AD Josh Whitman contract extension through 2031

#26      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
Illini2010-11 said:
To add to your point slightly: the football program was in absolute disarray when hired with the one-year contract of Cubit, and the basketball program was stalling under John Groce. The two biggest revenue sports were about as bad as it could be.

Look at where we have come in a few short years. The basketball program is in very good shape (yes, we need to start making second weekend of tourney) and the football program is in the best position in decades. That is only looking at big revenue sports.

The other sports have also been a massive success. This is a well deserved raise and extension.
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12th of 14 B10 teams in the 2022-23 LEARFIELD Division I Final Standings - 54th nationally

Final 2022-23 LEARFIELD Directors' Cup Standings (PDF) - University of Tennessee Athletics

Final 2022-23 LEARFIELD Directors' Cup Standings
utsports.com utsports.com
 
#27      

MechSE10

M
MechSE10
BRucks said:
sports.usatoday.com

NCAA Finances: Revenue & Expenses by School - USA TODAY

Which are the most profitable college athletic programs in the country? See a ranked listed, including total revenue and expenses. Brought to you by USA TODAY.
sports.usatoday.com sports.usatoday.com

Eighth in the B10 and 24th nationally.
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If you look at net revenue, we are actually doing much better.

5th in the B1G, and 10th nationally. I also added in the future B1G teams, sans USC which doesn't have data(private university).


Rank
SchoolConf.Total RevenueTotal ExpensesNet Revenue
1IndianaBig Ten$166,761,471$132,392,596$34,368,875
3Ohio StateBig Ten$251,615,345$225,733,418$25,881,927
5PurdueBig Ten$115,139,432$93,025,810$22,113,622
9MichiganBig Ten$210,652,287$193,559,375$17,092,912
10IllinoisBig Ten$145,735,330$129,119,247$16,616,083
11Michigan StateBig Ten$172,799,513$156,449,795$16,349,718
17OregonBig Ten$153,510,555$140,565,297$12,945,258
18NebraskaBig Ten$143,423,944$131,181,951$12,241,993
21Penn StateBig Ten$181,227,448$170,542,050$10,685,398
39MinnesotaBig Ten$135,198,272$130,285,463$4,912,809
57WisconsinBig Ten$150,100,977$147,807,183$2,293,794
103IowaBig Ten$151,483,092$151,144,861$338,231
229WashingtonBig Ten$145,184,864$149,458,923($4,274,059)
236MarylandBig Ten$107,526,374$114,385,462($6,859,088)
237UCLABig Ten$103,061,344$131,106,913($28,045,569)
238RutgersBig Ten$109,601,529$138,439,077($28,837,548)
 
#28      

Illini2010-11

I
Sugar Grove
Illini2010-11
BRucks said:
12th of 14 B10 teams in the 2022-23 LEARFIELD Division I Final Standings - 54th nationally

Final 2022-23 LEARFIELD Directors' Cup Standings (PDF) - University of Tennessee Athletics

Final 2022-23 LEARFIELD Directors' Cup Standings
utsports.com utsports.com
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I take these rankings with a grain of salt, as there are serious flaws in how these ranking are calculated. Stanford wins so often because of the shear volume of teams they have. They have 31 NCAA teams, which is 10 more than Illinois (Ohio State has 11 more than Illinois). The rankings are based off of the top 19 sports teams at the school. As a result, schools like Stanford have an inherent advantage, especially in sports that have much fewer schools involved (much easier to pad the stats).
 
#29      

Illiniguy74

I
Illiniguy74
Mr. Tibbs said:
we have waited so long for East side and horseshoe modernization, Im okay with waiting a little longer if it means access to new donors hopping on the band wagon and doing it right .

