Fourth-year Illini coach Bret Bielema appears to be on the cusp of something big – but can he finish the job?
world of college football, it moves even faster. The game is an ever-increasing grind, the coaching churn to be expected. Before you know it, stalwarts and icons move on to greener pastures – or simply head off to pasture. Even the greats have a shelf-life.Just look at the Big Ten, where Jim Harbaugh left a national championship-sized void at Michigan when he bolted for the Bolts and the NFL.
This is all a roundabout way of approaching the question in the back of minds in Champaign and perhaps further and wider: Can Bret Bielema, who has led Illinois to an unexpected 5-1 start ahead of a Saturday matchup with Michigan that feels like an inflection point, turn the Illini into a college football power?Bielema is a good coach. Ask around. You'll get the same answer from a lot of longtime football people who know a thing or two about a thing or two.
Back to the finer point: Illinois athletics, according to that USA Today analysis, spent $129.1 million in 2022, which ranks 31st out of 232 Division I public schools whose data expenditures were available. The university's athletics department ranked even higher in revenue – No. 24, in the same neighborhood as Oregon, Tennessee and even Clemson. Now, I'm no CPA, but it seems that Illinois has the resources to compete with college football's elite.
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