Inside Music City Bowl: How Illinois-Tennessee drew 5.4 million to watch instant classic

The 30-28 Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl thriller in Nashville last month saw the Illinois Fighting Illini (9-4) exit Nissan Stadium having won back-to-back bowl games under coach Bret Bielema, while the Tennessee Volunteers (8-5) saw a recurring theme continue to end their season: close, but not enough.

It's the kind of game that left 5.4 million ESPN viewers on the edge of their seats and over 52,815 fans happy they made the trip to Tennessee to watch it unfold.

For CEO Scott Ramsey, the game could not have gone anymore perfectly regardless of who won. In so many words, across his 28 years of overseeing the annual game, it was a smash hit. Fans partook in various events during the week, including "Battle of the Bands," tailgates, dinners and much more, before the New Year's Eve rush finally took over.

"I think if we could have the final play determine the game every year, we'd be awfully happy," Ramsey said last Friday on Ep. 74 of "Bando's Breakdowns."

With the focus largely pertaining to the CFP, Ramsey said he is happy that traditional bowl games still mean something.

MORE: Jeremiah Smith's latest Ohio State warning could serve as dire message for rest of Big Ten

"When you look at the non-CFP games like ourselves, now a chance to if you can have 50,000-plus in the stands and over five-million viewers, boy that's a huge, successful year," Ramsey said. "Right now, given the state of these non-CFP games, we've had to adjust a lot over the last five years with the changes in college football from the COVID to the expansion of conferences with the Pac-12 going away, to obviously the transfer portal... I think our system in Nashville, in particular, I think we've done a really good job of kind of adjusting all those changes."

Ramsey said selecting the two teams to play in the game came down to the wire on the SEC side, but noted Bielema's team as one the bowl had been interested in since about midseason.

"We had kind of really been tracking on Illinois," Ramsey said. "We'd had Iowa two of the last three years... We just felt like the first time to have Illinois here was a great fit. And then on the other side [the SEC], with the teams that we'd had the last couple years, like Missouri and so forth, we felt like the Tennessee-Illinois matchup was great. On the SEC side, they make more of an appointment to the pool of bowls that ride below the Citrus Bowl."

Every year, though, isn't like the one before it, Ramsey said.

MORE: Bret Bielema receives challenging update as Music City Bowl hero reveals Illinois future

"I don't know if we ever kind of think about that until kind of see how the season kind of progresses," Ramsey said. "I don't think we've ever shied away from kind of having, you know, every three or four years.... Purdue brought a lot of fans, Illinois brought a lot of fans... So I think we've taken each year individually."

Bielema told reporters after the game how much the win meant to him personally and to the team.

“So the 2025 season was a team that beat two bowl games back-to-back against SEC teams," Bielema said. 'I know, I think the SEC is now 0-4 and we’d be 5-0 in the Big Ten. I’m going to take that every day, right, so a little propaganda there, but propaganda is good propaganda.”

Meanwhile, coach Josh Heupel said there's a lot to learn from.

“I think in this game, but throughout the course of the season, it’s a series of one plays that make a difference," Heupel told reporters. "There are a few of them that will be burned in my brain for a long time. I think the disappointment of tonight or the disappointment of any of the games during the course of the season, but in particular tonight, it’s got a chance to be the fuel that you use as motivation starting tomorrow and when we get back in January."

But, for those on the fence, Ramsey said attending the yearly game should be an easy decision.

"Certainly the Music City Bowl will play a great part in the new stadium... But we're really excited about kind of what that first five to 10 years look like," Ramsey said.

And with a new stadium on the way and the potential for the Final Four, Super Bowls, the CFP and much more to come, Nashville is arriving as a sports and entertainment hotbed.

"They just have fun in our city," Ramsey said.

This December, it will be no different.

More Big Ten news