There is no way IU can put the same amount of money into the program as does OSU and UM since they generate more money from one football game than we do the whole year.
Recruiting Progress
- Thread starter Hoosier_Hack
- Start date
What a fluff PR piece. LOL, Fred has done everything but oversee a successful football and basketball program. He gets zero credit from me for doing what every other damn school in the conference has done. He took over in the era of the Big Ten Network padding his budget.
Fred didn’t hire Ray Looze or Tracy Smith either.
Last edited:
The South Endzone is not a football facility! Just because it is attached to Memorial Stadium doesn’t mean it was designed for football.
I would post pictures to compare but I don’t know how to on this site.
Or in other words if the Hoosiers were not bad they would have been good - a claim that teams ranked 65 to 130 can make every year.
Last edited:
It is not a football only weightroom issue this guy just needs something to complain about. It is the most ridiculous thing and once IU addresses the locker room and players lounge they will be fine. IU finally has a stadium it can be proud of they have a top lnotch weightroom a beautiful new nutrition center that overlooks the stadium and large and fully equipped medical and rehab center all located in the stadium and near the practice facility. Tell me what they are missing facility wise.
I am assuming you mean game day when the stadium is only partially filled and usually virtually empty in the second half.
Can they make football facilities investments consistent with Northwestern and Purdue, two schools with smaller athletic budgets but nonetheless have far superior facilities? And shouldn’t IU aspire to emulate Iowa, who long ago chose to build a winning football program, using facilities development as a way to make up ground on the more traditional programs?
It was designed to execute the market- driving 360-degree approach to supporting student athletes. Far more important and impactful than another player lounge. #leadership
Here’s an article that you might find illuminating.
https://www.tampabay.com/sports/flo...craze-the-football-only-complex/?template=amp
Fred will ultimately be judged on the AM and TA hires despite the many successes he has seen soupy stem wide,
So less than a third of power 5 schools have put money into a football-only complex since 2013
While NW’s facility is quite impressive (though predominantly because of windows overlooking Lake Michigan), it’s also shared with all other sports which is the biggest knock against IUs. Plus, they even share their facility with INTRAMURAL/REC sports,j which would cause some around here to go ballistic if IU did the same.
With all of the network money flowing into campus, it certainly wouldn't be that difficult to go ahead and build a weight room/training facility for the other sports. Make the football weight room exclusive to football.
For the record, I had no idea this was the latest rage in college football. I think it's rather goofy, but it's a perception thing.
For the record, I had no idea this was the latest rage in college football. I think it's rather goofy, but it's a perception thing.
True. But they have moved from the bottom of the league surpassing other up a and down programs such as Ill, Nortwestern, and Purdue with better facilities and game day experiences. It is up to TA to capitalize on that, and that is not a sure thing.
Unlike in decades past, IU has no concerns with regards to facilities. They are well above their relative position from a success standpoint. Time to match success with glitzy facilities.
But if you’re IU and you’ve chronically run well behind the pack, wouldn’t this be an area where you can actually gain an advantage if you chose to invest in such a facility? Doing “enough” is never going to be enough for IU. They need to do more if they ever want to make up ground.
IU’s football facilities lag behind NU and Purdue and, after their planned build out, will fall behind Illinois in a few years.
It matters because to bitch and complain so much about support but not do his part by showing up to assist makes one part of the problem, not the solution.
From your article:
"How much it changes recruiting is open to debate.
Huml and colleagues at Texas Tech and Niagara University studied the recruiting impact of 107 Power Five facilities upgrades from 2005-15. Their findings, as published this summer in the Journal of Marketing for Higher Education: Teams get a small bump in recruiting rankings during construction that disappears before the ribbon-cutting ceremony."
After this year, with the SEZ complete and the locker rooms and players lounge and whatever, it won't be our facilities that are holding us back. Being in a division where we basically have 4 can't win games every year is our biggest problem. I wish we did pods something like that.
