College Sports / Conference Realignment
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Felt the same way about Assembly Hall.
Yeah, it's like the Indianapolis 500 having a title sponsor.
The 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
Assembly Hall was a generic name that meant nothing really . As interesting or as unique as “English Building “.
Memorial Stadium was dedicated to those that died fighting for our country .
HUGE DIFFERENCE
Shief
- Champaign Area
I still call it Assembly Hall, that may never change
MoCoMdIllini
- Montgomery County, Maryland
We did play Clemson in the Something Or Other Bowl back in the early 90s.
Make that The Assembly Hall for me and my contemporaries.
Would most likely affect low-major conferences in the Northeast like the MAAC, America East, Patriot League, and NEC and would also affect some HBCUs. Could always be a surprise announcement or two from some other schools.
I think we are past sneaking in the back door on this one...I think the reason the big was able to get such a large media deal is because they were able to maximize prime TV spots across several networks. Which always seem to bring us back to ND which brings their own TV spot with them. Additional teams without prime TV spots just push games down a tier which isn't supporting the current revenue payouts.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
I could see something where the gates/entrances have sponsorships like what Lambeau Field has done. I also agree that you cannot slap a corporate name on Memorial Stadium given the stadium was built to honor those associated with the university who died defending our country in World War I. But, I can see other ways to gather more sponsorship revenue.
Interesting. Wonder how much $ they will throw at enforcement and what the penalties will be. It seems to me that the same black market we had pre-NIL would pop up again. Collegiate sport just doesn't have the same control over it's operation that the pro leagues have. I could see a world where they might have higher compliance with the right regime in place.
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
Lighter fare
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
I guess this gets filed under "College Sports" but based on what IU is doing on the field and in the portal, this isn't surprising. BT Info guy is a little weird but I believe his numbers here are accurate. IU is going to be fighting at or near the top of the B1G again, IMO. Cignetti is extremely arrogant but an extremely good coach. His QB's all transfer in and all produce. Their portal transfer "in" class is very good with plug and play players.
"To fund these investments, IU introduced a personal seat donation (PSD) program for football season ticket holders starting in 2025, expected to generate $2.5–$3M annually, as reported in Indiana football is “committed to fully funding” the $20.5M it will be allowed to share. This initiative follows increased ticket sales, with $26.4M from ticket sales in 2024 (up $1.9M from 2023), and $50.8M from media rights (up $3M), as per the 2024 financial report."
Wonder how this compares to the incremental revenue we're getting due to Illini ERA and the overall general increase in tickets sales.
I honestly don't care about all these 'investments' It is just step 1 on my road to being disenfranchised...... I can handle it for now, it will be a gradual thing, (I think) but the NCAA/NIL/roster-flux dynamic is for SURE a bad thing and very bad developmentally for college football fans.....
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Good question. I think Illinois' version, Priority Seat Contribution (PSC), will bring in a quite a bit of extra money. Probably a similar amount to Indiana looking at the number of seats with PSC's at Illinois' Memorial Stadium. That's football only. Total ticket sales will help quite a bit as well.
I do wonder when Illinois will increase their Earl Scheib $98 season ticket special. Those seats aren't ideal but $98 for an entire season is very low cost. Indiana's lowest season ticket is $280. Even if you pay "youth" prices, it's $140. I think that's under 18. Also most tickets at Indiana require a PSD. Illinois should increase those Scheib tickets to $150/ticket next year (or a 4-pack for $500). Inflation
and it's still a bargain.
Indiana University Athletics - Official Athletics Website
The official athletics website for the Indiana University Hoosiers
Illinois took a little different approach, higher PSC's in the prime areas only and no PSC in far more of the stadium than Indiana. I like Illinois' approach.
Someone mentioned on another board, they thought some people were buying up prime locations with the intent to resell. It might turn out OK this year with OSU coming to town. Otherwise, if this is happening, I expect a number of prime location seats to open next year or the following year as they'll find out it's more trouble than it's worth. The PSC contribution will make the tickets quite pricey and they'll get dumped after a year or two. Then I-fund contributors can move again when those seats open.
Indiana has Assembly Hall. We have THE Assembly Hall. It’s so weird to hear the home of Illinois basket ball referred to as Assembly Hall rather than the Assembly Hall.
But I guess it is like calling it Huff Hall instead of Huff Gym…especially when it’s “Huff Gymnasium” over the front steps.
Sacramento State is planning to file an application to transition from FCS to FBS as an independent. The school has already filed a waiver to transition as an independent in football, which they have to have since they won't be transitioning with a conference invite.
MainelyIllini
- uh, Maine
Close up shop?
Instead of raiding the Mountain West, the Pac-12 should have essentially merged with them. Basically, add the two Pac-12 schools to the Mountain West, give the new conference the Pac-12 name, and invite Gonzaga to join. Then the Pac-12 would not have missed out on UNLV, which is a better add than Texas St. or some of the other schools they added. AF is probably a decent brand to have too.
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