Illinois Football Schedule Breakdown: Sure Wins, Potential Losses, Big Ten Teams Missed

Pete Fiutak

•
Illinois Football Schedule Breakdown: Sure Wins, Potential Losses, Big Ten Teams Missed image

Oct 1, 2022; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini helmet during warmups prior to the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium.

In the new 18-team Big Ten, it’s all about the schedules, who everyone misses and where, and when the nasty games are. You know who the biggest teams are - some get a much bigger break than others.

No game is a 100% lock in the Big Ten, and there are always surprises, but for the most part, what are the relatively certain wins on the 2024 Illinois football schedule? What are the likely underdog games - the true 50/50 games are left alone - and which Big Ten teams does Illinois miss?

Illinois Football Schedule: Relatively certain Fighting Illini wins

Central Michigan, Eastern Illinois

Illinois Football Schedule: Relatively certain Fighting Illini underdog games

Michigan, at Nebraska, at Oregon, at Penn State

Illinois Football Schedule: Who do the Fighting Illini miss in the Big Ten?

Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Ohio State, UCLA, USC, Washington, Wisconsin

2024 Illinois Football Schedule

Aug 24 Eastern Illinois
Aug 31 OPEN DATE
Sept 7 Kansas
Sept 14 Central Michigan
Sept 21 at Nebraska
Sept 28 at Penn State
Oct 5 OPEN DATE
Oct 12 Purdue
Oct 19 Michigan
Oct 26 at Oregon
Nov 2 Minnesota
Nov 9 OPEN DATE
Nov 16 Michigan State
Nov 23 at Rutgers
Nov 30 at Northwestern

Pete Fiutak

Pete Fiutak Photo

Publisher of CollegeFootballNews.com starting in 1998, Pete Fiutak was a college football part of the very start of Rivals, Scout, the FOXSports.com relaunch, Stadium/Campus Insiders, and the USA TODAY College Wire sites. 

He was the first ever on-air guest on CBS Sports Network, was a talking head for five years at Stadium, and did in-stadium TV work at the first five College Football Playoff National Championships. But all anyone really seems to care about is that he did all the player ratings for various college football and basketball video games for four years in the 2000s.