
This story appeared in Illini Insider, a weekly feature reported and written by Editor Jeff D'Alessio and designed by News Editor Joel Leizer in Tuesday's News-Gazette. Click here to subscribe to The News-Gazette.

Megyn Kelly
1 loose campus connection to Time magazine’s just-released 2025 “100 Most Influential People” list. While there were no UI grads on this year’s list — as in 2019 (Jeanne Gang), 2014 (Katharine Hayhoe), 2012 (Freeman Hrabowski), 2010 (Temple Grandin), 2009 (Suze Orman) and 2006 (Ang Lee) — the controversial daughter of a little-known UI alum made the cut.
Edward Kelly earned his doctor of education from Illinois in 1971 — one semester after wife Linda gave birth here to the couple’s third child. They named her Megyn.

New UI students fill the west-side lower stands during August's Sights and Sounds event at Memorial Stadium.
2 students enrolled at Illinois from the countries of Barbados, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, Gambia, Libya, Malta, Nicaragua, Portugal and Tunisia, according to Illinois International's fall report.
In all, 125 countries are represented on the U.S. campus with the sixth-highest number of foreign-born students. Of the 12,474, 4,961 are pursuing their bachelor’s degrees, 3,503 their master’s, 3,456 their doctorates.

Lee Corso made the right call in 2010.
3 wins, 5 losses — Lee Corso's record as Indiana’s 10-year head football coach against Illini teams led by Bob Blackman, Gary Moeller and Mike White.
Better known for his antics off the field, the 89-year-old Corso announced late last week that he’ll retire from ESPN after Week 1 of the 2025 season, ending a tradition of closing “College GameDay” by putting on the headgear of the team he picked to win the national game of the day.
Two of his 431 predictions since 1996 involved Illinois, with Corso correctly calling the 2008 Rose Bowl loss to USC and a 2010 rout of Northwestern at Wrigley Field.

Brad Underwood, Josh Whitman and Shauna Green join The News-Gazette sportswriters for 'Monday Night SportsTalk' at the Esquire.
4th — where Robert Jones' successor will check in on the campus compensation list should the UI’s next chancellor start on the high end of the advertised rate ($800,000 to $950,000).
The six employees who’ll be above or within that range in 2025-26, not including retention bonuses: football’s Bret Bielema ($6.3 million), men’s basketball’s Brad Underwood ($4.4 million), athletic director Josh Whitman ($1.5 million), men’s basketball assistant Orlando Antigua ($925,000), women’s basketball’s Shauna Green ($925,000) and football offensive coordinator Barry Lunney ($825,000).

5 years, $51,257,189 — the terms of the UI athletic department’s renewed contract with Texas-based Anthony Travel, LLC, which is to “provide comprehensive travel agency services as well as a dedicated full-time in-house representative(s) located on site.”
The arrangement, approved by UI trustees at their last meeting, allows for “high-level customer service, online reservation capabilities and cost savings related to travel expenses.” The self-described “nation’s leading provider of university and sports travel management services,” with over 95 athletic departments as clients, “will not be responsible for any local travel, commercial air or NCAA travel when directed by the NCAA.”

Devon Witherspoon, left, smiles alongside NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell after the former Illini All-American was taken fifth overall by the Seattle Seahawks in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft at Union Station in Kansas City, Mo.
6 Illini who heard their names called in the first round of the NFL Draft since the turn of the century, a list that’s not expected to grow Thursday night at Lambeau Field.
That’s tied with Maryland for 10th-most in the expanded Big Ten, behind Ohio State (41), USC (27), Michigan (20), Penn State (16), Washington and Wisconsin (15 apiece), Iowa and Oregon (13), and UCLA (10), and ahead of Michigan State and Northwestern (5), Purdue (4), Minnesota and Rutgers (3), and Indiana (zilch).

Theopolies Moton
7 individuals and one organization that will be honored at Thursday’s annual Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center Ebony Excellence Awards ceremony. The honors go to people, programs and groups whose “labor and contributions transform Black student life” at the university and in the community.
Among the honorees: College of Education teaching assistant professor Theopolies Moton, winner of the Faculty Member of the Year Award.

Jayden Epps is on the move again — the former Illini announced this week he'll transfer from Georgetown.
8.9 average points per game for the dozen Underwood era scholarship transfers who suited up for teams other than Illinois in 2024-25: Dain Dainja (14.1 at Memphis), Jayden Epps (12.8 at Georgetown), Coleman Hawkins (10.7 at Kansas State), Andre Curbelo (9.8 at Southern Miss), Amani Hansberry (9.8 at West Virginia), Adam Miller (9.8 at Arizona State), Luke Goode (9.1 at Indiana), R.J. Melendez (8.8 at Mississippi State), Skyy Clark (8.5 at UCLA), Nicco Moretti (6.4 at Florida Atlantic), Sencire Harris (5.9 at West Virginia) and Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk (1.1 at South Carolina).

UI grad Paul Rudolph is the Emmy-winning music editor for ‘Sesame Street.’
9 all-star alums and supporters who’ll be honored during homecoming week in September and whose stories we’ll tell in the months ahead: Bradley Harris (’95) and Grandin (’89), winners of the Alumni Achievement Award; Louis Margaglione (’92), Lou Liay Spirit Award; Tracey (’76) and Stephanie Campbell (’77), Diversity & Inclusion Award; Adham Sahloul (’15), Young Alumni Award; Doug Nelson, Distinguished Service Award; and Annie Crawley (’90) and Paul Rudolph (’89), Illini Comeback Award.

10 so-called “Public New Ivies” — Forbes’ list of the 10 schools that are “stepping up to educate the country’s brightest students and graduating the talent employers seek.” Illinois made the cut, along with Army, Georgia Tech, Michigan, North Carolina, Pitt, Purdue, Texas, Virginia and William & Mary.