Illinois' Bret Bielema illustrates how transfers, NIL have leveled competition after taking shot at SEC: 'They kind of want to live in 2005 forever'

A remark in Bret Bielema’s introductory statement Tuesday at Big Ten Media Days lingered until he was asked about it. When the question arrived minutes later, he knew what he had done.

“Well, I think I just made the headline, right?”

Yes, but not only that — the sixth-year Illinois head coach also stoked the flames of a fiery debate about college football’s most dominant conference.

While at the podium discussing the sport’s ever-changing landscape, Bielema conveyed his excitement about the state of both his program and the game overall. Soon after that, he took a swing at the SEC, the conference he coached in for five seasons from 2013-17 as Arkansas’ frontman.

“They kind of want to live in 2005 forever,” he noted mid-sentence. That line followed Bielema touting the vision of Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and acknowledging that his former commissioner, Greg Sankey, has to protect the SEC.

Notably, Sankey has opposed the 24-team College Football Playoff format that Petitti has stumped for. Sankey’s criticism of that expanded model has party revolved around its potential to negatively affect the sanctity of the regular season.

Agreeing to a 24-team field would likely mean giving up the SEC title game, too.

“I think the forward thinking of where we are in college football is an awesome thing,” said Bielema, who has led the Fighting Illini to their first back-to-back nine-plus-win seasons in program history.

Bielema first enjoyed Big Ten success as Wisconsin’s head coach. He held that position from 2006-12 and was a responsible for a 68-24 record over his seven-season run that resulted in a pair of Rose Bowl berths.

“Well, I became a head coach in 2006, so I was going back before I was a head coach purposely,” Bielema said, when explaining his head-turning comment about the SEC on Tuesday.

2005 and prior, in Bielema’s eyes, “is just a different time in college football.” The most recent era, from 2021-on specifically, features a stark contrast.

“Basically the two biggest things, the biggest components are the transfer portal and revenue share, NIL, however you want to describe it — when those two elements came into college football, the whole world changed,” he said.

Bielema went on to speak about how history can mask the present, demonstrating that phenomenon by recounting how, when the Big Ten was split into “Legends” and “Leaders” divisions in 2011, the distribution of certain schools such as Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Nebraska was emphasized, whereas his own program at the time, a thriving one at Wisconsin, was disrespected, he felt.

“I believe they looked at the last 50 years up to that point,” Bielema said. “And of course, 50 years time, Wisconsin wasn't anywhere in the mix, but in the last 20 years when we took that data, the only other team that had won more games than Wisconsin was Ohio State.”

In other words, things change faster than reputations. The SEC maintains its spot among the college football mountaintop. At the moment, however, the Big Ten lays claim to the past three national championships.

And, as SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee’s reiterated at ACC Kickoff the last couple years, there lately hasn’t been as much depth at the top of the SEC as the conference’s pedigree might suggest.

“So I just kind of take that in a way that it's a different world, man,” Bielema said, continuing to elaborate on his eye-catching quote at Hilton Chicago.

“The last three years — the quarterback I have now, we would not have gotten in the world that existed five years ago. I know that. Neither would my left tackle, my left guard, my center, and my right tackle wouldn't be here playing for me. And you go around to every team, and the rosters have changed because of those two components: the transfer rule and revenue share. It's a different world. Anything beyond that is nonsense.”