Illinois preseason media rankings, Illini players to watch

Schedule video for the 2025 Illinois Fighting Illini football team

Here is who Illinois will play in the 2025 college football season, from its opener vs. Western Illinois to the season finale with Northwestern.

Illinois football was picked to finish fifth in the Big Ten, and two Fighting Illini earned preseason recognition, in a poll of USA TODAY Sports Network writers who cover the conference.

Two Illinois defensive players — Gabe Jacas and Xavier Scott — earned spots on the preseason USA TODAY Sports Network 2025 All-Big Ten team. Jacas was a defensive line pick and Scott was selected in the secondary.

Penn State was the preseason pick to win the Big Ten, followed by Ohio State, Oregon and Michigan to round out the top four teams. Illinois was right behind, in fifth.

The Illini are scheduled to play only one Big Ten team picked above them this season, Ohio State (home). They do play three of the four teams picked right after them in the preseason ranks: No. 6 Indiana (road), No. 7 USC (home) and No. 8 Washington (road).

USA TODAY Sports Network preseason Big Ten champion, order of finish

Teams were ranked first through 18th with a total points system used to rank teams: a first-place prediction equaled one point and last was 18. The team with the fewest points was ranked first.

1. Penn State, 162. Ohio State, 203. Oregon, 264. Michigan, 455. Illinois, 556. Indiana, 637. USC, 72(tie) 8. Nebraska, 85(tie) 8. Washington, 8510. Iowa, 8611. Minnesota, 11212. Wisconsin, 11713. Rutgers, 13814. UCLA, 13915. Michigan State, 14116. Maryland, 15517. Northwestern, 16518. Purdue, 180Champion: Penn State (5 votes)

USA TODAY Sports Network 2025 preseason All-Big Ten offense

Italicized denotes unanimous selection

Quarterback: Drew Allar, Penn StateRunning back (2): Jonah Coleman, Washington; Nicholas Singleton, Penn StateWide…


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Publish date : 2025-07-21 13:27:00

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