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Why not add some more Friday night fun to the schedule?
Illinois did just that on Thursday.
The American Athletic Conference announced that Illinois and USF moved up their original Sept. 16 kickoff to Sept. 15, which is a Friday night:
🚨 SCHEDULE ALERT 🚨
AAC has announced that #Illini game at @USFFootball now on Friday night, Sept. 15. (Was originally Sat. 9/16) pic.twitter.com/LZSj81eoOB
— Illinois Football (@IlliniFootball) February 9, 2017
Lovie Smith’s return to Tampa got more interesting this offseason with the news that USF hired former Texas coach Charlie Strong. USF is in ESPN’s way-too-early top 25 for 2017.
Illinois’ lone non-conference road game will be against the Bulls. The Illini will host Ball State and Western Kentucky and end non-conference play with the tilt in Tampa.
Illinois will actually open B1G play with a Friday night game against Nebraska on Sept. 29, but the Illini have a bye week sandwiched in between the two contests.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.