If that’s your take, then why build them at all? IU has historically been a low performing program and needs every advantage they can get. So strange that some fans aren’t interested in trying gain those advantages and change the perception that IU won’t invest in the program as a means to win. NU and Purdue now have superior football only facilities, even though they have smaller athletic budgets. They want to win and are showing their commitment to doing what it takes.
This is pretty obvious Larry. If "teams get a small bump in recruiting rankings during construction that disappears before the ribbon-cutting ceremony," then improvements should only be based upon real wants and needs sought out by the program. If you're doing something just for an immaterial recruiting bump then you're just putting on a show.
I’m sure I see as many, if not more, games annually than do you. Otherwise, your point is specious.
Then the perception will continue to exist that IU really doesn’t care about football, recruiting classes in the lower third of the P5 will continue to be the norm, and the program will never build to be a winner. When coaches inside and outside the program talk about IU’s less attractive facilities compared to other schools, the perception hurts. And that’s definitely been the case and will likely continue to be until the University’s commitment changes, if it ever does.
NW has a “prettier” facility, but functionally behind IUs. And Illinois is one of the most poorly run athletic departments in the country and I could care less about what they do. after a year of fundraising, Illinois has raised less than 10% of the planned costs for their facility and is seriously going to harm their financial situation for at least a decade. They are like their person that decides to buy a BMW instead of paying their utility bills.
Aesthetically and functionally, NU’s facility is well beyond IU’s, as is Purdue’s, even bough both have smaller athletic budgets. They haven’t settled, and their commitment is meaningful to players, coaches and fans. And, while I don’t necessarily disagree with you about Illinois, Josh Whitman is pretty determined to up the ante for them facilities wise in football, and I wouldn’t bet against him.
You have to assume that programs like NU, PU, and Ill eventually catch up to IUs facilities. At that point, all that will matter is performance on the field. Campus quality is great, but not what will drive recruiting.
No, the take was that football only facilities are mostly window dressing and that, as long as basic needs are met, nothing else is needed. I merely commented that, if that’s how some feel and IU agrees with that view, that only perpetuates the notion that IU’s commitment to football isn’t equal to that of their main competitors, and that the performance on the Recruiting trail and the scoreboard won’t changes. Again, players and coaches are the ones questioning the commitment, and that’s the perception that IU is going against. You’re saying that IU can continue to do less than their peers and yet expect better results nonetheless. History (23 losing seasons in 24 years) says that approach isn’t working.
NWs facility is a similar size if not smaller than the facilities at Memorial stadium/Mellencamp, are not football only, and are even shared with intramural sports - that doesn’t demonstrate functional superiority to IUs.
NU’s facility is largely football only in that they have clear priority of use, and the investment is significantly more than IU’s, which is especially significant given the relative sizes of the schools and athletic budgets. And while they may compare size wise, that’s where it would end. Do you think NU would trade it for IU’s? Probably not because, among other things, it says they’re all in for football. Purdue’s does, too.
I guess if the SEZ project was not intended to enhance football, they would have located as an attachment to Cook Hall or built it out on 10th street across from Tulip Tree?
Some of the most prestigious programs in the country have built enormous facilities near or attached to their football stadiums AND THEY ARE USED AND ACCESSED BY multiple sports. This is particularly true in the SEC.
Last edited:
Memorial Stadium has several facilities that are used by all sports including the weight room and academic center so it made sense to house the all-sports excellence academy there as well. It also provided the opportunity to build a new scoreboard, more suites, and a pretty plaza along 17th Street.
I guess architectural beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Our new facilities fit the style and design of our university architecture. It’s consistent. Others choos to build something that looks like the outside of Space Mountain at Disney. To each their own.
Need to follow that with IMO. This is highly debatable. My guess is both Northwestern and Purdue would disagree. Illinois, not so much.
So those of you who are bemoaning the new facilities your suggestion is build a new building with redundant facilities. Abandon the new facilities that are currently inside your stadium and leave the stadium to go to another building. That does not scream efficiency. The stadium definitely needed to be enclosed and not with more seats to remain empty on Saturday afternoons.
Similar threads
