Bielema trying to lure College Gameday for season opener

Illinois may no longer need to spend several hours on an airplane to travel to Dublin, Ireland for their Week 0 matchup with Big Ten West rival Nebraska, but that doesn’t mean that new Illinois Head Coach Bret Bielema isn’t going to try to take advantage of being on the only Power 5 matchup on the weekend of August 28.

“Once they locked us into that Week 0, I started hitting every ESPN, Big Ten Network contact I had to get the best time slot available,” Bielema told reporters on Wednesday. “The possibility of College Gameday to anything we can possibly assume. We are the only Power 5 game and a great divisional opponent.”

When the Illini's game against Nebraska was moved out of Ireland because of concerns around the COVID-19 pandemic there were discussions about moving the game back to its original date, but with the game locked into Week 0, Bielema is attempting to shoot for the stars with College Gameday.

On paper, Illinois hosting a floundering Nebraska program that has lost nearly all the luster of the Tom Osborne days and a record of 12-20 under Head Coach Scott Frost in the last three seasons isn’t something that would generally attract ESPN’s super team.

Illinois has had just four winning seasons 2000 and two of those included 7-6 records. Generally, this isn’t the kind of game fans would be accustomed to seeing previewed by Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard, but as Bielema showed on Monday night in Illinois’ spring game he wants to get his program exposure.

“I think in the spring situation, people I talk to, the stigma of a spring game is that it’s not really a game,” he said. “But I was trying to make it that way for our players. That’s why I tried to get that Monday night slot. When the game is going on, recruits, even though they couldn’t be in the stadium, I want them to see what we are doing and why are we are doing it.”

From Bielema’s second-quarter interview with Elise Menaker where he explained different play call situations to player interviews and Menaker’s two-point conversion pass to tight end Daniel Barker this is all Bielema being himself – it’s fun and it’s a new ecosystem in Illinois.

When Bielema returned to his phone after the Orange and Blue game on Monday night he was greeted by messages from recruits saying they saw him on television or they liked the energy around the game on Monday night.

“Tuesday was an academic day for our players, so I was able to reach out to a lot of them,” Bielema said. “There was positive feed from recruits, but I’ve met a lot of donors, former players and people in the Illini family that made comment.”

Sure, a matchup between two teams with a combined record of 5-11 in 2020 likely won’t bring the biggest ratings of any College Gameday, but Bielema is simply trying to get his program more exposure on the national stage, and that’s not something he should be faulted for.

It has the potential to help him recruit, build a fanbase and garner more excitement in Memorial Stadium on fall Saturdays, instead of starting the countdown to Illini basketball by the end of September.