The Big Reveal

 Your undefeated and untried Indiana Hoosiers welcome Illinois to Bloomington tonight for a primetime tilt, and at last, finally and unequivocally, we'll find out if they can actually play. 

This is because the 19th-ranked Hoosiers are not playing a team they paid to come get their heads kicked in, but someone in their own tax bracket. The Illini, after all, are also undefeated, and ranked ninth. It'll be the first time Indiana and Illinois have faced one another as ranked teams since 1950, when Harry Truman was president and football players were named Deno and Milford and Merritt and Elie. 

There've been a lot of dry years since for the Hoosiers and Illini, and but lately. Indiana, of course, went 11-1 in Curt Cignetti's first season and made it inside the College Football Playoff ropes a year ago. The Illini put up a 9-3 record in Bret Bielema's first season in Champaign and then beat South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl to get to double digits in Ws.

So far this season, the Illini are also largely untried, although they did laminate Duke, an actual Power 4 school, 45-19 on the road. In their other two games, they smooshed a pair of directionals (Western Illinois and Western Michigan) by a combined score of 90-3.

Needless to say, all this feasting on lesser mortals has resulted in some impressive numbers for both of tonight's pugilists. The Hoosiers, thanks in large part to blowouts of outmanned Kennesaw State and Indiana State, are averaging 52 points and 591.7 yards per game. Illinois is averaging 45 and 405.7.

Both are ranked in the top 15 in the country in points and points allowed per drive. Neither has played a team ranked higher than 65th by whatever formula the slide-rule boys use to determine who's good and who's not.

Which makes tonight a bowl game, sort of. 

Ladies and gents, welcome to the Big Reveal Bowl. Or the Maybe Bowl, if you prefer.

As in: Maybe Indiana and Illinois really are as good as all that. Maybe at least one of is not. Stay tuned.