Bret Bielema roasts Nick Saban, SEC, at Big Ten media days: ‘They want to live in 2005 forever’
If there’s one thing we can be sure of about the 2026 college football season, it’s that the burgeoning rivalry between the Big Ten and the SEC will only intensify.
At SEC media days recently, many prominent figures held lengthy press conferences and told anyone who would listen that they deserved all 16 teams in the SEC’s College Football Playoff. In fact, perhaps they could consider appointing a 17th honorary member if necessary to ensure a fair assessment of the strength of the programme.
Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, and Greg Sankey declared that SEC teams are automatically superior even if they lose more games and play poorly against bad teams, and that the College Football Playoff selection committee did not give the conference due respect.
PERCEPTION IS REALITY AND THE SEC NEEDS TO START WINNING AGAIN BEFORE IT CONTINUES PUFFING ITS CHEST
The fact that gets overlooked in all of these comments is that the SEC didn’t earn this respect by winning more games than they lost against other Power Four teams in the playoffs. But thankfully Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Bret Bielema is here to remind them of that.
Illinois head coach Bret Bielema yells at a referee during the second half of the Music City Bowl NCAA college football game against Tennessee on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
At Big Ten media days, Bielema had harsh words for the SEC and commissioner Sankey in his introductory comments, saying they wanted to “protect” the conference.
“(Greg) Sankey, I know he has to protect the SEC and they want to live in 2005 forever…”
ILLINOIS COACH BRET BIELEMA RESPONDED TO NOTRE DAME ADVERTISEMENT WITH LAST WORDS: ‘ATTEND THE CONFERENCE’
“I think it’s a great thing to think ahead in college football.”
He said two “ingredients” have changed the sport dramatically: the transfer portal and the NIL, which levels the playing field between schools. But he stopped short of saying that the SEC may have had some financial advantages over other conferences before the NIL was implemented.
“Basically the two biggest things, the biggest components are the transfer portal and revenue sharing, NIL, however you want to define it, when those two elements entered college football the whole world changed,” he said.
He also gave specific examples of players who came to Illinois because of the NIL, who would not have chosen Champaign-Urbana without those opportunities.
“The last three years, with the quarterback I have now, we couldn’t have reached the world that existed five years ago. I know that,” he added. “My left centre-back, my left centre-back, my center and my right centre-back wouldn’t play for me here either. And you go to every team and the squads change because of these two components: the transfer rule and revenue sharing. It’s a different world. Anything beyond that is bullshit.”
This wasn’t Bielema’s only brush with the SEC recently. Last week, he attacked Nick Saban for Saban’s defense in the previous conference.
Former University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in Washington, DC, on June 3, 2026. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
On “Get Up, ESPN,” Saban turned his back on arguments that the SEC has long described itself as the best conference in sports and said winning a championship isn’t the most important outcome. A stark contrast to when the SEC was winning championships.
“Whoever wins the National Championship doesn’t determine who has the best conference,” Saban said. he said. “I think the best conference is defined by how many good teams you have from top to bottom.”
Bielema saw those comments and shared them with a photo of Illinois’ 21-17 win over South Carolina in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl and 30-28 win over Tennessee in the Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl, adding, “I agree with you coach and thank you for bringing this up…”
Ah.
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There’s something to be said for this argument, too, because the “depth” of the SEC seems to be consistently overstated, at least in recent years’ examples. Teams like Missouri, for example, haven’t won a single game in 2026 against a team with a winning record. But because they play in the SEC, they have been ranked at times throughout the regular season, including by the selection committee. Even though they literally never left the central time zone all season, didn’t play an away game until October 18th, and had their non-conference schedule giving them four freebies, they were considered part of impressive “depth.”
Illinois football head coach Bret Bielema speaks during Media Days at the Hilton Chicago on July 28, 2026. (IMAGES BY IMAGN via Reuters Connect)
Tennessee also couldn’t beat a team with a winning record. That doesn’t mean the Volunteers are necessarily bad, but they are protected by the conference logo patch that gives them additional depth points.
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What really matters is that the SEC is just 2-7 against other Power Four conferences in the College Football Playoff during the NIL era, while the Big Ten is 9-3. It’s not just the championships, it’s clear that the SEC has fallen behind in the NIL era. Ask Bret Bielema and he’ll be happy to remind you.
