Illini Football 2026

#208      
After yesterday's results, according to this service, we're ranked 48th (12th in the BIg10), ahead of Maryland (50) , Wisconsin(69) , and MSU (73), Purdue (102) and Rutgers (114)

https://www.collegefootballpoll.com/rankings/

(It appears This service is still using last year's results in their ranking algorithm)

1789905691358.png
 
#218      
Based on what I have seen out of our team so far, I truly cannot decide if I like or absolutely hate how our schedule breaks down by week, haha. It almost entirely depends on just how much the defense can improve as the season goes on.

You can make the argument that we might as well get our butt whoopin' in Columbus out of the way in Week Four, and a home game against Purdue is the best reasonable "medicine" we could hope for now that conference play is underway. However, if the POTENTIAL is there for our defense to at least get to the point where it is serviceable, I worry that an absolute embarrassment on Saturday could shatter our confidence.

Either way, if we assume a likely loss at OSU and a (HOPEFULLY likely...) win vs. Purdue to follow, count me as incredibly nervous for us to head to East Lansing with a 3-2 record. With a bye week looming, I feel like that MSU game could be a bit of a make-or-break stand for this football team. If we fall to 3-3 with Oregon coming up, momentum could take an awful turn. However, if we can get to 4-2 with a bye week on the horizon, the path to a decent season at least becomes more visible, ESPECIALLY if we can avoid looking utterly outmatched vs. OSU or Oregon. The thought of Fitz hyping his guys up to deliver a momentum-killing death blow to our team literally makes me want to vomit, so let's not let that happen!
 
#219      
Based on what I have seen out of our team so far, I truly cannot decide if I like or absolutely hate how our schedule breaks down by week, haha. It almost entirely depends on just how much the defense can improve as the season goes on.

You can make the argument that we might as well get our butt whoopin' in Columbus out of the way in Week Four, and a home game against Purdue is the best reasonable "medicine" we could hope for now that conference play is underway. However, if the POTENTIAL is there for our defense to at least get to the point where it is serviceable, I worry that an absolute embarrassment on Saturday could shatter our confidence.

Either way, if we assume a likely loss at OSU and a (HOPEFULLY likely...) win vs. Purdue to follow, count me as incredibly nervous for us to head to East Lansing with a 3-2 record. With a bye week looming, I feel like that MSU game could be a bit of a make-or-break stand for this football team. If we fall to 3-3 with Oregon coming up, momentum could take an awful turn. However, if we can get to 4-2 with a bye week on the horizon, the path to a decent season at least becomes more visible, ESPECIALLY if we can avoid looking utterly outmatched vs. OSU or Oregon. The thought of Fitz hyping his guys up to deliver a momentum-killing death blow to our team literally makes me want to vomit, so let's not let that happen!
My thoughts exactly, which is why blowing the Duke game stinks so much.
 
#221      
I took each teams current budget for this year and calculated each team's wins over the past 2 years to find out how much it costs per win. This isn't perfect because this is a one year budget and I'm calculating wins over a 2 year period. My goal wasn't to find out the exact cost per win, but just to compare who's paying the least and most for their wins.

RankTeamBudget2024 W2025 WTotal$/Win
1Duke$10.5M9918$1.17M
2Iowa State$12.5M11819$1.32M
3Cincinnati$11.5M5712$1.92M
4Arizona$12.5M4913$1.92M
5Minnesota$15.5M8816$1.94M
6Houston$14.0M41014$2.00M
7Iowa$17.0M8917$2.00M
8SMU$21.0M11920$2.10M
9Kansas State$16.5M9615$2.20M
10Pitt$16.5M7815$2.20M
11Utah$18.0M51116$2.25M
12Arizona State$21.5M11819$2.26M
13BYU$27.0M111223$2.35M
14Illinois$22.5M10919$2.37M
15Wake Forest$16.0M4913$2.46M
16Washington$19.5M6915$2.60M
17Boston College$10.5M718$2.62M
18Louisville$24.5M9918$2.72M
19Indiana$37.5M111627$2.78M
20TCU$25.0M9918$2.78M
21Virginia$22.5M51116$2.81M
22Colorado$17.5M9312$2.92M
23Syracuse$19.0M10313$2.92M
24Georgia$34.0M111223$2.96M
25UCF$13.5M459$3.00M
26Baylor$20.0M8513$3.08M
27Kansas$15.5M5510$3.10M
28Penn State$31.0M13720$3.10M
29Cal$21.0M6713$3.23M
30Vanderbilt$27.5M71017$3.24M
31Missouri$29.5M10818$3.28M
32Georgia Tech$26.5M7916$3.31M
33Rutgers$21.5M7512$3.58M
34Notre Dame$43.5M141024$3.62M
35Clemson$31.0M10717$3.65M
36Ole Miss$43.5M101323$3.78M
37NC State$27.5M6814$3.93M
38Ohio State$51.5M141226$3.96M
39Oregon$51.5M131326$3.96M
40Alabama$40.0M91120$4.00M
41West Virginia$20.0M6410$4.00M
42Oklahoma$32.5M61016$4.06M
43Miami$47.5M101323$4.13M
44Texas Tech$41.5M81220$4.15M
45Northwestern$23.5M4711$4.27M
46Michigan$37.5M8917$4.41M
47Texas$51.5M131023$4.48M
48Tennessee$42.0M10818$4.67M
49North Carolina$23.5M6410$4.70M
50USC$38.0M7916$4.75M
51Nebraska$33.5M7714$4.79M
52Texas A&M$47.5M81119$5.00M
53Michigan State$23.0M549$5.11M
54Stanford$18.0M347$5.14M
55South Carolina$34.0M9413$5.23M
56Kentucky$24.0M459$5.33M
57Arkansas$25.5M729$5.67M
58Oklahoma State$11.5M314$5.75M
59LSU$47.5M9716$5.94M
60Florida$36.0M8412$6.00M
61Maryland$25.0M448$6.25M
62Virginia Tech$30.0M639$6.67M
63Auburn$33.5M5510$6.70M
64UCLA$27.5M538$6.88M
65Wisconsin$31.0M549$6.89M
66Florida State$26.0M257$7.43M
67Mississippi State$29.0M257$8.29M
68Purdue$16.5M123$11.00M
Purdue šŸ˜†šŸ˜†šŸ˜†
 
#222      
I still have no idea why our budget for football is LESS THAN NORTHWESTERN'S. We have a huge alumni base, a large percentage of which range from upper-middle class to millionaires - and some billionaires as well - and we still only get slightly over $20 million to spend on football?! And again, Northwestern somehow spends MORE?? And Ohio State nearly triples our budget!

I really need help understanding why we don't have a much bigger budget, considering we're a top school(regardless of if you look at public school or public AND private schools; we're #8 in public schools and #34 when private schools are factors in, which is still a VERY high ranking), have said wealthy alumni base, and we definitely aren't a poor school. I feel like there's some glaringly obvious rule or issue I'm not thinking of when I should be, but I just can't understand why we don't have a much larger football budget. Help? Somebody? Anybody??
 
Back