Obviously disappointing that one less loss and we're staring at a playoff birth but having watched Illinois futility for most of my lifetime I'm savoring every win with a realistic expectation that Illini football, Illini basketball, Illini women's basketball, Cubs, Bears and Bulls all make the post-season in the same 12 months. That doesn't even include any of the minor Illinois sports teams which also had successful campaigns this year. Great time to be an Illini. Wish my dad could have lived to see these days!
Bowls/Playoff & Polls Thread
- Status
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
I like this one a lot.
It pretty much mirrors my earlier (Condoleezza Rice) rankings, and essentially rewards the big boys for playing other Big Boy programs. This also reflects what the CFP Committee should be doing.
Is the bowl in Vegas a worthy one?
I might be able to make that.
I might be able to make that.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
I'd absolutely have to make the trip if that happened. Would be my undergrad alma mater versus my grad alma mater. FYI I'd be wearing orange.
SP+ has been updated for FBS: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...lTaW4Q92Zpls/edit?gid=268793997#gid=268793997
Illinois still at #23, teams moved around them but they stayed basically the same (SP+ predicted a 14 point win vs Maryland, won by 18, so things stayed consistent).
CFP going by SP+:
1. Ohio State (B1G champ)
2. Indiana
3. Texas Tech (B12 champ)
4. Oregon
5. Notre Dame
6. Georgia (SEC champ - up 4 this week because they looked good)
7. Ole Miss
8. Utah
9. Texas A&M (down 4 because their Houdini act didn't fool the statistics)
10. Miami (ACC champ)
11. Alabama
24. North Texas (AAC champ Auto-bid)
Lurking:
12. Oklahoma
13. USC
14. Tennessee
15. Iowa
Two big takeaways here:
- The B1G is better than the polls give credit for, and are heavy favorites to win the championship
- No team in the SEC right now is a favorite to win a championship, let alone make a semifinals appearance. Bunch of good teams, no great teams. A&M trending downward and extremely fortunate to still be undefeated right now.
As for all the B1G teams:
1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
4. Oregon
13. USC
15. Iowa
19. Penn State (finally won a B1G game!)
20. Washington
22. Michigan
23. Illinois
30. Nebraska
60. Maryland
61. Rutgers
65. Minnesota
66. Northwestern
81. Michigan State
85. UCLA
90. Wisconsin
96. Purdue
Illinois still at #23, teams moved around them but they stayed basically the same (SP+ predicted a 14 point win vs Maryland, won by 18, so things stayed consistent).
CFP going by SP+:
1. Ohio State (B1G champ)
2. Indiana
3. Texas Tech (B12 champ)
4. Oregon
5. Notre Dame
6. Georgia (SEC champ - up 4 this week because they looked good)
7. Ole Miss
8. Utah
9. Texas A&M (down 4 because their Houdini act didn't fool the statistics)
10. Miami (ACC champ)
11. Alabama
24. North Texas (AAC champ Auto-bid)
Lurking:
12. Oklahoma
13. USC
14. Tennessee
15. Iowa
Two big takeaways here:
- The B1G is better than the polls give credit for, and are heavy favorites to win the championship
- No team in the SEC right now is a favorite to win a championship, let alone make a semifinals appearance. Bunch of good teams, no great teams. A&M trending downward and extremely fortunate to still be undefeated right now.
As for all the B1G teams:
1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
4. Oregon
13. USC
15. Iowa
19. Penn State (finally won a B1G game!)
20. Washington
22. Michigan
23. Illinois
30. Nebraska
60. Maryland
61. Rutgers
65. Minnesota
66. Northwestern
81. Michigan State
85. UCLA
90. Wisconsin
96. Purdue
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Not sure SP+ means anything to the committee (i.e. Penn State won't be anywhere close to sniffing a CFP playoff berth).
If you've ever watched the Cover3 Pod, you'd see how the guys slam the pollsters/AP voters every week... and provide proof of WHY these polls are so elfin ridiculous, and with skewed biases...
No, it's more than 1 bad game. Losing by 50 to Indiana is a bad game. The game being over to OSU before the 4th quarter is a bad game. You noted the UW game. USC is the only team of real substance that we've beaten. THAT SAID, the days of being 2-10 look to be over. Expectations are a great thing.
If we had not lost to Washington, we would be right on the cusp of CFP consideration
That loss was worse than the IU loss. IU, we had multiple starters hurt. Against Washington, we were flat out terrible with a full compliment of players. I still believe that we will get either the Reliaquest Bowl or the Music City Bowl. Even if we won at Washington, it would have been a tough sell as the SEC will put 4 in and with ND and the non Power 4 team, that leaves the ACC with 1 and the Big 12 with most likely Tech and BYU. That only leaves three for the B1G.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
From NCAA.com yesterday.......
www.ncaa.com
...........
