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Nice chart, thanks. I also suspect Derek Owings is worth every penny, I'm glad we gave him that raise last year to keep him from going to USC. Derek's system plus Cig's approach with shorter practices seems to work well (fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc.). That's vital for us given our roster isn't as deep as some of the big programs we're competing against nowadays...

That would be great. It's an extremely logical fit as we all know. And I really dislike them (probably #3 most disliked behind PU and OSU for me), so playing them would be fun. Sadly, I suspect there is very little chance they join the B1G anytime soon.

IU media/reporters are not allowed to talk about injuries unless IU announces something. So, we won't get anything direct from them. They won't get to ask Cig until the next presser, which is December 22nd.

That was so fun. To go into the game with the question "what happens if Sayin gets pressured?", then people question if we can do it, and we do it, and it works. Mega satisfaction. Most satisfying thing for me since we had some of those short yardage issues earlier in the year and we bulldozed Oregon's DL twice on the goal line for Hemby TD's.

Damn, what a gut punch. My stomach sank. And it really stinks for him too as a player. Well, I went looking for something to help me cope with this potential bad news and the best I could find is our betting odds to win it all haven't changed since Saturday. I'd assume the sharps know about this rumor. I'd ask that no one challenge my questionable cope rationale in this difficult time. Thank you. ;-)

Yea. Reed is pretty darn frustrating. Okay, he's not strong. But he should have the skills and experience to compensate for that, such as being crafty around the bucket with fakes and footwork, the whole stretch the defense with shooting and quickness thing, and being fundamental and smart on the defensive end. Hasn't really happened though. Sometimes I think there is something in the water in Bloomington. I can only hope he figures it out asap. Looks like IU -16 tonight. Would be great to see IU cover because things are wobbly right now...

They have a high ceiling in football, but hiring a coach is hard and that job isn’t as easy as it looks for whatever reason. They flubbed on Rich Rod, Brady Hoke, and probably Sherrone. It took Jim six years to get it going there and he did get over the hump in years seven through nine, though he got caught cheating and left the school with penalties that cost around $30M. I won’t change your mind on what annoys you with bball, all I’m saying is UM has their share of challenging issues.

That 110K football stadium goes a long, long way. Their athletic dept revenue is ~$110M more than ours (we're around $150M pre-Cig impact, we won't have post-Cig reported financials until January, and UM is ~$260M). They've got so much more revenue than us mostly driven by football. And they obviously have a larger donor base, but I don't know the details. We're never going to outmuscle schools financially. Best we can do is be like around #10 in bball and top-20 in football (and we aren't there yet). But that's not chopped liver and we can do damage with that amount of spend if we're smart. I'd note UM only cares about football. Their coach isn't very good and their future is meh. Our football team is ranked #1 with a Big Ten Title. They also have to figure out what we're doing now...

Here are some high level estimates from what I can gather. I think our bball NIL hasn’t changed much this year, we’ve just layered on rev share. Last season, pre rev share, it was reportedly $5-6M NIL. This year bball gets around $4M rev share + $5-6M NIL = $10M total, which is the commonly reported number. I can only guess where $10M ranks. Somewhere between #10-20. The issue is rev share made a lot of other programs more competitive (notable schools with no serious football program to use up rev share, think Big East) and also some schools upped their NIL. Woody’s last year were were probably close to top-5 and because of those factors we’re #10-20 now. Which is still nothing to scoff at… And our staff budget is around the tops in the conference. I think we have given CDD enough (plenty) to start building in year one. I don’t think we can flip a Woody destroyed program in two months (the time CDD had to hire and staff and hit the portal for a team). But I do think we should make the tourney without much drama this season and build to be a consistent top-20 team next season. I get we’ve had a bit of a red flag the past two games, but that’s a separate discussion. Football’s roster was $21-22M this year. I’d guess that’s #25-30 in the country. Frankly it’s crazy not to prioritize IUFB for NIL right now for obvious reasons. So if CDD wants more he needs to prove to donors he’s worth it.

Good hire. How well he does, we shall see. Pat’s leaked audio (talking to coaches and maybe a few players) was insane. Dude was off the rails! And he sure hates Oregon. NSFW audio. BTW he took a shot at us and said we weren’t the #2 team in the country. Well after yesterday I guess he was right!

Good initial news on Coop’s injury.

Another fancy press conference — this time for the Rose Bowl.

ND is taking their ball and going home.

I may have searched out a couple ND livestreams to see their reaction. They’re not taking the news well to say the least. lmao Plus this will cost them tens of millions of $ in revenue. :-)

Enjoy the Pop Tarts Bowl Notre Dame!

Good news for Bama. They’re so in. We got an SEC showdown! We play Bama or Oklahoma.

Good for Pat. One independent person there. The whole thing was insane. I know everyone knows this, but Lane coaching Ole Miss while working as the head coach of LSU was a 100% absolute non-starter. It’s one of the most absurdly conflicted unworkable arrangements imaginable. Obviously Lane said he would do both jobs to save face while knowing it would never happen. I can’t believe the GameDay crew and some CFB media gave him cover on this one. So pathetic. Especially Saban, who was behind the scenes advising him to go to LSU.

Pawl is a joke but in an odd way he doesn’t bother me too much. He’s always played a character and he won’t break character because that’s his bit and how he gets attention. He’s not a serious CFB analyst. No one really respects him. He’s an act and probably doesn’t believe what he says, and that doesn’t bother him. What I do have an issue with is people influential in the CFB world like Kirk, who are supposed to be impartial, singling us out like he did last year. Or the way Jimmy Sexton got the GameDay crew to defend Lane’s asshat behavior. That’s trash.

I’m a sucker for coaches who are stoic until the clock hits 00:00. Super focused mentality, not too high, not too low, and it’s not over ‘til it’s over. Cig’s reaction to the Sarratt score reminded me of Larry when Reggie hit the ECF game winner vs the Bulls.

Preseason the CFB media were doing their Heisman picks and the consensus view was he could be good but you can’t actually win a Heisman at Indiana. But at Indiana, we don’t have such self-imposed limitations. ;-)

We had not beat them in 37 years. What a way to break that streak!

Oh man the site is up! 13-0. #1 ranking. Heisman incoming. Unbelievable. Holding OSU to 10 points and getting five sacks on Sayin was a masterclass. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t tear up during the postgame celebrations. What a program.

Some more interviews if you like.

I guess while at Ole Miss this was his attempt at the Herbstreit strategy. And another thing backfires on Lane. He is such a POS.

Usual Monday presser. Something to watch while this site is acting up!