Penn State and Illinois have not met since a wild 2021 matchup in Happy Valley, but the two sides will meet in Champaign during the Week 3 slate of games. That matchup will feature James Franklin’s program as a heavy road favorite.

On Sunday, Circa Sports dropped its opening lines for the major games in Week 3. The Nittany Lions — off to a 2-0 start — opened as -14 against the Illini despite playing as the road team in the game.

The two sides have not played each other since 2021, a wild 9-OT affair that featured Illinois upsetting Penn State in Happy Valley. That game featured just two touchdowns and 5 scoreless periods of OT before Illinois finally finished off a 20-18 win in the 9th OT period.

This time around, it is not hard to see why Penn State will be favored, regardless of where the game is played. The Nittany Lions are averaging 50.5 points per game across a 2-0 start with Drew Allar looking electric at QB.

Allar has already thrown for 500 yards with 5 total touchdowns and is completing nearly 80% of his passes. Nicholas Singleton has also rushed for 4 touchdowns, setting the table for a tough matchup for Bret Bielema’s program.

After producing a stout defense a season ago, Illinois has surrendered 28+ points in both games to open the season, including a Week 2 loss to Kansas. With the departure of DC Ryan Walters and a number of key pieces to the NFL, the Illini are in need of a number of players to step up this fall.