The Fighting Illini are the football team of the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. They compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the NCAA and play in the West Division of the Big Ten Conference.
Illinois claims 5 national titles, the most recent awarded in 1951, and 15 conference titles. After beginning as an independent school in 1890, the Fighting Illini joined the Big Ten Conference (then known as the Western conference) in 1896. Since then, Illinois has won 15 Big Ten championships, 8 outright and 7 shared with other teams. The team's latest conference victory came in 2001, when the Fighting Illini finished the season with a 7-1 conference record.
Northwestern and Purdue are among Illinois's biggest rivals on the football field.
The Fighting Illini play their home games at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, which has a capacity of 60,670.
