Watching top 25 football today and this evening. Without playing we should jump to 18 to 15 in country. These teams are weak. SEC to ensure they have at least 6 teams finish 10-2, literally play all division 3 teams next week. They absolutely don't want our Illini going 10-2, having to debate that our 2 losses would be against 2 best teams in country.
Illini Football 2025
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Isn’t the most likely outcome is they all finish with 3+ losses and none of them make it?
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Three of the eight will lose next week. Three of the eight will win. (Six are involved in direct head-to-head games.)
USC with a BYE. Michigan plays at MSU.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
THE ROAD TO CLAIMING THE 4TH BIG10 CFP BID (WITH A 10-2 OVERALL RECORD):
Two easiest remaining schedules among those eight teams currently tied at 5-2:
1. Illinois - @WASH is toughest remaining game. NW or MD at home is probably the 2nd most difficult.
2. Michigan - Ohio State at home is toughest. NW or MD away is maybe the 2nd most difficult. (Or the rivalry game @MSU?)
Two easiest remaining schedules among those eight teams currently tied at 5-2:
1. Illinois - @WASH is toughest remaining game. NW or MD at home is probably the 2nd most difficult.
2. Michigan - Ohio State at home is toughest. NW or MD away is maybe the 2nd most difficult. (Or the rivalry game @MSU?)
>#2 Miami (L)
‣ #5 Ole Miss (L)
‣ #7 Texas Tech (L)
‣ #10 LSU (L)
‣ #11 Tennessee (L)
‣ #20 USC (L)
‣ #22 Memphis (L)
‣ #23 Utah (L)
‣ #25 Nebraska (L)
Illinois will be ranked this week. Washington good not great. We beat USC, USC beat Michigan, Michigan beat Wahington. Also all home teams won. USC version of Illinois wins, first half OSU/Indiana game loses.
‣ #5 Ole Miss (L)
‣ #7 Texas Tech (L)
‣ #10 LSU (L)
‣ #11 Tennessee (L)
‣ #20 USC (L)
‣ #22 Memphis (L)
‣ #23 Utah (L)
‣ #25 Nebraska (L)
Illinois will be ranked this week. Washington good not great. We beat USC, USC beat Michigan, Michigan beat Wahington. Also all home teams won. USC version of Illinois wins, first half OSU/Indiana game loses.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Of the eight, at least three will have their third loss after this coming Saturday.
Illinois or Washington
Minnesota or Iowa
Northwestern or Nebraska
Michigan goes to Sparty
USC is off
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Michigan controls their own destiny. If they win out, they’re in. No other team still has Ohio St remaining on their schedule and a win against the #1 team in the country would give them the best resume of the bunch.
Iowa, Minnesota, USC, and Washington still play Oregon. Assuming Oregon is a playoff team, if any of those four 4 go 10-2, they would have a really good chance to make it in with that strong of a win.
No team on the list still has Indiana in front of them.
Looking at that, though, Oregon has a sneaky difficult remaining schedule. They play Wisconsin and then 4 teams who are all currently 5-2 with two of those games coming on the road (@Iowa and @Washington). Could Oregon potentially miss the playoffs?
Some prediction sites have SEC with 4 teams with 1 loss... those top teams have a "relatively" soft schedule. Of course anything can happen.
www.warrennolan.com
10-2 this particular year may just not be enough to get us in given the way we lost to IU.
Predicted Conference Standings - 2025 SEC Football | WarrenNolan.com
SEC Conference Predicted Final Standings for College Football with predicted ELOs and conference ELO
10-2 this particular year may just not be enough to get us in given the way we lost to IU.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
If Iowa ran the table(albeit unlikely) at 10-2, I would think they get the nod over a 10-2 Illinois. They would have wins against USC, Oregon, and the loss to IU less damaging.
I think that only OSU, IU and Oregon make it. Our conference has absolutely no depth this year. If we win out, what top 25 team will we have beaten? The two top teams we played, while most others didn't have #1 and #2..... Losing by 53 is going to linger. That just doesn't go away. Getting beat by 2 TDs to OSU, at home, is going to linger.
The SEC, alone, all have depth of schedule to support their candidacy. A three loss SEC team will top any of the teams noted above. There just not enough quality/opportunity in conference, especially on our end, to erase the damage done.
Sucks, but it is what it is.
Interesting that they’re still unranked, with few votes. There are many hypothetical scenarios, but few to worry about. Saturday is our biggest remaining worry. Both Iowa and Illinois winning out is very unlikely.
Iowa is sneaky good. They could have easily beaten IU, in which case we would be talking seriously about Iowa as a playoff contender
J Lehman on Werner's podcast was pretty honest/critical of the job Henry is doing defensively. He made it clear that he feels some of our game-plans have been bad.
True but Bielema certainly had a role in developing and/or at least approving what Illinois has done defensively. He's from the defensive side of the ball.
He’s the head coach he has the final say on everything
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
That will make the statue a little cheaper to construct someday.
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
What were the specifics that he gave. I’m by no means a coach but our biggest issue imo is lack of pressure from the front 4. I’ve watched a lot of football and I’ve never seen a good defense that didn’t have a good d line that could get some qb pressure on their own.
We seem decent against the run but that lack of pressure forces us to either blitz like crazy or play soft on the back end.
It's been a few weeks since I've updated the Gies Memorial Stadium Sellout Watch. Since my last update, the Rutgers game was announced a sellout. Maryland is still a little ways away from sellout territory, but it might be able to get there. I know they are doing the Tickets for Veterans promotion that day, so I expect that will help move tickets.
Note with at least four sellouts on the season and strong attendance in the other home games, I expect the average attendance to exceed 58,000 per game, up from 54,750 last season.
Note with at least four sellouts on the season and strong attendance in the other home games, I expect the average attendance to exceed 58,000 per game, up from 54,750 last season.
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