Connect with us

Football

News: Illinois Football Jumps to No. 11 in Recent AP Rankings

Illinois Football Moves Up a Spot in Recent AP Rankings, Following a Dominant Week One Victory over Western Illinois

Published

3 months ago

on

Credit: Robert Burjek (@rjburjek) of Armchair Illini

Breaking News: Illinois Football has achieved its highest ranking in over 2 decades (2001)…. After cruising to a comfortable 52-3 win over Western Illinois in their 2025 season opener, the Fighting Illini have risen one spot to No. 11 in this week’s updated AP Top-25 rankings.

In fact, this marks the 19th week that the Fighting Illini cracked the AP poll under Bret Bielema—a testament to the veteran head coach and the impact he’s made on an Illinois Football program that once struggled mightily for any form of consistency and success. Entering his fifth season in Champaign, Bielema has clearly steered Illinois football toward sustained growth and steady progress.

Can the Fighting Illini continue to climb? A big early win on the road at Duke in Week 2 would provide a major boost and help maintain this current momentum.

In addition to Illinois, the Big Ten was well represented in this week’s update, with six teams making the cut—highlighting the conference’s strength as the 2025 season gets underway.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for reading Armchair Illini! The Armchair team is proud to partner with Hamilton Walker’s Seafood and Spirits. Reserve your table HERE, and enter our home game giveaways on our social media pages to win a $100 gift card.

We are also proud to partner with the Campus Ink Illini NIL Store! Use the code: ARMCHAIRILLINI for 15% off your purchase. Please subscribe to the Armchair Illini Podcast on YouTube here

Above all, for feedback, questions, concerns, or to apply for a writing position, please email our Publisher at alexkyi13@gmail.com. Additionally, please use our Seatgeek code for $20 off your purchase on Seatgeek.com: ARMCHAIRILLINOIS. It is because of your support that we have become one of the fastest-growing Illinois media outlets around.

Finally, subscribe to our newsletter here for more Illinois football news! Go Illini

Related Topics:

Kirkland is an expert source for Illinois athletics news. He is the lead Football analyst at Armchair Illini and has been featured in top media publications like Bleacher Report, Yard Barker, Autograph, Newsbreak, CBS Sports and more.

Trending