CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) – Illinois head coach Bret Bielema has seen plenty of change throughout his playing and coaching career.

Bielema has faced challenges like the transfer portal and NIL for decades. Some of these elements affect his work off the field, while others directly impact Saturdays in the fall.

In April, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a handful of changed ahead of the 2025 season.

One change, familiar to Illinois fans, came after their win against South Carolina in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl. A viral moment between Bielema and Gamecocks’ coach Shane Beamer potentially sparked this change.

The trick which South Carolina tried on special teams will no longer be possible.

“If a player on a kickoff-return team makes a ‘T’ signal with his arms during the kick, they surrender their right to complete a return, and the play will be stopped,” stated the NCAA in their April release.

Bielema is a fan of that change.

“Rules have always been important to me,” Bielema said. “I think rules are great, if everybody plays by the same ones. When you have a rule like that like there’s ambiguity on what can be interpreted… I actually give Beamer credit because he thought of a creative way. I’ve thought of it, but I just didn’t do it because I didn’t want to put that image out there… In a way, South Carolina exposed a rule that needed to be changed. I’m glad it happened, and hopefully it’ll make everything else better.”

However, he’s not so fond of a couple other rule changes. Specifically, changes impacting overtime timeouts and injury stoppages.

One change states the following:

If a game reaches a third overtime, each team will have one timeout beginning with the third overtime until the game is ended.

Bielema finds it unnecessary.

“You’re in overtime. [If] you’re in overtime, game nine and you’ve got to win the last two to get into the playoffs and you’re in an overtime team against a really good football team – and you [could] lose an opportunity because they wanted to implement a rule to try and shave a couple minutes off of game time in overtime,” Bielema said. “If you’re playing in overtime, it’s probably a good game. Why we would want to do that blows my mind, but it is what it is.”

The objection held by the Illinois head coach has less to do with the rule itself and instead surrounds implementation.

In an effort to reduce fake injuries, the NCAA announced the following:

If the player presents as injured after the ball is spotted by the officiating crew for the next play, that player’s team will be charged a timeout…. If the team does not have any timeouts remaining, a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty will be assessed.

“I get it, I understand it, it’s a part of the game,” Bielema said.

While Coach B is not opposed to discouraging fake injuries, although he says he didn’t view it as a major issue in the Big Ten, but he takes issue with the consequence presented.

Instead of a team automatically being charged a timeout when the rule is implemented, he would like to see the option of the penalized team choosing to use a timeout or accept a five-yard penalty. The longtime head coach presented a hypothetical to get his point accross:

“Let’s say it’s a first [down] and ten. We gain nine yards. My right tackle thought he could go, but he couldn’t go, right? So he falls down. He can’t go and he takes a knee. The clock has already been set, so now it’s second [down] and one, right?,” Bielema said. “Well, I would, under normal circumstances, I would just take the five yard penalty and go to second [down] and six… I don’t want to take a timeout that I’m going to need to conduct an end of half series or an end of game series.”

He says a similar scenario could be presented for the defense, where it might make more sense for the team to give up the first down rather than using a valuable timeout.

Essentially, it seems Bielema’s concern is a legitimate injury, at an unfortunate time, haunting his team by the loss of a timeout.

He says he talked with Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart, who serves as co-chair of the NCAA Football Rules Committee, about getting this changed.

“We didn’t get it through but my guess is hopefully that might get through next year [2026],” Bielema said.