As an Illinois football fan, I believe the program is going to reach great heights this upcoming season.
It is one thing when someone like me says the Illini can be wildly successful in 2025, but when the national media takes a liking to the program, then things start to get real.
On Monday afternoon, Fox Sports' Joel Klatt released his college football post-spring top 25. The first few teams are a bit of an eye-opener. You have three teams from the Big Ten in the top four spots. No. 1 Penn State, No. 2 Texas, No. 3 Ohio State, and No. 4 Oregon round out the top four.
I am not used to seeing Illinois on a preseason top 25 ranking, no matter who publishes it. With that being said, imagining the Illini in the top 10 was unthinkable just a year or so ago. Making the top 10 could be a reality soon, though.
NEW: College Football Post-Spring Top 25 per @joelklattđź‘€https://t.co/45ihMeXrtL pic.twitter.com/C1MDgNDOcq
— On3 (@On3sports) May 5, 2025
Klatt’s top 25 has Illinois as the No. 10 team in the country. Let that soak in for a second. We are ahead of teams like Michigan, Florida, and Miami.
2024 bowl game might have been a preview for the 2026 College Football Playoff
Seeing Illinois in the top 10 kind of feels like validation for the coaching staff. Bret Bielema has put together and built quite an impressive program, even though the football team isn’t priority No. 1 when it comes to NIL dollars.
Illinois returns so many starters from the 10-win campaign in 2024 as well. Luke Altmyer and the entire starting offensive line are back. We have our tight ends finally healthy. Defensively, nearly all of the Illini secondary is back. Our linebackers are also back for one more season.
As I look over this projected top 25, I think to myself, could that Cheez-It Citrus Bowl we saw back in December be a foreshadowing of what the 2026 College Football Playoff could look like?
Illinois is No. 10 in the ranking, but close behind the Illini at No. 11 is South Carolina. Illinois beat the Gamecocks 21-17 in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl. We held a dark horse Heisman Trophy contender, LaNorris Sellers, to just 260 yards and a touchdown through the air and 34 yards on the ground.
It honestly wouldn’t shock me to see Illinois matched up against South Carolina once again, but this time in the 2026 College Football Playoff. These two teams played a great game once, and now they are both projected to be top teams in the country.