Bret Bielema shares jaw-dropping NIL valuation of Illinois football, Big Ten placement ahead of Citrus Bowl

Bret Bielema, who replaced former coach Lovie Smith before the 2021 season began, has transformed his Illinois football program into a consistent winner.

Illinois has met or exceeded the eight-win threshold for the second time in four seasons. However, the Illini, which take on South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl on New Year's Eve (3 p.m. ET, ABC), are seeking their first bowl victory in a decade-plus.

In the rapidly rising world of NIL, Bielema dropped an interesting nugget about his team's current status: budgets. Whether college football fans like it or not, a team's worth can make or break a season. This served as a competitive advantage for Illinois, which finished one win outside the College Football Playoff picture and was in the top five in the Big Ten.

"There's three or four teams after us that were three or four times more salary that we have for players. I think to get a level playing field [with revenue sharing] is an awesome time to be to," Bielema told reporters Friday in Orlando.

Bielema confirmed in the same media scrum that Illinois' NIL budget is $5 million.

Outside of its importance to NIL, the game is significant for several reasons, including a direct tie to Bielema himself. In 2006, while at Wisconsin, Bielema led the Badgers to the Capital One Bowl, the same bowl game Illinois will play in, yet under a different name.

Even more importantly, Bielema said he wants to put past Illinois football disappointments behind him while trying to further establish the program's modern era in his image.

"I do care about what's happened in the past, but I don't care," Bielema said. "It's probably a hard thing to describe as a head coach. I'm very respectful of everything that's happened in the past. I love when former players come back here [to Champaign], all that stuff. I’m very respectful of everything that’s been built to come here, but I also think we’ve been weighed down by the past. People always want to go back to what it used to be. Like, hey, there's a new day coming in front [of us]. Go forward, right? I knew we wanted to build it in a way to get out here and get ourselves in this position."

The focus remains on ending a three-game bowl-losing skid, but Bielema added there is still more work to accomplish.

"I'm excited," Bielema said. "[Are] there things we can do better? Absolutely."

Illinois finished No. 20 in the final College Football Playoff rankings ahead of bowl season, while South Carolina's six-game winning streak propelled it to No. 15 at 9-3 to end the regular season.