Cardinals problem is not payroll (see Brewers). It is being bad judge of talent and signing the wrong players to long term contracts (DeJong, Carpenter, Matz, Leake, Fowler, Contreras). Also bad trades (Alcantra to Rays, Gallen to Rays, Arazorena, Garcia ). Cardinal payroll $160M is good enough to make playoffs every year but a series of bad free agent signings, bad trades, and poor drafting have pushed them to bottom of division (thank goodness for Pirates).
Illini have same issue. Good NIL but need to sign the right people.
2024 - KJ, Tomas, Will, Tre -- very good
2024 - Ben - avg
2024 - Carey - bad
2025 - big Z - looking good
2025 - Mircovic - looking good
2025 - Miller for $1.25M JMO pass
2025 - Ben for $0.5M pass
2025 - Sarr - we won't outbid Duke (reminds me of Egor Demin)
2025 - I would bundle remaining $NIL for 1 very good 2G/SF. Problem is if you pay him too much may piss off current players.