College Football Thread

[Lebowski 3,352]

Looks like IUFB will be facing Nico late October in the 812. UCLA just got better. They won 5 games last year with a pretty tough schedule. This year's schedule is bit lighter. PSU, at IUFB and at OSU are probably their toughest opponents. Nebraska Washington and at USC will also be a challenge for them as well.  If he beats out Garbers, which there's no reason why he couldn't, he'll be a more polished and improved QB, and that's pretty dangerous. It's a pretty deep QB room so who knows if he even gets on the gridiron this season. 

[LamarCheeks 22,142]

Lee Corso announced his retirement from ESPN. 

He will do one more Gameday, then ride off into the sunset. 

https://x.com/OneAndOnlyJLaw/status/1912880169318052097

[Demo 23,594]

3 minutes ago, LamarCheeks said:

Lee Corso announced his retirement from ESPN. 

He will do one more Gameday, then ride off into the sunset. 

https://x.com/OneAndOnlyJLaw/status/1912880169318052097

It’s probably past time. But he’s Lee Freaking Corso. He gets to do what he wants.

[jefftheref 195]

On 4/15/2025 at 8:49 PM, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Former IU associate head coach Mike DeBord passes away

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/2025/04/15/former-michigan-football-assistant-coach-mike-debord-dead-at-69/83104880007/

My high school team mate and good friend was Mike's brother in law. I was talking to him last Monday and he told me that Mike was in his final days. Mike had a massive stroke right after retiring and has been in assisted living since then. His wife passed away last year from cancer. Condolences to the DeBord family and friends. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart 90,777]

[DChoosier 9,821]

Nico might want to look into different agents/advisors.

His advisement team  “successfully” negotiated him away from a $2,400,000 deal, with zero state income tax, down to $1,500,000 with most of that being subject to state income tax ranging from 10.3-12.3%.  

I’d say a commission percentage reduction is in order.

[Lebowski 3,352]

1 hour ago, DChoosier said:

Nico might want to look into different agents/advisors.

His advisement team  “successfully” negotiated him away from a $2,400,000 deal, with zero state income tax, down to $1,500,000 with most of that being subject to state income tax ranging from 10.3-12.3%.  

I’d say a commission percentage reduction is in order.

While I don't disagree with you regarding the state's differences in taxes, I do however disagree that this transfer wasn't good for him. Most importantly, he's home with his family, which might be the motivating factor of his choice. He's also in the 2nd largest market in the country, and he arguably upgraded coaches to improve his personal growth. We'll find out if it works out for him in the long run but I understand his decision to transfer to UCLA. And if we're going to dig in the weeds about the financial differences of the two places, today if he wanted to he can invest in the southern California real estate market and never have to worry about his personal assets for the rest of his life. And the ROI compared to Knoxville, TN is exponential. Since he grew up in socal, I'm sure he's well aware of the real estate market and might be eyeing (or not) certain homes in certain neighborhoods. For example. Manhattan Beach's avg house price is $3.08M to where in Downey (his hometown) the average house price is slightly above $800k. And if he wanted to stay close to his hometown Belmont Shore's avg house price is $1.4M. But I most certainly do understand your point, he lost upfront money with this transfer and his agent didn't do him any favors. Or maybe his agent/advisors explained to him about long term investments like real estate? Which in that case did him a huge a favor. Who knows, man. It's such a different time now that NIL and the transfer portal is part of the equation now. 

You do bring up a disadvantage the vast majority of schools have regarding state income tax rates. There are currently 9 states that do not have an income tax. (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming) All schools in those states have an advantage to sway NIL signings. There are some disadvantages to some of the states listed, for example, cost of living and housing affordability. But folks like Nico don't have to worry about neither of those examples in any state in the union because he's getting paid a substantial amount of cash. 

[DChoosier 9,821]

I agree that there are a lot of other variables but at first it appeared his motivation was to go from 2.4mm to the 4mm range. I’m guessing he or his advisors thought his market value would be in the Archie Manning range.

I get the difference in SoCal real estate but I doubt that was really a driver. For one thing if he feels he will be in the NFL he probably won’t be in SoCal very long. Also, if SoCal real estate was an interest he still could have made that investment while living and making 2.4mm in TN.

The net/net is that he ended  up at 1.5 instead of 2.4 but maybe it will still work out better for him. Who knows but in any case 1.5 isn’t a bad consolation prize for a college kid :)

[AZ Hoosier 10,910]

Judge denies injunction for players suing NCAA in N.C. court

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/44806338/judge-denies-injunction-players-suing-ncaa-nc-court

[Pagoda 4,591]

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... 

[Lebowski 3,352]

19 hours ago, DChoosier said:

I agree that there are a lot of other variables but at first it appeared his motivation was to go from 2.4mm to the 4mm range. I’m guessing he or his advisors thought his market value would be in the Archie Manning range.

I get the difference in SoCal real estate but I doubt that was really a driver. For one thing if he feels he will be in the NFL he probably won’t be in SoCal very long. Also, if SoCal real estate was an interest he still could have made that investment while living and making 2.4mm in TN.

The net/net is that he ended  up at 1.5 instead of 2.4 but maybe it will still work out better for him. Who knows but in any case 1.5 isn’t a bad consolation prize for a college kid :)

No disagreement from me whatsoever. If I had to guess, his father bit off more than he could chew and then got taken down a peg or two with all the aftermath of 'market value' of his son. I was just making counterpoints to whether or not the transfer was successful. We'll see if this transfer works out for him in the long run. I do think he upgraded with his position coach (my biased opinion of course) and of the P4 schools interested, the location of the school played big factor with his choice. Also, he may not even get on the gridiron this season because from what I understand that QB room is pretty stacked. I could be wrong but I view UCLAFB much like IUFB. With the right resources and coaching it'll cause havoc in the conference and twist all the Herbstreits into a human pretzel. It's going to be interesting to see how they do this year with Coach Sunseri in the locker room now. 

[DChoosier 9,821]

59 minutes ago, Pagoda said:

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... 

Wow,

It wasn’t all that long ago when it was almost jaw dropping to hear OSU say they needed $20,000,000 for a competitive roster.

We have a way to go but it’s good to see the massive jump from 4.5mm to 23mm. Two years ago I would have laughed if someone told me IU football would have over 20mm. Crazy times !

[rayl456 913]

CJ West goes to SF 49ers in round 4

[IUFootballHappyHappyJoyJoy 783]

Rourke also drafted by the Niners in the 7th Round.

[LIHoosier 27,754]

Former IU great Kobee Minor is this year's Mr Irrelevant.