In reality , we need to fully examine lowering the field a bit and not taking "Coach" Guenther's word on it. as is , the field is way toofar away from the first row of seats . just about every stadium that had a track, modified the stadium seating or lowered the field . We've done neither
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redwingillini11 said:
I definitely agree with everything you say. I will say, though, that as these seasons unfold, it is easy to get frustrated with the outcomes of certain games and a a little bit of overall underachieving from Underwood and Bielema. However, stepping back and looking at the big picture, both basketball and football are in much, much better places than they were in 5-10 years ago, and I have the utmost confidence in Josh Whitman as the leader of this athletic department. Even if we are still in going to be in the back half of the B1G football pecking order, Josh seems to be considered one of the leaders of this conference, and I think the respect he demands from the other big fish will keep us on solid ground as college athletics evolves before our eyes. Congratulations Josh. You are very much worth the extension.
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I also think that when it comes to getting a fair shake for Illinois in both the conference and NCAA in general, Josh is willing to fight for what's right.
 
#32      

GILL-INOIS

G
GILL-INOIS
I love what Josh Whitman brings to this program. He got extended to 2028 last year and now 2031. Getting paid to work your dream job sounds like a win-win for both sides. GPA/Graduation Rates are doing great since he took over as well.

No AD is going to get the homerun every single time. He made some bad hires in Fahey and Lovie. Learning from those mistakes while landing Green and BB the next time are substantial moves. Glad we have someone who is hungry in bringing the most exposure and success to this school while also understanding the student-athlete aspect at the U of :illinois:
 
#33      

IlliniShelt

I
IlliniShelt
GILL-INOIS said:
I love what Josh Whitman brings to this program. He got extended to 2028 last year and now 2031. Getting paid to work your dream job sounds like a win-win for both sides. GPA/Graduation Rates are doing great since he took over as well.

No AD is going to get the homerun every single time. He made some bad hires in Fahey and Lovie. Learning from those mistakes while landing Green and BB the next time are substantial moves. Glad we have someone who is hungry in bringing the most exposure and success to this school while also understanding the student-athlete aspect at the U of :illinois:
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This is what I came here to post. Josh has obviously made a few bad hires and while we all wish would have at least one sweet 16 by now on men's BB, Underwood has had the best stretch of men's BB in close to 20 years.

Success isn't going to be linear but I feel like we are progressing nicely. Well done JW!
 
#34      

Illiniguy74

I
Illiniguy74
GILL-INOIS said:
I love what Josh Whitman brings to this program. He got extended to 2028 last year and now 2031. Getting paid to work your dream job sounds like a win-win for both sides. GPA/Graduation Rates are doing great since he took over as well.

No AD is going to get the homerun every single time. He made some bad hires in Fahey and Lovie. Learning from those mistakes while landing Green and BB the next time are substantial moves. Glad we have someone who is hungry in bringing the most exposure and success to this school while also understanding the student-athlete aspect at the U of :illinois:
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I don't think Lovie was a bad hire. He served his purpose (stabilize the program) for 3 years. Keeping him was the mistake. He should have been thanked and a separation negotiated at that point. What is interesting is how many people praised him as a "honorable man" when his actions (undeserving nepotism and personal disengagement) indicated otherwise.
 
#35      

TheChief4Life

TheChief4Life
TheChief4Life
Yeah, we all need to stop calling Lovie a bad hire. At the time, it was the perfect hire for what we were. The biggest issue involving Whitman and Lovie was waiting probably 2 years too long to fire him when it became obvious he was in over his head at the college level.
 
#36      

Point-Illinois

P
Point-Illinois
Might be an unpopular take, but I feel like Lovie was fired at the right time.

There is a crazy stat out there that shows like 90% of coaches (even bad coaches) get to a bowl game sometime within their first four years. (Credit to Robert at Illiniboard for putting together the article that showed the stat)

Lovie had started a youth movement in his first year and was playing freshmen with the hopes that he could coach them up into an awesome senior team. Josh stuck with him (rightfully so) through that movement.

Lovie’s record was 3-9, 2-10, 4-8 so there was a sign of a spark. The winning streak in 2019 that started with the upset of Wisconsin got us bowl eligible. At that time, we thought it all was clicking. (The loss to a HORRIBLE Northwestern team to end the season could have been a premonition of things to come)

Josh wasn’t going to fire Lovie at that point though.

Then Lovie went 2-6 in the COVID year. Hard to judge with the missed games and “we might have gone 3-0 against the non-con” argument but Josh made the right call at that point. The nepotism wouldn’t have mattered if we were winning.