It is not hyperbole to say that the Illinois football team, on Saturday night, will play the biggest game we have played in this century.
The road to get to this point hasn’t been easy for the Illini. There have been a lot of potholes and even some craters on the road, but each blown tire and broken axle has been worth the pain to get to this point.
Since the turn of the century, Illinois has had more one or two-win seasons (6) than we have had eight, nine, or 10 win seasons (4). Those struggles have left scars we can talk about today.
To call the Illinois vs Indiana game on Saturday night the biggest contest the Illini have played this century, you have to be strong with that stance. Someone is always going to come after you with what about this game or that game.
You can’t find a bigger game Illinois has played in since the start of 2001. I am including bowl games.
That magical run in 2001 was fun. Illinois had a great team. We won the Big Ten, going 10-1 in the regular season. A loss to Michigan in game four knocked the Illini out of National Championship contention, and we were only ranked No. 22 at the time, so there weren’t known ramifications. While a win over LSU in the Sugar Bowl would have been sweet, pun intended, it would have been a good win and a trophy in the trophy case.
During the Rose Bowl run in 2007, Illinois had a good team, but a loss in the first game of the season put us behind the eight ball. There was never a chance at making it to a national title, and we snuck into the Rose Bowl bid. As an unranked team, the Illini took down No. 1 Ohio State, which will live in the minds of Illinois fans for decades to come. That was a great win for the program, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t compare to the ramifications that Saturday night could have for the Illini.
Let’s say Illinois wins the Rose Bowl against USC that season. That would have been a great story and a very memorable game, but again, it would be bragging rights and a nice trophy in the trophy case.
Illinois managed to get to No. 14 in the country in 2022. We had already lost to Indiana earlier that year, and a loss to an unranked Michigan State squad was a gut punch. There wasn’t the impactful matchup that put us over the top that season, and with a four-team College Football Playoff, we were just playing for better bowl position at that point in the season.
I would argue that the biggest game to date that could compete with what we are going to see on Saturday night came last season. Oddly enough, it was also a matchup of the No. 9 vs No. 19 team in the country.
In 2024, the Illini, then ranked No. 19, were 4-0 and went to No. 9 Penn State. At that point, we had already beaten two ranked opponents, and a third ranked win, this time of a top 10 team, would have sent us skyrocketing. Illinois ended up losing that game 21-7, but it was the biggest game this century. Until September 20, 2025.
Illinois football has not played in a game with bigger ramifications this century
All of those games were meaningful, but when No. 9 Illinois takes on No. 19 Indiana under the lights in Bloomington, it is going to be on another level.
Nationally, both teams are looked at as serious programs now. That is a first for this matchup since 1950, which was the last time they were both ranked playing against each other.
But the main reason the game we will be watching on Saturday night is the biggest game for the Illinois football program this century is simple.
A National Championship.
No, we aren’t going to win the title on Saturday night, but with an expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, the possibility of playing for a National Championship is very realistic. This isn’t a pipe dream like some seasons in the past. If the season ended right now, Illinois would be in the bracket and playing for the pinnacle of the sport.
That mountaintop has never been reachable this century, and honestly, I could go back further. A National Championship is not a thing we dreamed of, or should I say it is all we could do, dream of winning the title. It was never a realistic possibility with any team since the turn of the century.
People are going to point to the Ohio State game coming up as potentially a bigger game. You are wrong. While that is a massive game, it is not the biggest game for the Illini. Illinois can go 11-1 with the only loss being No. 1 Ohio State and still get into the College Football Playoff. But if we fall to Indiana, and then fall to Ohio State and go 10-2, I believe we will be on the outside looking in.
On Saturday night, when Illinois takes the field, we are out there as a top 10 team in the country. A loss puts us behind the eight ball, and some magic has to happen the rest of the way out. A win strengthens the resume for the College Football Playoff. It elevates the program to great heights. And it does something no Illinois fan thought possible; it puts Illinois football in the crosshairs for a National Championship run.