Sam Panayotovich
FOX Sports Betting Analyst
Is Illinois Fighting Illini football back?
As someone who did time in Champaign as an undergrad during the Ron Zook years, and spent his fair share of hours watching awful Illini football games at Memorial Stadium, I can’t believe I even typed that question out.
Yet here we are, six weeks before the 2025 college football season and Bret Bielema’s Illini are one of the most popular offseason darlings.
In fact, my FOX Sports teammate Joel Klatt recently ranked Illinois as the No. 1 most likely team to make the College Football Playoff for the first time.
“Bielema has built this team into what he wants,” Klatt said on “The Joel Klatt Show.”
“Physical and tough. They [beat South Carolina] in the bowl game. Sixteen starters are back. [Quarterback] Luke Altmeyer is back for his third season and the entire offensive line is back in front of him.
“Here’s the schedule,” Klatt continued. “They don’t have to play Penn State, Oregon or Michigan and they get Ohio State at home. They’ve got a Missouri-esque Big Ten schedule and I think they’ve hit the lottery.
“This year’s Indiana is Illinois.”
Cue a bartender at KAMS pouring a round of blue guys.
The two big question marks I have around the roster are at wide receiver and defensive line. It won’t be easy to replace NFL receivers Pat Bryant and Zakhari Franklin, and there are three newcomers on defense in the trenches.
It’ll also take 10 wins to make the CFP, so the Illini must be even better than last year. If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that it’s much easier for a non-blue blood to come out of nowhere than it is to sustain success.
Illinois’ last 10-win regular season came back in 2001, with quarterback Kurt Kittner, star wideout Brandon Lloyd, defensive backs Eugene Wilson and Christian Morton, and with head coach Ron Turner at the helm.
The 2002 team finished 5-7.
This year’s Illini have a regular-season win total of 8.5 (u-155) at BetMGM, and they’re as high as +575 to be a playoff team across the market.
One Las Vegas bookmaker sees the upside Klatt sees.
“The program is much improved,” Wynn Resorts trading manager Motoi Pearson told me. “I don’t know if they’re going to make the Playoff, but after what Indiana did last year, I’m basically a believer in any team ever.”
“I have Illinois 16 teams higher than Indiana,” Pearson admitted.
What’s that spread on a neutral field?
“Illinois -4.”
Bret Bielema and his Fighting Illini will aim to make the CFP for the first time this upcoming season.
Elsewhere, I can’t stop salivating at the thought of getting points with Miami in the Hurricanes’ home opener against Notre Dame on Sunday, Aug. 31.
The Irish are fresh off a run to the national championship game and morale is high. So is the appetite to bet Marcus Freeman’s squad, as ND is currently -3.
Hurricanes quarterback Carson Beck is a polarizing player, but FanDuel has a stale 37-1 price on him to win the Heisman Trophy. Let’s not forget Beck was a co-favorite last August while at Georgia and you can argue Miami’s offensive style is more conducive to big quarterback stats and success than most.
Just ask Cam Ward, the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
I rarely bet Heisman preseason favorites and have little interest in Texas quarterback Arch Manning around 6-to-1. If anything, maybe he’ll struggle at Ohio State or Florida, and we can jump in at double digits.
Only six more weeks ’til our Saturdays are back.
Sam Panayotovich is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and the BetMGM Network. He previously worked for WGN Radio, NBC Sports and VSiN. Follow him on Twitter @spshoot.
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