Brad Underwood on the Power of Illinois Athletics' Success: 'Winning's Contagious'

Illinois basketball has compiled an early record of 10-3 and is seemingly on its way to yet another 20-win season in Champaign. If the Illini reach that mark, it would be the seventh straight season under coach Brad Underwood that the club has reached that plateau.

After taking over a middling Illinois program that hadn’t known sustained success since the 2000s, Underwood arrived with the intention of reestablishing the Illini as a perennial NCAA Tournament squad. Mission accomplished.

Meanwhile, across the street from the State Farm Center, the Gies Memorial Stadium has seen its fair share of victories in the past few years on the gridiron. In fact, the Illini, following their spectacular bowl victory over Tennessee on Tuesday, have now strung together back-to-back nine-win seasons for the first time ever.

And it doesn’t stop there. The women’s basketball team is on a similar, perhaps even more encouraging, trajectory as both of those programs. After rattling off three straight winning seasons in her first three years at the helm – two of which resulted in NCAA Tournament berths – Shauna Green guided the Illini to their first win in the Big Dance in 25 years and added the cherry on top: a loaded 2025 recruiting class.

Naturally, the assumption was Green’s young squad would take some time to mesh and grow, yet 14 games into the 2025-26 season, the Illini are 13-1 and coming off a win over No. 7 Maryland – the highest-ranked Big Ten opponent the program has ever defeated.

Illinois athletics is reaching new heights – but not yet near its peak?

So, aside from the obvious beneficiary – Illinois fans – how is this consistent winning across the board a plus for all athletics programs at the university? Well, according to Underwood, it’s fairly simple:

“Winning’s contagious,” he said. “Hats off to Shauna [Green], beating a top-10 team and the job she does, and I know what she stands for.

“I was very fortunate that I got to go to Nashville [for the Music City Bowl]. It’s the first bowl game I’ve ever been to. It just worked. It was fantastic. We had an off day and the ability to get down there and back, and close proximity. And what a great time. What a great, great game, for us to come out and win.

Illinois walks it off in the Music City Bowl, 30–28 over Tennessee 🤯🔥 @IlliniFootball pic.twitter.com/02RAdsutju
— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) December 31, 2025

“I think the buzz around the University of Illinois is pretty, pretty special. And it’s a lot of good things going on. It’s just been great to see. Really good people and really good players, and the donors and the facilities have all just meshed together at the right time. … Bret [Bielema] is sustaining and we’ve been sustaining and Shauna is doing the same thing, and the other coaches as well. So it’s nice to see that and it’s a great time to be at Illinois.”

The mastermind behind Illinois’ evolving all-around sports excellence is athletic director Josh Whitman, who appears to have hit three home runs in Underwood, Green and Bielema, not to mention his other superb hires. The golf, wrestling and track and field have all been strong performers, and the women's soccer team had a breakthrough season in 2025.

Although Whitman and his hires have surely taken advantage of new opportunities, Illinois falls somewhere in the middle of the Big Ten in terms of NIL spending – and is somewhere on the fringes of the top 25 nationally. Simply chalking up the Illini's success to financial resources would be a disservice to their coaching and the athletic department's overall vision and efficiency.

#Illini AD Josh Whitman on Bret Bielema making bowl games a regular for Illinois football:

"He just has exceeded our expectations in virtually every way," cites his ability to connect with so many people. "He's a great teacher of the game of football... He's just very well… pic.twitter.com/UThFfihbYe
— Glenn Kinley (@glenn_kinley) December 29, 2025

Bielema has built his Illini into a College Football Playoff contender with a middling budget. Green’s ability to land some of the nation’s best high school talent with the benefit of almost zero brand value or recognition is a testament to her excellence. Meanwhile, few are better program-builders than Underwood, who, through his eye for talent and knack for motivating his clubs, has elevated Illinois to a new level.

Winning upon winning upon winning. And the best part? There appears to be no end in sight. The energy in Champaign – that buzz Underwood touched on – is palpable. It lives in the athletes, coaches and Illini Nation. The next step: an Illinois club reaching the pinnacle of its respective sport. It may not be far off.