Badgers, Big Ten Take Brand Hit

Prestige, Location, Facilities, Personal History, and Money

Five very logical reasons that often shape the decisions to coaches to change jobs

For Bret Bielema, however, it is rather difficult to pinpoint exactly which of these elements motivated his decision to leave his post as Head Football Coach of the University of Wisconsin Badgers, whom he has now led to three straight Rose Bowl appearances.

No offense to Fayetteville, “the vacation, recreation, and sport capitol of Northwest Arkansas” and home to the Clinton House Museum, but Bielema did not leave because of the location. Madison is consistently ranked as one of the top college towns in the United States. With its beautiful lakefront location, innumerable options of great food and beer, and a charming downtown area, Madison has also been identified by CNN as one of the country’s best places to live.  

The University of Wisconsin also recently invested over $85 million for upgrades to their athletics facilities. This comes just 7 years after another $100 million facelift to Camp Randall Stadium. The upgrades include expansion of the already 7,000 square-foot weight room, renovations to the football locker rooms, team lounge, and coaching offices, and installation of the highest-quality FieldTurf in the country. Wisconsin Athletic Director, and former Head Football Coach, Barry Alvarez had been extremely aggressive in pushing for these facilities upgrades and was very much in Bielema’ s corner.

As for personal history? Bielema grew up in Illinois, played collegiate football at Iowa, and served as Wisconsin’s Defensive Coordinator prior to his promotion to Head Coach in 2006. With the exception of his two years at Kansas State, he has spent his entire life in Big Ten Country. So no, Arkansas was never a dream destination for Bielema.

Shortly after hearing the news of Bielema’s departure from Wisconsin, most pundits assumed that Arkansas must have blown Bielema away with their contract offer. However, after contract details were released, it appears his annual salary will increase $600,000 --- a bump up to $3.2 million from $2.59 million. While this is not an insignificant leap, Bielema likely could have received a raise in the offseason based on his recent success in the Big Ten. Additionally, his job will be far less secure as Head Coach of the Razorbacks than it would have been with the Badgers. With three consecutive Rose Bowl appearances, Bielema has earned himself some breathing room with Alvarez --- regardless of some questionable in-game time-management over the last few years. At Arkansas, he will be two 6-6 seasons away from re-gaining his spot on the coaching carousel.

In searching for the logic behind Bielema’s decision to accept the post at the University of Arkansas then, it leaves only one reasonable explanation:  prestige. Shocking to some, Bielema’s move represents the absolute dominance of the SEC over college football. And each of the conference’s institutions have benefitted immensely. With its recent expansion to the East Coast, the Big Ten is being hailed as a cash cow for universities. However, in reality, it is the SEC schools that have the most profitable athletic programs. In 2011-2, the University of Wisconsin football program made a seemingly huge profit of $20 million. However, this figure pales in comparison to the surplus of $37 million that the University of Arkansas earned.

Despite their 123 years of football, the 4^th-oldest stadium in the country, and the famed student tradition of “jumping around”, Wisconsin football is simply not viewed to be as national significant as is Arkansas football. To be clear, the University of Arkansas has a deep-rooted football tradition. Bret Bielema will take over a program that has won 13 conference championships and laid claim to 45 All-Americans, thanks to legendary coaches such as Frank Broyles and Lou Holtz. However, Bielema left not because of a more-rabid fan base in Fayetteville or a team better-poised to compete for a BCS Championship in 2013. He left because of the one factor that the University of Wisconsin could not, and will never be able to, offer: membership in the SEC.