First AP Top 25 poll emphasizes brutal 2024 Illinois football schedule

Illinois football isn’t anywhere in the first rendition of the AP Top 25 to start the 2024 season.

On Monday, the preseason AP Top 25 poll was released, and to no surprise, you aren’t finding the Illini in the rankings. In fact, the Illini didn’t even receive a single vote.

Checking in at No. 1 in the country is the Georgia Bulldogs. They received 46 first-place votes. Ohio State and Oregon are No. 2 and No. 3 with 15 votes and one vote, respectively.

After a 5-7 campaign that saw us come so close to a bowl game in 2023, Illinois continues to find itself outside the AP Top 25. We had a great run in 2022, but the Illini dealt with an adjustment period last season.

You have to go back to November 2022 to find the last time the Illini were ranked inside the top 25. We were No. 21 at that time. Illinois reached as high as No. 14 in the rankings that season.

If you thought the Big Ten was an elite conference before, it has gotten even tougher over the offseason. Adding the four PAC-12 programs made this one of the most dangerous conferences I have ever seen.

The Big Ten has four out of the top 10 programs in the preseason AP Top 25, which includes No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Oregon, No. 8 Penn State, and No. 9 Michigan. No. 23 USC and No. 25 Iowa round out the six Big Ten programs in the top 25. Washington, Nebraska, and Wisconsin all received votes to be in the initial rankings.

The 2024 Illinois football schedule has AP Top 25 teams littered throughout

On top of the Big Ten looking stout as a conference, Illinois’ schedule in 2024 seems to be pretty tough, especially in the heart of it.

Illinois plays four ranked opponents in the first eight games. This includes a four-game stretch where we play at No. 8 Penn State, vs. No. 9 Michigan, and at No. 3 Oregon.

This stretch is preceded by No. 23 Kansas coming to Champaign on September 7, and then Illinois heads to Lincoln to take on Nebraska on September 20. The Cornhuskers received 16 votes to be in the AP Top 25.

Illinois needs a rebound season in a major way, but this schedule looks daunting. If we can get through the first eight games of the season with four wins, I will be happy.