13 Years On, Bret Bielema Gets Candid About Ugly Wisconsin Exit For Brighter SEC Lights

Not many coaches leave a program at its peak, but Bret Bielema did just that. At Wisconsin, his team was winning, the running backs were breaking records, and the Badgers were collecting trophies like it was a routine for them. Bielema led Wisconsin to three straight Big Ten titles in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Many thought that the coach must be living his best life. That’s why his decision to leave Wisconsin for Arkansas left the college football world scratching its head in 2012.

And then, questions were raised. Why would a coach leave a program he had built into a Big Ten Powerhouse? Why did he suddenly move to the SEC? It takes a lot of guts to walk away from something you’ve invested almost your entire time, your efforts, and your energy into. And it wasn’t about chasing a challenge or looking for a new start. It was personal and simple: money.

Now, a decade later, the Illinois head coach has finally opened up on why he left Wisconsin for Arkansas. He recently featured in the latest episode of The Triple Option and said, “The reason I left Wisconsin to go to Arkansas was, at that time, the Big Ten coaches weren’t getting paid at the same level.” Bielema said on the podcast. “The reason I took the move more than anything was my assistant coach’s salary at Wisconsin went from three and a half to six million.”

On the personal front, Bielema also saw an improved contract at Arkansas. He was hired on a six-year deal with an annual salary of $3.2 million in 2012. The program even extended his contract in 2015 by two years. However, before he could complete his contract, Bielema was let go by the program in 2017. The buyout? $11 million.

That big jump meant that now he could finally pay his guys what they deserved. “And I was able to [hire] a guy like Chris Ash, a guy that eventually ended up at Ohio State, head coach of Rutgers, I was paying him, I believe, at that time, maybe a little over $200k,” Bielema said. “I remember there was a coordinator at Minnesota that we had beaten every year that I was in the league, and that DC was making $550,000, and I’m like, “Hey, we just won our third straight Big Ten title. They haven’t been very good.” And my coordinator is making, you know, less than half. And I just think that’s what the genesis of it was.”

Bielema’s best year for the Razorbacks was 2015 when he recorded an 8-5 season. That momentum couldn’t take him towards the big guys in the SEC. Instead, Arkansas finished last in the SEC in 2017 with a record of 4-8. In the end, he couldn’t repeat the success he had with the Badgers.

What’s Bielema’s take on the Big Ten vs. SEC debate?

For the 2021 season, Bielema returned to the Big Ten conference as the head coach of Illinois. He is still serving as their head coach and helped them to finish fifth with a regular season record of 9-3. But Bielema was a different beast when he was with Wisconsin. He won 17 of his first 18 games for the Badgers, which is still the third-best start for a coach in Big Ten history.

His time at Arkansas wasn’t good compared to what he’s achieved at Wisconsin. The Razorbacks didn’t win a single SEC title under him, and that fell short of expectations. Despite all that, the current Illinois HC has chosen the SEC over the Big Ten when it comes to the comparison. “It’s like arguing about like two premium businesses, like whether you like a Jaguar or a Rolls-Royce,” he joked. “Two incredibly gifted leagues. The passion from their fan bases is unparalleled.”

However, according to him, the real difference lies in the atmosphere. “In the SEC, it’s those small market values, right? And the passion in those little I remember, the furthest you had to stay away from a game, a hotel when you’re playing in the Big Ten, was 20 minutes. You go to the SEC, and you might have to drive an hour and a half to get to the hotel that you could stay at, right? And that was literally something that said to me right away,” he said. “But the fan bases, the way they follow their people, obviously in the south, one thing that is everything’s kind of played, I would say, in pretty conducive weather environments.”

Of course, the weather and the fan base—there is a lot to like about the SEC. However, with Bielema leading on the teams, the Big 10 has made its mark, especially with the back-to-back national championships.