Rutgers vs Illinois Prediction, Preview, and Betting Lines

Originally posted on College Football News
By Pete Fiutak | Last updated Oct 29, 2025 10:47 AM ET

Just when it seemed like Illinois was a sleeper to get into the College Football Playoff as an at-large team, it got walloped by Washington 42-25 to end all of that.

At 5-3, there’s still a good chance to get a fantastic bowl game with three of the last four games at home, and the road game at Wisconsin. It’ll be favored in every game the rest of the way, and a ten-win campaign is possible.

Rutgers started 3-0, and then everything went wrong with four straight losses before rallying to get by Purdue.

At 4-4, there’s still a shot to get to a bowl game, but there’s still a trip to Ohio State to deal with, and beating Maryland and Penn State won’t be easy.

Rutgers vs Illinois Preview and Betting Lines

How To Watch Rutgers vs Illinois

Saturday, November 1, 2025
Game Time: 12:00 PM ET
TV: NBC
Location: Memorial Stadium, Champaign, IL

Why Rutgers Will Win

All of a sudden, Illinois has a turnover problem.

Relatively stingy with the ball over the first half of the season, it didn’t give itself a shot against Ohio State with three turnovers, and the two last week against Washington turned the game into a rout.

It also didn’t help that the secondary is struggling.

Injuries, inconsistency, and the mediocre pass rush have all contributed to the problems, but the defensive backs are just plain struggling.

Washington’s Demond Williams was almost perfect last week, the Big Ten as a whole so far is hitting around 75% of its passes against this bunch, and Rutgers’ Athan Kaliakmanis is coming off a monster 359-yard day against Purdue, but …

Why Illinois Will Win

Rutgers has stopped doing that whole run defense thing.

It got ripped apart by Oregon, rumbled over by Washington, and Purdue found the gaps to average close to eight yards per carry.

Illinois doesn’t have much of a ground game, but it wasn’t bad last week against Washington, and it managed to win every other time this year when it was able to provide just a little bit of help to Luke Altmyer and the passing attack.

The Scarlet Knights are struggling on the defensive front, and …

Rutgers vs Illinois Prediction, Betting Lines

There isn’t enough of a Rutgers pass rush to matter, Altmyer should go off, and what pass rush Illinois has won’t have too much of an issue getting to Kaliakmanis.

The two passing games should push for at least 700 combined yards, but the Illini running game will be the difference later in the game.

Illinois 38, Rutgers 26
Line: Illinois -12.5, o/u: 62.5
ATS Confidence out of 5: 2
Must See Rating: 3

Consensus Line from BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, and FanDuel. Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.

This article first appeared on College Football News and was syndicated with permission.

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