Michael Cohen
Faculty Soccer and Faculty Basketball Author
Earlier than Illinois and Indiana take the sector on Saturday evening for probably the most anticipated Large Ten matchup of this younger season — a sport that carries Faculty Soccer Playoff implications — it’s value revisiting a cold fall morning greater than a decade in the past that was bathed in far much less pomp and circumstance, devoid of any hyperlink to nationwide relevance or reputation.
On Oct. 27, 2012, the Hoosiers limped throughout their western border and into Illinois having misplaced 5 consecutive video games. Three of these defeats got here in opposition to Ball State, Northwestern and Navy, and even the season-opening win over FCS-level Indiana State had been a battle, with Indiana in the end prevailing by a landing. For second-year head coach Kevin Wilson, who later served because the offensive coordinator at Ohio State and the top coach at Tulsa, the marketing campaign would end with a desultory 4-8 report and a 2-6 mark within the convention.
Issues have been arguably even worse at Illinois beneath first-year head coach Tim Beckman, who took over after three spectacular seasons at Toledo. The Illini have been handed a humiliating 28-point dwelling defeat to Louisiana Tech the month prior and dropped their subsequent three Large Ten video games in opposition to Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan by 90 mixed factors. They’d go on to lose to Indiana, 31-17, and fail to beat a single league opponent all season, with seven of their eight convention losses reflecting double-digit margins on the scoreboard.
My, how issues have modified.
Indiana has outscored its opponents 156-23 via the primary three weeks of the faculty soccer season. (Photograph by Michael Hickey/Getty Photographs)
When the ball is kicked this weekend at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana, the place the Hoosiers have gained their final 11 video games, the groups concerned needs to be seen as nearing the cusp of faculty soccer’s higher echelon because of an expanded playoff for which they’re unquestionably within the combine.
Indiana, now in its second season beneath transformative head coach Curt Cignetti, previously of James Madison, is contemporary off its largest shutout victory (73-0 over Indiana State) since 1901 and has the second-best level differential within the nation at plus-133. Illinois, now thriving beneath charismatic program builder Bret Bielema, remains to be bathed within the afterglow of its first 10-win season since 2001, which, till now, was additionally the final time the Illini spent back-to-back weeks ranked within the prime 10 of the AP Ballot.
These in attendance for Saturday’s sold-out conflict between No. 9 Illinois and No. 19 Indiana will likely be handled to the primary ranked matchup between the 2 colleges in 75 years.
“I used to be shocked at that,” Bielema mentioned.
Illinois head coach Bret Bielema has the Preventing Illini off to a 3-0 begin. (Photograph by Alex Halloway/Getty Photographs)
Followers may additionally be shocked to study simply how influential this sport actually is in terms of the general CFP panorama, although the season is however a couple of weeks previous. It’s rising more and more clear that the 2025 Large Ten hierarchy consists of an aristocratic triumvirate on the prime in No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Penn State and No. 6 Oregon — every of whom is feeling increasingly like a shoo-in for the 12-team discipline given the early wobbles for Clemson, Notre Dame and Florida — adopted by an increasing pack of challengers behind them.
The Large Ten’s secondary group, spearheaded by Illinois and Indiana, which is in search of its second straight playoff look, consists of the likes of No. 21 Michigan, No. 25 USC, Nebraska and even Washington, with all however the Wolverines sustaining unblemished information getting into Week 4.
And whereas it’s definitely doable for a single league to ship 5 groups to the playoff in a given 12 months, which is one thing the SEC loudly campaigned for throughout a lot of final season, making an attempt desperately to prop up the résumés of three-loss packages Alabama, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Missouri on the expense of Indiana and SMU, the most secure prognostication for the Large Ten in 2025 nonetheless consists of 4 complete bids — an computerized berth bestowed upon the league’s champion, plus three at-large spots. That’s probably the most real looking state of affairs based mostly on a gap month when eight SEC groups and two ACC colleges are ranked among the many prime 15 of the newest AP Ballot, although inter-conference cannibalism is definitely coming.
“Final 12 months’s historical past,” Cignetti mentioned. “I do not examine (this 12 months) to final 12 months. I am completely centered on the right here and now and this workforce. So I feel we made good progress final week, and now we have got to have week of prep so we will play our greatest Saturday evening. And I do not look down the street at who we play.”
