For the first time in nearly a decade, Illinois will play in front of a sold-out crowd at Memorial Stadium. This week, the Fighting Illini announced a sellout for Saturday’s showdown against No. 19 Kansas in Champaign.

Illinois hasn’t sold out a home game since the 2016 season. News of the sellout comes after Bret Bielema’s squad posted an impressive 45-0 victory over Eastern Illinois to open the 2024 campaign.

Prior to the sellout announcement, Bielema was hopeful that Illinois fans would gobble up tickets for Saturday’s clash.

“Excited about this opportunity to have a ranked team come in here to Memorial Stadium,” Bielema said. “I know our crowd is expected to be a good number. I think we’re within 1,000 [tickets] or so of being sold out for that game and put ourselves in a position to have a crowd where, unfortunately, or however you want to look at it, fortunately for us, we’re trying to build this thing up and get it to be more consistent. I think Saturday night is hopefully going to be a microcosm of that.”

The Illini played extremely well offensively in their season-opening win over Eastern Illinois. Quarterback Luke Altmyer threw for 213 yards with four touchdowns while completing 19-of-24 passes. Running back Kaden Faegin piled up 108 rushing yards and receiver Pat Bryant had 63 yards and a pair of touchdowns on five catches.

Defensively, Illinois forced four turnovers and held the Panthers to just 196 yards of offense.

Kansas presents a completely different challenge this week, with skilled quarterback Jalon Daniels coming to town. Illinois’ defensive front will be tested throughout the game.

Last year, Kansas defeated Illinois 34-23. Will the sellout crowd help the Fighting Illini get revenge on the Jayhawks?

Michigan State down three key players

Michigan State is already dealing with the injury bug. Coach Jonathan Smith revealed that the Spartans will be without three key contributors for the foreseeable future.

“(Receiver) Alante Brown will be hopeful to maybe November coming back. (Defensive back) Khalil Majeed doubtful to come back. (Defensive back) Dillon Tatum at least a couple of months, if not for the year,” Smith said during his weekly press conference. “Those three guys, which is a blow, with all three of them contributing, playing awesome, feel really bad for them, but they are longer-term injuries.”

Tatum is arguably the biggest loss of the bunch. Last year, he was responsible for 45 tackles and seven pass break-ups. Majeed ended last year with 19 stops and an interception.

Brown’s injury is a blow to Michigan State’s wide receiver depth. He didn’t put up big numbers last season, but was expected to be more of a factor in 2024.

Michigan State has no time to feel sorry for itself, opening Big Ten play this weekend against Maryland.

Nebraska volleyball swept by SMU

The college volleyball season is just beginning, and we’ve already seen an incredible amount of chaos. A day after No. 18 Minnesota upset No. 1 Texas, SMU took down No. 2 Nebraska in consecutive sets.

The Mustangs swept the Huskers 3-0 (5-23, 25-21, 25-18). It was Nebraska’s first loss to an unranked opponent since 2017. Coach John Cook was disappointed with the performance on Tuesday night in Dallas.

“We got punched in the mouth and we let them keep punching us,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “I’m pretty disappointed in how we responded tonight, but to be honest I saw this. This was all starting Saturday night. We talked about frustration and we didn’t fix it.

“We had a great practice last night, but we did not compete tonight. It was pretty disappointing.” 

Penn State takes down Louisville

Penn State’s volleyball team picked up a huge win on Tuesday night, defeating No. 4 Louisville in a sweep. The seventh-ranked Nittany Lions took down the Cardinals 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-13).

Jess Mruzik led the Nittany Lions with 13 kills in the match. Caroline Jurevicious added 11 kills for Penn State. The defense held Louisville to a paltry .091 hitting percentage. Penn State also had five aces in the match.

Tuesday’s match was the first in front of a home crowd for Penn State.

“I thought it was great,” said coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, per the Daily Collegian. “Rec Hall is a special place to play. I’m grateful for the students and I hope we can continue to win and bring more of them here.”

Penn State is now 3-0 on the season.

BIG TEN PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Miller Moss (USC), Kevin Winston (Penn State), Mateen Bhaghani (UCLA), Dominic Zvada (Michigan) and Dylan Raiola (Nebraska) received Big Ten honors for Week 1. CLICK HERE

BIG TEN WEEK 1 OVERREACTIONS: Nick Saban swears on live television, Mike Gundy takes a shot at Michigan, “Huddy” for Heisman and Minnesota’s fireworks show highlight the overreactions. CLICK HERE

CHICAGO – The University of Illinois system kicked off a three-day outreach tour Tuesday at Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School, with top officials meeting students to promote the university and address concerns of potential students.

“We take great pride in offering an amazing education at an affordable price,” University of Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones said, as he led a delegation that included leaders from all three campuses.

The visit marked the first stop in a statewide tour aimed at encouraging students to apply to the university system.

During the event, senior Ahmad Powell posed a question to the university officials, asking, “Based off of all the experiences you’ve had with students from your schools, what’s a key pivotal thing that students should invest their time in?”

Chancellor Jones responded that the tour serves two purposes: listening and recruiting. He urged students to consider attending one of the University of Illinois campuses, emphasizing their hard work and academic potential.

This is the fourth year of the university’s outreach tour, which stops at high schools and businesses throughout Illinois. The goal is to connect with students, educators, and potential partners while addressing concerns about the perceived cost of attending the university.

University of Illinois President Timothy L. Killeen emphasized that the university has taken steps to keep education affordable.

“We’ve kept our costs down in a draconian fashion the last few years,” Killeen said. “Eight of the last 10 years, we’ve frozen tuition. We’ve added more financial aid.”

Homewood-Flossmoor Superintendent Scott Waleley echoed the importance of making students feel wanted.

“Even though they’re academically talented, they want to go somewhere where they feel wanted,” he said.

For some students, the university’s outreach efforts have already worked. Senior Cameron Brooks, who has committed to the University of Illinois football program, said, “I thought it was a great university, a beautiful campus, somewhere I can grow as a person and come out better than I came in.”

The University of Illinois tour will continue Wednesday with a stop at West Leyden High School in Northlake.