Illinois Basketball Dissed and Dismissed by Oddsmakers for 2025-26

Are the Illini really going to be a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team next season?

Illinois guard Kylan Boswell (4) hits a three-point basket over Kentucky guard Collin Chandler (5) during the second half of their second round NCAA men’ s basketball tournament game Sunday, March 23, 2025 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Kentucky beat Illinois 84-75. | Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It's a rite of Championship Monday in college basketball: Betting sites set the first lines for next season's national champion.

Yes, we're talking a full year ahead – as in 2026 – in the transfer-portal era. Hey, who needs to know more than a handful of players on every 2025-26 roster to nail this stuff down, right?

Illinois fans may be all revved up about glue guardf Kylan Boswell sticking around and the 7-foot-plus Ivisic twins joinging forces in orange and blue, but odds of the Illini winning the title reflect no such positive momentum in the program.

Wtw ILL🧡 pic.twitter.com/jJpf6Ro5Nf

— Zvonimir Ivisic (@zvonimir_ivisic) April 5, 2025

An email from BetOnline showed up in our inbox Monday listing odds for 103 teams, with the Illini an unimpressive 31st among them at 75/1. The odds ranged from 10/1 (Duke) to 500/1 (a bunch of tomato cans with no shot).

A whopping eight Big Ten teams came before the Illini: Purdue (14/1), Michigan (25/1), Michigan State (33/1), UCLA (33/1), Indiana (50/1), Iowa (66/1), Oregon (66/1) and Wisconsin (66/1). Eight! Even with the conference preposterously numbering 18, that's disrespectful.

Or maybe it's perfectly reasonable. A bunch of players have flown the coop, after all. Unless we missed something, there's no news of Kasparas Jakucionis and Will Riley coming back and bringing Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper with them.

A season in which the Illini finished smack in the middle of the Big Ten pack and fell outside the Top 25 wouldn't be any fun at all, now would it?

But guess what? It's merely April. Of 2025, no less. These odds are nonsense. On that, you can bet.

More From Illinois on Sports Illustrated:

Social Media Buzzes as Zvonimir Ivisic Joins Brother Tomislav at Illinois

Illinois Basketball Swingman Tre White Makes His Transfer Decision

Former Illini Commit AJ Storr Hits Transfer Portal – Could a 'Reunion' Be Next?