Curt Cignetti is 14-2 as the top coach of the Indiana Hoosiers. (Photograph by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photographs)
However everybody else round faculty soccer can, and can, peek at who Indiana and Illinois are going through within the coming weeks because the playoff race takes form, and that’s the place the potential issues reside. The Illini have been graced with a Large Ten schedule that doesn’t embrace Oregon, Penn State, Michigan, Iowa or Nebraska. They’re slated to face No. 1 Ohio State at dwelling on Oct. 11, which is as tough a sport as anybody within the convention can have, however none of Illinois’ opponents from that time ahead are ranked within the AP Ballot. The one Large Ten groups with simpler remaining schedules, in response to ESPN, are Nebraska, Maryland and Indiana.
Which brings us to the Hoosiers, who’re as soon as once more polarizing because of a tissue paper-esque non-conference schedule. Cignetti’s workforce pounded Outdated Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State by a mixed margin of 156-23 and was by no means examined past the primary quarter of its first sport.
Indiana will journey for tough street video games in opposition to Oregon and Penn State — two groups it didn’t play en path to reaching the playoff final season — however will keep away from Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Washington and Nebraska. And in contrast to Illinois, which might not less than declare an honest non-conference street win over Duke, the Hoosiers have performed the third-easiest schedule in faculty soccer so far, in response to Professional Soccer Focus, forward of solely UNLV and UCF.
“Look,” Cignetti mentioned, “final 12 months, earlier than the season began, we have been enjoying favourite in three video games. We have been picked seventeenth out of 18 groups (within the preseason convention ballot). So each Large Ten sport that we went into, we have been an underdog earlier than the season began, possibly aside from Purdue. So final 12 months’s within the books. It is a new 12 months. This can be a good soccer workforce.”
Few individuals will quibble with Cignetti over that assertion, which is why Indiana is favored by 5.5 factors getting into Saturday’s sport regardless of touchdown 10 spots decrease than Illinois within the newest ballot. The Hoosiers rank third nationally in complete offense (591.7 yards per sport), third in dashing (307.7 yards per sport) and have discovered a switch quarterback in former Cal standout Fernando Mendoza, who’s one in every of solely three gamers within the nation with 9 or extra landing passes and nil interceptions. Indiana additionally ranks among the many prime 10 nationally in each complete protection (220.7 yards per sport) and scoring protection (7.7 factors per sport) beneath second-year coordinator Bryant Haines.
Practically all the identical superlatives may be hooked up to the Illini, who’ve reached their highest nationwide rating since Dick Butkus’ senior season in 1964. Their offense, overseen by stellar quarterback Luke Altmyer, has scored extra factors than any Illinois workforce in historical past via the primary three video games (135) and is one in every of solely 4 items from the Energy 4 conferences with no turnover, putting Illinois alongside Alabama, Houston and Rutgers in that class. The protection, coordinated by Aaron Henry, has but to permit a dashing landing whereas additionally rating tied for ninth nationally and tied for second within the Large Ten in sacks with 10.
Luke Altmyer is 17-8 as a starter at Illinois. (Photograph by Michael Reaves/Getty Photographs)
“You’ve received to seek out gamers that suit your system,” Bielema mentioned, “and I feel Indiana is a living proof. They’ve performed a extremely, actually good job. Clearly, (Cignetti) introduced guys with him from JMU, however now you’ve seen the addition of another guys which have are available in. I might say that we in all probability compete in opposition to Indiana in highschool recruiting and portal home windows as a lot as anyone else within the Large Ten, simply the form of techniques we each run and the gamers that I feel we search for. That’s distinctive.”
And but, the Hoosiers will nearly definitely be underdogs once they journey to Oregon and Penn State for high-profile matchups later this season, identical to the Illini will likely be underdogs once they host Ohio State in what might be this system’s solely different marquee sport between now and early December when the playoff bracket is revealed.
So although Bielema and Cignetti are competing for gamers, and although their groups will compete in entrance of a nationally televised viewers on Saturday evening, in a sport with main Faculty Soccer Playoff ramifications for each side, they’re nonetheless clawing for respect in an expanded Large Ten.
To the victor go the all-important, résumé-boosting spoils.
Michael Cohen covers faculty soccer and faculty basketball for FOX Sports activities. Observe him at @Michael_Cohen13.
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