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I suspect most, if not all of the players will be very easy to like and support as well. I'm really looking forward to next season too, which is a nice change from the last decade...

The staffed closed on their top two LB targets for this class. Here is the vid of him announcing it, pretty cool. https://x.com/EvanDennison1/status/1915844542634549647 He had 10+ offers and chose Indiana over offers from Louisville, Michigan State, Purdue (lol), and Minnesota, among others.

He is a top-3 player in the state, some argue perhaps the best. It's a good sign when the top local kids start committing.

I'm not sure if Rabby is locked out. Spring '24 didn't help him, but he is technically professional and measured. Some of these new assistants are probably decent sources too. I can tell you two guys who are locked out for good, which is fan-freaking-tastic:

I think Rabby is a goof, but he does have real connections and it's worth hearing what he says. @Hoosierfanyuh does a great job keeping track of Rabby and other sources imo.

Cooper Manning? Two bros got two SuperBowls each, Dad was in the NFL, and his son will likely make the league too.

No visit for you Gonzaga! Love it!

Man this is difficult, I don't disagree with any of those. Only one I'd add: Alan Henderson: finished his career #2 in rebounds, #5 in steals, and #3 in blocks in IUBB history. One honorable mention: Isiah: Before my time, but he was a steals machine.

Ha. Absurd. As Jerry Tarkanian said, "The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky that they're going to give Cleveland State two more years probation.”

Yea. It's getting pretty clear people read this board/other message boards and then post on X for fun/clout. Then of course the message boards see the posts on X and wonder if the source is good. It's a funny feedback loop.

This is an insightful article on roster cost, including an interview with Cig. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/the-race-to-keep-up-with-40-million-rosters-is-shaking-college-football/ It seems like our player payroll is $22-23M, with the big programs in the $35-40M range. It's brutal competition out there. This may seem discouraging, but we have made significant progress in my view. I think our roster cost about $4.5M last season vs. the big programs in the $16-20M range, so we were 20-30% of the big program payrolls (makes last season's accomplishments even more amazing). With rev share and some more NIL increases, this season we are probably 55-65% of the big programs, which is some pretty big improvement. Hopefully Scott can keep finding more NIL for football...

Same. It’s a case by case basis, but in general I like their development path over there vs the AAU nonsense over here.

One trip to Trojan Horse should make him feel right at home in Bloomington. That and $3M should seal the deal.

For what it’s worth, I think that number is way high. I’d guess they’re $11-12M after reading a bunch of other sources/estimates. However, your point about the salty UK fan being a hypocrite stands. Everyone pays their players. And it’s also not the end of the world that they do. If UK wasn’t paying their players so it was all for the name on the front of their jersey, they would have a team of Ollie’s that would win five games and make Crean’s ‘08-09 squad look like the Dream Team.

Yea. One more thing to factor in is Kel'el got two years guaranteed for $9.5M, which is tough for college to match, and he can probably get a few sponsor deals on top of that. But I agree, I think late first rounders have to look hard at college now. Wild.