16. Texas (7-3)| LW: 10 — Texas will likely fall below Vanderbilt — despite a head-to-head win — because of the beatdown Georgia put on the Longhorns to give them three losses. However, the committee won't drop the Longhorns below Michigan because a common opponent in Oklahoma.
17. Michigan (8-2)| LW: 18 — Michigan beat Northwestern to keep its playoff hopes alive. The Wolverines now must avoid a trap game against Maryland.
18. Georgia Tech (9-1)| LW: 16 —Georgia Tech only beat a one-win Boston College team by one point. The committee has been big on metrics, and Georgia Tech isn't doing its part via the eye-test to offset its more rating in the metrics. The Yellow Jackets will fall below some teams they were above last week.
19. Virginia (9-2)| LW: 19 — Virginia responded after a loss with a win over Duke. It won't move the needle in either direction for the committee.
20. Tennessee (7-3)| LW: 23 —Tennessee moves into the top 20 after handling business against New Mexico State.
21. Illinois (7-3) | LW: NR — I wouldn't be surprised to see the committee rank Illinois this week. The Fighting Illini have won two straight games and have a win over USC from September on their resume.
22. Houston (8-2) | LW: NR — Houston is 8-2 with its only losses coming to Texas Tech and West Virginia. Houston's win over Arizona looks better after last week, which helps get the Cougars ranked.
23. Arizona (7-3)| LW: NR — Arizona beat the No. 25 team in the country, Cincinnati. That win plus a 7-3 record might be enough for the committee to give the Wildcats one of the final spots.
24. Tulane (8-2) | LW: NR — Tulane was in the conversations for a top 25 spot last week, per the committee. 9-1 North Texas was not. The committee also said this on leaving James Madison out: "The part that was really hard to overcome for the committee was their schedule strength." All of that leads me to believe that the Green Wave will get a spot in the rankings if any team from the Group of Five does.
College Football Playoff rankings predictions: What Week 13's CFP top 25, bracket could look like
The third College Football Playoff rankings of 2025 will be revealed on Tuesday, Nov. 18. Here's what the top 25 could look like.
www.ncaa.com
...........
16. Texas (7-3)| LW: 10 — Texas will likely fall below Vanderbilt — despite a head-to-head win — because of the beatdown Georgia put on the Longhorns to give them three losses. However, the committee won't drop the Longhorns below Michigan because a common opponent in Oklahoma.
17. Michigan (8-2)| LW: 18 — Michigan beat Northwestern to keep its playoff hopes alive. The Wolverines now must avoid a trap game against Maryland.
18. Georgia Tech (9-1)| LW: 16 —Georgia Tech only beat a one-win Boston College team by one point. The committee has been big on metrics, and Georgia Tech isn't doing its part via the eye-test to offset its more rating in the metrics. The Yellow Jackets will fall below some teams they were above last week.
19. Virginia (9-2)| LW: 19 — Virginia responded after a loss with a win over Duke. It won't move the needle in either direction for the committee.
20. Tennessee (7-3)| LW: 23 —Tennessee moves into the top 20 after handling business against New Mexico State.
21. Illinois (7-3) | LW: NR — I wouldn't be surprised to see the committee rank Illinois this week. The Fighting Illini have won two straight games and have a win over USC from September on their resume.
22. Houston (8-2) | LW: NR — Houston is 8-2 with its only losses coming to Texas Tech and West Virginia. Houston's win over Arizona looks better after last week, which helps get the Cougars ranked.
23. Arizona (7-3)| LW: NR — Arizona beat the No. 25 team in the country, Cincinnati. That win plus a 7-3 record might be enough for the committee to give the Wildcats one of the final spots.
24. Tulane (8-2) | LW: NR — Tulane was in the conversations for a top 25 spot last week, per the committee. 9-1 North Texas was not. The committee also said this on leaving James Madison out: "The part that was really hard to overcome for the committee was their schedule strength." All of that leads me to believe that the Green Wave will get a spot in the rankings if any team from the Group of Five does.
I don't think you can overstate the damage from the Indiana loss. No shame in going down 3 scores to tOSU, but down 53 points at a juncture where Indiana still had doubters took out any margin of error and pushed the metrics below otherwise similar teams.
