CHAMPAIGN — Illinois football has checked off multiple “first time since …” accomplishments this season.
Like the first time ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 since the 2011 season. Or the first road win in Madison, Wis., since 2002. Or the first time beating Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota in the same season since 1983.
Tuesday meant checking a box for a “first time ever” feat with Illinois (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) ranked No. 16 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings. Three CFP regulars were in the top four in Ohio State, Georgia and Clemson, and Tennessee claimed the top spot in the first iteration of the rankings.
The evaluation from the CFP selection committee was straightforward for Illinois. The Illini’s top-ranked scoring defense topped their résumé. So did how they competed through the first eight games of the season with three wins against teams with winning records.
But there was also a clear answer on why Illinois checked in at No. 16 in the initial ranking despite being seen in some college football circles as one of 13 teams still with a path to the playoff. A path — that would necessitate winning out and beating both Michigan and likely Ohio State — that would answer the lingering question the committee has with Bret Bielema’s team.
“We didn’t know if there was necessarily a signature win associated with them,” said CFP selection committee chair and North Carolina State athletic director Boo Corrigan. “But a really good football team, a really tough football team.”
Illinois checking in at No. 16 in the first ranking doesn’t mean there’s not opportunity to move up (keep winning) or move down (losing Saturday to Michigan State would probably do it). It’s a week-by-week evaluation from the committee that includes former Illinois cornerback and now Colorado athletic director Rick George, the athletic director of a team the Illini beat this season in Wyoming’s Tom Burman and a Big Ten representative in Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel.
“I think the most important thing is, as we look at this, we go into every week with a clean sheet,” Corrigan said. “This is where we are after Week 9, and we’ll come back next Monday and be able to go through the process again and scrub and rescrub and debate and go through everything again. But our job is not to project forward on any of the teams with regards to players that may be out or those types of things. It’s just to deal with the information we have to date on where we are. Again, a lot of really good teams and a lot of active conversation and debate.”
It’s a conversation happening on a national stage that’s including Illinois for the first time in more than a decade. Certainly since any of the current players made their way to Champaign. Sixth-year players like Alex Palczewski, Alex Pihlstrom, Michael Marchese and Kendall Smith were all on the team for the disastrous 2-10 season in 2017. The results weren’t much better as their careers progressed, including another two-win campaign in the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
“It feels amazing just knowing we came a long way,” fourth-year Illinois wide receiver Isaiah Williams said. “Our loyalty to the program and sticking it out and grinding with my brothers is starting to pay off.”
That national conversation about Illinois isn’t restricted to the AP Top 25 and CFP rankings. Tommy DeVito made the first cut Tuesday for the Davey O’Brien Award, which is presented annually to the country’s top quarterback. Three of his teammates were also named semifinalists for other national awards Tuesday.
Running back Chase Brown, who has Heisman Trophy hopes, was named a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award, and both Johnny Newton and Devon Witherspoon were semifinalists for the Bednarik Award. The former is presented to the best player in college football. The latter is presented to the top defensive player in the country, and only Illinois and Alabama had a pair of semifinalists.
“What the heck is going on in Champaign, Illinois, with Bret Bielema?” ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit exclaimed during Tuesday’s CFP rankings show. “They have a real shot to get to Indianapolis (for the Big Ten championship). I think it’s great to celebrate their season.”
Scott Richey is a reporter covering college basketball at The News-Gazette. His email is srichey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).
