College Sports (Football)

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#177      
Dkayak
Ohio State is trying to accelerate their purchased dominance at the expense of everybody else. They understand how a level playing field would erode their edge, so they’re semi-panicked about locking in what’s otherwise a temporary edge. Salary caps please. Until then, why should the rest of us fund our own demise by caving to OSU’s threats and locking in their ability to buy more talent than the rest of us? We have nothing to lose, so let ‘em walk. Don’t let the screen door hit you on the way out.
 
#178      
lstewart53x3
Good things on the horizon for Illini fans:

2017/18 Illini athletic budget per USA Today as chronicled here: $91,664,512
2025/26 Illini athletic budget per Josh Whitman yesterday: Over $200,000,000.

Where does that put us among all universities? Well, that $91,664,512 number in 2017/18 had us 44th nationally. 44th feels about right in 2018, right? Just behind Arizona and just ahead of Pitt.

The $200,000,000 number that Whitman mentioned in the clip above (that's the target for 2025/26)? Well, here are the latest numbers published by USA Today in March of last year. I don't know how much these schools will have increased or what their 2025/26 numbers will look like, but...

Screenshot-2025-09-10-at-10.18.45---PM.png


Do you understand what's happening here? Do you get it? We sold our house in the Arizona/Pitt neighborhood and we just bought a place into the Penn State/Oklahoma neighborhood. I truly believe that this is going to be a national story once everyone catches on.

There are no other schools doing this. I reviewed the 2018 numbers and these numbers above and no one else has made a move like this. Georgia is the only other school that has made a big leap from 2018 to 2025 ($125 million to $200+ million), but the Illinois leap is still larger. No one else doubled.

Repeating again: we were at $91 million in 2018 and we're anticipating $200 million for this fiscal year. 44th in 2018 to... maybe 10th? And all of those numbers are calculated before this $100,000,000 gift from Larry Gies (which will be divided up and added to the budget numbers the next several years depending on how the deal is structured).
Click to expand...

Paid article. Worth the subscription price just for this article + the nerdstats article coming later this week:

www.illiniboard.com

The Boulder Is Shattered

I get the same advice all the time: "Be careful, Robert. You don't want to come off as a true homer." People see me waving the flag (sometimes literally) and want me to be aware that it can damage my credibility as someone publishing Illini words. It wouldn't take very
www.illiniboard.com www.illiniboard.com
 
#179      
Mr. Tibbs
Dkayak said:
Ohio State is trying to accelerate their purchased dominance at the expense of everybody else. They understand how a level playing field would erode their edge, so they’re semi-panicked about locking in what’s otherwise a temporary edge. Salary caps please. Until then, why should the rest of us fund our own demise by caving to OSU’s threats and locking in their ability to buy more talent than the rest of us? We have nothing to lose, so let ‘em walk. Don’t let the screen door hit you on the way out.
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agree 1000%

it’s all a bluff . if not , let them walk

the old “ we are all equal , except some are more equal than others “ NEVER works

pretty sure the other B1G presidents know that
 
#182      
Dkayak
apple.news

Notre Dame Football Is Facing a Do-or-Die Game—and It’s Only September — The Wall Street Journal

The Fighting Irish might need to beat Texas A&M on Saturday to reach the College Football Playoff. Realignment is complicating their future schedules, too.
apple.news apple.news

There’s a good article in the WSJ about ND’s dilemma. As the SEC goes to 9 conference games, it’s increasingly difficult for ND to come up with a schedule challenging enough to support a CFP bid, especially if they loose their first two games. Perennial rival USC is unlikely to schedule ND in the future due to already extensive travel east for BIG games.

Let OSU go independent. See if their resulting weak schedule fuels their media coffers and CFP aspirations. It’s likely ND would seek shelter in OSU’s BIG slot. Of course it’s just an empty threat, hoping to capture more media money to staff their empire.
 
#184      
BuckFan12
Just trying to provide the fan perspective of the OSU side. First off I could care less about revenue splits or what Ted Carter has to say. So I’m strictly speaking as a fan of CFB and the Buckeyes obviously.

It feels like we have basically been given the duty of carrying the big noon slot the last few years.

