Illinois is known as a mid-level Big Ten team, not one able to match the supposed $40-million or more football rosters of Michigan, Ohio State and Oregon.
Illini coach Bret Bielema said that his school's inability to compete financially with Big Ten powerhouses caused him to change his defensive scheme in the offseason.
Said Bielema: "The reason I had to make a change on defense was I couldn't afford to pay the numbers. I had already gone after an offensive line and had to put money out that I needed to get done for that, and then I knew I could kind of buy, in a way, kind of patch together a new defensive scheme that wouldn't require as big of players.
Illinois coach Bret Bielema runs practice at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 7, 2025, in Champaign.
“But some of those big D-linemen, those guys are going for an ungodly amount of money, and you just can't have them at the number we were at."
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