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On the surface, if all things were clear cost/benefit... The above reasoning that 'we' are spending and IU needs 'to deliver a six seed or better' seems appropriate. Except for the apparent mandate that the team and coaches just have to deliver a six seed. (Or else 'we' won't gift NIL.) As we saw with Woody and his teams, they didn't deliver. And we still get an estimated $20 million. Football success probably had a lot to do with it. I wonder about this. Gifts to athletics are motivated by all sorts of wants and desires. Some may be because of gratitude for one reason or another. I have all sorts of questions about the process. Some may never get answered. I don't question that student/athletes deserve pay. Gifts are an interesting source of NIL. Gifts to university athletics are generally not directly part of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) because NCAA rules prohibit institutions from paying athletes directly. However, donations to NIL collectives—separate, supporter-run entities—are the primary funding source for athlete NIL deals, representing 70-80% of revenue. Seems to me that there are no musts to deliver. Coaches get paid oodles whether they deliver or not...per their contracts. Students get their $$$ regardless. There is little or no control or feedback about winning. Moral suasion, pride, doing a job well...and future opportunities...yes. That seems to me to disconnect from fans gifting to NIL and athletics. I am not questioning that it appears that $20 million in NIL appears to be in the range of a middle seed in the NCAAT. Although that is obviously subject to debate. In economics, it appears to me to be almost perfect inelasticity between how much NIL is funded by fans depending on performance in previous years. Football, those that have disposable funds and, of course, businesses marketing, all are wild cards in this.

Down the road if there's a staff opening, probably need to explore hiring whoever is responsible for developing all of these very high-level Lawrence North receivers. There is athletic talent everywhere, but Lawrence North is a public high school that is repeatedly churning out four and five star high school talent at one specific position. edit: Lawrence North's Head Coach is former IU O-lineman Patrick Mallory (no relation to Bill Mallory). A guy on the rise with full IU connections and loyalty. So YAY!

IU needs to keep the top talent in the state be it BBall, FBall, Baseball or anything.

@jermhoosierfan, yeah like @Stuhoo mentioned, it's Lawrence North High School. Omar Cooper Jr., Davion Chandler, Monshun Sales, and now Ethan Adbulraheem all have been offered and/or on or have been on the IUFB roster. It's most definitely a trend. I see this as all very good for IUFB.

Ok, I am not up on Indy HS football players down here in Evansville. LOL

Curt Cignetti Named Lee Corso Legacy National Coach of the Year Head Coach Curt Cignetti was honored last night as the inaugural winner of the Lee Corso Legacy National College Football Coach of the Year for 2025. The Award is given by the Positive Coaching Alliance whose mission is to ensure that every young person benefits from a positive youth sports experience with a coach who inspires them to become the best version of themselves in the game and in life. The award is named in honor of former IU Head Coach Lee Corso who not only had a positive impact on his players while coaching, but also a positive impact on college football during his time on College Gameday from 1987-2025. Congratulations Coach Cignetti and Coach Corso! https://www.clickorlando.com/sports/2026/05/08/lee-corso-gives-indianas-curt-cignetti-inaugural-lee-corso-legacy-award/

A sophomore from Monshun's high school.

So, he doesn't like they are recruiting another WR or he likes the fact they are going after another one who is local?

This is the key. It’s not happening at IU because there’s no team or culture to retain them to. Yet anyways.

Agree. Close to $20M spend when it's all done, plus this huge expensive staff, you've just got to deliver a six seed or better. Or else why are we spending all this money? If they can't do this and there were no serious injuries, I just cannot see a case for this staff being the right one that's ever going to do anything here. Hopefully this staff hits their stride this year...

I believe it. I watched a guy who rode a bench in Europe tear guys apart in a gym. You don't realize how good a guy on a bench is till you see it live.

Mercer has been a huge disappointment.