This Season:

OSU (3) vs Texas (1) big noon
OSU (1) vs Penn St (2) big noon

OSU at Michigan big noon

I know the Michigan is penciled in for a noon start time traditionally but that’s our 3 biggest games at noon this year two of them at home. And we will see how it shakes out but I’m sure we will get maybe 3 more Fox Noon games this year

Last Year

OSU (2) vs Indiana (5) big noon
OSU vs Michigan big noon
OSU (4) at Penn St (3)

Marshall, Nebraska, Purdue all 3 were big noon home games as well.

I’m 100% fine with the revenue being shared evenly but I’m totally okay with us using it as leverage to try to work our way out of 6-7 big noon games a year. (Idk if that’s that’s what they’re trying to doing)

I was at the Texas game and it was rockin but it still was nothing like the shoe at night. I think most of our fans feel robbed of some really cool moments and game atmospheres as a result of that.

It also doesn’t help that USC and Oregon who are two of the bigger brands in the conference and 4 of the teams in total literally can’t host home games at noon.

My vote keep the revenue share equal and at the next media rights negotiation which is 2029 I believe have a plan for protecting big time night matchups in our conference. Whether thats Fox moving to the 8pm slot and having competition with ABC or working in a maximum number for how many times each team can appear on a specific network.
 
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#185      
Battle89
BuckFan12 said:
Just trying to provide the fan perspective of the OSU side. First off I could care less about revenue splits or what Ted Carter has to say. So I’m strictly speaking as a fan of CFB and the Buckeyes obviously.

It feels like we have basically been given the duty of carrying the big noon slot the last few years.

This Season:

OSU (3) vs Texas (1) big noon
OSU (1) vs Penn St (2) big noon

OSU at Michigan big noon

I know the Michigan is penciled in for a noon start time traditionally but that’s our 3 biggest games at noon this year two of them at home. And we will see how it shakes out but I’m sure we will get maybe 3 more Fox Noon games this year

Last Year

OSU (2) vs Indiana (5) big noon
OSU vs Michigan big noon
OSU (4) at Penn St (3)

Marshall, Nebraska, Purdue all 3 were big noon home games as well.

I’m 100% fine with the revenue being shared evenly but I’m totally okay with us using it as leverage to try to work our way out of 6-7 big noon games a year. (Idk if that’s that’s what they’re trying to doing)

I was at the Texas game and it was rockin but it still was nothing like the shoe at night. I think most of our fans feel robbed of some really cool moments and game atmospheres as a result of that.

It also doesn’t help that USC and Oregon who are two of the bigger brands in the conference and 4 of the teams in total literally can’t host home games at noon.

My vote keep the revenue share equal and at the next media rights negotiation which is 2029 I believe have a plan for protecting big time night matchups in our conference. Whether thats Fox moving to the 8pm slot and having competition with ABC or working in a maximum number for how many times each team can appear on a specific network.
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Always enjoy your respectful commentary Buck. And complaining about noon (11am in Champaign) kickoffs will let you fit in perfectly here!
 
#186      
IlliniInBuckeyeState
BuckFan12 said:
Just trying to provide the fan perspective of the OSU side. First off I could care less about revenue splits or what Ted Carter has to say. So I’m strictly speaking as a fan of CFB and the Buckeyes obviously.

It feels like we have basically been given the duty of carrying the big noon slot the last few years.

This Season:

OSU (3) vs Texas (1) big noon
OSU (1) vs Penn St (2) big noon

OSU at Michigan big noon

I know the Michigan is penciled in for a noon start time traditionally but that’s our 3 biggest games at noon this year two of them at home. And we will see how it shakes out but I’m sure we will get maybe 3 more Fox Noon games this year

Last Year

OSU (2) vs Indiana (5) big noon
OSU vs Michigan big noon
OSU (4) at Penn St (3)

Marshall, Nebraska, Purdue all 3 were big noon home games as well.

I’m 100% fine with the revenue being shared evenly but I’m totally okay with us using it as leverage to try to work our way out of 6-7 big noon games a year. (Idk if that’s that’s what they’re trying to doing)

I was at the Texas game and it was rockin but it still was nothing like the shoe at night. I think most of our fans feel robbed of some really cool moments and game atmospheres as a result of that.

It also doesn’t help that USC and Oregon who are two of the bigger brands in the conference and 4 of the teams in total literally can’t host home games at noon.

