The Illinois football team has been one of the best comeback stories of the 2026 season.
Four games into the season, chaos was flowing through the Illini program. We parted ways with defensive coordinator Bobby Hauck, and it looked like the season was going to be lost. A week later, we fell to Purdue. Everything was going off the rails.
November 13 rolls around, and Illinois has rattled off four straight wins and finds themselves at 6-3 overall.
Bret Bielema has put the Illini in not just a position to make a bowl game, but we could roll a grenade into the heated battle that we call the College Football Playoff.
Illinois’ final three games can send chaos throughout the College Football Playoff. We are at No. 4 UCLA, home against No. 15 Iowa, and then at Northwestern.
A win on Friday night against the Bruins would be incredible for Illinois but bad for the CFP committee. They would then have to decide what to do with UCLA. How far do you drop a one-loss Big Ten team?
My guess is that they would be somewhere between No. 9 and No. 12. The Bruins would still have a spot, but they would be, essentially, on the bubble.
A week later, Illinois will welcome Iowa. The Hawkeyes are knocking on the door of the College Football Playoff. A loss to Illinois would eliminate them from contention. There is a chance that when this game is played, Iowa could have a spot in the College Football Playoff. Illinois could knock them out completely.
Over the next two weeks, Illinois potentially has the fate of two teams in their hands. We could put UCLA on notice and make them sweat the final weeks. We could also send Iowa packing and lock their spot in some mid-level bowl game.
Illinois football has another way to crash the College Football Playoff party
Illinois has a good team this season. We are going back to a bowl game for the third year in a row, and at 6-3, it is a respectable season.
Knocking off UCLA and Iowa to either make them sweat or eliminate them from the College Football Playoff would be fun. Illinois can also cause chaos in another way.
Making the College Football Playoff.
I know that sounds like a crazy thing to say. Illinois in the College Football Playoff? How?
Let’s lay this out. Illinois obviously has to win the final three games of the season. So, with those wins, we get to 9-3 overall and 7-2 in the Big Ten. Now let’s look at ESPN’s Football Power Index to see the quality of competition.
Illinois would have wins over No. 9 Oregon, No. 18 Iowa, No. 23 Nebraska, No. 27 UCLA, and No. 31 Northwestern. Those rankings are from the FPI.
These wins would include teams ranked in the current College Football Playoff: No. 4 UCLA, No. 15 Iowa, and No. 16 Oregon.
Illinois’ losses against FPI No. 5 Ohio State and No. 29 Duke aren’t bad. The one loss that would get us is FPI No. 67, Purdue. That was a time of chaos, but it would likely be held against us.
With that being said, winning the final three games would give the College Football Playoff committee a resume to think about. Illinois would have some impressive victories and a strong case for being considered. If nothing else, we can be the grenade in the battle for one of the coveted 12 spots in the College Football Playoff.
Add us as a preferred source on Google