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Players help build the programs. IUBB is what is in large part because of our former great players. B1G athletic depts bring in $120-300M in revenue per year. 90% of that is FB and MBB. Paying kids a full ride with a small stipend is way out of market. Players are worth what they are getting now. To get back on topic, I’m in favor of spending more of our rich donors $ on bball players.

I doubt the folks that want top CBB and CFB players to take 90%+ pay cuts would react well to taking such a pay cut themselves. These players are worth a lot and should be paid what they’re worth… simple as that.

Yea. Frankly it’s a little annoying how little credit this team gets — our series wins get rationalized as due to opposing team injuries. There is some truth to that, but this team has been playing very good bball for two years, including better defense of late. Assuming they advance (just knocking on wood), this Cavs series could be really good and a big chance to make a statement. It will be tough though.

I'm not sure who that is. For symbolism purposes, I wish it was his lawyer that is dealing with the NCAA...

I hope this means something more, but there is a chance they may just be recreating the Wade/LeBron alley-oop as a joke for social media.

I’d say yes. Our best teams had some party animals. Players are still 18-22 yr olds and they can’t play bball 24/7. May as well go to school somewhere that’s a good time. We can sell both bball and IU being really fun. With the right team culture, players can be trusted to party in moderation and at the appropriate times. Just my opinion. Update: @Asha’man the board clearly agrees with you! I could be wrong on this one...

I expect CDD’s teams to have few, if any, issues with social media. His previous teams didn’t have problems from what I can tell. CDD would reprogram Goode and fix whatever Luke picked up from Woody. CDD’s program culture should lead to players being focused such that they naturally tune out all the noise — from hostile road crowds to trolls on social media. It should be very refreshing to see.

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.

I was trying to figure out where college becomes more appealing in terms of money, and I believe for 2nd rounders that aren’t confident they can get guaranteed deals (so they get stuck with a two way deal where they can be sent to the G-League), college hoops is often a better option. Heck, with the rev share kicking up college values, if you aren’t a first rounder college is probably your best bet. TJD managed to get a guaranteed deal in the second round and that was huge for him.

They get our MBB/WBB players, we get their FB players.

Yea. The IUBB culture is mostly baked into these guys before they enroll at IU. Plus of course the state produces a lot of talent. It’s been a huge waste not to get these guys for so many years. I expect this will change with CDD.