Illinois football somehow loses votes in AP Top 25 after win over Toledo

Despite winning on Saturday and moving to 1-0 on the season, the Illinois football team dropped slightly in the AP Top 25.

Coming off a 2022 campaign that saw the Illini climb as high as No. 14 in the AP Top 25, the Orange and Blue were hopefully going to move back into the rankings in 2023.

The preseason AP Top 25 had Illinois sitting with three votes to be on the coveted list. This was one less than week one foe, Toledo. The Illini ended up bouncing the Rockets out of Champaign with a last-second field goal. A win usually means some type of climb or, at worst, a status quo for a program. That isn’t the case with Illinois.

A new AP Top 25 poll was released on Tuesday, and the Illini actually lost votes. We only have one vote to be ranked in the top 25 this time around.

It is a bit surprising that the Illinois football team lost votes to be ranked in the AP Top 25

I have no issues with the actual AP Top 25. There are only two teams that are ranked and lost in week one. LSU fell to Florida State, and Clemson barely hung on at No. 25 after a blowout loss to Duke.

The only issue I have with the rankings is why Illinois lost two votes, and how are some of the teams ahead of them receiving more votes?

You have Troy ahead of Illinois, getting three votes. They gave up 30 points to FBS Stephen F. Austin. Minnesota received three votes and had to sneak past a bad Nebraska squad at home. The Golden Gophers looked awful. Texas Tech fell to Wyoming in overtime. Who in their right mind would give them a vote to be in the AP Top 25?

Toledo is a good team. It wouldn’t shock me to see them finish the 2023 campaign with eight or nine wins. I am telling you now, the Illini win over the Rockets on Saturday will be a good victory by season’s end.