Coach Bret Bielema's Illinois Fighting Illini football team is 5-3 on the season, 3-2 in the Big Ten and hovering near the top of the 18-team conference in a logjam with five other teams for fifth place. 

The Illini are a half-game behind the USC Trojans for fourth place as they prepare to welcome coach Matt Rhule's Nebraska Cornhuskers to Gies Memorial Stadium for an 8:00 pm ET kickoff on Friday night.

Prior to the game, Bielema addressed an abrupt scheduling turn athletic director Josh Whitman made that gave the Fighting Illini one of its toughest non-conference opponents in years, Marcus Freeman's Notre Dame Fighting Irish, for the 2027 season. 

Bielema spoke about Illinois' 2027 schedule during which he revealed that the Fighting Illini originally had a game scheduled against the Missouri Tigers, which was later replaced by Eastern Illinois. Eastern Illinois was then replaced with Notre Dame, whom Illinois will play on Sept. 4, 2027. 

The information was shared by Carson Gourdie of WCIA-3 Champaign. 

"We moved off Missouri almost two months ago...Had subbed in Eastern Illinois because the world of college football (was) a little different back then," Bielema said. 

The College Football Playoff reached a "handshake" agreement on a 24-team playoff on October 16 that is expected to start in 2027. The increased chances to reach the Playoff gave Bielema and Whitman incentive to play tougher competition in 2027. 

"I think this is a great example of what this 24-team playoff format can do...They would have never agreed to it," Bielema said about Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua, Freeman and the Fighting Irish. 

"I'm sure we probably wouldn't have agreed to it unless this (24-team playoff agreement) happened." 

The Notre Dame-Illinois college football series dates back to October 8, 1898, a game that the Fighting Irish won by a score of 5-0 in Champaign. Illinois has never beaten the Irish in football and currently holds a 0-11-1 all-time record against them.

The last meeting between the two teams came on October 19, 1968, when No. 6 Notre Dame beat Illinois, 58-8, in South Bend, Ind. 

The Fighting Illini's 2027 non-conference schedule also includes two teams they will be heavy favorites against, the Florida International Panthers and Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens. 

The Panthers are 3-5 so far this season, tied for eighth place in Conference USA, while the Blue Hens are 4-4, third place in the same conference. 

Notre Dame is currently 7-1 on the season, its lone loss to the BYU Cougars in Provo, Utah, and in the driver's seat for a 2026 College Football Playoff spot with No. 1 Miami on the schedule for Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.