Rutgers vs. Illinois prediction: Why Illinois is favored to win men's college basketball matchup [1/8/2026]

Men's college basketball action continues on Thursday at 8:30 PM ET as Rutgers faces off with the favored Illinois in men's college basketball action at State Farm Center.

Based on the latest simulation results, Dimers' advanced college basketball model projects Illinois as the most likely winner of the Rutgers vs. Illinois game.

This article offers an expanded analysis of Thursday's matchup, including an expanded look at the predicted score, best bets and picks.

Rutgers vs. Illinois prediction: Who will win and cover?

Using trusted machine learning and statistical analysis, we have simulated the outcome of Thursday's NCAA basketball game between Rutgers and Illinois 10,000 times as part of our men's college basketball predictions coverage.

Our independent predictive model currently gives Illinois a 97% chance of beating Rutgers. Our predicted final score has Illinois winning 88-64.

According to our model, Illinois (-22.5) has a 53% chance of covering the spread, while the over/under total of 149.5 points has a 56% chance of going over.

Rutgers vs. Illinois odds

We have researched the best men's college basketball odds in America for this game, which are listed here:

All odds are correct at the time of publication and are subject to change.

Rutgers vs. Illinois picks and best bet

After matching our predictions against the best current odds, we can reveal our picks for each of the major markets. Plus, find our best bet for the game below: