Definitely disheartening given our alumni base and stature. No way to spin this other than donors need to step up. Would hate to see Josh and/or BB begin looking for greener pastures. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity the program is wasting.
Illini Football 2026
- Status
Or.......it incentivizes some people to pony up.
It really all comes down to $ now, doesn't it? Another $5M in NIL and we have a legit shot at going 10-2 and in line for a playoff berth
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
This is a circular issue. They were caught off-guard because TAMU was offering many multiples more to McCollum than Illinois was or willing to pay. You can also look at how the program responded and the players they were able to convince to join the team was not impressive. There was an incorrect assumption of the defensive line market and the on-field results are showing that.
This is not a new problem, assistant coach salaries have been growing substantially for decades, staffs are 5x bigger than 20 years ago, recruiting budgets have likely 100x'd in the same time period, and now almost every P4 program has a GM and staff dedicated to personnel, recruiting, portal, and coaching staff financials. They are (handsomely) paid to project the costs and organize a plan for roster construction. If you do a poor job of allocating your resources, the subsequent on-field results will impact your employment status.
The crazy part is in 2024 when OSU won the championship the talking points were about their $20M roster. So, the cost has over doubled since then.
What I also take from this somewhat is that, yeah the playing field is not equal. So any and every time we pull an upset on Ohio State, Michigan, USC, and other high spenders, it is absolutely embarrassing for them.
Ohio State has a roster worth nearly twice as much as us? If we’re to win in that condition, they deserve to be drug the mud over how that happens. A loss is expected and sucks, but a win? For example a 2007 type event, I’ll spend the rest of my days reminding them of that upset without mercy, because with how much resources they get to put towards their team. Like an MLS team beating a Premier League team.
We complain about lack of money for serious talent, yet we just lost to a team that has significantly less $ than we do... That's a tough pill to swallow.
But we have a bigger scoreboard.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Upsets happen. Oregon just lost to Oklahoma St.
But on average, the teams with the most money win the most games. If we would’ve had an extra $10 million in NIL and were able to adequately build our front 6 on defense, would we be better than we are now?
Probably the best and most accurate reporting on actual roster costs we've had in a long time. Not sure if its paywalled but here's where we are compared to the rest of the Big Ten (how the heck are we poorer than Northwestern, Rutgers, and UCLA?)_:
We're also right near the bottom of the entire P4 with schools like Cal (!), Virginia, BYU, NC State, TCU, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt all with deeper pockets this season:
How is this possible?
We're also right near the bottom of the entire P4 with schools like Cal (!), Virginia, BYU, NC State, TCU, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt all with deeper pockets this season:
How is this possible?
How is Rutgers that bad with more money?
The bigger question is why were we playing Washington in a non conference game? Because our idiot AD wanted to commemorate the 1963 Rose Bowl game. You wanna commemorate something, make a coin.On an unrelated note, did you guys know Beckman’s “take away those 3 plays” quote was basically fake? Made up by the media essentially.
Here’s the story from Robert’s latest article. I had no idea:
After Illinois lost at Washington 44-19 in 2014, the following quote was all everyone talked about after the game. It became the defining quote of the entire Tim Beckman era:
The issue with that quote, as I wrote at the time, was that it was a mashup quote. I was standing right there with the other media members at Husky Stadium. He did not say those three sentences consecutively. They were simply combined to make it sound like one quote.
He said the "big strike" thing in reference to the 21 point blitz (in the first half, Illinois gave up a 75 yard bomb, a fumble return for a touchdown three plays later, and a pick six not long after that), then he answered a question about penalties in the game, then he answered a question about the pressure from Washington's defensive ends, and then he was asked what message he gave to his team at halftime. He said that he told his team there were still 30 minutes left and that "you take out 21 points on three plays and we're in this game" as a way to communicate that there's a lot of football left. (Spoiler: we did not come back in the second half.)
With that context (answering a "how did you try to rally your team at halftime?" question), it's a fairly innocuous quote. Combine one of his answers from earlier ("in three plays we gave up 21 points") with that answer, making it sound like he stood in front of the media after a game he lost 44-19 and said "you take out 21 points on three plays and we're in this football game", and it will take off like wildfire. It's now all you remember about Beckman. And it was cooked up on a laptop by not telling the reader that he was asked to quote himself from halftime when he was trying to rally the troops for a comeback.
More Duke Stuff
Nathan has a billion things going on right now so he's been unable to write his usual Monday "Postscript" column. In its place last week, I simply wrote "More UAB Stuff." So why not write "More Duke Stuff" this week? There's so much more to talk about. Youwww.illiniboard.com
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Pretty unlimited access to the program, seats, bowl games, etc?
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
Perhaps Illini football really hasn't changed all that much. In 1991 when Mackovic left for Texas we had a legit top 20 program and some insane talent on the roster. Had enough there to go hire a proven head coach from at least a MAC or similar level of school if not a head coach from a lower rung power conference school. Instead we went cheap & hired one of the worst coaches in the history of NCAA football in Lou Tepper & the program has never been the same since. Credit to Bret that he has brought us to where we are today but if he isn't given the resources it's gonna go right back into the doldrums.
agree
JW had better be working the phones constantly & pressing the flesh at the home games
To me that is why this loss to Duke hurt so much. The team has to have sustained success to have a hope getting fans/donors excited and moving up the pecking order. An 8 win season would put us on that path and letting that one slip away means the team has to run the table in the toss up games or steal one from OSU, Oregon or Iowa. 5 or 6 six wins would be reverting to the mean.
I love Bret Bielema
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
I took each teams current budget for this year and calculated each team's wins over the past 2 years to find out how much it costs per win. This isn't perfect because this is a one year budget and I'm calculating wins over a 2 year period. My goal wasn't to find out the exact cost per win, but just to compare who's paying the least and most for their wins.
| Rank | Team | Budget | 2024 W | 2025 W | Total | $/Win |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duke | $10.5M | 9 | 9 | 18 | $1.17M |
| 2 | Iowa State | $12.5M | 11 | 8 | 19 | $1.32M |
| 3 | Cincinnati | $11.5M | 5 | 7 | 12 | $1.92M |
| 4 | Arizona | $12.5M | 4 | 9 | 13 | $1.92M |
| 5 | Minnesota | $15.5M | 8 | 8 | 16 | $1.94M |
| 6 | Houston | $14.0M | 4 | 10 | 14 | $2.00M |
| 7 | Iowa | $17.0M | 8 | 9 | 17 | $2.00M |
| 8 | SMU | $21.0M | 11 | 9 | 20 | $2.10M |
| 9 | Kansas State | $16.5M | 9 | 6 | 15 | $2.20M |
| 10 | Pitt | $16.5M | 7 | 8 | 15 | $2.20M |
| 11 | Utah | $18.0M | 5 | 11 | 16 | $2.25M |
| 12 | Arizona State | $21.5M | 11 | 8 | 19 | $2.26M |
| 13 | BYU | $27.0M | 11 | 12 | 23 | $2.35M |
| 14 | Illinois | $22.5M | 10 | 9 | 19 | $2.37M |
| 15 | Wake Forest | $16.0M | 4 | 9 | 13 | $2.46M |
| 16 | Washington | $19.5M | 6 | 9 | 15 | $2.60M |
| 17 | Boston College | $10.5M | 7 | 1 | 8 | $2.62M |
| 18 | Louisville | $24.5M | 9 | 9 | 18 | $2.72M |
| 19 | Indiana | $37.5M | 11 | 16 | 27 | $2.78M |
| 20 | TCU | $25.0M | 9 | 9 | 18 | $2.78M |
| 21 | Virginia | $22.5M | 5 | 11 | 16 | $2.81M |
| 22 | Colorado | $17.5M | 9 | 3 | 12 | $2.92M |
| 23 | Syracuse | $19.0M | 10 | 3 | 13 | $2.92M |
| 24 | Georgia | $34.0M | 11 | 12 | 23 | $2.96M |
| 25 | UCF | $13.5M | 4 | 5 | 9 | $3.00M |
| 26 | Baylor | $20.0M | 8 | 5 | 13 | $3.08M |
| 27 | Kansas | $15.5M | 5 | 5 | 10 | $3.10M |
| 28 | Penn State | $31.0M | 13 | 7 | 20 | $3.10M |
| 29 | Cal | $21.0M | 6 | 7 | 13 | $3.23M |
| 30 | Vanderbilt | $27.5M | 7 | 10 | 17 | $3.24M |
| 31 | Missouri | $29.5M | 10 | 8 | 18 | $3.28M |
| 32 | Georgia Tech | $26.5M | 7 | 9 | 16 | $3.31M |
| 33 | Rutgers | $21.5M | 7 | 5 | 12 | $3.58M |
| 34 | Notre Dame | $43.5M | 14 | 10 | 24 | $3.62M |
| 35 | Clemson | $31.0M | 10 | 7 | 17 | $3.65M |
| 36 | Ole Miss | $43.5M | 10 | 13 | 23 | $3.78M |
| 37 | NC State | $27.5M | 6 | 8 | 14 | $3.93M |
| 38 | Ohio State | $51.5M | 14 | 12 | 26 | $3.96M |
| 39 | Oregon | $51.5M | 13 | 13 | 26 | $3.96M |
| 40 | Alabama | $40.0M | 9 | 11 | 20 | $4.00M |
| 41 | West Virginia | $20.0M | 6 | 4 | 10 | $4.00M |
| 42 | Oklahoma | $32.5M | 6 | 10 | 16 | $4.06M |
| 43 | Miami | $47.5M | 10 | 13 | 23 | $4.13M |
| 44 | Texas Tech | $41.5M | 8 | 12 | 20 | $4.15M |
| 45 | Northwestern | $23.5M | 4 | 7 | 11 | $4.27M |
| 46 | Michigan | $37.5M | 8 | 9 | 17 | $4.41M |
| 47 | Texas | $51.5M | 13 | 10 | 23 | $4.48M |
| 48 | Tennessee | $42.0M | 10 | 8 | 18 | $4.67M |
| 49 | North Carolina | $23.5M | 6 | 4 | 10 | $4.70M |
| 50 | USC | $38.0M | 7 | 9 | 16 | $4.75M |
| 51 | Nebraska | $33.5M | 7 | 7 | 14 | $4.79M |
| 52 | Texas A&M | $47.5M | 8 | 11 | 19 | $5.00M |
| 53 | Michigan State | $23.0M | 5 | 4 | 9 | $5.11M |
| 54 | Stanford | $18.0M | 3 | 4 | 7 | $5.14M |
| 55 | South Carolina | $34.0M | 9 | 4 | 13 | $5.23M |
| 56 | Kentucky | $24.0M | 4 | 5 | 9 | $5.33M |
| 57 | Arkansas | $25.5M | 7 | 2 | 9 | $5.67M |
| 58 | Oklahoma State | $11.5M | 3 | 1 | 4 | $5.75M |
| 59 | LSU | $47.5M | 9 | 7 | 16 | $5.94M |
| 60 | Florida | $36.0M | 8 | 4 | 12 | $6.00M |
| 61 | Maryland | $25.0M | 4 | 4 | 8 | $6.25M |
| 62 | Virginia Tech | $30.0M | 6 | 3 | 9 | $6.67M |
| 63 | Auburn | $33.5M | 5 | 5 | 10 | $6.70M |
| 64 | UCLA | $27.5M | 5 | 3 | 8 | $6.88M |
| 65 | Wisconsin | $31.0M | 5 | 4 | 9 | $6.89M |
| 66 | Florida State | $26.0M | 2 | 5 | 7 | $7.43M |
| 67 | Mississippi State | $29.0M | 2 | 5 | 7 | $8.29M |
| 68 | Purdue | $16.5M | 1 | 2 | 3 | $11.00M |
Purdue is really bad at this.
The fact that NORTHWESTERN has a higher budget than we do speaks volumes...
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
- Status