Joel Klatt chose the 10 showdowns he believes mean the most on 2025’s college football schedule. While there were some usual suspects, a surprising decision had some confused — USC at Illinois on Sept. 27.

It may be a bit unheralded, but Klatt believes the Big Ten clash has intense College Football Playoff ramifications. During the latest episode of The Joel Klatt Show, the FOX Sports analyst made the case.

“This one is sneaky. It’s very under the radar. USC at Illinois, Week 5. This one is going to be very important for both teams,” Klatt explained. “Specifically for Illinois, with their opportunity to be this year’s Indiana and kind of crash the Playoff party. Both teams could very well be 4-0 entering this game. I think that’s absolutely within the realm. A win for Illinois would put them at 5-0, with really their only difficult game left being hosting Ohio State several weeks later. At that point, it’s almost identical to what Indiana was a year ago.

“Remember, Indiana won some important games early, and then they had this looming Ohio State game It almost didn’t matter if they won or lost, because at 11-1, they were going to go to the College Football Playoff, which they did, and they should, regardless of what some people wanted to say about their particular game. They earned their way in, and Illinois could do the same. This is really the crux of the argument. If they can get past USC, now all of a sudden that Ohio State game doesn’t quite look as daunting.”

Evidently, Klatt believes Bret Bielema is building a contender at Illinois, which is one of the more commendable coaching jobs in all of the nation. Whether or not the Fighting Illini follow through remains to be seen, but their clash with the Trojans seems like the inflection point.

“I think Bret Bielema is building something very special,” Klatt added. “What they’re going to have to fight is that it’s very difficult for a program that hasn’t enjoyed top-level success to all of a sudden be the apple of everyone’s eye in the postseason, and everyone telling them how great they are and they’re going to make a run. You’ve got experience at the right positions, and then to continue to go out there and do what you need to do in order to win games, because they’re going to be in close games.

“They still don’t have the talent to go and blow everybody out. But Bielema is building something that I think is very sustainable. It’s tough. it’s defensive-oriented. It’s winning the line-of-scrimmage. It’s winning with experience and in a smart way. So like, could they be in the Playoff? Absolutely. But I don’t think they are in that conversation if they lose this game at home, Week 5 against USC.”

Of course, USC needs the win just as bad, with all the flack Lincoln Riley and company has taken over the past couple of seasons. Whoever gets the dub remains to be seen, but it’s easy to see why Joel Klatt is believing the hype, as this is one Big Ten showdown you can’t miss in September.

Illinois basketball recruiting thread.

Rivals and On3 are set to merge.

On July 1:

* Rivals Recruiting and Rivals High School will transition to the On3 Tech Platform.

* Rivals subscribers will receive access credentials on the On3 Tech Platform. A Rivals subscription will include access to all On3 Sports
national and fan site premium content.

* We will begin migrating individual Rivals fan sites (including Orange and Blue News) to the On3 Tech Platform. This process will take a couple weeks, depending on integration complexity.

I will post all updates and relevant information for subscribers in this pinned and locked thread.

Feel free to post any questions that might have in a separate thread.

Dylan Mingo has been On3’s top-ranked point guard in the 2026 cycle since the initial rankings were released. The 6-foot-5 Mingo is a rising senior at Long Island (NY) Lutheran School and is currently playing his summer ball with the PSA Cardinals program on Nike’s EYBL Circuit. Mingo has risen all the way up to No. 4 overall in the 2026 On3 150.

Singularly looking at the point guards in the 2026 class, there is a lot to like at the position. Five players at the position are ranked among the top 25 overall in the class. Following Mingo, Ikenna Alozie is No. 11, Deron Rippey at No. 17, Miles Sadler at No. 18, and Tay Kinney at No. 23. As we are coming down the final stretch for this class, exiting their junior high school years and entering their senior seasons, the race for the top spot is gearing up to be an interesting one.

So let’s discuss the top point guards in the 2026 recruiting cycle and some of the top storylines around the top players at the position.

Can Dylan Mingo hold top point guard status from start to finish?​

Dylan Mingo appears to be improving each time we see him play. Not only is he producing, becoming comfortable with the ball in his hands, taking on an alpha role, but he is also producing at an alarming rate. This summer, on Nike’s EYBL Circuit, Mingo is averaging 18.5 points and 2.5 steals per game. He recently earned MVP honors of the NBPA Top 100 Camp in June, averaging 23.8 points and 6.8 assists. This camp also featured each of the other four point guards among 2026’s top 25.

Mingo is more than nine months younger than the rest of the point guards ranked among the top 25, making him very young for his grade. Listed at 6-foot-5, he has a plus wingspan. He is a fluid athlete with excellent anticipation and instincts. Mingo has a slippery game; he uses excellent pace to get to his spots, and he is not afraid of contact, oftentimes getting to the free-throw line as he puts two feet in the paint.

