Bret Bielema 'congratulates' Michigan, Purdue for reaching Big Ten Championship Game, harps on officiating

Bret Bielema took to Twitter and offered message-sending congratulations to Michigan and Purdue for reaching the Big Ten Championship Game. He did so while harping on officiating. Illinois lost to the Boilermakers and Wolverines this month by a combined nine points and there were questionable calls in both games, leading to Bielema asking for an explanation.

"Congrats to both teams and all they have accomplished," Bielema tweeted after Michigan's win at Ohio State and Purdue's victory at Indiana. "Saw both teams on the field and didn’t get it done. Would love the opportunity to meet both again on a neutral field and officials. Can’t happen this year but family we will be there sooner than later."

Illinois was one stop away from sealing the program's biggest win since a 2007 upset of No. 1 Ohio State last week in Ann Arbor but could not finish it off after Michigan converted a fourth-and-3 conversion late in the fourth quarter to set up Jake Moody's 35-yard field goal with nine seconds to go. That proved to be the difference in the game in No. 3 Michigan's 19-17 win over the Illini.

The Illinois coach appeared to be irked with the officiating during the game, during his halftime interview and postgame press conference. Bielema believed Michigan should have been flagged for a pick play.

"I’m extremely pissed off," Bielema said. "Very angry. Very upset. Think our kids did a lot to win the football game and to continually have things go against us, very frustrating."

After a 7-point loss to Purdue, Bielema pointed at the officials for calling his secondary for five pass interference penalties.

“I think we had four PIs (pass interferences) on the season, and I think today we had five," Bielema said. "We just have to get clarification for where we are at. That was frustrating. I tried to get an answer; couldn’t quite get it. We’ve had these officials before. We had them at Indiana. We schooled our guys up on this crew, they’re going to call things a certain way. We did all the mental prep that we could, but obviously, the execution in the game was not good enough.”

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At 8-4, Illinois awaits its bowl fate, which will be announced next Sunday afternoon.

Isaac Trotter contributed to this report.