Nothing wrong with Frisco, Texas. Lots to do there plus the Star is there if you are a Cowboy fan like myself.
Bowls/CFP Projections
We owe those clowns a beatdown. Plus it would be sweet to win three straight bowl games against the SEC.
The CFP committee is higher than Pru
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Our (easiest) pathway to the CFP:
* We go 3-0 in our final 3 regular season games
* USC loses to Indiana in Bloomington this coming Saturday
* Ohio St (with their back-up QB) loses any of their final 3 games vs. NW, NEB and MICH.
* UCLA loses to either Michigan (away), or to USC (at home) in their season finale
At 7-2 in conference, we'll have the tie-break over both Oregon and UCLA, by virtue of going 2-0 against them. We'd then face Indiana in the Big Ten title game with the automatic berth on the line.
So it therefore comes down to just a handful of critical games that need to fall our way!!
* We go 3-0 in our final 3 regular season games
* USC loses to Indiana in Bloomington this coming Saturday
* Ohio St (with their back-up QB) loses any of their final 3 games vs. NW, NEB and MICH.
* UCLA loses to either Michigan (away), or to USC (at home) in their season finale
At 7-2 in conference, we'll have the tie-break over both Oregon and UCLA, by virtue of going 2-0 against them. We'd then face Indiana in the Big Ten title game with the automatic berth on the line.
So it therefore comes down to just a handful of critical games that need to fall our way!!
I wonder if we'd be as well off (or better off) making the CFP by winning the last 3 but not making the Big Ten Championship game? A loss in the championship game could drop us out. If Indiana and UCLA play they would both be in anyway; so a UCLA loss to us and win against USC might be ok.
It would be very Illinois for us to finally make it to the big ten championship game in a year that making it would actually hurt us. Although, I suspect there really would be no negative impact program-wise making it to the championship game regardless of the outcome.
Is there a scenario where we play North Carolina?
I don’t think a scenario exists where you get penalized for losing a championship game .
a worse seeding ? perhaps
but imo, thats it
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Probably very little chance of us getting an at-large at 9-3.
That said, it's possible to imagine a 9-3 glut for a third bid the committee will feel obligated to give the Big Ten of us, Iowa, Oregon and UCLA in which we've beaten all of the other three.
Putting the cart light years ahead of the horse to even say that though.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Doubtful. On one hand, we would be entering bowl season on a 7 game winning streak with at least 3 very good wins (Oregon, UCLA, and Iowa).
Unfortunately, the loss vs Purdue would likely be the anchor to making top 11. It appears that Nebraska might collapse down stretch, and NW no longer looks like a marquis very good win oppurtunity.
Our best path is to keep winning and hope to make B1G champ game. Take any resume comparisons off the table.
Here is our path to the B1G championship game. We win out. UCLA loses to USC, Michigan beats OSU, IU beats USC. Even if Wisconsin or Oregon win out, we should have the tie breaker on both. It would then be us vs IU. How crazy would that be?
Neither of these are sufficient enough to secure a spot in the Big Ten Championship (AssemblyHallForever is close). Tie breakers are weird in the Big Ten. Especially if you have multiple teams that transitively cancel wins out. And unfortunately, Illinois is the loser in a lot of those tiebreakers. The only tie breakers they win against are ones that directly compare Illinois, Oregon, and UCLA, and only if Illinois beats UCLA.
The way I can realistically see Illinois making the championship is if the following happen:
1. Illinois wins out. Obviously a must. And this might be the least realistic of the following things.
2. Indiana beats USC this week.
3. USC beats UCLA in the final game.
4. Wisconsin needs to lose one more game to any of Maryland, Purdue, or Minnesota.
5. OSU just needs to lose one more game to any of Northwestern, Nebraska, or Michigan.
If this were to happen, Indiana would be 8-1, and Illinois would be 7-2 along with only UCLA and Oregon. We win any tie breaker involving those three in that regard.
There could be other really weird tiebreakers that could possibly get us in, but with three weeks left, there's still a lot of possibilities left, and I don't want to figure out 100 million scenarios.
BYU last year.
If we win out but don’t make the B1G championship game or the CFP, it will still have been yet another great season. Wonderful progress.
Great is an understatement. Even if we only manage to get to 8 wins, it will be the first time since 1904(!) that Illinois has had three years in a row with 8 wins or more; 9 or more wins there years in a row has never happened.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
I also saw Music City Bowl against Texas A&M (unlikely, bowls hate back to backs), and Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa against Virginia.
Isn't about time that the football gods finally smile upon us? Letting us win out while becoming media darlings. Bret coach of the year, lots of attention for our low nil, zero 5 star and maybe 7 -4 star players. Just keep winning
People are predicting tam to go bowling? 4-5 with Texas and Tennessee left plus away at ou
Bret could wear a lot of mayonaise.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Frisco The Elder vs Louisiana or Pinstripe vs Pitt.
I don’t know if I agree with this. While I don’t think it will happen, if we were to beat UCLA, Iowa, and Northwestern to end the season, that puts us on a 7 game winning streak and we’d be considered one of the hottest teams in college football. Plus, if UCLA were to proceed to win out after losing to us, that would give us a gigantic marquee road win likely better than the other 3loss teams we’d be competing against for the spot. And if Oregon were to win out as well, that’d give us 2 wins over teams in playoff contention.
Now sure, the Purdue loss is a terrible one, but losing to OSU with Sayin and losing to Duke both appear to be against teams that were also playoff contenders (OSU when healthy and assuming Duke beats either Miami or Wake). With that type of resume I personally think it would be hard to keep us out as an at-large 9-3 team.
That all said, we actually need to win these next 3 games, and that would be extraordinarily daunting.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
The problem is that Oregon would also be 9-3. We would have the head to head win, but Oregon would likely look better to the committee. That Purdue loss would really hurt us there.
Hard to see the committee taking two 9-3 teams from the B1G. Oregon winning out is not good for Illinois.