Illinois sucking so bad.....

[torbee]

Kind of makes it a little less fun when Iowa is this good.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I loathe the Illini basketball program (and hey, do you guys remember when they used to have lots of posters on this board? ) But how much MORE fun would this Iowa run be if they were actually even somewhat relevant in the Big 10 or nationally?

 

[DanL53]

Like, likelikelikelikelike!!!!! They would be relevant if it wasn't for Bruce Pearl!!!!!

 

[TKingpin]

Totally disagree. Just IMHO, but I would love for Illinois to continue to be awful in both Football and Basketball, that way there is one less obstacle for Fran & Kirk in the Chicago market for talent.

I would love to see us draw them in the B1G tourney and beat them by 30. Then beat them by 30 in football next year. LEAVE NO DOUBT!

 

[torbee]

Could one make the argument that they are the worst athletic department in the Big 10 right now, at least in terms of relevant men's sports?

I guess Rutgers might be worse, but at least Rutgers isn't a legacy Big 10 team that used to be decent in some sports from time to time. Illinois is just a cesspool of awfulness right now.

 

[Phenomenally Frantastic]

...is awesome?

 

[torbee]

Totally disagree. Just IMHO, but I would love for Illinois to continue to be awful in both Football and Basketball, that way there is one less obstacle for Fran & Kirk in the Chicago market for talent.

I would love to see us draw them in the B1G tourney and beat them by 30. Then beat them by 30 in football next year. LEAVE NO DOUBT!

Oh, I don't want Illinois to ever win another sporting contest in any sport. That would be great.

I'm just saying, it would be super FUN if Iowa was kicking ass while they were still decent as well.

But I'll happily take them sucking forever and ever amen.

 

[TKingpin]

Amen!

 

[DanL53]

Carson, "Illinois is sucking soooo bad!"

Crowd, "Why is Illinois Sucking?", or "How much is Illinois Sucking?"

"All the air in the Windy City got sucked to Champaign! But Chicago doesn't want it back because it...smells funny."
"They're sucking so bad people are wondering if this lady was the right hire for personal trainer?"

My God is that an Iowa pin on her apron!?!?

 

[goodbyebobby]

Illinois isn't as bad as the OP's, supposed, writing so they're not COMPLETELY gutterbound.

 

[freemanbrenner]

Illinois I would imagine could get a really good head coach if groce is out. Will have to be able to get the top players in Illinois which is something groce hasn't been able to do.

 

[ShawneeHawk 1]

Illinois I would imagine could get a really good head coach if groce is out. Will have to be able to get the top players in Illinois which is something groce hasn't been able to do.

The exact same thing was said about Weber.

 

[redbirdhawk]

It pleases me greatly to see how bad illannoy is at all sports. Keep it going for a couple three more decades and then...maybe...I'd feel sorry for them and their miserable fans.

 

[Buffalo43]

They have had quite a few key injuries this year in basketball

 

[LuteHawk]

In his press conference after his team's loss to Iowa,
Coach Groce said that his players need to be more
mentally and physically tough. He said that Iowa hit
them in the mouth, and Illinois did not respond.

He should have mentioned the defensive job that
Clemmons did on Nunn by holding him to 6 points.
Groce could have talked about the rebounds that
Iowa got and then made their second shot Do not
look for Groce to be back next season..

 

[Ronman]

Just amazing to this old timer to see Iowa go into Champaign, not play even close to our best game, and still walk away with a double-digit win

 

[BGHAWK]

Used to be some illini guy would post over here but I haven't heard from him lately. Hope he's ok. Wonder whatever happened to him?

 

[SDHawkDoc]

with illanoy continuing to lay big turds, wiscy in a transition period, minny pitiful that should help the Hawks stand out for regional recruits. Oh, and missouri isn't exactly lighting it up either.
Additionally you've got an offensive scoring machine of a team that likes to get it up and down the floor. What player wouldn't get excited about that?

 

[HawkAttackDial911]

Used to be some illini guy would post over here but I haven't heard from him lately. Hope he's ok. Wonder whatever happened to him?

You thinking of Combes?