My vote keep the revenue share equal and at the next media rights negotiation which is 2029 I believe have a plan for protecting big time night matchups in our conference. Whether thats Fox moving to the 8pm slot and having competition with ABC or working in a maximum number for how many times each team can appear on a specific network.
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I'm relatively new to even caring about game timeslots, so I'm less intelligent on this topic than others, but I would totally agree that OSU is getting the shaft on noon kickoffs.

I see the crux of the issue being that our biggest TV partner's best timeslot is noon, and that is not ideal for all of the conference, and completely incompatible for a good portion of the conference, as you point out. If FOX had an evening game time slot, I don't think this would be much of an issue. But since they have tried to make the noon timeslot their niche (presumably because there is less competition with other networks?) it leads to an unfair burden having to be shouldered by just a few teams.

As for the idea of a west coast team hosting a "noon" game at 9am local time...it sounds crazy, but it actually sounds less crazy to me than MSU kicking off at 11pm ET and apparently that is a thing...so idk.
 
#187      
BuckFan12
Battle89 said:
Always enjoy your respectful commentary Buck. And complaining about noon (11am in Champaign) kickoffs will let you fit in perfectly here!
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I appreciate it. And yeah haha it seems like the one thing every big 10 fanbase is united on!
 
#188      
BuckFan12
IlliniInBuckeyeState said:
I'm relatively new to even caring about game timeslots, so I'm less intelligent on this topic than others, but I would totally agree that OSU is getting the shaft on noon kickoffs.

I see the crux of the issue being that our biggest TV partner's best timeslot is noon, and that is not ideal for all of the conference, and completely incompatible for a good portion of the conference, as you point out. If FOX had an evening game time slot, I don't think this would be much of an issue. But since they have tried to make the noon timeslot their niche (presumably because there is less competition with other networks?) it leads to an unfair burden having to be shouldered by just a few teams.

As for the idea of a west coast team hosting a "noon" game at 9am local time...it sounds crazy, but it actually sounds less crazy to me than MSU kicking off at 11pm ET and apparently that is a thing...so idk.
Click to expand...

I agree with everything you said here. Fox seems to be the real culprit. You also make a great point about MSU. Having to stay up until 2:30 am to watch your teams game is just as crazy as waking up to watch them kickoff at 9am if not crazier. I’ve never thought about that
 
#189      
MajorNathanMaxwellJanice
Fox is in the driver’s seat, is what they are. They now own 61% of BTN and are an operating partner. Then you look at games on Fox, and on FS1. Spit into the wind, if that’s your thing, but the Fox backing is the conference’s offset to Disney/Espn backing the SEC.

That’s a strength. That’s why Tony P. can politely point out that these two death stars will decide the playoff structure, thank you very much.

2025 football inventory.

IMG_6506.jpeg

Please advise of any additions, deletions or revisions necessary to the super quick research that produced the above.

Separately, the same said super quick research told me that it would take 14 of 18 members to vote in favor of changing a big ten conference financial operating rule. ( Again, please please correct me if I’m wrong on that. )

Now tell me why there’s a snowball’s chance that the conference will vote to give Brutus a larger slice of the pie?

That equal split has been a hallmark of big ten operation. It also applies to postseason revenue, which is collected by the conference, not the schools, and after a deduction for expenses for participating schools, split evenly among members.

(Caveat that new members may not initially receive a full share, as agreed, or not, as a condition of joining)
 
#191      
Greensboro
Illini2010-11 said:
Fair points. I was not explicit in my initial post, but I was looking through the lens of the power two conferences and the expensive network deals that they pursue(d).

I think Notre Dame's independence is more determined by NBCUniversal than anything CFP or schedule-related. ND has a long-term television deal with the network through 2029 (NBC and Peacock). For now, all is good, but it will be interesting to see how things shake out as the contract gets closer to expiration (from both Notre Dame's side and NBCUniversal's side). I think network pressures will eventually push them into the B1G, but that is JMO (a lot can change in two to three years).
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NBC seems happy to happy ND to themselves, I think the Big ten actually helped ND a lifeline by giving NBC something to fill out the TV spots around ND & when ND is on the road. So I think NBC will keep offering a competitive contract with things as is, so I'm in the path to the playoff + scheduling that will cause them to move (if ACC implodes, the lose half of there quality schedule then both playoff and NBC contract get harder)
 
