Bye Week Tradition: 2026 Three Deep
Bye week thought I was pondering this morning: what if we had an afternoon or evening game scheduled yesterday?
It basically hasn't rained in Champaign since July. A few spot showers here and there (and by "here and there" I mean "rain a few weeks ago followed by 16 more days with zero precipitation") but for the most part, it's the worst drought in decades. Decatur even reached "stop watering your lawns the lake level is too low". For those of you who live in California, that's just called "Thursday" but for those of us in East Central Illinois, this is the worst drought since the 1980's. We even went red on the NWS drought chart:
Again, that never happens here. I just looked on the NWS charts and in the last 60 days (since August 20th) there have only been five days with any measurable precipitation. September and October, in Central Illinois, essentially with 55 sunny days. That won't happen again for the next 50 years.
It has meant that the Saturdays in Champaign continue to be glorious. The tailgating? Incredible. All four home games have had perfect weather (maybe a little too hot, if I can be picky). Rain hasn't been a concern at all. Even last season the weather was perfect. Especially for the Michigan game (one year ago today).
Yesterday was a different story. Yesterday it rained and rained and rained. It started around 4:00 pm and continued all night. So can you imagine if the Ohio State game was yesterday? Or if we had some big 2:30 kickoff yesterday like the Michigan game last year? Worse yet, if we had a night game scheduled in Champaign against a ranked opponent?
My point is simple. This was a bye week. Here's been the weather in Champaign for each week of the college football season:
Week One: Sunny and perfect
Week Two: Sunny and perfect
Week Three: Sunny and perfect
Week Four: Sunny and perfect
Week Five: Sunny and perfect
Week Six: Sunny and perfect
Week Seven: Sunny and perfect
Week Eight: Close to two inches of rain
Our bye week? Week Eight.
ANYWAY, it's the bye week, which means two things. 1) I give my brain a break (this time with 84% more golf!) and 2) I put out the depth chart for next season. And I'll be honest - I haven't really been wanting to write this one this week. I know that we lose a lot (the quarterback and the offensive line for starters), so I don't really want to put out a depth chart that makes all of us say "who?".