The Illinois football team's 2026 Big Ten schedule was announced Tuesday by the conference office.

January 27, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois will open its 2026 Big Ten Conference schedule in Ohio Stadium with a chance to defeat the league’s annual power program on its home turf.

Despite all 18 league members already knowing the opponents and location for its 2026 league schedule, the Big Ten Conference released the dates and order of its 2026 football schedule on its own network on Tuesday afternoon.

Illinois will be opening its league schedule at Ohio State, which hasn’t lost more than two games in a season since 2011, for a kickoff slated on Sept. 26. It will be the fourth time in six years under head coach Bret Bielema that Illinois will open its Big Ten slate away from Champaign. In his 12 seasons as a head coach of a Big Ten program (2006-12 at Wisconsin; 2021-present at Illinois) Bielema has never led a team to a victory in three games at Ohio Stadium.

The last time Illinois has won a game in this 104-game all-time series where the historical ‘Illinibuck’ trophy is awarded was the 2007 contest at then-No. 1 Ohio State with the Buckeyes have won 13 of its last 14 including the 34-16 victory at Memorial Stadium this past season. Since 2013 when Urban Meyer took over as head coach at Ohio State, the Buckeyes have lost just one league home game to a team not named Michigan (Michigan State won 17-14 on Nov. 21, 2015.

After winning the 2025 national championship, Ohio State was knocked off by Miami (Fla.) in the Cotton Bowl, which was a College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup.

The first three games of the Illini’s 2026 season will be in Champaign as they host Alabama-Birmingham (Sept. 5), Duke (Sept. 12) and Southern Illinois (Sept. 19) before embarking on the Big Ten portion of the schedule.

After the game at Ohio State, Illinois will host another rivalry game against Purdue currently slated (assuming none of these matchups are flexed to Friday night) for a Homecoming weekend of Oct. 3 and then will travel the following week to face Michigan State that will be led by first-year Pat Fitzgerald.

Illinois will then have an open week before they host Oregon, which will likely be a favorite to win the league after the announcement of the return of All-Big Ten quarterback Dante Moore to a team that made the College Football Playoff semifinals, on Oct. 24.

The Illini will have a Halloween matchup at Maryland before hosting Nebraska on Nov. 7. On Nov. 14, Illinois is slated to make its first appearance at the Rose Bowl since Jan. 1, 2008 to play a road game at UCLA. The Illini last played in the Pasadena facility in the 2008 Rose Bowl for a 49-17 loss to Southern California. The Rose Bowl is currently undergoing renovations as it prepares to be part of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as the Rose Bowl and city of Pasadena, California, have filed a lawsuit against UCLA, accusing the university of trying to break its lease with the stadium and move its home games to SoFi Stadium - home of the two Los Angeles franchises of the National Football League.

Illinois will host Iowa on Nov. 21 for its Senior Day matchup before making the program’s first trip to Northwestern’s new NW Medicine at Martin Stadium in Evanston for the in-state regular season finale on Nov. 28.

Season ticket renewals for the Illinois football team's 2026 campaign began Jan. 20 and current season ticket holders are encouraged to renew prior to the deadline of March 10 deadline, as 2025 season tickets sold out by May.