Indiana-Illinois and under-the-radar games in the College Football Playoff hunt - ESPN

Two teams are set to meet Saturday night in front of a full-throated, sold-out crowd, with NBC broadcasting the game to a national audience.

One team made the College Football Playoff in 2024, and remains a lightning rod for reaction around the sport. The other won 10 games last season, finished No. 16 in the AP poll and returns an accomplished group of stars on both sides of the ball. Both coaches have won championships and individual awards, including a sweep of the 2024 national coaching honors for one, and neither is boring behind a microphone. Both teams invested greatly in their quarterbacks, veteran transfers with NFL aspirations and are featuring two of the nation's top pass rushers. They enter this week ranked Nos. 13 and 16, respectively, in colleague Bill Connelly's SP+ ratings, ahead of LSU, Michigan and others.

There are enough boxes checked to place Saturday's matchup on the national radar, capturing interest from beyond the two fan bases, their shared region and even their stretched-out conference. But here's the twist: The teams are the Indiana Hoosiers and Illinois Fighting Illini. Indiana won a team-record 11 games last season but still has the most losses (715) in FBS history. Illinois is seeking consecutive 10-win seasons for the first time in team history, as well as its first AP top 10 finish since 1989. Illinois-Indiana hasn't been a matchup of ranked teams since 1950 — «I was shocked at that,» Illinois coach Bret Bielema said — and Saturday will mark the first game of AP top-20 teams in Bloomington, Indiana, since 1987.

The pairing of teams might not scream national showcase, even though the evidence behind the pairing does.

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