Big Ten Roundup (Sept. 15): Wisconsin WR Enters Transfer Portal, Illinois Makes Schedule Change

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Just two weeks into the 2023 college football season, coach Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin Badgers have lost a player on their depth chart to the transfer portal.

Wide receiver Keontez Lewis announced his decision to leave Wisconsin on Thursday in a social media post. Lewis started his collegiate football career at UCLA in 2021, then transferred to Wisconsin in 2022, and will now seek out his third school in four years.

In basketball news, coach Brad Underwood and the Illinois Fighting Illini have made a small change to their non-conference schedule for the 2023-24 season.

Here's everything you need to know in today's Big Ten Roundup:

Keontez Lewis Enters Transfer Portal

It's extremely rare to see a player enter the transfer portal midway through the regular season. It's even more rare when that same player was a starter for the team in the season prior.

But that's exactly what's happening in Madison with the wide receiver Lewis.

During the 2022 seasons, Lewis played in all 13 games for the Badgers, and recorded 20 receptions for 313 yards and three touchdowns.

However, the Wisconsin roster underwent major changes in the offseason after Fickell was hired. In came pass-happy offensive coordinator Phil Longo, former SMU quarterback Tanner Mordecai and a whole host of transfer wide receivers.

Through the first two games of the 2023 season, Lewis had just one catch for 12 yards. After finishing third on the team in total receptions behind just Chimere Dike and Skyler Bell a year ago, Lewis had slid to the absolute bottom in the pass-catching work load. Transfer wideouts Will Pauling, Bryson Green and C.J. Williams had each surpassed him on the depth chart and had more receptions following Wisconsin's loss to Washington State.

Lewis will now look to transfer for the second time in his career, and has two years of eligibility remaining, as his post indicates.

Illinois Non-Conference Schedule Change

Anyone who had big plans to go watch Illinois basketball in November might want to adjust their schedule, because Illinois sure did.

On Wednesday, the team announced that its non-conference matchup against Colgate would now be taking place on Dec. 17, at home in the State Farm Center. The game was originally going to be played on Nov. 27.

Date change! 📅

Our non-conference matchup vs. Colgate will now be played on Sunday, December 17, at State Farm Center.#Illini | #HTTO | #EveryDayGuys pic.twitter.com/C0nsE1HWjp
— Illinois Men's Basketball (@IlliniMBB) September 13, 2023

Though the change in plans with a mid-major team outside of the conference may seem irrelevant at first glance, Colgate is no push over. Under coach Matt Langel, the Raiders have reached the NCAA Tournament in four out of the last five seasons, and have posted a winning percentage through the roof in the Patriot League.

Illinois pushing the Colgate matchup back to mid-December puts it in the heat of a challenging non-conference slate for that month. Underwood and the Illini take on a reigning Final Four participant in Florida Atlantic on Dec. 5, then face off against Tennessee before meeting Colgate in Champaign. After that, the month's slate concludes with another Power 5 opponent in Missouri, and wraps up with another March Madness cinderella squad in Fairleigh Dickinson.

If Underwood wanted his team to get properly tested before the gauntlet that is Big Ten basketball, then he most certainly got his wish.

Keontez Lewis Enters Transfer Portal

Illinois Non-Conference Schedule Change

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