AP Top 25 clearly has respect for Illinois football schedule

Let me tell you, it was pretty rough watching the Illinois football team flounder on Saturday.

It is never easy taking on the No. 1 team in the country. I know it was fun to think about how the Illini knocked off Ohio State back in 2007, but this Oregon program is a much better team than that Buckeyes squad.

Todd Boeckman couldn’t hold a candle to Dillon Gabriel as a quarterback. The Ducks have a team that can compete and potentially win the national championship, and they unleashed that furry on Illinois this past Saturday.

But, unlike in years past, Illinois has built up some goodwill with their schedule. This season, we have beaten three ranked opponents. That is an impressive feat.

Currently sitting at 6-2 overall and 3-2 in the Big Ten, the latest AP Top 25 voting showed that goodwill has come in handy. Despite losing to Oregon, the Illini only dropped four spots in the latest rankings. We are still in the top 25 at No. 24 in the country.

Illinois football has an impressive schedule, and now we can finish the 2024 season strong

On top of the solid record and the schedule that has Illinois beating three ranked teams already, the losses are some of the best defeats in the country.

If Illinois was 6-2 with losses to unranked opponents, no way in the world we would still be ranked. However, our only two losses were to the No. 1 team in Oregon and the No. 3 team in Penn State.

Illinois isn’t losing to teams when we are favored. We have fallen to two of the best teams in the country. Now the schedule, while still tough, gets a little easier.

This is Illinois football, so no game is easy, but the next two games are in Champaign against Minnesota and Michigan State. The final two games are on the road against Rutgers and Northwestern.

These four programs combined for a record of 16-16 overall and 7-13 in the Big Ten. If Illinois can manage to get through these four games unscathed, then we finish 10-2 overall and 7-2 in the Big Ten. That would be one of the best seasons I have witnessed in my lifetime, and it would put this program toward the top of the college football world.