Illinois Football: 2020 schedule released for the Illini

The Big Ten schedules have been released and the Illini are facing some tough competition.

It looks like the 2020 campaign will feature 10 games for the Illinois football program, all of which will be in-conference matchups. The first game of the season is against what looks to be the No. 2 team in the nation, the Ohio State Buckeyes.

The game against the Buckeyes will kick off on September 3, which is a Thursday. This is an interesting decision by the Big Ten scheduling people.

The following two games are on the road for Illinois. The first one is at Nebraska on September 12. A week later, the Illini will then head to Indiana to take on a talented Hoosiers’ team. These two games will be interesting to say the least.

Illinois then comes back home for two-straight games. Purdue enters Champaign after being beaten by the Illini in a monsoon last season. The following game is against an Iowa team that Illinois had a chance of beating but fell just short in 2019. Purdue will be on September 26 and the Iowa game is on October 10.

There is a little road trip following two games at home. Illinois heads to Northwestern on October 17. The game following that up is a rematch of the biggest upset in college football in 2019 when Illinois heads to Wisconsin to take on the Badgers on October 24.

Minnesota travels to Illinois on October 31 in a game that is always tough. Illinois then heads to the east coast to take on Rutgers on November 7. The final game of the season will be November 21 when the Orange and Blue welcome in Penn State to take on the Nittany Lions.

This is going to be an interesting season. COVID-19 really has the sports world turned upside down. Whoever emerges out of the Big Ten this season will have earned their place on top of arguably the best conference in college football.