Can you believe it, the Illinois football season is less than two months away.
It felt like it would never get here. I can confidently say the Illini will play football next month. That is a good feeling.
While that feeling courses through your veins, Illinois is still trying to put together one of the best recruiting classes we have seen in program history.
The class of 2026 started off with a bang, landing quarterback Michael Clayton II. He recently announced that he was all-in with the Illini and wants to win this program a Big Ten Championship.
After Clayton’s commitment, Bret Bielema has done a great job building out the 2026 class. We have 22 pledges, four of whom are four-star recruits and 18 three-star players. That is good enough to have us ranked No. 18 in the country for the class of 2026.
But the big question in my mind is, where will Illinois end up landing after the dust settles and players are signed? How high or low will the Illini finish in the 2026 class?
Illinois football ceiling for the class of 2026
Is it top five? No, we can definitely throw that out the window. You need to either have a boatload of four-star recruits or numerous five-star pledges to get in that game.
I believe top 10 is out of the question, too. There are too many teams that have a five-star and multiple four-stars just lurking and waiting for more players to commit. I think the same can apply to the top 15 as well. While it looks obtainable now, there are teams like Oregon behind Illinois that haven’t added kids and have just put together some high-level recruits on the front end.
The ceiling I see for the Illinois class of 2026 is the top 20. I think that should be the goal for this program.
Illinois sits at No. 18 overall, but when you look at the average recruit grade, we have an 87.86, according to 247Sports. That puts us at No. 23.
This fall is going to be key. I know that it looks like Illinois might not land any more four-star or high three-star players right now, but there is always movement in the fall when it comes to elite recruits. Illinois winning again would help greatly.
If Illinois wants to finish in the top 20 nationally, I think getting to six four-star recruits would help achieve that goal. I believe it can happen this fall, but let’s see how things play out.
Illinois football floor for the class of 2026
So, the ceiling is somewhere around No. 20 in the country. I think Illinois can get to that mark. But how low can this program drop if we don’t add any more high-impact guys?
There are quite a few teams behind Illinois right now that could add one more player or will eventually get a full recruiting haul and jump us.
When looking at the full scope of the recruiting landscape, I could see 11 teams potentially passing Illinois when it comes to the recruiting ranking.
I look at any team with at least four four-star recruits being able to potentially pass us. If they just add one more player, they could hop the Illini. I also eye teams that have a five-star or more than four four-stars, but also don’t have a lot of commits yet. Like, Oklahoma is lurking at No. 38 with six four-star commits.
So, with that being said, dropping 11 spots would put Illinois at No. 29 in the country for the class of 2026. I would have mixed feelings about that ranking.
I would be a bit disappointed because Illinois was in the top 20 for quite some time. I would also be happy because that is the best we would have finished in the national recruiting rankings in a very long time.