Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

[Battle89]

Would If I could.

I don’t have as much money as the other money guy that lives in Geneva and is on track to give $100M to the university to name the stadium after his family.

It's a simple formula, though JW / BU / BB have been doing their best to change it.

Piss off your major donors (back in my day it was Andreesen / Netscape, today it's Khan) plus years (hoops) or decades (football) of performance futility equals lower support. Sprinkle in a more (than other schools / conferences) international student group that may not care as deeply (or at all) about American sports and you start to see long-term erosion of the donor base, which takes significant time to rebuild.

 

[Det_Illini_fan]

It's a simple formula, though JW / BU / BB have been doing their best to change it.

Piss off your major donors (back in my day it was Andreesen / Netscape, today it's Khan) plus years (hoops) or decades (football) of performance futility equals lower support. Sprinkle in a more (than other schools / conferences) international student group that may not care as deeply (or at all) about American sports and you start to see long-term erosion of the donor base, which takes significant time to rebuild.

Yeah I’ve felt the university put a VAST majority of its branding and effort into our International reputation, to the detriment of limiting our National and Local presence. We pissed off our best possible donors (a billionaire so interested in sports he bought a damn NFL franchise), didn’t invest heavily in athletics, and then decided students that are typically (I get the irony in that Khan is an outlier here disproving the point) only in the US for a short while and not typically interested in Sports was the best strategy. But it ultimately pushed away a local/US donor base away imo. I’ve said it before, when Larry Ellison donated money to Michigan’s NIL fund, that’s the slap in the face we just can’t entertain if we want to be in the big name discussions.

But I have total confidence in where we’re headed, truly.

 

[AssemblyHallForever]

Basketball is always going to be #1 here and until that changes with the big donors, we're not getting these 5 star kids

Football is unique. It’s been proven that you can consistently win with 3 and 4 star players. It’s all about coaching and developing and Bret is very good at that. Keep winning and getting into high end bowl games and better ranked players will come.

 

[RabidDawgClassic]

Yeah I’ve felt the university put a VAST majority of its branding and effort into our International reputation, to the detriment of limiting our National and Local presence. We pissed off our best possible donors (a billionaire so interested in sports he bought a damn NFL franchise), didn’t invest heavily in athletics, and then decided students that are typically (I get the irony in that Khan is an outlier here disproving the point) only in the US for a short while and not typically interested in Sports was the best strategy. But it ultimately pushed away a local/US donor base away imo. I’ve said it before, when Larry Ellison donated money to Michigan’s NIL fund, that’s the slap in the face we just can’t entertain if we want to be in the big name discussions.

But I have total confidence in where we’re headed, truly.

That donor who we pissed off let’s the coaches use his jet for recruiting purposes, so he can’t be THAT pissed off.

 

[phats22]

That donor who we pissed off let’s the coaches use his jet for recruiting purposes, so he can’t be THAT pissed off.

 

[Joel Goodson]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2092757862049005810

C/o 29|Montini Catholic (IL) 6’4 255|GPA- 4.0 DE/EDGE| MAXPREPS FRESHMAN ALL AMERICAN.

 

[Joel Goodson]

sounds familiar:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2092766023208304889

C/O ‘29 Glenbard East (IL) | 6’4 215lbs | QB/SG | Breakway Gold | GPA: 3.5

 

[Joel Goodson]

well deserved:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2092767649126052060