Big Ten Coach Sent Cool Offer To Bill Belichick, North Carolina

When more and more teams decided against holding traditional spring practices, many thought joint sessions would be the next wave of offseason exhibitions in college football.

Unfortunately, that never came to light because the NCAA stepped in and nixed the idea. But it's something Illinois' Bret Bielema says he planned to do with Bill Belichick and North Carolina after seeing Deion Sanders first propose the idea back in March.

"The one thing that was really intriguing to me in the NFL was those minicamps where teams would get together and compete with one another," Bielema said on David Pollack's "See Ball Get Ball" podcast.

"This past spring, I think it was Colorado and Syracuse were talking about getting together, and there was a moment where we thought some teams might get together, either in the spring or in the fall. ... I just reached out to him and said, 'Hey, if we could go a little challenge with North Carolina and Illinois, either now or in the future, would you be interested?' That was really the genesis of it."

Bielema never revealed Belichick's response to the proposal but it's certainly possible that we see some joint practices between the two schools in the future.