#192      
Greensboro
mhuml32 said:
The only schools that could qualify for being pursued by Big Ten for decades are Notre Dame (could almost say for a century) and Texas.
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ND IMO is much better currently than Texas if they bring the extra NBC TV prime time spot. I don't think we should underestimate the value of prime TV spots...any new team taking a prime has a ripple effect of pushing a tier 1 to tier2 & tier 2 to tier 3. The BTN is gravy, but pushing one more team to the BTN isn't what is getting everyone the 50 - 100 million a year that we have been getting and are heading towards
 
#193      
Mr. Tibbs
Greensboro said:
ND IMO is much better currently than Texas if they bring the extra NBC TV prime time spot. I don't think we should underestimate the value of prime TV spots...any new team taking a prime has a ripple effect of pushing a tier 1 to tier2 & tier 2 to tier 3. The BTN is gravy, but pushing one more team to the BTN isn't what is getting everyone the 50 - 100 million a year that we have been getting and are heading towards
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ND
Texas
Texas A&M
FSU


is pretty much the wish list , imo, of Fox (TV in general ) with respect to B1G expansion
 
#195      
STLini25
Mr. Tibbs said:
ND
Texas
Texas A&M
FSU


is pretty much the wish list , imo, of Fox (TV in general ) with respect to B1G expansion
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I don’t understand putting Texas on the list. That’s completely unrealistic. Tx AM is a stretch, getting both is not even possible.

Assuming ND and TX AM say no (likely scenario), I think the top 4 are:

FSU
NC
Miami
Stanford (BT cannot go to 22 teams and not add a west coast school)

Save 23rd and 24th spot for ND and a future team.

I think FSU, Miami and Stanford would all say yes. NC could go either way. If NC goes SEC, I think GT would be very desirable.

BT won’t want Clemson. Small market, not AAU and a declining FB brand.
 
#196      
Mr. Tibbs
STLini25 said:
I don’t understand putting Texas on the list. That’s completely unrealistic. Tx AM is a stretch, getting both is not even possible.

Assuming ND and TX AM say no (likely scenario), I think the top 4 are:

FSU
NC
Miami
Stanford (BT cannot go to 22 teams and not add a west coast school)

Save 23rd and 24th spot for ND and a future team.

I think FSU, Miami and Stanford would all say yes. NC could go either way. If NC goes SEC, I think GT would be very desirable.

BT won’t want Clemson. Small market, not AAU and a declining FB brand.
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i’m not implying all 4, just that of a list of schools , that is who they covet
 
#197      
Calvin
Dkayak said:
Ohio State is trying to accelerate their purchased dominance at the expense of everybody else. They understand how a level playing field would erode their edge, so they’re semi-panicked about locking in what’s otherwise a temporary edge. Salary caps please. Until then, why should the rest of us fund our own demise by caving to OSU’s threats and locking in their ability to buy more talent than the rest of us? We have nothing to lose, so let ‘em walk. Don’t let the screen door hit you on the way out.
Click to expand...

My expectation is that these things always require some level of pragmatism. OSU will have revenue streams that are theirs (gate, merch, etc.) that should give them an edge. The conference as a whole is much better off if they keep the in-fighting to a minimum, so finding ways to accommodate the most valuable member(s) is also reasonable. Different shares of the media rights seem like a recipe for constant bickering, and wouldn't work because programs rise and fall faster than would the agreements.

In divorce, the lawyers are the winners, not one of the spouses....
 
#200      
FB Dad
Big Ten Expansion - Pod Proposal

Based on the Maryland AD saying there will be 2 more teams added by 2030, here's a proposal of what I would enjoy to see.

This is 5 pods of 4 to increase games across pods, while focusing on retaining core rivalries.

West: Oregon UCLA USC WA
Quadrangle of Hate/Plains: IA MN NE WI
North: MI MSU OSU Purdue
Midwest: IL IN NW PSU
East: MD Rutgers and 2 New Teams (e.g., FSU Miami UNC ND Clemson G tech)

Pros:
- Gives most top programs key protected matchups and usually an easier game or two
- Banishes all foreigners into their own pods (West and East)

Problem: With a 9 game schedule, every 4 years would play all but 1 other team across pods.

Overall: this is probably not as good as the 0-3 protected games option. Just a fun exercise
 
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