So I was sitting around yesterday thinking about football season coming up, when I wondered how Illinois actually stacks up against Oregon. Those flashy Ducks get so much attention! Figured I’d dig into the actual numbers myself, since I trust my own digging more than some talking head.
The Starting Point
First thing, I fired up my laptop. My go-to spot is usually the official NCAA stats site, because it usually has the raw numbers. But wouldn’t you know it? Their historical search was acting funky, kept timing out. Typical. So I had to jump around – checked the Illinois athletic site archives, the Oregon one, and even some old school sports reference databases. It took way longer than it should have, honestly. Found myself muttering “just give me the darn records!” at the screen a few times.
The Nitty-Gritty Number Crunching
Okay, deep breath. Here’s what I actually did to get those head-to-head stats straight:
- Dug Back to the Old Days: Had to find the very first meeting. Turns out, that was way back in 1958! Found the box score buried deep. Illinois won that one, 14-13. Pretty cool bit of history.
- Mapped Out Every Clash: Listed every single game year by year – 1958, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969, 1988, 1990, and then the recent ones in 2015. Had to cross-reference dates on multiple pages to make sure I didn’t miss one. Felt like detective work.
- Tallied the Wins and Losses: Simple but tedious. Went through each result one by one. Illinois win? Tick. Oregon win? Tick. Added them all up at the end.
- Point Totals: The Painful Part Added the scores for each team across all those games. Counting points for Illinois… counting points for Oregon… double-checked my math because numbers started swimming. Pencils out? Yeah, literally used pencil and paper for this bit.
Honestly, the recent games were easier to find – ESPN’s archive was actually helpful for once. But those older ones? Man, that was a slog through digital dust bunnies.
What Popped Out
Okay, here’s the juice:
- Total Games Played: Counted ’em up myself – 9 meetings. Feels like they should play more!
- Illinois Wins: My tally showed Illinois won 4 times.
- Oregon Wins: And Oregon came out on top 5 times.
- Points! Added all Illinois points ever scored against Oregon: 146 points. Added all Oregon points against Illinois: 177 points. Oregon has the edge here too.
- Last Meeting: Looked it up – that was 2015, in Champaign. Final score? Illinois 28, Oregon 52. Ouch for us Illini fans.
Big picture? It’s super close historically! One win difference. Oregon nudges ahead overall. But you gotta remember – Oregon has been a national powerhouse recently, while we’ve been… rebuilding. That 2015 score kinda shows that gap clearly.
Wrapping It Up & Random Thoughts
After putting all the numbers in a spreadsheet (finally!), I just stared at it. Nine games. One win apart. Feels like a rivalry begging to happen, right? Someone should schedule them again soon! And hey, the process itself was kinda fun, even with the website struggles. Felt satisfying getting the straight facts myself. Weirdly got sidetracked comparing old helmet designs… Oregon’s yellow and green versus Illinois’ classic blue and orange. Both look sharp, gotta admit!