 

[nu2u]

I'm saving my irrational exuberance for an ass whooping of the Golden Gophers.

 

[MitchL]

Could one make the argument that they are the worst athletic department in the Big 10 right now, at least in terms of relevant men's sports?

I guess Rutgers might be worse, but at least Rutgers isn't a legacy Big 10 team that used to be decent in some sports from time to time. Illinois is just a cesspool of awfulness right now.

I think you might have a three way tie for that honor with Minnesota and Rutgers.

 

[HawkandTackle]

http://www.dailytargum.com/article/...s-loses-more-than-36-million-last-fiscal-year

""Rutgers Athletics lost more than $36 million in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, a deficit more substantial than losing $1 every second of a typical calendar year, according to a March 2015 report by the University Senate’s Budget and Finance Committee."

“We’re No. 1 in financial losses ... by a mile, we lose more money than any other university on athletics.”"

My dislike for Minnesota and Illinois notwithstanding, the Rutgers Athletic department is a tire fire on top of a nuclear reactor currently melting down.

 

[DanL53]

Combes posts on Illini Loyalty.

 

[DanL53]

http://www.dailytargum.com/article/...s-loses-more-than-36-million-last-fiscal-year

""Rutgers Athletics lost more than $36 million in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, a deficit more substantial than losing $1 every second of a typical calendar year, according to a March 2015 report by the University Senate’s Budget and Finance Committee."

“We’re No. 1 in financial losses ... by a mile, we lose more money than any other university on athletics.”"

My dislike for Minnesota and Illinois notwithstanding, the Rutgers Athletic department is a tire fire on top of a nuclear reactor currently melting down.

Very true and thoughts of using Big Ten money to renovate will be hard to accomplish when Big Ten money barely pays the bills IF Rutgers doesn't spend any additional on athletics.

 

[MitchL]

I would have loved to have sat in on the meetings where the "pros and cons" of admitting Rutgers were discussed. What in the hell did the powers that be see other then a few TV sets on the Eastern seaboard?

I guess since Harbaugh got so many top flite football recruits from NJ... he's kind of happy about the B1G exposure out East.

 

[And1Hawk]

Very true and thoughts of using Big Ten money to renovate will be hard to accomplish when Big Ten money barely pays the bills IF Rutgers doesn't spend any additional on athletics.

Are you positive Rutgers is getting a full share yet? It usually takes several years to be phased into receiving a full membership share of conference revenue. This is year two and prior to joining it's not like they were rolling in dough from their previous conference.

I could be wrong but I think they incurred a large amount of that debt renovating and expanding the football stadium after the uptick from the Schiano run. A run that was pretty good.

I really do not get the vitriol against Rutgers. Do we really want another blue blood or top notch program to have to to climb over? The next 2 adds to get to 16 could be just that by the way. There are plenty of quality athletic programs already to compete with in the B1G. Until this year's run its not like we have world beaters ourselves. They are a good academic institution and their research dollars rank 5th most in the B1G blowing us away. They are in a very near vacinity of 26 million people and one of the top 15 recruiting areas. If we are lucky enough to get a 35-40 million payout from the next TV deal they and Maryland will have played a larger role in that than us. I just do not get people how some can be are so uninformed.

 

[DanL53]

Are you positive Rutgers is getting a full share yet? .

http://www.courierpostonline.com/st...ditorial-rutgers-sports-plan-paying/79532168/

That's an optimistic view. And it includes info that the full share of about 32 million comes in 2021. The problems:

1) They are nowhere close to upgraded. And that is a huge expense.
2) Fact, they subsidize through fees far more that any other Big Five conference school, they are the bottom of the barrel.
3) It costs more to run a Big Ten type program including recruiting, yada, yada...and so on.
4) The idea is that through success........so we gamble they will be successful instead of taking a successful school?

About the only good news we really hear out of the Rutgers addition is it might work out. Hopefully it does.

And lastly, about the money "everybody" makes. I miss round robin schedules and Saturday home games. It's great the Big Ten is making more money, but the quality of the product has suffered.

