All of a sudden, the Illinois football team has gone on a scorched-earth tour of the Big Ten, and it has the potential to inflict a lot more damage over the last few weeks.
Over the last four games, all wins, Illinois beat Michigan State in an overtime thriller, realistically knocked Oregon out of the College Football Playoff, handed Maryland its sixth loss, and gave Nebraska its fourth straight loss. Husker offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen was fired the next day – it wasn’t the Illini’s fault, but the loss didn’t help.
But now it’s really on. It gets a shot to hand UCLA its first loss of the season this week, could ruin Iowa’s College Football Playoff hopes next week, and might prevent Northwestern from finishing the regular season with a winning record to close.
Meanwhile, all UCLA is doing is beating everyone. It joins Utah as the only two unbeaten teams left in college football, and with a win here, ho hum, it’ll be 10-0 and, barring something insane, will be in the College Football Playoff.

Illinois vs UCLA: Quick Hits

  • This is the only trip outside of Illinois for the Illini in November. It finishes the home slate up against Iowa next week, and closes up the road at Northwestern.
  • UCLA makes a trip to Michigan after this before finishing up down the road at USC.
  • The two teams haven’t played since the Illini beat the Bruins 20-14 in the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. The two teams are 6-6, starting the series with a 45-14 Illinois win in the 1947 Rose Bowl.

How To Watch Illinois vs UCLA

Date: Friday, November 13, 2026
Game Time: 9:00 PM ET
TV: FOX
Location: Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA
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– CFN Bowl & CFP Projections | Top 25

Why Illinois Will Win

What is Illinois doing so right over the last four games? It’s not getting flagged, but penalties haven’t been a problem this year. It’s also not turning the ball over, but the offense has only given it up six times all season.
No, it’s really this simple – Illinois is scoring more points than the other teams.
Yeah, ha ha, very funny, but there’s just no other way to put it. All of a sudden, Illinois is just not giving up as many points. It’s not like the defense has been a rock in the red zone, and it’s still giving up plenty of yards.
However, what it is doing is getting to the quarterback more, with eight sacks over the last four games after coming up with three in the first five. But …

Why UCLA Will Win

UCLA is just fine in low scoring, slugfest games. But as it showed last week against Minnesota, it now has an explosive element to its attack.
The formula keeps on working. Hang around, don’t screw up, keep the score low, and then drop the hammer and close like Mariano Rivera, pounding with the running game and owning the fourth quarter.
But last week, the passing game ripped it up with the first 300-yard game of the season on just eight completions. Quarterback Ty Dieffenbach threw two 75-yard touchdown passes to Aidan Mizell, and he threw a scoring pass to Noah Fox-Flores. Minnesota dared Dieffenbach to throw well, and he did.

Illinois vs UCLA Prediction, Betting Lines

Illinois was able to survive an Oregon team that ran well, and moved the ball well, mainly because it didn’t allow touchdowns and the Duck kicking game was a disaster. Other than that, for the most part, the Illini win when they keep the other side from pounding away with the ground attack.
But the big problem for Illinois is an offense that can come up with big pass plays. The Illini are 0-3 when giving up more than eight yards per pass, and after last week, UCLA averages 8.4 yards per throw.

UCLA 27, Illinois 17
Latest Consensus Line: UCLA -9.5, o/u: 47.5
ATS Confidence (out of 5): 2
Must See Rating (out of 5): 4

Consensus line based on 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.

Source: Yahoo Sports