2026 General Recruiting Thread (Bball)

[Asha’man]

13 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

This is my hope but I’m not sure.  I think increased funds and the ability to overpay is the only immediate way.  I feel like we need some enthusiasm pumped into the program but that isn’t the DDV way.  Building a roster that turns heads would be nice but I really see that as an immense challenge.  Lots of good/better coaches are bringing back more.  We feel so behind the 8 ball.  Gotta hope the Carr move pays some dividends.  Reality is another fringe year and hope the freshman class hits better than expected and a build can start.  I don’t know.  
 

Land the right 3 or 4 guys out of the portal and everything changes but I’m not optimistic we will get it done.  If we are doing the Orme, mid majors type build it’ll be a prove it year.  

I think the 12.5 being rumored is fine if we were already established as a top 25 team with stacked high school recruiting classes. We aren’t there. I’d like to see them get somewhere around 16-18 million to be able to get the caliber of players we are wanting. Even ideal’s a couple of guys are here for 1 year. The freshmen this year could be ready to go as sophs. But need to get the money to support the program. We should be top 5 in NIL not top 20/25. 

[Stuhoo]

7 minutes ago, Asha’man said:

I think the 12.5 being rumored is fine if we were already established as a top 25 team with stacked high school recruiting classes. We aren’t there. I’d like to see them get somewhere around 16-18 million to be able to get the caliber of players we are wanting. Even ideal’s a couple of guys are here for 1 year. The freshmen this year could be ready to go as sophs. But need to get the money to support the program. We should be top 5 in NIL not top 20/25. 

I'll play: Why should we be top 5 in basketball NIL, especially in light of our big money donors giving their attention and money to a  proven-extraordinarily successful football team? And I don't want to hear about historical bball program success; that hasn't been true for many decades and for the last ten years not even remotely apparent.

Big money invests in winners. Cig took a smaller budget and proved to big money that he was worth their investment. Big money that wants to invest in IU sports is giving a million and getting sideline access to football instead of courtside seats in basketball. Oh, that same donor should give to both football and basketball? Nope - gonna give almost all to football until basketball shows it is worth it.

In summary, as mediocre as we've been for decades, it amazing that we may actually be top 20 in basketball NIL.

[Uspshoosier]

2 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

And I don't want to hear about bball program success

4 winning conference records in 18 years with only 1 time during that time frame where they had winning conference records in back to back years.    

[Asha’man]

2 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

I'll play: Why should we be top 5 in basketball NIL, especially in light of our big money donors giving their attention and money to a  proven-extraordinarily successful football team? And I don't want to hear about historical bball program success; that hasn't been true for many decades and for the last ten years not even remotely apparent.

Big money invests in winners. Cig took a smaller budget and proved to big money that he was worth their investment. Big money that wants to invest in IU sports is giving a million and getting sideline access to football instead of courtside seats in basketball. Oh, that same donor should give to both football and basketball? Nope - gonna give almost all to football until basketball shows it is worth it.

In summary, as mediocre as we've been for decades, it amazing that we may actually be top 20 in basketball NIL.

According to Athlon/Sporting News IU spent an estimated $21 million on football roster last year. Placing them in the top 10 nationally in football NIL, closer to 5-8. 3rd in conference behind OSU (over $30) and Oregon ($22-23). That’s more than Michigan at $18 million. So what Cig did wasn’t on a shoestring budget. Boosters ponied up big time. It paid off but the idea that Cig achieved in spite of resources isn’t true. 
 

The same should be done for basketball. Cutting funds to basketball isn’t going to help them win like football. And don’t make DeVries pay for the sins of previous coaching staffs. Support him at the level you want to succeed. Top 20-25 money isn’t going to be a quick fix. It needs to be top 5-10 in the short term until high school recruiting catches up and the portal can be used to fill holes and not starting rosters. Once high school recruiting gets to the point we are counting on that pipeline to replenish those transferring or graduating, then the dollar amount can be lowered. Probably 2 more years for that to happen. 

[Stuhoo]

35 minutes ago, Asha’man said:

According to Athlon/Sporting News IU spent an estimated $21 million on football roster last year. Placing them in the top 10 nationally in football NIL, closer to 5-8. 3rd in conference behind OSU (over $30) and Oregon ($22-23). That’s more than Michigan at $18 million. So what Cig did wasn’t on a shoestring budget. Boosters ponied up big time. It paid off but the idea that Cig achieved in spite of resources isn’t true. 
 

The same should be done for basketball. Cutting funds to basketball isn’t going to help them win like football. And don’t make DeVries pay for the sins of previous coaching staffs. Support him at the level you want to succeed. Top 20-25 money isn’t going to be a quick fix. It needs to be top 5-10 in the short term until high school recruiting catches up and the portal can be used to fill holes and not starting rosters. Once high school recruiting gets to the point we are counting on that pipeline to replenish those transferring or graduating, then the dollar amount can be lowered. Probably 2 more years for that to happen. 

And the 2024 IU Football NIL budget was significantly less. My point is that money came only once winning happened.

Rich people largely got that way by being smart and not investing in losing propositions. While it may not seem that way to less affluent folks, rich people do not have unlimited money to throw at two IU sports. And I assume that most will choose to throw their money at football until and unless basketball also begins to thrive. But not until it does.

[Pagoda]

1 hour ago, Asha’man said:

According to Athlon/Sporting News IU spent an estimated $21 million on football roster last year. Placing them in the top 10 nationally in football NIL, closer to 5-8. 3rd in conference behind OSU (over $30) and Oregon ($22-23). That’s more than Michigan at $18 million. So what Cig did wasn’t on a shoestring budget. Boosters ponied up big time. It paid off but the idea that Cig achieved in spite of resources isn’t true. 
 

