Illinois HC Bret Bielema rips Notre Dame AD after strong 'super-league' stance goes public
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Illinois HC Bret Bielema rips Notre Dame AD after strong 'super-league' stance goes public originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Illinois Fighting Illini coach Bret Bielema still remains unfiltered on social media regarding how he really feels about college football.
As the sport's ever-changing landscape continues to evolve, so do the opinions of stakeholders with direct leverage over it.
A prime example of this is Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, who has remained outspoken about the need for his team to remain independent in football and to advance the idea of a new format for the sport that isn’t directly driven by a super-league.
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“If you wanted to maximize media value around college football, I think you would take 24-30 teams, create unbelievably competitive scheduling where a team like Notre Dame would play Alabama, Georgia, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan and start to get a number that more closely resembles an NFL number,” Bevacqua said, per On3’s Andy Staples. “I could be right, I could be wrong. But that’s why I was encouraged that it’s a voluntary application and that a lot more work can be done over the course of the next series of years to see if the value can prove itself out.”
Bielema, meanwhile, openly criticized Bevacqua’s stance with some rational counterpoints.
“Some guys really like to talk about something that could happen and who they might play…. Actually, it’s pretty easy to just join a conference,” Bielema tweeted.
Bielema isn’t 100 percent wrong, but some fans online argued that an Illinois-Notre Dame football matchup wouldn’t fix the situation. Better yet, the Fighting Irish set their own schedule every season, whereas the Big Ten relies on a rotational scheduling format that was modified after the addition of West Coast programs in recent years.
Bevacqua has not responded to Bielema directly. However, he did reiterate that the sport of college football needs to undergo key changes to make the game a bit more even.
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“I certainly don’t want a super league, and I’m not sure anybody necessarily wants a super league,” Bevacqua said. “Flooding the market, aggregating the market, bringing it to an aggregate form to major media companies, I’m not sure that’s going to drive the value some say it will.
We’ll see if the back-and-forth continues as the season draws closer. It appears, though, that Bielema has ruffled some feathers amongst the college football community, regardless of which side of the debate table they sit on.
Come September, the on-field results will do the proverbial talking.
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