I'd put it at 10% or less that Barry leaves. Don't think he wants to move especially with his being a freshman this year.
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Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Mark Cuban shenanigans? How are there no/not enough mega rich Illini donors desperate to see us become great at football? Haha. Kind of random, but I was trying to find a list of the number of "ultra wealthy" alumni by school that included a lot of Power Five universities (i.e., not a top 20 list made up of like the entire Ivy League!), and I did find this kind of dated Forbes list of Forbes 400 members by school:
Stanford: 13
USC: 11
Michigan: 6
Duke: 5
UCLA: 5
Michigan State: 4
Cal: 4
Arizona: 3
Arkansas: 3
Illinois: 3
Maryland: 3
Tennessee: 3
Texas: 3
Washington: 3
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
What about Vince MacMahon, his grandson Declan is still on the football team last I checked.
The offense looked better as the season went on no doubt. It didn't translate to more points until Paddock was put in. The team has moved the ball for 2 years straight and Achilles Heel was redzone offense last season and this year turnovers. Illinois was 96th in points scored in 2022 and before Paddock got put in and had the surge we were around the 100th area again this season(finished in mid 80s this season). I think we have the potential to keep trending up next season.
The defense was flat out horrible in the Indiana game. One of those rare games for both teams. Kansas 1st half, Purdue 2nd half and Wisconsin 4th quarter I was ticked about on defense. At the same time during those games not like other facets were producing either. Except for the Purdue 2nd half where we got steamrolled I liked the fight of the team.
I am not saying the defense is electric at all but they kept us in a ton of games. Illinois doesn't win unless the units play together. Unfortunately the offense and special teams turned the ball over at a high rate. The defense had a bend but don't break mentality in 2022 by giving up some yards but not points. If we are top 10 in turning the ball over, top 20 in offensive penalties plus add in all the defensive talent we lost than yes we will give up more points. There is work to be done on D and hopefully they can add more talent in the offseason.
Not sure I agree with your takes on the carried the team part but is fine.
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People don't seem to understand David and Goliath. David always wins. He is the blue-blood. Goliath never wins. He is a cupcake. The mighty men flock to David to fight for him.
David retires undefeated when he is old.
If Georgia is playing Eastern Illinois, Georgia is David. The game is over before it is hardly started. Goliath (Eastern) is routed.
You always want to be David, never Goliath.
David retires undefeated when he is old.
If Georgia is playing Eastern Illinois, Georgia is David. The game is over before it is hardly started. Goliath (Eastern) is routed.
You always want to be David, never Goliath.
illinidarrin
- from parts unknown
That's my biggest frustration, for some reason not enough people care about the football program. The basketball program probably has far more NIL money than the football program. If no one cares, how are we going to get players?
sbillini
- st petersburg, fl
does it say which specific billionaires are on the list? i can think of 3 off the top of my head (andressen, khan, siebel). plus ellison if you include those that didn't gradaute. so i'd assume there are more
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
As I kind of alluded to, my initial research on this was very frustrating. Most of the results are like "schools with the most billionaires," and only a handful on the list had Power Five athletic programs. So long story short, these lists had very little detail and usually stopped at the top 20.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
In all seriousness, I think you seem to not understand why it is called David and Goliath in sports. There is a reason why when David defeated Goliath there was such shock and awe in the Biblical story. David was completely outmatched by fighting skill, size, strength, etc. He was seen as the wimpy individual. It was a complete upset of epic proportions. Same goes in sports. Goliath is always seen as the bigger, stronger, more talented team, and overwhelming favorite.
sbillini
- st petersburg, fl
got it - thanks.
it does kind of disappoint me that we don't have more engaged ultra-wealthy alums. I dont know for sure, but i feel like we're probably competitive with most B1G schools on sheer number of them, but don't feel like they're as engaged - at least with athletics (siebel obviously has the building, and Gies family has done their thing). Outside of Khan, haven't heard any engage in athletics. maybe it's just me from the outside, but can't we get Andreessen or robert L Johnson or someone like that to cut a few checks?
I'll also add, the UI alumni association hasn't done a great job of keeping me engaged. I've actually reached out to them in the past to find ways to engage (interview candidates, etc.) but never heard back.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
All anecdotal here ... but I'm a non-alum fan and who moved to Chicago to get my MBA in 2019, and I will never forget having to tell one of my U of I alum classmates that we were good at basketball (this was in spring 2020 before COVID), lol. I don't know if it is baked into the psyche of suburban Chicago kids or what, but he almost had this weird self defense mechanism where if he was not invested, the failures of Illini athletics couldn't hurt him, lol.
