I'd say this fills the same slot as playing AZ in Vegas last year, which everyone loved. Not in my top 10 of opponents, but Auburn has established themselves as a top flight opponent and they play in a good conference and are fit the profile of more athletic teams like we will see in the tourney if we advance. And, as IUN points out, it is a recruiting hotbed, way moreso than Vegas or the West Coast as a whole. Checks a lot of boxes for pre-conference oppponents!
I'm wondering if you're worried about playing Auburn in Atlanta and thinking they will have a lot of fans there? They won't. It's still football season and even though it may only be about 4 hours from their campus, I'll bet IU fans outnumber them 3 or 4 to 1. Atl has a big IU presence. So, we get a neutral site game against a top-flight opponent in a location that I believe we'll have a large crowd advantage. What's your complaint again?
You'd prefer to play N Alabama?
They can just wave their magic IU wand and get major conference schools to come play in Bloomington? Without contractual events put on by the conferences, getting major schools to come to Bloomington is MUCH easier said, than done. And if we do have 2 of them in the same year, in Bloomington, that means we have 2 the next year at their gyms...which I'm sure you, and most others, would be pissed about.
A neutral site game, in a recruiting hotbed, isn't ridiculous.
Must be recreation time at the asylum.
the IU Corporation has obviously upped their social media army since selling off the PSU football game.
as for "everyone" loving playing Zona in Vegas, i guess "everyone" doesn't include the season ticket base, any of the IU faithful in Indiana, or the students.
and Atl isn't Vegas, or somewhere anyone sane wants to go, and i don't represent the Atl Chamber of Commerce or the travel industry, nor should IU.
what the "faithful" and students get in non conf are U Indy, Marion, Fla Gulf Coast, Army, Wright St.
as for KU, iirc the students will be off, so i'm guessing KU won't be in the students' ticket package and IU can sell only full priced tics. (what a coincidence).
didn't use to be this way, but then those now in charge are also the ones who are literally destroying college athletics as we knew them, (which they contributed absolutely nothing themselves in building), all in the name of runaway unbridled greed.
like someone inheriting something special and great and having no quams about destroying, because they themselves had no personal equity or investment in building it in the first place, and "F" all those many who did.
as for scheduling other big 5 schools for non con home and homes, i have no doubt i could get that done with no problem.
those who can't, aren't trying.
beyond ridiculous that IU is selling off all the good non conf games, and sticking the IU faithful and students with all the duds at premium prices.
terrible leadership beyond belief.
but then perhaps what we really need, is a debate on what the goals and priorities of state supported tax free non profit universities should be.
200 plus yr old institutions built entirely on donations and student tuitions and tax dollars, not activist investor money.
and 200 plus yr old non profit institutions not only entrusted with governing over college athletics, but also educating our youth.
and now, with running our hospital systems and health care.
ya know that saying "when someone tells you who they are, believe them".
well, those who INHERITED and are now running college athletics are telling us EXACTLY who they are.
and those same entities also inherited and are in charge of our nation's state public universities and major hospital and healthcare systems.
no reason what so ever to think they are anyone different in running those, than who they have told us loud and clear in no uncertain terms, exactly who they are in running college athletics.
and literally running them over the cliff, in the name of extracting every cent possible from everyone possible.