I am not someone who runs and hides from the opinions I have had in the past, and I have a doozy about the Illinois football program.

Back in July, I wrote an article about how the Illini class of 2025 is struggling. The article was titled “Transfer portal might be needed to save the Illinois football class of 2025.”

In fairness to myself, at the time of the article, Illinois had the No. 57 class in the country with 13 commitments, and honestly, there weren’t a ton of options on the table.

Over the coming months, Bret Bielema went to work. The coach has his flaws, like everyone else, but he has been able to go out and recruit his butt off, along with the great group of coaches he has assembled.

On Wednesday, early National Signing Day kicked off, and Bielema had a great day. He finished the day with 21 commitments and a national recruiting ranking of No. 43 in the country.

Bielema is on pace for another top-50 class, which would give him four in a row. In 2022, Illinois had a freshman class that ranked No. 46 in the nation. In 2023, we ranked No. 38. And in 2024, we ranked No. 49 in the country.

A top 50 class in 2025 wouldn’t have been possible without the past few weeks of recruiting. It has been a great run for the Illini, and it was capped off with a huge flip on Wednesday.

Just in the past month, Illinois has landed three out of their top seven signees. But there has been a myriad of commitments in this time frame.

It all started with Illinois flipping offensive tackle JJ Hirdes and cornerback Tywan Cox. Bielema was then able to flip linebacker Grant Beerman and offensive lineman Dylan Frechette. And on Wednesday, Illinois flipped running back John Forster. Those were five huge recruiting flips from this coaching staff.

Altogether, Illinois added six commitments in the past four weeks. That is a massive transition for the class of 2025 and one that will pay dividends down the road.

At the end of the day, no one really knows who is going to pan out and who is going to flame out. Recruiting is a tough game, but with recruiting, you have to go with what is on paper.

Illinois’ class of 2025 is quite impressive when you look at the 247Sports Composite Rankings. This lays out where each player is nationally.

Bielema has four recruiting classes under his belt right now with the class of 2025 still finishing up in the coming months. He was tasked with building Illinois from the ground up, so I give him a bit of a pass for the first recruiting class in 2022.

With that said, Illinois’ recruiting has gotten deeper and deeper each year. In 2022, Illinois had nine out of the 26 commitments rank inside the top 1000 nationally. The following two recruiting classes saw a slight bump from that, as the 2023 class had 11 top 1000 recruits and the class of 2024 had 10 top 1000 recruits.

With all 21 commitments signed and a couple of months until the regular National Signing Day, Illinois already has 14 top 1000 recruits onboard. That is a number that Illinois hasn’t had in a long time.

Not only is the quantity where it needs to be for Illinois to be competitive, but now we are starting to get the caliber of player into the program that is needed. Bielema has Illinois football competing on and off the field at a high level.

Illinois and Cook County’s minimum wage will soon go up once again.

Beginning in 2025, the state and county’s minimum wage will officially increase to $15 an hour for non-tipped employees. Tipped employees will increase to $9 an hour.

“Cook County’s minimum wage is determined by whichever is higher in any given year: the Federal minimum wage, Illinois State minimum wage, or a rate calculated by the County using the Consumer Price Index (CPI),” the county said in a release.

The increase is separate from Chicago’s minimum wage, however. The city’s minimum wage changes in July each year and is currently at $16.20 an hour for non-tipped workers.

“This change reflects Cook County’s commitment to advancing health and wealth equity through labor protections that safeguard the County’s most vulnerable workers,” the county said in a release.

County employees are covered by minimum wage ordinance if: 

• They are over the age of 18 and work for an employer in Cook County for at least two hours in any two-week period, and 
• The employer has four or more employees (or employs domestic workers), and 
• The employer maintains a business facility in Cook County or is issued a business license by Cook County. 

A new ranking of the best streets in America for Christmas shopping features several entries from Chicago’s suburbs.

The ranking, compiled by Present.com via a survey for more than 3,000 people, features a total of four streets from the state of Illinois.

Tops among those streets is Woodstock Square in suburban Woodstock, which was ranked as the No. 37 street for Christmas shopping in the U.S.

Woodstock Square is well-known nationally because of its prominent place in the film “Groundhog Day,” where most of the movie was filmed in the early 1990s.

According to “Naturally McHenry County,” the square transforms into a wonderland every holiday season, with lights, locally-owned shops and plenty of cozy restaurants to choose from. Caroling and parades are also part of the holiday fun in the area, according to the website.

Princeton’s Main Street checked in at No. 98, Geneva’s Third Street at No. 100, and Galena’s Main Street was No. 121.

Main Street in Aurora, New York was No. 1 in the rankings, followed by streets in Cooperstown, New York, New Hope, Pennsylvania, Mystic, Connecticut and Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

Madison, Indiana’s Main Street was the top-ranked street in Indiana at No. 51. Broad Street in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin was ranked No. 46, making it the top street in the state.

The ranking aimed to celebrate shopping options that are located close together, celebrating “craftsmanship and artistry” and building “community connections,” according to the website.