Saturday was a dark day for the Illinois football program, as we completely laid an egg against Indiana.
This was one of the ugliest scenes I have seen as a college football fan. The Illini were in the game for maybe six minutes before the Hoosiers just undressed us in front of the country.
While this was one of the worst days as a fan in recent memory, the fallout from the 63-10 defeat wasn’t all that bad at the end of the day.
On Sunday afternoon, the newest AP Top 25 was released. I didn’t have any expectations of what I would see in this new poll, but when it was revealed, I liked what I saw.
Illinois was obviously going to plummet in the rankings, but we are still in the top 25, sitting at No. 23 in the country. That is a well-deserved 14-spot drop from the No. 9 ranking we had heading into Saturday.
The AP Top 25 voters clearly respected Illinois as a team, too. We are still in the top 25, which means they think we are a decent team. But moreover, Indiana moved up eight spots after taking us out. They are now the No. 11 team in the country.
Despite dropping a must-win game, Illinois football still has some opportunities ahead
I am still not over how the Illini lost on Saturday. Indiana is a team we should beat, despite all of the massive injuries to the roster.
Here is the thing. A one-point loss and a 53-point loss are the same. They are both just losses. We get to reset next week, and there are some big games ahead.
Illinois has No. 21 USC coming to Champaign on September 27. We then go on the road against Purdue. Win both of those, and I would imagine the Illini move up to the top 18 again.
That leads to the massive matchup against No. 1 Ohio State. With the loss to Indiana, this game turns into a must-win if we want to make the College Football Playoff.