Mingo is an excellent defender, one who simply collects deflections while guarding on or off the ball. He plays with a tenacity and a competitive nature while also showing some flair and craft. The thing with Mingo is that the jump shot will need to continue getting better. He is currently knocking it down off the catch when given time, but threes off the bounce can have an elongated motion, enabling quicker closeouts and disrupted flow.

His ability to dictate play at the point of attack, consistently get the first defender off balance, scramble a defense, and make the right reads against the defense’s help has provided Mingo with consistent production. He has a runway of upside to continue growing into, and his game continues to get better.

Mingo’s game is currently at an interesting intersection of physical tools and natural feel with current production and remaining upside.

Who has the best bet to challenge Mingo?​

One player that is starting to surge is Deron Rippey. Just this June, he earned an invite to the USA Basketball U19 training camp, earned All-Adidas Eurocamp honors, and All-NBPA Top 100 Camp honors. Rippey is an electric athlete who plays with excellent pace, while sturdily putting two feet in the paint and making a play. Rippey is able to get on the rim in traffic, but he is able to run the pick and roll consistently at a high level.

His reads are consistent, and he is a threat to score or deliver on target while getting downhill into the teeth of the defense. Outside of Mingo, Rippey is playing the best of the group. The thing with each of the other four point guards beyond Mingo is that they are all between 5-foot-10 and 6-foot-1, smaller for the position.

Rippey earned back-to-back state championships at Blairstown Township (NJ) Blair Academy this season. He also earned Gatorade’s New Jersey Player of the Year honors this season. Rippey is continuing to develop as a shooter, which is going to need to continue. At the NBPA Top 100 Camp, Rippey was 5-19 (26.3 percent) from beyond the arc, and on the Adidas 3SSB Circuit this summer, he is currently 11-33 (33.3 percent from three). His twitchy speed and explosive burst are top-level, can he continue to become a consistent pull-up threat shooting.

Along with Rippey, the point guard getting the most buzz in the class is Tay Kinney. A Newport, Kentucky native who played his junior year at Atlanta (GA) Overtime Elite. He has built a viral reputation online, but his play at the NBPA Top 100 Camp solidified him as a top target for college coaches in this cycle.

Kinney’s reputation as a point guard comes with an ability to shoot and play with excellent pace. Along with the pace, he has a very crafty handle and advanced footwork in a phone booth to get him to his spots in the half-court. What he lacks in top-end burst and twitchy explosion, he makes up for with the craft/pace, and IQ.

The interesting aspect of his game is the shooting. He tore it up at the NBPA Top 100 Camp, shooting 10-21 (47.6 percent) from three over the multiple-day event. He got to his spots and found his balance points very well. However, over the past seven or eight months, Kinney’s shot has been up and down. Through 21 OTE games this season – regular season plus one playoff game – Kinney finished 30-87 (34.5 percent). In his seven Adidas 3SSB Circuit games, two stops before the finals, Kinney is shooting 5-25 (20.0 percent), and in his three Adidas Euroleague games in June, Kinney finished 3-12 (25.0 percent) from three. So in the 32 games logged for Kinney, starting in November, heading into June’s NBPA Top 100 Camp, he has shot 38-124 (30.6 percent) from three.

The talent is clearly there for the 6-foot-2 lead guard; he is the second youngest player of the group, and his game is one that continues to improve, with his ability to put pressure on a defense each time you see him.

While Mingo currently has a stronghold on the point guard position in the 2026 recruiting cycle, Rippey and Kinney are coming out of June and entering the July shoe circuit championships playing with a lot of confidence and an upward trend.

Where do Alozie + Sadler fit in with the point gaurd landscape?​

With Mingo at the top of the point guard class, and Rippy and Kinney making their push, Miles Sadler and Ikenna Alozie are each solidly carving out their reputations. Sadler has been injured off and on since the end of the high school season, able to play here and there, but sitting for the majority of the time. Over the past season, he has proven to be an ultimate winner. He is a proven shot maker and someone who is never afraid of the moment.

On Nike’s EYBL Scholastic Circuit last season, the 5-foot-10 point guard averaged 16.1 points and 4.7 assists on 36.0 percent shooting from three. Starting at point guard for the Canadian National Team, Sadler averaged 13.9 points, 4.0 assists, and 2.7 steals during last summer’s U17 FIBA World Championships.

Over the past 12 months, Sadler has shown a consistent ability to raise the floor of his team. Another player who has been consistent with his outputs has been Ikenna Alozie. The explosion is what pops for him. His twitchy burst gets him in the lane consistently, and his explosive athleticism propels him to the rim, through contact for finishes.

