Precaution is better than care, they say. And the Illinois head coach, Bret Bielema, needs to take this very seriously. Coming off a breakthrough 2024 season where the Fighting Illini notched 10 wins. Their best in more than two decades. And with a signature Citrus Bowl victory, Illinois is stepping into 2025 with high hopes and plenty of momentum. With 16 starters returning, including quarterback Luke Altmyer for his third season, the team looks more experienced and poised to make another big push. After even earning some bold College Football Playoff projections.
But now, Illinois football finds itself in a tricky spot as the NIL era adds a new layer to team dynamics. Last season’s surprise success comes with a bit of pressure. And not just to win games, but to manage a locker room where money and opportunities swirl around players like never before. NBC Sports’ Joshua Perry and Jordan Cornette break down why head coach Bret Bielema and Illinois are facing serious pressure after their strong 2024 season.
Bielema faces the growing awareness and potential distractions that NIL deals can cause in the locker room. “He’s gonna have to do his best coaching job, interestingly enough, this season,” Jordan said on the July 26th episode. While he’s not dealing with a locker room ravaged by NIL chaos yet, the specter of it looms large.
“And the reason why I say that is [that] people know about him now. They’re not sneaking up on anybody. We heard Coach [Mike] Locksley talk about a locker room being ravaged by NIL and him losing a locker room. I’m not suggesting that could happen with Illinois. What I am suggesting is [that] you start to feel like he invented football. When you have a season like Illinois had last year, and then you start to forget what it takes. Now he’s going to have to manage that,” Jordan adds.
Mike Locksley, the Maryland head coach, made a rare and raw admission at the 2025 Big Ten Media Days about losing his locker room to NIL. Locksley explained that the core problem was the emergence of “haves and have-nots” within the team. This is created by uneven NIL compensation. He found himself torn between rewarding veteran players who had contributed to the program’s prior success. That includes three bowl wins and paying younger recruits who were attracting bigger NIL deals. This completely fractures the team dynamics. Which led to a disappointing 4-8 season after prior success.
He even joked about putting his desk inside the locker room to be physically present and rebuild trust. This cautionary tale is a signal that Illinois head coach Bret Bielema must heed carefully. He had a good run last year, and naturally, all eyes are on his squad. NIL deals bring temptation and distraction, and Bielema must proactively manage these dynamics before they fracture his team like they did Maryland’s. Unlike a typical coaching challenge focused on Xs and Os, Bret Bielema handles NIL at Illinois with a clear, development-focused philosophy.
That, in turn, emphasizes fairness and team culture over flashy, high-dollar deals. Bielema rewards players who prove themselves on the field and commit to the Illini’s winning culture. Illinois is operating on a modest NIL budget of about $5 million. Which is far less than some powerhouses spending upwards of $20 to $40 million. Despite that, Bielema’s approach focuses on player development and team cohesion. He has openly stated that anyone who earns their spot and contributes will be taken care of “as good as anybody,” reinforcing a merit-based system rather than paying untested freshmen large sums.
Illinois vs. Indiana: The high-stakes showdown
Big Ten contenders Illinois and Indiana are both heading into their 2025 college football seasons with what many consider relatively easy schedules. But that actually sets a high-stakes trap for both programs. And Jordan Cornette points that out. He says, “As we talk about Illinois. Much like we should probably talk about Indiana in terms of an encore from last year. Those two, I think, battle it out September 20th in Bloomington very early in the season. And that one could have CFP implications.” The key game that looms large is their head-to-head matchup on September 20 at Indiana’s Memorial Stadium. Given that each team’s schedule outside of this game is somewhat gentle, losing this faceoff will severely damage the losing team’s College Football Playoff hopes.
Indiana kicks off with a straightforward non-conference slate of Old Dominion, Kennesaw State, and Indiana State. These are the games they are expected to handle easily. Their Big Ten schedule includes tough matchups against Oregon and Penn State. But overall, the remaining schedule is manageable for a program building off a stellar 2024 campaign. Illinois has a slightly tougher non-conference schedule, including a road game at Duke, but many of their other contests should be winnable. What makes this Illinois-Indiana showdown critical is that both teams have less margin for error.
With no marquee wins outside of their programs’ rivalry, a loss to each other means the bad taste of defeat stands alone on their resumes. The CFP committee places considerable emphasis on quality wins, and a defeat here would leave the losing side scrambling to justify its place. It’s a “winner-takes-half-the-prize” scenario. So in this scenario, a loss doesn’t just drop a team in the standings. It likely ends their CFP dreams or forces them down a tougher path requiring near-perfection the rest of the way.
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