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reguardless of who they lost illinois has tasted winning, they know what they need yo do it game, they know what there capable of...they played great football this year with two bad losses this season to mizzou and iowa...

OSU has i believe 15 Junior filing there papers with the NFL draft...Granted not all of them will move on some will, along with your defensive leader in James Laurinaitis....

although i don't really like the arguments that my fellow Illini has posted....i still do believe they will either win the big ten or be in a tie for it...

yeah Laurinaitis will leave, and Tressel will go to the vault where he got James as well as AJ Hawk, and next season you will know some other OSU LB as the stud that "can't be replaced"

also 13 Junoirs put in paperwork, this in NO WAY means that they will not return. Tressel actually advised for them to do it, he has trust in the younger guys.

Steveo, your team IS on the rise. Zook has them going in the right directions, but they aren't going to be the class of the Big 10 just yet.

nehh they are there, they know what they need to do next year. winning this season just showed that team what they are capable of doing..2 key losses on last minute plays was the only reason they weren't out right big ten champs...

i think it will be a tie with OSU or iilinois wins it....but wisco or mich or even mich st for that matter wont contend for it...

bad calls are the only reason OSU didn't run the table, but they lost the game, and that is that. Don't use this if if if if stuff. We could go on for days.

Don't sleep on Michigan, they got the right man for the job. Had they hired Miles you could go on a write them off for another 7 or 8 years.

you know only Purdue and Michigan state will lose more players this offseason than Illinois.

Illinois is quite possibly a preseason Top 10.

Ok bio, but OSU is EASILY the preseason #1

You can't be serious.

If OSU blows this NC again I can't even see them being Top 15.

Even if they win and all these juniors book it putting them at #1 is absurd.

#1 will be like Georgia or Florida.

they return almost every starter, plus they haven't played LSU yet, so where do you get blowout? people are picking USC to blow out the Illini was well, until it happens all it is is talk.

AND YOU ARE LOST IF YOU THINK OSU WON"T BE TOP 15.

Read what I wrote.

If LSU blows out OSU in the NC, and all the juniors leave that people are saying will leave, Beanie Wells or not, OSU will not be Preseason 15.

And if USC actually blows out Illinois it'd be a miracle for USC. Their offense stinks and the last time they played a scrambling QB (Dixon) they lost.

come on schwartz....bad calls???

illinois ran that ball for 8:30 minutes straight to end the game against osu

the game was called by a group of refs that are being let go by the big 10, and you know all of the junk that has gone around that game, THAT SAID A LOSS IS A LOSS!!!! I'm just saying no "what if's", or they were close.

(Illinois beat OSU, I will not argue that at all.)

Know what I mean?

and Bio, I'm telling you that #1 there is NO WAY OSU isn't in the top 15 win lose or otherwise.

Also it takes a ton of "what if's" for your plan anyway.

Bio, look up the stats, Dixon did NOTHING in that game

also Booty was out all year, since he has been back they have been killing folks.

There's 3 "what ifs"

That's not "a ton"

Booty wasn't "out all year". He missed 3 games and was horrible in the loss to Stanford (*insert LOL here*).

They haven't been killing people. The only decent team they blew out was Arizona State.

And DD had a critical rushing TD. Oregon won by that TD.

yeah bit it is 3 BIG "what ifs"

here are some other what ifs
-What if Dixon never got hurt?
-What if Booty of USC never got hurt?
-What if App State doesn't block the FG?
-What if Florida took Tebow out when they blew teams out?

wait I can answer that last one, McFadden would be dusting off his heisman right now.

The point is, you can't base things on "what if"

I don't know about Booty not getting hurt, he sure did suck at times when he played.

bio I'm going to admit that I thought he was out longer, don't watch much USC football.

If you ask me I think Illinois and OSU will win their bowl games. LSU isn't as good as everyone gives them credit. They played 1 good game (vs VT), outside of that I see a team that lost to 2 average teams, and that got a scare from some less than average teams (Alabama, and Ole Miss to name 2)