While I do agree with you, I also find it interesting that very little consideration was made nationally about us being extremely banged up that game. No Xavier Scott, no Clarke, an absolutely ridiculously awful targeting ejection of Miles Scott when it was still a 7pt game in the 1st half, and a 1st half Patterson injury. That's 4 starters in the secondary out before halftime. And that's not to mention Bowick was out and Priestly and Davis both weren't 100%. Meanwhile Indiana was extremely healthy and playing at home and we didn't have a defensive playcaller left on the field.
Now that's not to excuse the performance, but losing by 60 extremely shorthanded or losing by 20-30 healthy shouldn't be all that much of a difference. Yeah we got beat bad, but for the national media to treat it worse than say losing to a sub .500 team or worse than not having a single win against a team with a winning record is silly.
That said, I've always put more football value on wins and losses than margins, and I'm notoriously pro Midmajor, so bias does seep through. That said as far as I'm concerned, no 3 loss SEC or B10 team who has beaten nobody should be sniffing anywhere close to a playoff spot. When your best accomplishment all season is losing by 7 to a really good team, sorry that's not a resume.
It's a 'perception' world when dealing with pollsters, and sports writers who ALL have inbred biases...
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Considering USC and Michigan were 17 and 18 last week, respectively, it is hard to see how either would jump high enough with another loss.
Therefore, I think it is nearly certain the B1G will only see 3 teams in CFP if the above happens.
3 seems most likely. Maybe a chance at 4 with a little bit of help
OSU and Indiana (locks)
10-2 USC
10-2 Oregon
If SC beat Oregon in a close game and then Oregon bounced back with a big win @Washington we maybe could get 4 with some help.
That would probably take Bama losing the Iron Bowl or BYU losing this week, and no conference championship upsets in the B12/ACC though.
OnlyOrange
- Belleville, IL
This isn't *totally* farfetched either - Auburn's record is ugly but they've played some tight games lately...wouldn't mind seeing Alabama get booted with 3 losses again.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- Batavia
College football bowl projections have CFP field prediction dominated by SEC teams
There's two weekends of college football before conference title games, and the race for the playoff seems settled in this week's bowl projections.
www.usatoday.com
| Dec. 30 | Music City | SEC vs. Big Ten | Missouri vs. Illinois |
Our latest look at every postseason matchup following another wild weekend
After big wins by Georgia and Oklahoma, we look at the trickle effect from the CFP through the bowl games.
Yankee Stadium (Bronx, New York)
Noon, ABC
Schlabach: Louisville vs. Illinois
ReliaQuest Bowl
Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, Florida)
Noon, ESPN
Bonagura: Illinois vs. Texas
College football Week 13 bowl projections: FBS newcomers (and UNC) still have postseason paths
Multiple things need to break right, but UNC could potentially earn a postseason bid.
www.nytimes.com
| Music CityDec. 30, 2025 |
BIG TEN 5Illinois | 
SEC 3-8LSU |
College Football Bowl Projections 2025-26
CBS Sports experts select the college football teams they believe will make the NCAA National Semifinals at the end of the 2025 season and give projections for each game.
www.cbssports.com
| Dec. 26 | GameAbove Sports | 
Illinois | vs.
Miami (Ohio) | Big Ten vs. MAC | 1pm | Detroit, Mich. |
ReliaQuest Bowl
Wednesday, December 31, 202512:00, ESPN
Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL
Bowl Affiliations: Big Ten, SEC, ACC
Last Season: Michigan 19, Alabama 13
Projection: Illinois vs Miami
College Football Playoff and Bowl Projections After Week 12: Is Alabama Top SEC Team?
If the Crimson Tide win the conference championship with two losses, where the selection committee ranks them will be notable against their league foes.
www.si.com
| Music City Bowl | Dec. 30 | Illinois vs. LSU |
Pinstripe Bowl (Dec. 27)
Location: Yankee Stadium in Bronx, N.Y.Tie-In: ACC vs. Big Ten
Projection: Clemson vs. Illinois
College Football Bowl Projections Week 13: Full list of matchups, playoff predictions
The latest College Football Playoff and bowl projections after Week 13 of the 2025 season.
College Football Bowl Projections 2025: Latest Playoff and Bowl Game Predictions After Week 12
With just two weeks of the regular season to go, our latest college football bowl projections are starting to show a clear postseason picture.
www.profootballnetwork.com
Illinois vs. Oklahoma
Agreed, it's at Auburn at night too. That will be a fun hate watch. Hopefully Auburn pulls it off.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Very well-written article from Robert on why Bowls still matter (free):
www.illiniboard.com
College Football 201
It's time for a class you'd take your sophomore year. Yes, you had College Football 101 as a freshman in Foellinger and you'd always get a seat in the balcony so you could take a little nap. But now it's time for a more advanced class. And I'm gonna unlock
www.illiniboard.com
- Status