Game Thread tOSU at Illinois, Sat. Oct. 11th, TBA

[BB73]

Buckeyes head to the wind tunnel in Champaign, having won 9 straight in the series since the ‘Juice Williams’ game in 2007.

The last meeting in Champaign was back in 2015, since the 2020 contest was dropped due to Covid.

 

[ScriptOhio]

Over the weekend, Scott Dochterman of The Athletic predicted the Big Ten’s 2025 College Football Friday Night schedule. One Ohio State game appeared on the list: At Illinois on Oct. 10.

Predicting the Big Ten’s 2025 Friday football schedule: Which games will move off Saturdays?

The Big Ten wants to put a game on every Friday of football season. Here’s an attempt to project which 2025 games could make the move.

www.nytimes.com

Predicting the Big Ten’s 2025 Friday football schedule: Which games will move off Saturdays?​

In its first season as an 18-school conference, the Big Ten shifted nine games to Friday nights. This fall, the league is looking to place games on every Friday of the regular season, starting on Aug. 29 and concluding on Black Friday.

But deciding which games should shift from Saturday to Friday is hardly simple. It’s a delicate balancing act for the league, its three media partners and the universities. Each school has on-campus concerns the conference must consider before moving a home game off of Saturday. A sampling:

• Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Iowa have allowances to avoid Friday home football games. Iowa’s massive hospital complex is located across the street from Kinnick Stadium, which prevents it from hosting a Friday game except on Labor Day weekend or Black Friday. With stadiums seating more than 100,000 fans, stresses on community services have kept Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State off the Friday grid. Michigan also will not play Friday games on the road.
• Schools must grant approval if the league wants to schedule either a second home or second away game on a Friday, for health and recovery reasons as well as competitive balance.
• The league wants to avoid situations of lopsided schedule difficulty like what happened last fall to Michigan State, which hosted Ohio State on a Saturday, then traveled to Oregon the next Friday.
• Homecoming remains a major event for the longtime Big Ten campuses, which often locks in those kickoffs to Saturday afternoon.

Then there’s the league’s trio of media partners: Fox, CBS and NBC. Outside of Thanksgiving weekend, the Big Ten’s Friday kickoffs appear on the Fox family of networks (Fox, FS1, BTN). But the league doesn’t want to move an upper-level game that NBC or CBS might want to draft for its showcase Saturday broadcast.

“In our mind, we’re looking for maybe the fourth-, fifth- or sixth-best game of the week to try and make sure that at least on paper, going into a season, the top three games are going to be available for selection by those three broadcast partners,” Big Ten chief operating officer Kerry Kenny told The Athletic last year.

With those variables in mind, filling out a Friday night schedule is akin to completing a football sudoku puzzle. In attempting one myself, nearly a dozen versions went into the fireplace. I’d reach the season’s final week, and somehow a team ended up with a second home Friday game or a significant competitive disadvantage. Eventually, one made it through with the principles intact.

The Big Ten’s final version — last year’s Friday schedule was set in May at the league’s spring meetings — might not look anything like this, but here’s an attempt to project which Big Ten games could shift to Friday (and other days) and why, starting on Labor Day weekend.

Oct. 10: Ohio State at Illinois​

This choice might invite double-takes. Both teams enter the season CFP contenders, which typically would vault this into Fox’s noon window. So why is it here? This week’s slate has two West Coast games Fox cannot air in that time slot: Michigan at USC and Indiana at Oregon. Iowa at Wisconsin would fit in perfectly on Friday night, but it’s one of three homecoming games throughout the Big Ten. So, Fox could maximize its choices by drafting the 104th edition of Ohio State-Illinois into Friday prime time and then air the 99th installment of the Iowa-Wisconsin rivalry on Big Noon. Ohio State-Illinois would have the potential to set a Friday ratings record for Fox; last year’s high was 4.21 million viewers for Illinois-Nebraska.

