Pagoda

Todd McShay did a detailed scouting report on Fernando. Interesting read. Like others have said, if he has a good year he could be a first rounder… https://mcshay-report.beehiiv.com/p/scouting-fernando-mendoza-why-indiana-s-new-qb-is-a-wide-receiver-s-dream

Yea, that game was intense and draining. Now there is just one day's rest before game 4. I'm hoping the Pacers conditioning/style + the crowd can propel us vs. the Thunder maybe being fatigued. I kinda agree with the take that whoever wins game 4 is in the driver's seat for the series (sort of a "no duh" I know). This whole playoff run has been amazing.

IUFB payroll is around $22-23M (NIL and rev share). This big programs are $35-40M+. There is actually a great source for this info... Cig himself. https://www.si.com/college/miami/football/curt-cignetti-believes-miami-40-million-roster-upcoming-season This seams like a big gap between IU and big schools, and it is, we're like 60-65% of the big programs this season. But last year we were around $4.5M of NIL and the big programs were $16-20M, so we were only 25% or so of the big programs last season. This is progress, but unfortunately we need more money. All but a few schools do.

Yea, that could be right — maybe best case? You make a great point on the fatigue factor causing a death spiral. Nothing is more exhausting than hacking and struggling from deep rough when you can only advance it 50-100 yards. So the 18 handicap is tired and they have to handle undulating super slick greens they are not used to. There would be lots of chips running way by and putting could be even worse than 3.5 per hole. The number of terrible lag putts and missed three footers would add up real quick. I’d guess double par for a score, 140 or so? I like bloodbath US Opens. I hope they turn the course up to 11 and make these pampered pros cry.

3* from Ohio. Other offers include Cincinnati, Boston College, Duke, Kentucky, Rutgers, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, and West Virginia. https://x.com/jadynwilliams22/status/1932485430185722005?s=46&t=zoBJGD5TXRBDk1ODyOZqlg

Great hype video dropped. https://x.com/indianafootball/status/1932145654475677775?s=46&t=zoBJGD5TXRBDk1ODyOZqlg

3* from St. Louis -- more of the regional recruiting approach Lebowski posted about in the other thread. 20+ schools offered, notably BC, Purdue, and MSU. More of the IU-wrapped IndyCar too.. This is the busy time for recruiting...

3* TE. Visited over the weekend and committed. He had a Missouri visit scheduled, but he committed anyway. He had a bunch of B1G offers and some SEC schools too. https://x.com/macfarlane_pj/status/1931780140431782050 Interesting detail, in watching his commit video, IUFB now has their IndyCar prop wrapped in IU colors with the CFB Playoff logo. Previously the car was blue and black with "IndyCar" on the side. This is another example of IUFB caring about the little details, which I love. See pics below: I know it's been around since last fall, but this little IndyCar promo partnership is cool. It's unique and it fits with image of Cig's IUFB (at least the fast and relentless parts). And I bet it annoys Purdue a little bit, who is pretty tied into racing with all their engineers and their marching band stuff at the 500. But hey, IU has The Little 500, which is a helluva tie in too. Good stuff.

I can only guess, but I think this will at least be a continuation of the post-McRobbie era increased focus on sports. Frankly, anything post-McRobbie was going to be an increased focus on sports, that man did not get it. I've never seen IU spend on athletics like they have the past two years. Not even remotely close at all. Last year IU provided an unprecedented $34M loan to the athletic dept, mostly to support football. This will get paid back as media rights increase and gameday revenue improves, but the key takeaway is prior to this (and excluding covid), IU would never send more than a few million to the AD in any given year. That has completely changed. So, the basic logic is this support has occurred under Quinn/Pam/Scott, and since they're continuing, we'll probably continue to see more of this higher level of support for athletics. I'm biased because I like sports, but I think it's worth it. Football is the only sport that can produce a material return on investment for the athletic dept. Big MBB programs like IU can make some money, but it's not close to football. If we can become a midpack, or ideally top 1/3 B1G FB team, that will help our athletic dept immensely and help IU sustain all sports. As of today we're still one of the smaller P2 athletic depts and only football can change that. Last thing on this athletics support topic -- what Scott has started and in my opinion needs to keep doing is monetizing our improved football team. Like it or not, almost all the athletic dept revenue comes from fans directly or indirectly. We need Memorial Stadium sold out every game (should hopefully happen) and the fans have to absorb some ticket price increases, which seem pretty fair given the team they get to watch now. Other things that would help out our tapped out athletic dept are (i) a stadium sponsor, (ii) enough corporate interest, probably mostly from Indy area firms, to justify building suites, (iii) getting more whale donors engaged (Mark?), and (iv) chatting with Adidas about improving our contract with them (Cig is a material change since we signed!). Our athletic dept is tapped out with all this spending on coaches, NIL and rev share -- more money would help a lot. Maybe the BoT can help with some of this, I don't know.

Unfortunately, it appears this Bomba issue is not over. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/45444572/more-men-allege-sexual-misconduct-ex-indiana-team-doctor

3* OT take from Wisconsin. His other top offer was Iowa State, and then some smaller schools offered too. With Bostad's connections in Wisconsin (and UW being down), we have been getting nice some recruits outs of that state.

I'm looking forward to it. I'm guessing we'll get the usual positive tidbits and hopefully this year those are true. Key question: Will we get strength and conditioning hype videos? The classic sand pit and battle ropes? This is a quiet staff, so I'm not sure it's a given...

This recruitment will likely take some more work. He just got an offer from his Pop's school, Florida State. https://x.com/jay__timmons/status/1929316491658215785 Update: This one doesn't look good: "It feels great. I came here last year as a freshman with one offer from Akron. I've been here four times now. This has been a dream since I was a kid. I've never been a big sports fan but I've always been a Florida State fan. It's crazy. It's a great feeling. It could possibly switch things around. Indiana is home right now but we'll see what happens," Timmons told Noles247.