And thus, he almost had like a perverse pride in the academics being exclusive and separate from the athletics ... like, "We are a great school, and we don't care about sports that much so you can't give me crap about the results of sports!"And as a lifelong Illini fan who had to grow up in a sea of Hawkeyes, let me tell you that this lack of pride does NOT manifest itself in any of our Big Ten rival states, let alone among the alumni themselves. Don't get me wrong, there are tons of Illini with intense pride in our athletics (this board being Ground Zero!), but I think you are right that for whatever reason we have not even begun to tap into enough of our alumni base or our state population, either financially or even just as fans. And the obvious proof is that if we had, we'd have a 90k seat football stadium that is always full and a 18k seat basketball arena and one of the highest athletic revenues in the country! The fact we rank as competitively as we do in those metrics nationally just speaks to the high ceiling, because we have not done all we could on this front.
change in takeaways 2022 vs 2023 was huge
2022 Devito only had 5 interceptions plus our defense had 24 interceptions
2023 our QBs had 13 interceptions and our defense only had 7 interceptions
That was real reason we went 5-7 instead of 9-3 in 2023
Wait, what?
Yes, Shane's son, Vince's grandson, is a deep reserve RB for Indinia.
Yep. Exactly my point about turnovers
That 2022 Defense was just special and insane. The squad this year was lacking depth, talent and experience in key spots. They were an average team of creating turnovers.
Offense and Special Teams didn't turn the ball over at a high rate in 2022. Only games the team had multiple turnovers in 2022 was Indiana 4, Virginia 4 and Iowa 3. Indiana and Virginia were 2nd and 3rd games of year and still shaking off rust. Iowa game is when Art came in due to injury. 10 of the 13 games in 2022 the team had either 0 or 1 turnover. 7 of the 12 games this season we had 2 or more turnovers a game. All 3 facets weren't in sync with one another too often this season.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
It will be interesting in the age of NIL if bench players with rich relatives actually become like kind of priority targets.
Bench players always kind of have been targeted in recruiting for a while if certain dynamics are present. Recruit the older brother because little bro is better. See Walter mendenhall.It will be interesting in the age of NIL if bench players with rich relatives actually become like kind of priority targets.
Or Jeff Jordan, even though he was a walk on, they no doubt took him enthusiastically because of the name
I’m not saying this is incorrect, but it is part of why my college sports enthusiasm has started to wane. The days of buying tickets and making a donation to the athletic fund being considered supporting the team are gone — or at least now insufficient. Now fans are expected to pay the salaries for the players too. And yes I know there were boosters doing this in the past but it sure seems like it all has expanded. One can argue whether pro or college sports are better, but pro teams aren’t asking you to buy tickets (yes, in most cases higher priced than college) and also directly pay the players’ salaries. Some of the more appealing aspects of college sports for me fade into the background with appeals to pay player salaries. I’m just concerned that at some point those aspects will fade so deep that I’ll lose complete interest.
It’s a blend of real student athletes, “minor league” salaried players, and elites players earning as much or more than the pros, all bundled up to present the appearance of traditional student college sports.
My interest fades as what’s really happening becomes bolder and more apparent. It reminds me of the 1997 movie “Men in Black”, where the space cockroach dons Edgar’s skin, but finds his disguise deterorates over time. NIL is the alien wearing college sports skin. Relentless pressure to raise more NIL funds in a bidding war for talent is destroying the disguise.
My interest fades as what’s really happening becomes bolder and more apparent. It reminds me of the 1997 movie “Men in Black”, where the space cockroach dons Edgar’s skin, but finds his disguise deterorates over time. NIL is the alien wearing college sports skin. Relentless pressure to raise more NIL funds in a bidding war for talent is destroying the disguise.
BZuppke
- Plainfield
I just think this has to be regulated in some fashion. Everyone sees the problem with this Wild West approach.
Maybe not so obvious now, but do not forget the contributions of the Atkins family to the DIA. There are several venues that have their name attached to a part of the sports complex i.e. softball practice center, tennis facility, the new golf course. Those are only the visible contributions, I am sure.
New Indiana coach making an entrance. Most reactions to it I’ve seen on Twitter are negative. I personally think it is great. Seems to fit his personality and he’s just having fun pumping up the crowd. It’s college for darn sakes. Far better than trying to adopt an Indiana accent like a coach leaving the state did in reverse upon arriving in South.
LOL. My friend on seeing it said about the same thing. “What, no Illinois?”
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