Illinois coach Bret Bielema took another swing at the SEC on Tuesday at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago, and this one came with a line built to travel.
“The SEC … they kind of want to live in 2005 forever,” Bielema said.
The comment landed as a clear jab, even before he unpacked it later in the press conference. When asked to explain, Bielema pointed to how college football has changed since he became a head coach in 2006.
“Well, I think I just made the headline, right?" he said.
"I became a head coach in 2006. So I was going back before I was a head coach, purposely.
… I went to the SEC, and it was a completely different league, in my opinion, than the Big Ten.
“The two biggest things: 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.
It’s overly obvious to say that, but I think anything to predate that is just a different time in college football. It just is."
Bielema then shifted to a story from his Wisconsin days, when he said the Big Ten wanted to keep funneling attention toward Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan and Nebraska even though the Badgers had been the league’s second-winningest team over the previous 20 years, behind only Ohio State.
His larger point was that college football has always leaned heavily on brand power. Programs with decades of success carry weight with recruits, and that reputation can shape decisions long before a player ever steps on campus. Bielema said that dynamic wasn’t the same for everyone, though, and he used one recruiting example to make it.
“I recruited a young man, Hjalte Froholdt,” Bielema said. “He was from Denmark.
And Hjalte was a foreign exchange student in Ohio. I offered him a scholarship, and then he went on a tour.
I was at Arkansas, and we hadn’t won anything at that point. … He went and visited Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, Michigan - all these premier programs.
And he came to Arkansas, in my opinion, because he wasn’t blinded by the 50 years he didn’t know - or the 18 years he’d been alive on this Earth because he’d been in Denmark.”
Bielema’s argument is that the old prestige gap mattered a lot more before the transfer portal and NIL changed the sport. In his view, those shifts have made the landscape much more even, even if bluebloods like Ohio State and Michigan still carry their usual pull.
He said the last few years have proven as much inside his own program.
“It’s a different world, man,” Bielema said. “The last three years - the quarterback I have now, we would not have gotten if [it was] 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. That’s where I’m coming from.”
In Other News...
Bret Bielema Just Reopened A Wisconsin Respect Debate Fans Know Well
Bret Bielema was back in familiar territory at Big Ten Media Days, using the spotlight to revisit an old Wisconsin conversation from a new perch as Illinois head coach. The former Badgers coach took aim at the SEC while also reflecting on how the sport has shifted around him, arguing that NIL has changed the balance of power and made college football feel less locked into the old hierarchy.
For Wisconsin fans, the more familiar part of the message was the reminder that Bielema still sees the Badgers as a program that did plenty of winning without always getting the same credit as the leagues biggest brands. He pointed back to his time in Madison and the way Wisconsins success was often measured against the louder names in the Big Ten, a familiar gripe for a fan base that has spent years wondering how much respect the program really gets. [Read more 🡒]
Johnny Davis Just Took A Career Turn Badgers Fans Feared
Johnny Davis next stop comes with a very different kind of spotlight than the one that followed him out of Madison. The former Wisconsin star, once a top-10 NBA draft pick and a former All-American, is heading into a new season after a pro run that never matched the promise of his college days, when he was one of the most decorated players in the country and a Big Ten Player of the Year.
After limited opportunities and modest production in the NBA, Davis had already spent time with the Wisconsin Herd in the G League, where he showed more of the scoring and activity that made him such an appealing prospect. Now he is taking the next step in trying to reset his career, and the move says plenty about how far the arc has shifted from the expectations that once surrounded him in Wisconsin. [Read more 🡒]
Badgers Fans Wont Love What National Buzz Says About John Blackwell
John Blackwells move from Wisconsin to Duke already stung for Badgers fans, and the national chatter around his future in Durham only adds to it. CBS Sports analyst Isaac Trotter has been floating the idea that the former Wisconsin guard could become a major piece of Dukes offense, the kind of player who helps shape what that group looks like in 2026-27.
For Wisconsin, the frustrating part is not just that Blackwell left, but that the projection speaks to how much upside he still carries. Duke is being discussed as a team with a loaded backcourt and plenty of offensive options, while Badgers fans are left to wonder what Blackwell might have meant in Madison if he had stayed put. [Read more 🡒]