2019 wrap-up
Illinois wrapped up its best season since the Ron Zook era. A bowl win would have been a great way to cap it off, but this was still a great season for the Illini, relatively speaking. Illinois has been slowly and steadily improving under Lovie Smith. The ceiling for this program is probably six or seven wins, especially with basically the entire Big Ten West improving as the schools hire top-level coaches. Still, Smith has done great to just to get Illinois to 6-6 this year, especially with a big upset win over Wisconsin. Beat the teams the should and get an upset next year, and the Illini could flirt with a ranked season.
2020 Impact
This game doesn’t affect the Big Ten at all for 2020, really. It doesn’t affect Illinois either. The Illini have a very easy nonconference schedule in 2020. Any half-decent Power 5 team (or any Power 5 team other than Rutgers or maybe Arkansas) should go 3-0 against this schedule.
Illinois is not at a point where it has a bigger goal than going 6-6 and reaching a bowl game. The three nonconference games can be penciled in as wins. Games against Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ohio State (and probably Iowa too) are almost guaranteed losses. That means that Illinois needs to go 3-2 against Rutgers, Nebraska, Purdue, Indiana, and Northwestern next year to go bowling.
Would it have been easier to get back to six wins with a bowl win this year? Maybe. It’s hard to gauge the recruiting impact that could have on a school like Illinois. It’s definitely a missed opportunity, but how much of an opportunity it ever was we might not really know. Still, if Illinois can play anywhere near as well this coming year as this past year, the Illini will get another chance to rectify this missed opportunity.