Winning and doing it very consistently is the only way. IU has literally never won consistently.
how many schools with terrible home recruiting bases have won consistently over time.
not many to none.
Iowa has over achieved but has a better home recruiting base than we do.
Purdue has over achieved some but hardly set the world on fire, and when they have done well, have done so because of great QBs, which PU can compete with anyone on over the yrs.
every yr there's some "have not" somewhere who has a great yr, and everyone here goes "look at them, why isn't that us", but it's usually an anomaly.
far more than basketball, football depends on a strong inherent home recruiting base, which then allows it to pull in good recruits from outside said base.
when ticket prices are ridiculously sky high, it puts a lot more pressure on winning, and just enjoying a day in Btown and seeing B10 football is much harder when that day costs what was a mortgage payment not that long ago.
when you don't have good crowds, already challenging recruiting becomes a lot harder.
IU is literally swimming in money beyond their wildest dreams.
most other business on earth discount to sell excess capacity, with the discount adjusted to what does it take to sell that excess capacity..
beyond ridiculous to make absolutely zero effort to fill the stadium on even gorgeous weather days..
attendance is the one thing the administration absolutely can control, and a full stadium would absolutely help the coaches recruit, who have a tough enough time of it any way.