 

[Zurp]

Over the weekend, Scott Dochterman of The Athletic predicted the Big Ten’s 2025 College Football Friday Night schedule. One Ohio State game appeared on the list: At Illinois on Oct. 10.

Predicting the Big Ten’s 2025 Friday football schedule: Which games will move off Saturdays?

The Big Ten wants to put a game on every Friday of football season. Here’s an attempt to project which 2025 games could make the move.

www.nytimes.com

​

Michigan also will not play Friday games on the road.

I know this is the Ohio State - Illinois thread, but what the fuck makes those cheaters so special about playing road games on Friday night? I'm not crazy about college games being playing on Friday nights - that's for high school football. And I'm really not a high school football fan. I get the idea of expanding your market to other days of the week. Not that I want to watch my team play on Thursday nights, but it makes good business sense to put some marquee games Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. But that's a topic for another thread, I think. (Feel free to move.)

Anyway, I stated my opinion of Friday night games. But I say schedule those cheaters on Friday night. And when they don't show up, give them their loss. Cry about it.

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

I know this is the Ohio State - Illinois thread, but what the fuck makes those cheaters so special about playing road games on Friday night? I'm not crazy about college games being playing on Friday nights - that's for high school football. And I'm really not a high school football fan. I get the idea of expanding your market to other days of the week. Not that I want to watch my team play on Thursday nights, but it makes good business sense to put some marquee games Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. But that's a topic for another thread, I think. (Feel free to move.)

Anyway, I stated my opinion of Friday night games. But I say schedule those cheaters on Friday night. And when they don't show up, give them their loss. Cry about it.

Came to post the same question. What the fuck?

 

[ScriptOhio]

Just sayin': This could be the "trap game" in 2025.

Cocky or confident? Why Bret Bielema should be bullish about Illinois' College Football Playoff chances

History says Illinois is due to regress in 2025, but that's not the vibe around the program

www.cbssports.com

Cocky or confident? Why Bret Bielema should be bullish about Illinois' College Football Playoff chances​

History says Illinois is due to regress in 2025, but that's not the vibe around the program​

First of all, the core of the team that won 10 games in 2024 is returning. ESPN's Bill Connelly released his returning production rankings for all 134 FBS teams, and Illinois ranks third nationally behind two playoff teams in Clemson and Arizona State. While it won't be easy to replace the production of top receiver Pat Bryant (54 receptions, 984 yards, 10 TD), it's easier to do it when you have your quarterback and entire offensive line returning.

Then there's recruiting. Those fences Bielema had to mend with Illinois high school coaches? Consider them mended. As I write this, Illinois' 2026 recruiting class is ranked seventh nationally, per 247Sports. That's right, seventh. Ahead of programs like Notre Dame, LSU, Georgia, Alabama, and conference foes Ohio State and Michigan. It isn't likely to stay in the top 10, but there's enough optimism around the program on the recruiting front to believe this could still be a top-25 class by the time the early signing period arrives in December.

While that's not enough to launch the program into national title contender status, it's important to note Illinois hasn't had a high school recruiting class finish ranked in the top 25 since 2008 (No. 22). Illinois has had more classes finish outside the top 50 than inside the top 40 since. (The 2025 class was ranked No. 45.) The combination of success on the field and in the NFL Draft, coupled with rekindled relationships with local coaches, is paying major dividends for Bielema and his

Then there's Illinois' 2025 schedule. In 2024, Indiana was a good football team. It was also a good football team that benefitted from a friendly schedule. While Illinois' 2025 slate isn't quite on the same level, it shapes up to be one of the easier schedules any team in the Big Ten will face.

While the nonconference slate has a road trip to Duke, in Big Ten play, the Illini will face only two teams who finished last season with winning records in the Big Ten: at Indiana and home against Ohio State. The rest of the schedule includes home games against USC, Rutgers, Maryland and Northwestern. The road trips are to Purdue, Washington and Wisconsin.

