The Illinois Fighting Illini and Head Coach Bret Bielema have agreed to a six-year contract extension with a pay increase. His yearly salary increases from $4.3 million to $6.0 million with annual raises and bonuses. He will make $500,000 extra per year every year he is retained by the program. With other Big Ten programs hiring new coaches for bigger deals, programs like Illinois have decided to give their successful coaches a raise to match those new deals. Minnesota also recently gave their Head Coach an extension and raise. The Big Ten plans to continue being a top football program.
.@IlliniFootball has announced that head coach Bret Bielema has signed a new six-year contract extension that keeps him with the program through at least the end of the 2028 season. @WGNNews pic.twitter.com/6RAtKYZbR9
— Larry Hawley (@HawleySports) December 20, 2022
In his two-year tenure with the Illinois Fighting Illini, Bret Bielema has led the program to an overall record of 13-11 and a Big Ten record of 9-9. They did not make a bowl game last year but this season they will play the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the ReliaQuest Bowl on January 2nd. The program seems to be trending up under the leadership of Bielema and this extension should keep him from being poached by another program. Several programs have made similar moves recently with their recently hired head coaches.
