Illinois Football Pushing NIL Boost After Victory vs. Reigning National Champion

After defeating the Michigan Wolverines last week, Illinois is looking to cash in on NIL after its recent success on the football field.

Ron Johnson-Imagn Images

The Illinois Fighting Illini Football team is off to a great start this season. 

According to the latest AP Poll, the team is ranked 20th in the country. They moved up two spots after their latest win against one of their Big Ten rivals. The Fighting Illini came away with a 21-7 victory over the reigning national champions, the Michigan Wolverines, over the weekend, the first time they had won against the program since 2009.

With the added excitement surrounding the university's football team, head coach Brett Bielema is not wasting time getting the word across to potential donors about how they can keep the momentum going past the 2024 season. 

In the current landscape of the sport, that mainly begins with the increased usage of NIL. The program moved out of the basement in the conference this past season in Name, Image, and Likeness funding, but they still have plenty of room to improve to ensure the team can compete at a high-level year after year in a conference that has the likes of Michigan, Ohio State, and newly acquired West Coast powerhouses USC and Oregon. 

With the recent success, coach Bielema knows that if the collectives don’t act now, they may lose out on some of their key players to other schools once the transfer portal window opens up next season. 

“We had probably a half a dozen guys on our roster that were offered probably double the amount of money, if not triple the amount of money that was afforded here, and they turn it down because they know what they're being developed to be,” said Bielema. “I always say NIL money is great. The I stands for instant, and NFL money, the F stands forever.”

The University has received a significant contribution from its donors over the initial years of the NIL era, but most of that has been focused on the basketball program. That push into the Men’s team in 2023 helped them retain players bound for the NBA as they constructed a roster good enough to make a deep run into the Elite Eight in last season’s NCAA Tournament.

Coach Bielema is hoping that type of support can translate over to the gridiron as well. 

“And I know where they stand in the NIL world in basketball, and they've been rewarded very well because of it,” said Bielema. “If we can get in that moment, I think that football can sustain that.”

Illinois will be right back in the Big Ten gauntlet this upcoming Saturday as they travel to Eugene to take on the top-ranked Oregon Ducks at Autzen Stadium. An upset win on the road would not only help their chances of moving up the rankings and into serious consideration for a College Football Playoff spot, but it would likely bring plenty of new donors out to help support the program’s building success.