Illinois needs a new rival — Purdue could fit the bill

Rivalries are crucial to the sport of college football. They make regular season games feel like championships, they make winning better and losing worse.

For Illinois football, rivalries will be a tough thing to come by. Northwestern is the in-state team and rival the Illini play for rivalry week, but that just feels like an automatic win for the next couple of years. That is not what a rivalry should feel like. The Braggin’ Rights against Mizzou game is coming back a handful of times from 2026-35, which will be big for rivalry purposes, but until then, there could be a different team taking its place.

The rivalry with Purdue right now feels like the classic original Big Ten sibling rivalry, no different than the rivalry with Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, etc. That could all easily change very soon.

Why It Works

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Location

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