Illinois’ Bielema wants 9 league games for all conferences

CHICAGO — Illinois coach Bret Bielema wants to see the College Football Playoff expand to 16 teams in 2026, but only if all the major conferences, including the SEC, play nine league games per season.

Speaking Tuesday before Illini Night at Wrigley Field, Bielema said the 16-team model doesn’t necessarily need to include four automatic spots for Big Ten teams, as Ohio State coach Ryan Day advocated for earlier this month. But Bielema, who coached in the SEC at Arkansas and has spent most of his career in the Big Ten, said both leagues need to be aligned in the number of conference games. The Big Ten currently plays nine, while the SEC has remained at eight.

“I don’t think there’s any way we can do a 16-team playoff if they’re not at nine,” Bielema said.

He also referred to conversations coming out of the SEC spring meetings in Florida, where LSU coach Brian Kelly suggested in SEC-Big Ten nonleague challenge.

“We voted unanimously as Big Ten coaches to stay at nine league games and actually maybe have an SEC challenge,” Bielema said. “I was told that they voted unanimously to stay at eight and not play the Big Ten. But then some people pop off and say what they want to say because they want to look a certain way.

“I get it, but like, I think until you get to nine for everybody, I don’t think it could work.”

The 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua are meeting this week in Asheville, North Carolina, to discuss the future format and other issues.

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Bielema, who has stood up for the Big Ten and taken some playful shots at the SEC on social media, said his wife has told him to “slow my roll.” But as one of the more experienced coaches in the Big Ten, he also remembers what Ohio State’s Jim Tressel and Michigan’s Lloyd Carr told him as a young coach in the league.

“They just said, ‘Hey, you really got to look out for not just your team, but the better of college football,'” Bielema said. “And so I think as I come back, especially this last three or four years at Illinois, I’m in meetings, and there’s a lot of good coaches, but some of these guys are on the younger version of their themselves, and they just don’t understand what’s coming at them. So I’ve really tried to stand up for the game a lot.”