Good Morning, Illini Nation: When will we see a full schedule?

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Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team and college basketball at large:

The announcement of an official date for Illinois' showdown with Duke at Madison Square Garden was just further reminder that it's mid-August, and the full 2024-25 Illini schedule is ... still not out.

There are big games to be played. In addition to Duke, Illinois will face Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee. Plus Missouri. Also Eastern Illinois and Oakland for a second straight season.

But that's just seven of 11 non-conference games. While I regularly peruse BartTorvik.com just for fun, I hadn't noticed that he'd added three more noconference opponents to Illinois' schedule in SIU Edwardsville, Maryland Eastern Shore and Little Rock. Those games — plus EIU and Oakland — aren't yet official, but they track in terms of the level of opponent expected to visit Champaign.

So that leaves just one unknown nonconference game. Maybe a Colgate-caliber team to juice the early schedule with something other than low-major, 300-plus ranked opponents.

But how about releasing the whole schedule? Get those 20 Big Ten games officially lined up. It's at least worth considering since the first games of the 2024-24 season are just 82 days away.