Yeah we are not ever going to be competitive with the high end programs when it comes to NIL Archived Message
Posted by OB25 on October 9, 2023, 11:06:50, in reply to "Thing is, we don't operate in a vacuum... everybody else has high NW donors paying for..."
The stands on Saturday tell the story. Yes we have a small subset of the alumni/state population that are die hard fans, but it’s a much smaller subset than for the programs we aspire to be. There are just not that many people that live and breathe Illinois football, and that will be reflected in the amount of super rich alums that fall into that category as well. Ultimately it just means that we’re going to remain in the spot we’ve always been, only difference is that with the conference becoming nearly 2x larger than it was 15 years ago, the chances of a random fluke season are significantly reduced. All we can really hope for is to see a competitive/entertaining product on Saturdays and to get to enjoy the occasional big win, but there’s a pretty firm ceiling for this program and I’ve mostly given up on attempting to fool myself into thinking we could ever surpass it. Previous Message ...football players too, and a lot of schools reside in cities where there are simply a whole lot more financial opportunities for NIL. I keep seeing people talk about embracing the portal and NIL, and all of that, and it sounds great, but for me it just seems like the newest iteration of the 8-ball we reside behind in recruiting. I liked the Bielema hire because I thought it meant we were going to pick a viable lane and stay generally in it... and then we went and hired an OC who... well... ground covered. I do think a large part of the problem is the recruiting dropoff - OL especially - late in Lovie's time. These rebuilds always have some kind of significant roster hole associated with them - Lovie had the same thing in 2017 and went uber-young. It kinda paid off (kinda?), but ultimately when it all went wrong (for various reasons), we are right back to where we were then - the older guys left and the void came in. Which comes back to portal and NIL. It's my understanding we put the lion's share of those resources into keeping a few key players around. If that is indeed the case, and that's the extent of our NIL power in football, we are not serious about being a football program. I don't know where to get the money when people just don't want to give it at the same pace other alumni groups do, but that's the reality - we are not a serious football program. We pay our employees well and hope they can make chicken salad out of chicken shit, but everybody else is fishing the same pond with more bait on the hook. So here's the real question - programs who have marked disadvantages but are successful anyway find ways to zag when everybody else zigs. How does Illinois zig in a Big Ten environment in which every school is using $100 bills as TP? (TL/DR: Eat at Arbys)
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- Maryland football game week - illiniranger October 9, 2023, 9:18:51
- Wtf shotgun. Lucky it worked* - Illini Guy October 14, 2023, 16:03:22
- Is this game on TV in Chicago?* - gullit October 14, 2023, 13:24:10
- 31-7 MD * - illini thunder October 14, 2023, 13:12:52
- This is a lot of contributors out or questionable - illiniranger October 14, 2023, 13:01:30
- Revising my score below: MD 34, Illini 24* - CubsWonWorldSeries October 14, 2023, 11:53:26
- going to be sloppy conditions* - memyselfandillini October 14, 2023, 6:56:07
- Feels like tomorrow is either a surprise win or a complete and embarrassing beat down - OB25 October 13, 2023, 20:25:26
- Friday night football sidejack. Tulane might have the best uniforms in college football. - Toonces October 13, 2023, 18:04:34
- Hard to believe the day before a B1G game on major network TV that this thread dropped to bottom pg3 - RSMBob October 13, 2023, 17:46:39
- Partial analogy to Weber after 2004-5 of failure to take advantage recruiting on a positive upswing - RSMBob October 9, 2023, 15:44:39
- Jesus, even Brian Barnhart was getting snarky on MMQB about the 4th down call on drive 1 - opossum jenkins October 9, 2023, 13:32:37
- Love likely out - jdl October 9, 2023, 13:07:40
- Best news in about a month: - opossum jenkins October 9, 2023, 11:51:27
- DWWH? - IlliniSax05 October 9, 2023, 12:37:31
- Maryland 49 Fighting Bert's 10* - WhitmansFolly October 9, 2023, 10:32:44
- Can we talk about ICON and NIL? - opossum jenkins October 9, 2023, 10:30:56
- Here's the real fun rant: - ijustkrushalot October 9, 2023, 11:19:01
- That shit is so opaque, I have no idea. * - illiniranger October 9, 2023, 11:02:54
- Thing is, we don't operate in a vacuum... everybody else has high NW donors paying for... - uofi1998 October 9, 2023, 10:38:04
- I'm sure there is some money there, but I doubt that it is sitting in a bank unused. - larue33 October 9, 2023, 10:36:33
- This. I think we have enough resources to support a winning program - UofIL6 October 9, 2023, 10:33:28
- I keep going back to that Avery Jones recruitment. - opossum jenkins October 9, 2023, 10:39:55
- Yep, and what a huge loss that was. Need to be able to bring the resources - UofIL6 October 9, 2023, 11:08:12
- Exactly. - opossum jenkins October 9, 2023, 11:13:31
- This aspect and portal scare me the most * - illini thunder October 9, 2023, 10:46:58
- I don't know enough to know, but Bret isn't coming out of pocket for that stuff. - uofi1998 October 9, 2023, 10:42:45
- We are probably going to get shit pumped* - Mrap24 October 9, 2023, 10:23:29
- I’m so completely crestfallen that I’m ready to fast forward to the inevitable…. - opossum jenkins October 9, 2023, 10:10:05
- Maryland 45, Illini 31 as our offense shows some life but has 3 turnovers* - CubsWonWorldSeries October 9, 2023, 10:09:55
- 2-10 on the table.* - Warrin'_Illini October 9, 2023, 9:44:40
- Going to be real grim after these next two games* - illini21 October 9, 2023, 9:20:35
- 55-17* - bjl63 October 9, 2023, 9:19:44
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