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By Rowan Fisher-Shotton
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Illinois continued its strong run with a 24-13 win over Nebraska on Friday night, extending its winning streak to four games. The Illini improved to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in Big Ten play, becoming bowl-eligible for a third straight season. Quarterback Katin Houser went 22 of 36 for 292 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, while Collin Dixon hauled in eight catches for 129 yards and two scores, setting a new program record with 12 total receiving touchdowns on the year.
The loss was another setback for Nebraska, which has dropped to 5-4 and is trending in the opposite direction after suffering its fourth-straight defeat. Illinois, meanwhile, continues to build momentum under head coach Bret Bielema and is in line to finish the season with one of the best records in the Big Ten.
After the win, Bielema spoke about the progress of his program, pointing to the team being on the verge of another trip to the postseason and that the Fighting Illini might receive more national attention if they played in a different conference.
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"I think about as we’re building things here at Illinois, now we’re three seasons in a row that we’ll have postseason play, which is absolutely awesome and really hard for anybody," Bielama said. "But to be in this job, where we're at right now, 6-3, we beat another 5-3 team. If we were in the SEC, we'd probably be a top-15 team. We’ve just got to continue to stay on track where we’re at and do a really good job of holding the moment and putting ourselves in a position to be successful."
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The SEC has a strong case for multiple teams to make the College Football Playoff this season. In the first CFP rankings released earlier in the week, the SEC had 10 teams in the Top 25, including five inside the top 10. The Big Ten, meanwhile, had six ranked teams altogether. The SEC also has several teams playing one another over the remaining weeks, meaning a few top programs could finish 9-3 while still having an impressive enough resume to potentially sneak into the CFP.
The committee looks for wins over ranked opponents, emphasizing strength of schedule and conference strength when evaluating teams. That doesn't mean a 9-3 Big Ten school like Illinois couldn't qualify, but they face an uphill battle. While their recent wins over Michigan State, Oregon, Maryland, and Nebraska were impressive, they still don't have a ranked win this season. They were blown out by then-No. 7 Ohio State 42-19 earlier in the year, and also lost at home against Duke and Purdue.
The Illini have three games left on their schedule: a road matchup against No. 8 UCLA on Nov. 13, a home game against No. 19 Iowa on Nov. 21, and a road trip to Northwestern on Nov. 28. That's two ranked opponents and a Wildcats team that spent much of the year sitting inside the AP Top 25 as well. Winning all three would give Illinois a 9-3 record and could do enough to get the committee's attention.
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