Illinois beating Wisconsin is biggest upset in college football in 2019

Happy Homecoming Illinois, you just had the biggest upset in college football this year with a last-second win over Wisconsin.

Down goes another unbeaten as Illinois got a field goal as time expired to hand Wisconsin their first loss of the year and send the Big Ten West standings into chaos. This is the biggest upset in college football so far this year as the 28.5-point underdogs pulled off the improbable win at home. It was also their first win vs. a ranked Big Ten opponent since 2007.

It was homecoming for the Illini but few die-hard fans could have anticipated seeing the home team emerge victoriously. But this is why college football is the greatest sport in the world. You never know when an underdog is going to pull off an upset win quite like this.

James McCourt drilling the field goal for the win, after missing a kick earlier in the game, will be the big man on campus the rest of the night and all weekend. He’s a campus legend as his leg sent home Wisconsin back to Madison and gave Lovie Smith a signature win and perhaps some momentum heading into the second half of their schedule.

Wisconsin may have got caught looking ahead to next week’s game with Ohio State. It’s a classic look-ahead game and Illinois took advantage. The Illini clearly wanted it more and were focused and ready to beat their opponent in front of them. It looked like Wisconsin was thinking they’d have no trouble with Illinois and they’d be able to sit for much of the second half and begin preparing for Justin Fields, Chase Young and the Buckeyes.

Now?

Wisconsin has lost control of the Big Ten West where undefeated Minnesota is in the driver’s seat. They have Rutgers later today so unless the Scarlet Knights pull off an even bigger upset than what Illinois just did, it’ll be the Golden Gophers who control their own destiny.

The Badgers can always regroup with an upset win at Ohio State but after seeing what they did vs. Illinois in Champaign, it’s fair to wonder if this team can stay within 17 points of the Buckeyes.

Champaign-Urbana is going to be the happiest place in the Midwest for the rest of the weekend after pulling off an upset that shocked the college football world and may have saved Lovie Smith’s job in the process.

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