That’s the pretty universally held opinion of the program. And let’s face it, the Illini have not done much to garner a whole lot of benefit of the doubt over the last 25-30 years.
The ESPN article below predicts Illinois to go 4-8 (2-7). It came out after the Nebraska win. So basically, they’re predicting Illinois will go 1-3 against Virginia, Maryland, Purdue, and Rutgers, all teams they predict will win between 4 and 6 games. And then not beat either Minnesota or Northwestern, both predicted to win 7.
Mark Schlabach predicts each of the Power 5's conference champions, players of the year, best games and even more ahead of Week 1.
www.espn.com