Rice, Hardy on College Football Hall of Fame ballot again
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Jun. 1—CHAMPAIGN — The Illinois football program already has had 18 members enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Two former Illini standouts will try to join that elite group later this year. Simeon Rice and Kevin Hardy are once again on the 2027 ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame, hoping to join former Illini like Moe Gardner and Dana Howard among recent former Illinois defensive stalwarts who have been elected.
Gardner, a two-time consensus All-American defensive tackle and 1990 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, went into the Hall of Fame in 2022. Howard, the Big Ten's all-time leading tackler and 1994 Butkus Award winner, was elected in 2018.
Rice and Hardy put up equally impressive numbers during their time in Champaign-Urbana more than three decades ago.
Rice, a Chicago Mount Carmel product who played at Illinois from 1992-95, compiled a program-record and Big Ten-record 44 1/2 sacks with the Illini. He was a two-time First Team All-American and three-time First Team All-Big Ten selection. Rice went on to a 12-year NFL career after the Arizona Cardinals chose him with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1996 NFL draft.
Hardy, a native of Evansville, Ind., won the 1995 Butkus Award after producing 105 tackles, 11 sacks and three interceptions that season. He was a consensus First Team All-American pick in 1995 and a two-time First Team All-Big Ten honoree. Hardy went on to a nine-year NFL career after the Jacksonville Jaguars selected him with the No. 2 overall pick in the 1996 NFL draft.
The 2027 College Football Hall of Fame ballot includes 80 players and nine coaches from the FBS ranks, along with 99 players and 39 coaches from the NCAA divisional and NAIA ranks.
Last year, 18 former players and four coaches were inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
The announcement of the 2027 College Football Hall of Fame Class will be made in early 2027, with specific details to be announced in the future. The class will be officially inducted next year during the 69th National Football Foundations annual awards dinner in Las Vegas and permanently immortalized at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
If either Rice or Hardy, or both, get chosen in this year's College Football Hall of Fame, they'll join the following former Illini in the College Football Hall of Fame:
— Moe Gardner, Class of 2022
— Dana Howard, Class of 2018
— David Williams, Class of 2005
— Al Brosky, Class of 1998
— Jim Grabowski, Class of 1995
— Pete Elliott, Class of 1993
— Bob Blackman, Class of 1987
— Dick Butkus, Class of 1983
— Bernie Shively, Class of 1982
— J.C. Caroline, Class of 1980
— Bart Macomber, Class of 1972
— Claude 'Buddy' Young, Class of 1968
— Chuck Carney, Class of 1966
— George W. Woodruff, Class of 1963
— Alex Agase, Class of 1963
— Robert Zuppke, Class of 1951
— Edward K. Hall, Class of 1951
— Red Grange, Class of 1951
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