CHAMPAIGN — Illinois’ first Big Ten trip to Los Angeles, a return to Mackey Arena and the usual home-and-home with Northwestern will all be part of the Illini’s slate of conference games for the 2025-26 season.
The Big Ten announced the conference opponents for all 18 teams on Tuesday morning. In addition to the ongoing in-state rivalry double play with the Wildcats, Illinois will also play Maryland and Nebraska twice this coming season.
The home-only games at State Farm Center include matchups with Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Rutgers, Washington and Wisconsin. The Illini’s road-only games include some of the toughest places to play in the conference — namely Purdue and Michigan State. The rest includes trips to play at Iowa, Ohio State, Penn State, UCLA and USC.
Illinois is coming off a 22-13 season that included a 12-8 record in Big Ten play that slotted the Illini seventh in the conference. Illinois lost in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Some of the 2025-26 roster will be the same, with the return of Kylan Boswell, Tomislav Ivisic, Ty Rodgers (albeit after a redshirt season) and Jake Davis. Newcomers include signed transfers Andrej Stojakovic and Zvonimir Ivisic and committed Europeans David Mirkovic and Mihailo Petrovic.
Current projections for the 2025-26 season, per Bart Torvik, have Illinois fourth in the Big Ten behind Purdue, Michigan and UCLA.
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