Why Notre Dame's Scheduling Announcement With Illinois Has Me Thrilled

An addition to Notre Dame's 2027 and 2028 football schedules was announced Tuesday, as the Fighting Irish will host Illinois on Labor Day weekend next year, and travel to Champaign the same weekend in 2028.

The meetings will be the first between the Fighting Irish and Fighting Illini since 1968. Notre Dame is unbeaten all-time against Illinois, going 11-0-1 between 1898 and 1968.

This was the trickle down effect of Purdue wanting out of the Notre Dame series for now. The Boilermakers announced a home-and-home with West Virginia earlier on Tuesday, and shortly after, Notre Dame and Illinois announced their agreement.

Notre Dame's Updated 2027 Football Schedule

Aug. 28: vs. Kent State
Sept. 4: vs. Illinois
Sept. 18: at Michigan State
Sept. 25: vs. Auburn
Oct. 9: vs. Wake Forest (Charlotte, NC)
Oct. 30: at Clemson
Nov. 6: vs. Virginia Tech
Nov. 20: vs. Navy
Nov. 27: at Stanford
Dates TBD: vs. BYU, at Duke, at Virginia

All 12 games are spoken for with dates to be hammered out for a home showdown with BYU and two road trips to Duke and Virginia.

Why I Love the Illinois Series Announcement

I get why a Notre Dame fan from New York, Boston, or somewhere out west wouldn't be very excited about a home-and-home with Illinois being announced.

No, Illinois doesn't carry anywhere near the same weight as a lot of powerhouse programs, but it is one that has been on the rise under Bret Bielema, winning at least nine games each of the last two seasons, something that hadn't previously been done in program history.

Updating our schedule 📆

🔗: https://t.co/Fu4wc3Sc7E #GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/wMdDIKOCUo
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) November 3, 2026

Don't get me wrong, I don't love the Illinois announcement becuase the Fighting Illini are a football blueblood.

Yes, they've produced some all-time greats in the form of Red Grange, Dick Butkus, and Brandon Lloyd (I said it), but this is a matchup that hits extremely close to home for me as well as a certain demographic of Notre Dame fans.

Growing Up South of Chicago

I grew up roughly an hour south of Chicago, in a town named Coal City. It's too far south to be considered Chaicgo's South Side, but still a little far north to be considered Southern Illinois (if you know, you know...)

It's not known for much, besides a couple tornadoes hitting it a little over a decade ago, a powerhouse high school wrestling program (the football and baseball are always very good, too), and formerly the Boodler's Burger, but that legendary place has been closed for 30 or so years now.

Growing up in Coal City, though, I was a minority.

Well, at least in terms of who I rooted for in college football.

If I had to give a conservative estimate, I'd say roughly 80-85% of college football fans I grew up around were Fighting Illini backers. Just like Notre Dame's Subway alums that didn't attend the school, plenty of these fine folks backed the Illini because it was the local team or they happened to have a loved one that attended.

I was in the maybe 10% that pulled for Notre Dame, while the rest were fans of some random team (usually Michigan or whichever Florida school was most successful at the time).

Notre Dame and Illinois never played while I was growing up, but I'd hear about it whenever the Irish would lose a football game - and it happened a lot from 1997 through 2011.

The only chance to have a rivalry of sorts was when the two met in the NCAA Tournament in March of 2003, and I won a ton of lunch money bets thanks to Dan Miller lighting up the Illini.

That's why I'm stoked for the two to meet.

Yes, there are a lot more Notre Dame fans that deal with Purdue fans on a daily basis than Illinois fans. With Purdue backing out of the series though, the home-and-home with Illinois will provide that same opportunity for Notre Dame fans that live on the other side of the Illinois-Indiana border.

So to Mrs. Bailey, Mr. Vigna, Mr. Hamann, Mr. Spencer, and Coach Hutchings, and countless others: rent is finally coming due, and I haven't forgotten the posters and signs that were left on my locker or desk multiple decades ago.

Plenty of Illinois fans are just as stoked, and seriously, props to Illinois for running to a matchup with Notre Dame, unlike Indiana, who ran away from theirs.

Now, how do I get my hands on 100 or so tickets for Sept. 4 of next year?

Oh, and speaking of, anyone have an extra pair for this weekend?

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