 

[And1Hawk]

http://www.courierpostonline.com/st...ditorial-rutgers-sports-plan-paying/79532168/

That's an optimistic view. And it includes info that the full share of about 32 million comes in 2021. The problems:

1) They are nowhere close to upgraded. And that is a huge expense.
2) Fact, they subsidize through fees far more that any other Big Five conference school, they are the bottom of the barrel.
3) It costs more to run a Big Ten type program including recruiting, yada, yada...and so on.
4) The idea is that through success........so we gamble they will be successful instead of taking a successful school?

About the only good news we really hear out of the Rutgers addition is it might work out. Hopefully it does.

And lastly, about the money "everybody" makes. I miss round robin schedules and Saturday home games. It's great the Big Ten is making more money, but the quality of the product has suffered.

So if others read the article they would learn that they received 9.4 million this year and it's not until 2021 that they receive an estimated 32 million full share. That's a huge difference. What is probably true is 9.4 million is more than they have received from their old conference and it was noted that there deficit had decreased already. That just shows how little money they received before becoming a Power 5.

To your points...
1). That's obvious. It's an arms race and does not stop for anyone including us.

2). Not relevant and hardly fair. They have been a power 5 school for all of a whopping 1.5 years. Power 5 membership brings a substantial money and prestige increase. Member schools like ours have enjoyed such benefits for a long time by comparison.

3). Again obvious. I fail to see how this prevents membership.

4). No gamble. They bring a ton on the academic and R&D side. They run an R&D budget of 775 million which is over 5 times the largest athletic budget in the country in Texas to give you perspective. They bring 9 million folks in terms of their state (3x Iowa) and are in very close proximity to NYC which is another 17 million. Getting a couple of percentage points of a 26 million person basin blows Iowa out of the water. They are in the footprint of a top 10-15 area for blue chip recruits that benefits all B1G members directly. They also have over 60k in students; 49k under and 17k grad. Larger than Iowa and almost as big as ISU & Iowa combined. That's all before a quality athletics program is built over the next 10-15 years.

You have your head in the sand if you do not think money is important in college athletics today. It's the life blood of everything an athletic program can do. Look no further than the huge importance of projects that brought practice facilities to football and basketball here at Iowa in recent years. These big time improvements cost a high dollar. If money is no big deal we can spend a lot less by joining the MAC, MVC, etc and get that round robin schedule that you want. I'd like to have the round robin too but I would rather be in a big time league and have money to compete. There's not enough large donors in Iowa to sustain today's competitive level. We need the conference dollars too.

The quality of the product is not suffering. I do not agree. We had the first winner of the new college football championship in OSU and an NCAA runner up in Wisconsin in bball all in the prior year. That's the two of the most prestigious sports. If that's poor quality give me more of that.

 

[DanL53]

And1 you make strong points and I commend you. But all I can say is Rutgers needs:

Roughly 30 million a year to get out of athletic department debt or subsidies (expenses) paid for by students. (That's per year.)
Huge amounts of funds to upgrade their facilities.
Large sums of money to absorb the additional expenses of being a big time program.

And the 32 million full share of Big Ten money isn't going to cover all that.

So we will end up with the Northwestern of the East Coast. Lovely. There were better choices.

But I do hope I'm wrong and Jim Delaney and Mark Rudner and the rest know what they are doing. I am not rooting for this to not work, just concerned as it looks like we just grabbed the first school close to New York in a bid for television money asap.

 

[freemanbrenner]

If Illinois wants to be really good they will need an elite recruiter. Jeff Capel an assistant for Duke would make a ton of sense for them. There are positives about the Illinois job but recruiting in Chicago has a reputation for being shady (Derrick Rose, Eric Gordon, Anthony Davis.) Having to go up vs Duke and Kentucky for elite players all the time in their state is tough.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

Academic alignments of universities certainly have import and meaning. In their sphere.

They are, however, essentially irrelevant as it relates to sports.

Does anyone care whether or not rutgers has an excellent reputation as a research institution? What bearing does that have on the athletic department?

If bringing them in translates to more money for Iowa, then great. Anyone have any actual financial projections that demonstrate this?

As for their dumpster fire of an athletic dept, it gives the Hawks a relatively easier win on the field and court. That's about as positive a comment as I can make about rutgers.