Illinois Basketball Is About to Kick Illini Football to the Curb

Illinois basketball is back, baby! Imagine that in your best Dick Vitale voice, or just keep your ears open around Champaign and you're likely to hear some version of it spoken aloud. Illini Nation has hoops fever again, and unfortunately for the Illinois football program, it's time to again take the back seat it has been relegated to for decades now.

The Illini hoopers' 81-77 victory over No. 11 Texas Tech on Tuesday drew more than 15,000 to the State Farm Center –15,544, to be exact – and after they have started the season 3-0, one thing is certain: Illinois basketball is legit.

The best part about it: it’s only the beginning. pic.twitter.com/REBW7thE88
— Illinois Men's Basketball (@IlliniMBB) November 13, 2025

How good is Illinois basketball?

Is Illinois a lock for the Final Four? It's a little early to make such proclamations. But the 2025-26 Illini are hands-down the most talented squad to come through Champaign since the 2005 squad that reached the national championship game.

Early or not, these Illini sure seem to have all the right ingredients for title contention: size, shooting, defense and a mixture of precocious talent and experience. Most experts tentatively pegged Illinois as a top-25 team in the preseason, which in retrospect doesn't do Brad Underwood's outfit justice. Even the Illini's current No. 14 ranking is suddenly looking too low.

And if the Illini find a way to get the best of No. 8 Alabama at the United Center next week? They will likely be undefeated, with two excellent Quad 1 wins already under their belts, and on the doorstep of a top-five national ranking.

So, yeah, they're good. Like, national contenders good.

So what does that mean for Illinois football?

Unfortunately, you won't hear as much chatter about the Illinois football team around campus.

Without a doubt, Bret Bielema has done wonders in his five years at Illinois. In 2024, he led the Illini to 10 wins for only the fifth time in the program's 134 seasons, and this year he could be at the helm for Illinois' first-ever back-to-back nine-win seasons. He has turned around the culture, recruiting, attendance and just about every other measurable and intangible imaginable.

We can't wait to see the Familly again! See you Saturday. pic.twitter.com/yAAsntpoLY
— Illinois Football (@IlliniFootball) November 12, 2025

But unlike Underwood's guys, Bielema's Illini are far from any national title discussions.

Moreover, for decades, Illinois has predominantly been known as a basketball school – and with good reason. In the 80s and 90s, Lou Henson made 20 wins and an NCAA Tournament bid the norm, and he forever stamped the program in college basketball lore with his Flyin' Illini. Bill Self took Illinois to an Elite Eight while blowing through town, and Bruce Weber put the Illini in the national title game. The program fell into disrepair for a period – but not so long that Underwood wasn't able to rebuild it within a few years. It's now more vibrant than ever.

It's difficult for a football program to stay relevant come November under those circumstances. And it becomes almost impossible when that program seems to toy with the emotions of the local fan base. Within two years of Illinois football's previous 10-win season, under Ron Turner in 2001, the Illini went 1-11 under Turner. Two years after John Mackovic won 10 games and took Illinois to the Citrus Bowl in 1989, he went 6-6. Over the next seven years, the program went 28-49-2. The closest thing Illini has had to a consistent winner was Ray Elliot back in the 20s. Really.

Bielema's crew still has a chance to win 10 games for the second straight year – a massive accomplishment in this environment – finish in the top 25 and win another bowl game. But even with a 6-3 record and a spongy schedule down the stretch, Illini football is on the outside of the CFP looking in. The 2025 season went from promising to anticlimactic, and many have already moved on. With every win, Illinois basketball takes over a greater portion of the spotlight in Champaign.

Very few universities can be both a basketball and a football school. The circumstances have to be just right (remember: It's cold in Central Illinois in November!), and the winning has to persist on both the field and floor. Maybe one day Bielema and his group will take their place on the pedestal next to Underwood and his guys. But that day hasn't yet arrived.

All love from the field to the floor. Good luck tonight, @illinimbb pic.twitter.com/wwe38px5ZL
— Illinois Football (@IlliniFootball) November 12, 2025