It's hard to blame Bielema for feeling confident as he prepares for his fifth season at Illinois. You would be, too.

Illibuck - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Illibuck​

Illibuck is a trophy awarded to the winner of the college football rivalry between the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Ohio State Buckeyes football teams.

 

[ScriptOhio]

Burning Questions: Is there a dark-horse Big Ten challenger to Ohio State this season?​

Michigan, Oregon and Penn State are, undoubtedly, the biggest challengers to Ohio State this season in the Big Ten. But is there another team in the Big Ten we’re not talking about that could be a threat to the Buckeyes in the Big Ten?

Could that team be the Illinois Fighting Illini?

For starters — literally — there are 16 of them returning from last year’s team. That 2024 Illinois squad went 10-3 and beat South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl. They reached as high as No. 19 in the AP Poll in September, and they were No. 21 in the final CFP rankings of the season.

Senior quarterback Luke Altmeyer is coming off a really good season, throwing for 22 touchdowns to just six interceptions. He’ll be protected up front by all five returning starters along the offensive line, and Altmeyer will also have running back Aidan Laughery and tight end Tanner Arkin coming back.

On defense, the Fighting Illini will return seven starters from last season. Illinois was 31st in the country allowing just 21.7 points per game, which was good for ninth in the Big Ten.

This is an Illinois team that is hoping to establish some consistency in 2025 — something that its program hasn’t had since the 1980s. Fifth-year head coach Brett Bielema may be establishing just that, with Illinois coming off its first 10-win campaign since 2001.

Ohio State is Illinois’s seventh game this season. Prior to that, the Fighting Illini play at Duke and Indiana, and host USC. Those are their most notable games, which won’t be easy. But if Illinois wins two of those three games and is 5-1 going into the game on Oct. 11, that is going to be a raucous crowd at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois when the Buckeyes roll in.

For Ohio State, that matchup is after the Homecoming game in Columbus against Minnesota, and before the road trip to Wisconsin. That’s not going to be an easy three-game stretch for the Buckeyes, and an Illinois team that’s going to be playing for a lot this season could be a much tougher fight than some fans may think.

The Buckeyes open the season against Texas and play both Penn State and Michigan in November. Those are three huge games. But Illinois is also a really big game, especially if the Fighting Illini live up to expectations. Similar to what the game against Indiana became in 2024, that’s what the game against Illinois can become in 2025, with this one being on the road.

Illinois is a dark-horse team in the Big Ten. Given that the Illini avoid all three of Penn State, Oregon and Michigan this season, that game on Oct. 11 could prove meaningful towards the final conference standings.

 

[Thump]

Illinois is going to be a tough out.

 

[ScriptOhio]

This year, Ohio State-Illinois and Purdue-Indiana celebrate the centennials of their traveling trophies. In 1925, the Buckeyes and Fighting Illini chose a live turtle to signify their long-lasting spirit of competition. The turtle died in 1927 and was replaced by the wooden Illibuck.

Illibuck - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Illibuck is a trophy awarded to the winner of the college football rivalry between the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Ohio State Buckeyes football teams.

The Illibuck is a carved wooden turtle that serves as the trophy awarded to the winner of the game. Two junior honorary societies, Bucket and Dipper of Ohio State and Atius-Sachem of Illinois, are responsible for the care of the Illibuck. Originally the "trophy" was a live turtle when the tradition began in 1925, picked for its expected long life as a symbol of the anticipated long life of the rivalry. From 1919 to 1933, the Illinois–Ohio State game was the regular-season finale for both teams. Since the original turtle's death on April 14, 1926, ten wooden replica Illibucks have been carved, each with the scores from games on its back. The Illibuck is the second oldest trophy passed between Big Ten Conference football programs (the Little Brown Jug was created in 1903).

Just sayin': This year is the 100th year anniversary of the "Illibuck rivalry"......