2025 IUFB Season

[Pagoda 5,838]

8 hours ago, Lebowski said:

Does anyone have solid information about NIL funds this season? Like really solid info. Send me a DM if you don't feel comfortable going public about it.

I'm wondering if we're competing with Oregon. The perception is Oregon has a truck load. 

I know this isn't exactly want you want, but I've never seen a better source on where IUFB stands than this interview with Cig where he flat out says where we are going into this season.  This is probably as good as talking to Scott Dolson.  Cig is just a straight shooter.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/the-race-to-keep-up-with-40-million-rosters-is-shaking-college-football/

Cig says the top teams are $40M NIL and rev share, which matches up with what a lot of other sources say (usually $40-45M is the high end quoted).  He even lists examples of these top spending programs, "Right now I understand that is Oregon, Ohio State, Texas. ... Texas Tech because of their oil money. I think Notre Dame's up there pretty good right now, too. Miami, of course." 

And then Cig says about IU: "I think our little pot of gold is pretty nice, but we're not at $40 million. Or $30 million. Or even $25 million."  To me it's pretty clear he is basically saying IUFB's player payroll is in the low $20M range.

So, while we compete with the big programs for players here and there, we are not close to Oregon or any of the big programs on roster spend.  We're an outlier among the top-10, all the other top-10 teams have player payroll 50-100% higher than us.  And really most top-20 teams have quite a bit more resources than we do, especially when you consider their overall athletic dept revenue.

I'd guess our player payroll spend would be ranked somewhere in the mid-20's right now.  We'll never know for sure since solid roster spend info for all other schools is not available, but if you look at our roster and recruiting class rankings it points to our roster spend being ranked somewhere in the mid-20's range.  While players may end up better or worse than their ranking, in general they're paid in line with their ranking.  We've got mostly a 3* roster.  Another way to look at it is list out the largest football programs and there are a lot that are bigger than us.

Now, while our roster payroll isn't on the high end, we've still made huge progress in the last two years.  Tom Allen had $2M of NIL when he left per the IndyStar.  We've come a long way.  And of course Cig and staff are so darn good they get the most from what they have through player selection, development/retention, scheme, and culture.  Hopefully our on-field results allow IU to keep increasing spend on our roster, because this is our window to do special things in football and change IUFB for years to come.

[CSP 12,275]

NIL-- an incredible phenomenon 

[Hovadipo 62,511]

Mel Kiper (big huge idiot, but a loud one with a large platform) has Fernando in the top-5 of his first big board, according to him on ESPN radio this morning. That’s becoming a trend. 

[Lebowski 3,972]

5 hours ago, Pagoda said:

I know this isn't exactly want you want, but I've never seen a better source on where IUFB stands than this interview with Cig where he flat out says where we are going into this season.  This is probably as good as talking to Scott Dolson.  Cig is just a straight shooter.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/the-race-to-keep-up-with-40-million-rosters-is-shaking-college-football/

...

Thanks for sharing. I really wish the public had access to the true numbers. 

[str8baller 7,851]

On 10/8/2025 at 5:22 AM, Pagoda said:

Cig says the top teams are $40M NIL and rev share, which matches up with what a lot of other sources say (usually $40-45M is the high end quoted).  He even lists examples of these top spending programs, "Right now I understand that is Oregon, Ohio State, Texas. ... Texas Tech because of their oil money. I think Notre Dame's up there pretty good right now, too. Miami, of course."

On top of that you always have one or two teams who have a booster go all out in any given year. O$U was reported to be considerably higher than #2 last year. I don’t know where UM was the year before but that one billionaire (Ellison maybe) reportedly shelled out like $3-5mil for their QB because his new girlfriend was a UM grad and wanted him too.  I had read somewhere that this might be Texas this year. 
 

So you could probably draw a distinct line between the top 5-10 and everyone else and then again between the top 1-2 spenders in any given year when an ultra- wealthy booster gets frisky. 

[Pagoda 5,838]

53 minutes ago, str8baller said:

On top of that you always have one or two teams who have a booster go all out in any given year. O$U was reported to be considerably higher than #2 last year. I don’t know where UM was the year before but that one billionaire (Ellison maybe) reportedly shelled out like $3-5mil for their QB because his new girlfriend was a UM grad and wanted him too.  I had read somewhere that this might be Texas this year. 

So you could probably draw a distinct line between the top 5-10 and everyone else and then again between the top 1-2 spenders in any given year when an ultra- wealthy booster gets frisky. 

Yea, well put, it's definitely fluid to some extent.  Cody Campbell is the latest frisky donor.  Word is he's got to pay a premium to get top kids to Lubbock -- not surprising.  And he is doing that.  And it seems to be working.  

Just for the heck of it, I made a list of top roster spend programs.  This is a total eyeball/finger in the wind list, and there is no way it's actually right, but the point is how easy it is to list 20 programs that definitely spend big money (how they exactly rank who knows).

Top Tier (3): Texas, Oregon, OSU
Also Top Tier or Close to It (9): Michigan, Georgia, Miami, Alabama, TAMU, LSU, ND, Tennessee, TTU
Second Tier, Still Big Spenders (9): Auburn, Florida, PSU, FSU, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Nebraska, USC, Clemson

There's 21.  CFB is so competitive.

Then there are a ton of schools in some sort of third tier that still spend some pretty serious money, some examples are: Washington, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Carolina, Mizzou, etc.   This is the tier I think IU is trying and starting to break into going into 2026.

Anyways, spend this and spend that, IU is somehow competing with the big boys at the moment!

[Pagoda 5,838]

The Wall St. Journal!

 

The media coverage IU gets from being good at football is unprecedented for the school and program.

Here is the link, it’s paywalled unfortunately, but here it is anyway: https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/fernando-mendoza-indiana-cal-2bd2445e

[Lebowski 3,972]

1 hour ago, Pagoda said:

The Wall St. Journal!

 

The media coverage IU gets from being good at football is unprecedented for the school and program.

Here is the link, it’s paywalled unfortunately, but here it is anyway: https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/fernando-mendoza-indiana-cal-2bd2445e

It's freakin' awesome no doubt. I do recall IUFB getting some media coverage during the days of AT carrying the rock during his Heisman run. I don't know if it's all up in your face like it is today but we also didn't have access to the internet back in those days like we do today. Bottom line, coaching matters. 

[TheWatShot 15,744]

Kennesaw State is 4-2 after beating Louisiana Tech 35-7.