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Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team and college basketball at large:
The 2025 college football season kicks off this morning in Dublin with a top 25 matchup between No. 17 Kansas State and No. 22 Iowa State. A handful of games populate the “Week Zero” schedule.
Most of the college football world will play their first games next week. That includes Illinois, which will host Western Illinois on Friday at Memorial Stadium. The Illini are the No. 12 team in the country — a big deal for Bret Bielema’s team, but also important to Brad Underwood and the basketball program.
Football games at Memorial Stadium have again become a place to take basketball recruits on official and unofficial visits. That was part of the fall visit process Underwood pivoted away from early in his tenure because there was no sense in taking prospective recruits to a game where the stands were half full (at best).
That’s not the kind of “Isn’t Illinois great?” atmosphere that can help sell a recruit. But the potential for multiple sellouts for a seriously improved football team have made game days at Memorial Stadium worth a stop for Underwood and Co.
Some top basketball programs don’t need the occasional football game day bump. Connecticut’s latest pair of national championships are all the Huskies need, which is a good thing because UConn football is an afterthought nationally and right there at home in Storrs/East Hartford, Conn., too. Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s, of course, don’t even have football.
Basketball blue bloods can also get by with mediocre football. Kansas, Duke and Kentucky don’t seem to be harmed by football programs with significantly less juice.
But a bump from football doesn’t hurt. Nate Oats has turned Alabama into a basketball contender in the SEC (and nationally), and there are certainly worse places to take recruits than Bryant-Denny Stadium. The same is true at other SEC institutions, with reigning national basketball champs Florida probably hoping Billy Napier can get Gators football back on track.
Illinois basketball could have that recruiting edge in the fall if Bielema’s football team lives up to the lofty expectations surrounding the program. Fan interest is fan interest, and even if State Farm Center fills up more easily than Memorial Stadium, more of the latter doesn’t hurt.