Looks like Illinois is underdog on draft kings -2.5 to Iowa State in opening line.
Let's prove em wrong!
I thought it'd be 1.5, maybe 2.0. That's a bit higher than I expected, they're hot, they've beaten Baylor and Houston by resounding margins to win the Big XII, while Illinois had a path of 1st round eliminated teams with Purdue getting upset in the other half. Then they beat a better team than Illinois played by double digits. Initial linemakers aren't going to be overly impressed by Illinois stomping on the throat of a bid thieving Mid Major that they were a double digit favorite against.
Good to come in an underdog imo. Keep that chip on the shoulder and put the pressure on them. By the way, no need to dig up isolated comments on their fan forum, of course they're confident, they have a great team playing well similar as ours. I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of their fans two years ago at the United Center when they played Miami in the Sweet Sixteen in a late night 10 vs. 11 game (many of the Kansas and Providence fans had cleared out so it was a lot smaller in the 300s by then). Great group. Bonus is they hate Iowa even more than we do.