Agree the roster continuity/advanced scout is the most important benefit with retention. But I wouldn't downplay the savings. If the player is happy -- the program is winning, they're developing, and they're comfortable with staff/program and their life/future, it's going to take some pretty lucrative tampering to shake them loose such that they give all that up and hit the unknown in the portal. $100K or even $250K may not do it. So there is that angle to the savings. The other thing is replacing a lost player is so damn expensive in the hyper competitive portal. I think good retention saves 15-20% across the whole roster, which lets a team afford another impact player. Also, the other way to save on the roster is to develop guys. If they get better they're still on the same money, at least for one year. It's all a flywheel. (1) Recruit bad, mediocre development, lose too much, roster turnover up, players cost more. (2) Or recruit well, develop well, win more, roster turnover low, players cost less (relative to their skill). IUBB needs to get on the positive flywheel ASAP.

Wang commits to UMass as has been expected.

Colsten Thompson tweet: If you only knew how hard this one worked every single 24 she got! Definitely deserves every bit of this moment and opportunity she has been given! Proud of you @shay_ciezki.

I'd hope Sisley is closer to $1M. I can barely remember, but I thought Woody threw a nonchalant $500-750K offer at him back during his recruitment and Painter was mad about it. So if he was ~$500-750K last year he get's a bump to ~$1M or something. I dunno, just a guess.

Maybe 1.5 ... projects as the 6th or 7th man on this team. The only player retained. IU fan growing up. The rumor Michigan was after him. Optics of him leaving would have been terrible. I'm sure his camp knew that and was able to get a very healthy bump. Just guessing of course. Either way I think the budget is close to tapped at this point

It’s funny because the argument last summer was it’s so cheap to keep guys on the roster. Now they are getting massive retention bumps. I do admit it’s generally cheaper to keep a player, but if that player and their camp is about money it’s going to end being a number in the similar ballpark. And that was my stance last year. And that assumes the player is happy with things. The real advantage is the advanced scout. You know exactly what your getting from said player when they’ve been on your team. No question marks. But financially it’s not the savings many project. I don’t know what Sisley. My guess is he got 300 or so last year. My guess is a million would be an appropriately huge bump. He’s a borderline starter but not a guaranteed starter. Shows potential but didn’t get the chances to demonstrate. He’s the perfect keep candidate player because the staff knows all.

Nobody really knows the market but I’d hope like heck we’re not paying Sisley $2M. He was an end of the rotation guy who surely couldn’t have gotten a million anywhere else.

Year 2 is a complete rebuild. The DDV era is going to be like year 1 B.C. (before Ryan Carr) and year 1 A.D. (after Ryan Carr) lol. Hiring Ryan Carr is definitely a big move to turnaround IUBB after decades of mismanagement. ~$20M is an extremely competitive budget, so the resources are there. Unfortunately, it's a complete rebuild. Hoosier fans love their basketball so much. Us hardcore fans on the message boards are basically masochists for being this invested in a program that's been as bad as IU over the last quarter century. Whether we are top 10-15 or top 20 spenders on the roster it's impressive given the awful results on the court. We're spreading that budget over 12 new players and probably paid up to retain Sisley. Hopefully year 1 A.R.C. provides a solid foundation for next year so we can be more efficient with our player payroll and use the portal to really elevate the program's ceiling. Year 2 A.R.C hopefully we are on a clear trajectory to compete for a B10 title and make a run in March. With the portal and the budget I think that's not too much to ask.

Have to set the bar low enough so we can maybe surpass it. There’s Always a reason we won’t be that good and usually most excuses are based off previous seasons failures. A convenient way to keep expectations down. We are paying to be a 6 seed or better. Thats the resource allocation. That should be the expectation.

I would think that adding a GM from the NBA to the roster at IU would be shooting for challenging for a NC? This seems like…? i could be happy though with true dogs that leave blood sweat and tears out on every floor.

I'm with you here for the most part. I do think we probably are very close to 20M though Sherrell 4.5 Burton 3.5 Yig 3-3.5 Mustaf 1.5 Lindsay 2.5 Sisley 2 (I'm thinking he got a nice retention bump) Harris 1.5 Freshmen 1 That's 19.5-20M... I think Yig and Lindsay got sweet deals committing without a visit. Just speculation from me. We should definitely look to improve the team with the remaining 3 spots. I say remaining because they're not the "last" roster spots. Minimally need one capable of playing 8/9th man minutes. Hoping for some Euro lotto tickets to hit.

The second year thing is enticing. But one thing in the NIL era and as an IU fan, be careful projecting ahead. Have to take care of business first or no one will bother.