While he is still learning pace and reads, Alozie’s physical tools are toward the top of the class when it comes to natural athleticism. And with that, the 6-foot-1 guard is averaging 17.6 points on 47.7 percent shooting this summer on Nike’s EYBL Circuit. Again, he will need to continue working through the jump shot and in setting up teammates, but he was also the MVP of the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders event over the All-Star break.

While there is still a long way to go with this class, it seems that the point guard position is shaping up to be a strong one. Even with the strength of the position in this class, there is still some movement at the top. Dylan Mingo has done his share to establish himself as the lead candidate of the group. However, Deron Rippey, Tay Kinney, Miles Sadler, and Ikenna Alozie each continue to produce and develop. This position group should be fun to contiue to follow over the next year.

I was looking for a podcast to run in the background while I did something else and found this. It is more about Bret's career than Illinois, but if you are interested it lasts about 30 minutes. Fast forward to the 1 hour and 28 minute mark. He comes off quite well.

Starting a new thread for the class of 2026 cycle.

CHAMPAIGN Ill. – The University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) announced Monday its 2024-25 Freshman of the Year honorees. Kasparas Jakucionis (basketball) was selected as the Illini's top male competing in his first collegiate season, while Chloe Cho (gymnastics) and Melissa Wullschleger (track & field) were named co-winners as the top, first-year female athletes for the Fighting Illini. The recipients were selected by vote of Illinois head coaches and DIA executive staff.

Jakucionis, who was a unanimous selection to the Freshman All-America Team by The Athletic, led the Illini in scoring and assists, averaging 15.2 ppg and 4.7 apg, and was third on the team in rebounding at 5.7 rpg. He equaled the most points ever scored by an Illini freshman, totaling 494 during his 33 starts, and set UI rookie season records shooting 84.5% from the free throw line and tallying eight 20-point games. Jakucionis was also a Big Ten All-Freshman Team selection, first-team NABC All-Great Lakes District, second-team All-Big Ten by AP, and third-team All-Big Ten by the league coaches and media.

Jakucionis is the seventh member of the Illini men's basketball program to earn Illinois Freshman of the Year honors and the fourth to do so under head coach Brad Underwood, joining Ayo Dosunmu (2019), Kofi Cockburn (2020), and Andre Curbelo (2021).

Cho, the 2024-25 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, competed in all 15 meets during her freshman campaign, only missing one event in one meet. She earned All-Big Ten first team and Big Ten All-Freshman Team honors while recording 16 titles - four vault, two bars, three beam, three floor, and four all-around - and finished the year ranked in the top 60 nationally in vault (60), beam (39), floor (56) and all-around (30). Cho also set the program record by earning four Big Ten Freshman of the Week recognitions throughout the season.

Wullschleger became a first-team All-American in the heptathlon with a program record 5,928 points in her fourth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. She is the program's third-ever All-American in the event and the first since Carmel Corbett in 1996. As part of her school-record breaking score, Wullschleger also threw the program's third-furthest javelin, 44.20m (145-0), to propel her into the top four at the national meet. A month prior to the national meet she took fourth in the heptathlon at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships with 5,749 points. During the indoor season she placed seventh in the pentathlon at the Big Ten Indoor Championships with the program's fourth-highest score of 3,984 points.

Cho is the eighth member of the Illini women's gymnastics program to earn Freshman of the Year, and the first since Mia Takekawa in 2020. Wullschleger is the 11th Freshman of the Year for the Illinois women's track & field program and the second in as many seasons following teammate Elizabeth Ndudi's selection in 2024. Cho and Wullschleger are the first female duo to share the honor since Susanna Kallur (track & field) and Jennifer McGaffigan (tennis) in 2001.

I was watching game 7 last night, and saw a player that looked familiar on the Pacers bench. Didn't think it was possible. Sure enough, James Johnson, who the Bulls drafted 16th overall in 2009, is still in the league.

He has never been more than a role player, but has stuck around for 15 seasons. This year's salary - $3.3 million. He made 4 FGs this year, so 825k per bucket. He's made ~$108 million for his career.

Give him the Chase Daniel award. This is the American dream!

Is it our recent success?
Coach BB extension?
High school coaches buying in?
Sending players to the pros?
Continuity of staff?
What else has changed?

Will make its debut at the beginning of this year's football season.

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Doug - can you please provide your best guess on Sutter and Anderson committing to the Illini and whether Barnett stays or not. Much appreciated

In the few months after being hired at Ohio State in 2012, Urban Meyer reshaped a middle-of-the-road Buckeyes recruiting class and turned it into one of the nation’s most impressive collections of talent. In doing so, Meyer had no choice but to relentlessly recruit players who were already committed, some of whom to other Big Ten programs.
Meyer didn’t go to Ohio State to make friends.

