Illinois' Bret Bielema Takes Another Shot at SEC: 'They Want to Live in 2005 Forever'

It hasn’t even been a week since Bret Bielema fired a shot at former Alabama head coach Nick Saban and the entire SEC. But on Tuesday at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago, Bielema squeezed off another – this one aimed squarely at the conference and its backers:

“The SEC … they kind of want to live in 2005 forever,” Bielema said.

What did Bret Bielema's SEC dig at 2026 Big Ten Media Days mean?

Confused? Don’t worry. We all needed a bit of context. The meaning of that statement wasn’t immediately clear, but the notion that it was a not-so-subtle dig at the SEC didn’t get lost in translation. Fortunately, probed by a follow-up question later in the press conference, Bielema dove in deeper:

“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."

He then shared a story about his time at Wisconsin and the Big Ten’s desire to prioritize distribution across Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan and Nebraska, despite the Badgers having been the second winningest team in the league over the previous 20 years (behind only the Buckeyes).

Long story short: At that time, the Big Ten, like the rest of the college football world, was laser-focused on historical pedigree. All of those aforementioned programs had enjoyed decades of success – Bielema used the number of 50 years – compared to a more recent surge for the Badgers.

Bielema’s point: The college football world has always put a lot of stock into name-brand value. High school players spent their entire pre-college lives having the reputation of college football programs drilled into their heads, which often played a large role in their eventual decisions. But not all had the same experience.

“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.”

The takeaway: If it wasn’t for the historical weight that "prestige" programs carry – which any high school football player born and raised in America is inevitably aware of – the playing field is more or less level.

And the transfer portal and NIL has quickly flattened it in just a few seasons. Sure, Ohio State is still Ohio State and Michigan is still Michigan. But would Indiana have won that national title in the non-NIL era? That would be a hard no. Bielema has adjusted. The Big Ten, which has rattled off three straight national titles in a row, certainly has. (That’s why Ohio State and Michigan haven’t dropped off.)

What about the SEC?

“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.”

Add us as a preferred source on Google