Former Razorbacks coach still throwing shade at SEC over scheduling

CHICAGO — It was interesting to see former Arkansas coach Bret Bielma's comments advising the SEC to go to a nine-game league schedule.

He appears to be back in the conference Bielema really should have never left, coaching Illinois in the Big Ten.

When he was coaching the Razorbacks, it was a weird attempt at fitting a square peg in a round hole, but it's hard to remember him every coming close to saying the SEC was superior to the conference he left in Wisconsin.

Now he had to weigh in with some jabs to throw shade at the SEC.

“I don’t think there’s any way we can do a 16-team playoff if they’re not at nine,” Bielema said, referring to the SEC’s long-standing reluctance to move up to a nine-game conference schedule.

His words at Wrigley may have sparked a new round of debate over how the sport will look in just a year’s time.

Bielema’s call for scheduling parity is anything but idle chatter. The Big Ten has played nine league games since 2016.

The SEC has stubbornly clung to an eight-game slate, a sticking point that Bielema says undercuts the legitimacy of any expanded playoff.

“We voted unanimously as Big Ten coaches to stay at nine league games and actually maybe have an SEC challenge,” Bielema explained, referencing recent SEC meetings where the topic drew heated, if inconclusive, debate.

Don't worry, there's no need to go into him coaching the Hogs. That was a mistake that showed the inability to look at a resume of work and apply any common sense back in December 2012. That was my comment on a state-wide radio show at the time.

The guess is the SEC will eventually get to a nine-game conference schedule. For fans that never want to see change it will be part of the evolution of a changing game.

With the College Football Playoff set to expand from a 12-game format to 14, or even 16 teams remains a live question. The way teams are selected is under unprecedented scrutiny.

Conference schedules drive not just TV ratings but also the very math that is why they even have a playoff.

“Newly proposed metrics could work in the SEC’s favor as it looks to avoid a nine-game slate,” said CBS Sports, hinting at the quiet power struggle behind closed doors.

“Until you get to nine for everybody, I don’t think it could work,” Bielema said, showing a growing sense of frustration among Big Ten coaches.

It’s a view both Ohio State’s Ryan Day and former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr counseled Bielema to “look out for not just your team, but the better of college football.”

The SEC, for its part, is not blind to the optics. At its spring meetings in Florida, coaches like LSU’s Brian Kelly suggested a non-conference challenge with the Big Ten, a tantalizing idea that would bring together the sport’s two richest, most visible leagues.

When it came time to vote, the SEC coaches reportedly held firm at eight games, resisting the added risk a ninth would bring to their national title hopes or, in the Razorbacks' case, just making it to a bowl bid.

SEC coaches have long argued that their conference’s depth and parity make even an eight-game schedule a gauntlet. That's just public relations talk.

Not making a bowl game anywhere is something that is often a consistent theme among coaches getting fired.

Critics, including Bielema, counter that only a uniform nine-game format can ensure fairness as the Playoff field grows.

Money, as ever, is just beneath the surface. ESPN has reportedly expressed “a willingness to increase its payment to the SEC if the conference adds a ninth game,” according to The Athletic.

The SEC coaches don't want to deal with changes in anything, especially if it makes things harder for a bowl bid. There are about three teams in the league every year that have a realistic shot at a national title.

“Big Ten officials pushed for a 16-team format with four automatic qualifiers for the Big Ten and the SEC for several months,” CBS Sports reported, a move that would all but guarantee half the field to the sport’s two wealthiest conferences.

Bielema’s public stance has not endeared him to all.

On social media, fans are split.

“I really despise Bielema but I agree the SEC should play nine conference games. It is better for the fans and the sport in general,” one commenter wrote on Facebook.

Others defend the SEC’s model, arguing that its grueling schedule and postseason dominance justify its status quo. It's an old argument that may be starting to wear thin.

For now, Bielema shows no signs of slowing his campaign, despite his wife Jen advising him to do just that. He said she has told him to “slow my roll,” but the Illinois coach is unbowed.

“Some of these guys are on the younger version of themselves, and they just don’t understand what’s coming at them,” he said. “So I’ve really tried to stand up for the game a lot.”

Bielema's excuse now is he's trying to be the guardian of the game.

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