Bret Bielema was fine with that. He also had no interest in being friends.

Most don’t remember this now given it was 13 years ago, but Bielema was a villain back in the day. His Wisconsin Badgers were one of the most consistent winners in the conference and he had pep in his step. When Meyer arrived at Ohio State — and flipped offensive tackle Kyle Dodsonfrom Wisconsin — Bielema wasn’t going to keep his mouth shut.

“There’s a few things that happened early on that I made people be aware of, that I didn’t want to see in this league, that I had seen take place in other leagues,” Bielema said during his signing day press conference a few days later. “Other recruiting tactics, other recruiting practices, that are illegal.”

It was fun to look back at that this week as Bielema, now the head coach at Illinois, was making headlines again. We’ll get into what he said later. But it got me thinking: how much better would college football be if we got Bielema back going full villain? What if what happened 13 years ago happened all the time? The sport, an entertainment product to its core, would be so much better off.

If you don’t remember how things went between Meyer and Bielema, it’s probably because it’s ancient history. It started a few weeks of national discourse about a “gentleman’s agreement” and whether it was bad form to recruit players who were committed to schools in your conference. Bielema said, “I can tell you this: we at the Big Ten don’t want to be like the SEC in any way, shape or form.” You can imagine how that went, especially as it coincided with Meyer’s departure from Florida at the beginning of the SEC’s national dominance that spanned for the next decade-plus.

Bielema antagonized Ohio State — and anyone who got in his way — repeatedly during his remaining time at Wisconsin. A year later, Bielema left to take the Arkansas job. After 5 in Fayetteville and a few in the NFL, Bielema returned to Big Ten country in 2021 at Illinois.

And now Illinois is, gulp, good?

Bielema hasn’t been much of a villain during the past decade. Part of that is because things didn’t go to his standard while at Arkansas and he has had to quietly build an Illini program many had left for dead. But while Curt Cignetti and Indiana took the world by storm in 2024, Bielema assembled his best team at Illinois, one that went won 10 games and defeated South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl.

Guess what? Bielema’s team returns basically everyone, including quarterback Luke Altmyer. The Illini added West Virginia’s leading receiver Hudson Clement in the portal. They also return their entire offensive line, cornerback Xavier Scott, safeties Dylan Rosiek, Matthew Bailey and Miles Scott. Illinois has a chance to be really, really good. Like, maybe even CFP good.

So usher in the yapping. Be the villain college football needs, Bret. Do it now, especially because trash talk hits so much harder when it’s coming from a place of strength.

When Bielema joined the Andy & Ari On3 show in January, I asked him if he was going to get back to his old ways. We saw some of it during his spat with South Carolina coach Shane Beamer in the Citrus Bowl. Did he still have it in him to ruffle feathers the way he used to back at Wisconsin? Is being a big personality good for Illinois’ branding?

“I tell our kids there are three things every day when you wake up should: try to do things the right way, be respectful of everyone and be the best you,” Bielema said. “For me, I only know how to be Bret Bielema. I have a brother named Barry and a brother named Bart. I can’t be either one of them. I can be me, right? I don’t try to be somebody else. I try to be the person I am.

“When that moment came up (in the Cirtus Bowl), I walked over there and did something that crossed my mind. There wasn’t any pre-planning. Just being me. I think that’s why my wife married me. I’m the only me.”

Be you, Bret. All the time.

Last week, Bielema made remarks about the SEC as he was discussing College Football Playoff reform. He made it count.

“We voted unanimously as Big Ten coaches to stay at nine league games and actually maybe have an SEC challenge,” Bielema said. “I was told that they voted unanimously to stay at eight and not play the Big Ten. But then some people pop off and say what they want to say because they want to look a certain way. … I get it, but like, I think until you get to nine for everybody, I don’t think it could work.”

Jab. Jab. Jab. Jab. Jab.

Keep swinging.

College football needs this because the sport took a major hit when it lost Nick Saban to retirement and Jim Harbaugh to the NFL. There are superstar coaches like Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Ohio State’s Ryan Day, but there are only a few out there that are taking the world by storm with intriguing and funny comments regularly. Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin comes to mind. Maybe there was somebody else.

But we need Bielema’s personality more than we need Illinois to be good. We need people to say the quiet parts out loud, to spark debate and to keep people on their toes. That doesn’t mean Bielema is right all the time. Heck, go be wrong. Just be interesting. Be you.

There’s no telling whether Illinois will live up to the hype this year. The Fighting Illini are the offseason darling, sure, but they can’t be anything like Indiana last year because the Hoosiers came out of nowhere. Illinois isn’t sneaking up on anyone.

But if the byproduct of this offseason hype is more of Bielema being Bielama, great.

The sport is better with a villain.

He had a better sophomore season than junior season.