Our side
MoneylineILL to win
ours 74%
Projected score
20–33
PUR – ILL
2026-10-03 · kickoff TBD
Gies Memorial Stadium · Champaign, IL
B1G game
Early season
The books
No book has priced this game. Nothing to compare, and no ticket to build.
Series
Illinois and Purdue split 100 (47–47–6)
· 100 meetings since 1892
2025 unit ranks —
last completed season, from games actually played
Run game
edge Illinois Fighting Illini
52 ranks
Purdue Boilermakers #112 rush offense
Illinois Fighting Illini #60 run defense
Pass game
even
21 ranks apart
Purdue Boilermakers #200 pass offense
Illinois Fighting Illini #179 pass defense
Run game
edge Illinois Fighting Illini
108 ranks
Illinois Fighting Illini #124 rush offense
Purdue Boilermakers #232 run defense
Pass game
edge Illinois Fighting Illini
215 ranks
Illinois Fighting Illini #38 pass offense
Purdue Boilermakers #253 pass defense
Purdue Boilermakers
Balanced · 49% run
Ball-control
Illinois Fighting Illini
Balanced · 54% run
Ball-control
Barry Odom · 47-43 · offense-minded
Bret Bielema · 56-45 · offense-minded
Ranked by team-unit strength
(rush & pass offense vs. run & pass defense) across all 265
D1 teams, not by individual players. Identity, tempo and unit strength are measured from the
2025 season.
The evidence 2025 production and power ratings · supporting the number above
Who carried each team in 2025
Purdue Boilermakers
RB
Fame Ijeboi
201 rush yds · 4 TD · 8 rec
#9 RB
DB
Don Saunders
10 tkl · 1 INT
#38 DB
K
Jacobo Echeverria Lozano
6 FG · 8 XP · 26 pts
#8 K
DL
Jeremy Lewis
5 tkl · 1.5 sacks · 2.5 TFL
#64 DL
Illinois Fighting Illini
WR
Collin Dixon
17 rec · 236 yds · 5 TD
#5 WR
QB
Katin Houser
453 pass yds · 6 TD · 1 INT
#8 QB
LB
Ismael Kante
10 tkl · 0.5 TFL
#45 LB
LB
Will Holmes
10 tkl · 1.0 sacks · 2.0 TFL
#102 LB
Top-rated players from last season, ranked within their
position across D1. A grade measures what a player produced, and no
2026 game has been played yet — so this is who produced for
these programs in 2025, not a claim about who is on the field this year.
Power breakdown
Def is higher = better. The projection assumes a 2.4-pt home edge (0 at neutral sites).
Where the number comes from
Purdue offense vs Illinois defense-1.4 pts
Illinois offense vs Purdue defense+7.2 pts
An efficiency adjustment from season-to-date EPA and success rate applies once teams have
played enough games; before then it is 0 and the number is the power rating alone.