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Hardy accepted a football scholarship from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. As a redshirt freshman, he had 67 tackles (third on the team), 4 sacks and 7 tackles for loss.As a sophomore, he started all 11 games at "drop" linebacker. He totaled 78 tackles (fourth on the team), 2 sacks, 8 tackles for loss, 2 passes defensed and one forced fumble.As a junior, he registered 80 tackles (8 for loss), one sack, 2 interceptions and one pass defended. During his time at Illinois, the Fighting Illini had a number of outstanding linebackers. In the 1994 season, the four linebackers in coach Lou Tepper's 3–4 defense were Hardy, fellow Butkus Award winner Dana Howard, Simeon Rice and John Holecek. Because of this, Hardy was often overlooked, as he was not prolific in accumulating tackles like Howard, or in quarterback sacks as was Rice, who as a "rush linebacker" played on the line of scrimmage like a defensive end.As a senior, he was recognized as being among the very best linebackers in college football, winning the Dick Butkus Award and receiving consensus first-team All-American honors. He started every game at "drop" linebacker, finishing with 105 tackles (second on the team), 11 sacks, 15 tackles for loss, 5 forced fumbles, 3 interceptions (tied for the team lead) and 3 passes defensed. He had 18 tackles (13 solo) against Michigan State University. He made 3 sacks against Indiana University.Hardy finished his career ranked ninth on the Illinois All-time list with 330 tackles, fourth in sacks with 18, and fourth in tackles for loss with 38.