Bret Bielema alleges major transfer portal spending by Wisconsin Badgers' toughest Big Ten rivals

We don't know exactly how much the Wisconsin Badgers spend to recruit football players, but Illinois head coach Bret Bielema says the top Big Ten programs are spending upward of 10 times more than the smaller ones.

Illinois head coach Bret Bielema is shown after their game Saturday, October 1, 2022 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wis. Illinois beat Wisconsin 34-10. | MARK HOFFMAN/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL / USA TODAY NETWORK

We don't know exactly how much the Wisconsin Badgers spend on bringing in football players.

But it's not hard to see that some of the other top Big Ten teams are spending a lot more.

Illinois head coach Bret Bielema is the latest to put names to numbers, showing just what he and Luke Fickell are up against on the recruiting trail.

In an interview with Sirius XM's College Sports Radio, Bielema said the teams at the top of the conference standings spent more than four times as much as he did last year with the Illini.

"You're gonna see teams this year...that are probably in the neighborhood of $30-35, maybe even...$40 million rosters."

With a House settlement looming, @IlliniFootball HC @BretBielema believes we could see major spending before guardrails are fully established. pic.twitter.com/8086JKi9ln

— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) May 16, 2025

"The four teams ahead of us, I think, were north of $20 million," he said. "You're going to see teams this year in college football, just because I know the landscape I'm dealing with, that are probably in the neighborhood of $30-35, maybe some of them close to $40 million rosters."

The four teams that finished ahead of Illinois last season were Oregon, Indiana, Penn State and Ohio State.

Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti previously indicated that his Hoosiers are on the lower end of that spectrum, with the Buckeyes and Ducks up in that $40 million range.

Bielema said Illinois was working with around a $5 million budget for football players last year, making their fifth-place finish look more impressive.

It goes to show the Badgers that big spending is going to separate the great from the good, but a lower budget team can still be successful in the Big Ten with smart recruiting and quality coaching.

Wisconsin will be counting on improvement in both of those areas to have any hope for turning things around in 2025.

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