy.
 
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#79      
Dkayak
IlliniCaboose said:
To be fair, I've thought that 7.5 was really, really generous based on what we have coming back and the change in defensive schemes. If we get to 7 wins this year I'll be really happy.
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Sure, understood. But when the professional oddsmakers differ that much from a single online ranking, one of them is WAY off. EA is the “flier” data point among all prognostications. Never lose sleep over an outlier.
 
#81      
TentakilRex
#83      
Fly Illini Fly!
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#86      
IlliniWu
Fly Illini Fly! said:
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Really were a few missing pieces from '23 to '25 that would've put the Illini squarely in the CFP mix. Hill was one, Lightfoot was another.

If they could've just added somebody like Justin Scott, etc. with them, you're looking at 10-11+ wins both years with one or two CFP appearances. It's why you have to keep grinding to get more share of that top 10 in-state. They're doing well enough but there's still work to do.
 
#87      
genevaillini39w
If they would have been at $15M for 2024 payroll versus $5M.....$25M for 2025 payroll versus $15M.....$35M for 2026 payroll versus the rumored $25M......I would love to see what Bret could do.

I think a handful of the top in-state kids would now at this point choose to stay and play for the Illini since they have begun to win at a good clip, but with the money gap....
 
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