The same should be done for basketball. Cutting funds to basketball isn’t going to help them win like football. And don’t make DeVries pay for the sins of previous coaching staffs. Support him at the level you want to succeed. Top 20-25 money isn’t going to be a quick fix. It needs to be top 5-10 in the short term until high school recruiting catches up and the portal can be used to fill holes and not starting rosters. Once high school recruiting gets to the point we are counting on that pipeline to replenish those transferring or graduating, then the dollar amount can be lowered. Probably 2 more years for that to happen. 

This post is really responding to Athlon, not you.  Something is getting misinterpreted by Athlon, and/or they have a bad source(s).  I just don't follow what they're saying at all.  

I'm positive IUFB was not top-10 in roster spend in 2025.  And there is no way we outspent Michigan, or PSU, or USC in the conference.

I say this just from chatting with folks, but also Cig even said it himself: "There's five or six (programs) out there that have unlimited NIL resources. It's kind of scary for everybody else. Our little pot of gold (at Indiana) is pretty nice, but we're not at $40 million. Or $30 million. Or even $25 million."

I think $21M was about right for our 2025 roster, but other schools were spending $30-35M+, some maybe $40M.  I'd guess we were around #20-25 in the country last year.  

I'm just posting all this because IUFB in no way "bought" a title.  Our 2025 roster spend is often exaggerated.  And Athlon is annoying me with their claims.

Now for 2026, IUFB is close to or in the top-10 for roster spend.  It's amazing, I didn't think it was possible.

Just so folks know for 2024 (pre-rev share) and our roster was around $4.5M when big programs were $12-20M.

As for how this relates to IUBB, we can see how IUFB ramped up.  IUBB was already around #15 in roster spend this season.  That's pretty good.  Regardless of what we think is the best path forward, I think it's going to be hard to get much more NIL without showing some better results on the court.  If that $12.5M number is true for 2025-26, that's some amazing support for IUBB in my opinion.  But, I'm not sure what the roster 2025-26 budget is at this point.

[Asha’man]

31 minutes ago, Pagoda said:

This post is really responding to Athlon, not you.  Something is getting misinterpreted by Athlon, and/or they have a bad source(s).  I just don't follow what they're saying at all.  

I'm positive IUFB was not top-10 in roster spend in 2025.  And there is no way we outspent Michigan, or PSU, or USC in the conference.

I say this just from chatting with folks, but also Cig even said it himself: "There's five or six (programs) out there that have unlimited NIL resources. It's kind of scary for everybody else. Our little pot of gold (at Indiana) is pretty nice, but we're not at $40 million. Or $30 million. Or even $25 million."

I think $21M was about right for our 2025 roster, but other schools were spending $30-35M+, some maybe $40M.  I'd guess we were around #20-25 in the country last year.  

I'm just posting all this because IUFB in no way "bought" a title.  Our 2025 roster spend is often exaggerated.  And Athlon is annoying me with their claims.

Now for 2026, IUFB is close to or in the top-10 for roster spend.  It's amazing, I didn't think it was possible.

Just so folks know for 2024 (pre-rev share) and our roster was around $4.5M when big programs were $12-20M.

As for how this relates to IUBB, we can see how IUFB ramped up.  IUBB was already around #15 in roster spend this season.  That's pretty good.  Regardless of what we think is the best path forward, I think it's going to be hard to get much more NIL without showing some better results on the court.  If that $12.5M number is true for 2025-26, that's some amazing support for IUBB in my opinion.  But, I'm not sure what the roster 2025-26 budget is at this point.

I wasn’t implying IU bought a title. But they were willing to pay enough to be competitive with those at the top. I’m not sure they are doing that with basketball. Even if IU bought a title who gives a crap. You guys got a title. I’m not an IU football fan but to hell with OSU. Every BCS title through now could be argued was bought, it was just under the table. Get into the history of college football and it goes back to the decades prior to many of us being alive and players getting paid. 
 

I think Dolson and probably Carr now that he is here may need to pull some financial levers. The money is there. People say 21.5 and 12.5 is a lot of money. It is but not to the mega donors. The cooks are worth 7+ billion last I looked and are engaged in supporting the sports programs. A $5 mil ask is a rounding error to them. For those who think I crazy that’s like someone with $700,000 donating $500. So if they have $20 mil already, $2000 then get the other $500.  Essentially if I had to wager that 800,000 alumni probably donated a bunch of small amounts bc of football. Great do it again with basketball. Over pay a little now and then the masses will pay for it later. And if Saban and the rest figure out a way to curb the spending, IU basketball needs to already be in that top group before any sort of legislation comes down and creates a situation where IU is stuck as a have not. The south will go back to paying under the table. 

[Demo]

‘26 top 100 PG Trey Beamer decommits from Boston College. Good player. Better than BC. Played for Team United on the EYBL circuit and he straight lit up Team Final in 1 of the Sammy Jackson games I watched. Posting this not because I have any thought that this is a thing so much as the fit makes sense to me. They’ve clearly wanted a PG in this class. If we assume that the starting ‘26 PG is currently playing in college or overseas somewhere, bringing in a multiyear kid to take some rotation minutes and groom to take the keys in ‘27 certainly seems like a plan. Kid’s really good but he’s not super projectable. He doesn’t win by being the best athlete on the floor. He wins by being really, really clever, reading the game at a high level and getting to his spots.

Probably nothing but I kind of like it.