Fair enough.
If that is indeed the case the men’s program will be bottom barrel in the coming years.
Wow, the Illini are cleaning up…
- Thread starter Rambler Hawk
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If that is indeed the case the men’s program will be bottom barrel in the coming years.
Not being competitive with the top 4-5 in football and not being competitive with the remainder are two completely different categories.
I am a men's BB first Iowa fan - or at least I am when the program is 'healthy' - so it pains me to make the statement I did. About the ladies deserving more NIL money.
But I still can't and won't change it.
Bluder has the women's program rolling right now - even with CC (& seniors) departing - and for the past 5 years, while Fran keeps plodding along with "winning seasons" and a bubblelicious NCAA invite or worse, the NIT.
Bluder capitalized on the moment when she had the talent on her roster, with two straight NC game appearances. Fran barely treaded water - when it mattered most - while his roster had 4 NBA/G League guys on it.
I have no problem WBB getting cash. Just beat LSU for a great transfer guard.
Just sux that it's looking like MBB might get left on the NIL trash heap.
I think at this point the only thing that will juice the boosters for MBB is a shocking NCAA run next year or Fran hitting the bricks and a splash hire.
Status quo of the program the last decade ain't gonna do it.
Couldn't agree more, with all this.
Still don't really understand why Fran didn't think this was a good time to leave - this offseason - instead of hanging on to the point of needing to be fired/let go in a couple of seasons, but probably pretty hard to do when the money you're pulling in is so good.
I think that's a little cynical. I think Fran loves coaching and HE thinks he can get the job done. At his age and overall record I don't think another P6 job would be knocking.
I appreciate what Fran has done for the program after Lickliter.
The problem is the program is stagnant, support is stagnant and we're at an inflection point with MBB with NIL. It's time for him to move on but that'll have to wait.
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
it’s so messed right now . Needs a massive overhaul. But like most things that are difficult probanly not big changes coming.
Getting Thelwell was a step in the right direction, but I would disagree to say that Iowa is ‘working’ the portal. If it’s because of lack of NIL, then yes I can understand his hands are tied. Fran seems to want to build up the program organically and let’s face it, it ain’t working….🙁
Fran and staff are working on getting a 4 in the portal. In fact, a pretty good one just mentioned Iowa as one of the 4 main schools that is recruiting him the hardest, and guess what, he didn't even enter the portal until a few days ago.
I swear, some of you want take home the first girl you see at a bar just to say that you got it in quickly. Patience. Only something like 14% of all portal entrants have committed somewhere.
If the ticket prices are the same for both the men's and women's games, the women are bringing in more revenue, which is a big reason to give them a big hunk of available NIL$$.
The NIL collective doesn't get any of that revenue so it shouldn't matter to them.
Women's basketball isn't going to maintain anything close to the current level of interest anyway.
A 4 does not equal a big. Not in 2024 at least. The only true 4s we have on the roster for next season is Koch and Tadjo. Hopefully one of those guys is ready to go, but I don't think you should bank on it.
Ideally, most college basketball teams only play ~8 or 9 in the rotation anyways. And clearly Brauns, Mulvey, Dembele and the 2 freshmen haven't done anything to earn not getting recruited over. I don't want any of those 5 starting next season if Iowa is going to be where they need to be. Do you?
Matt Cross, if Iowa can get him or another player like him, would be a huge upgrade over any of those guys. I think Iowa's hope is to fill that last 13th scholarship with either a late 2024 guard or a cheap, high upside guard via the portal.
Which illustrates exactly why the NIL will be the death-knell for many a program like UIowa. Schools like UIowa are gonna have to “pick” which programs they can support and which programs they are going to have to let survive in their own. The just isn’t enough $$ or fan support (numbers) to allow UIowa to be a player on multiple fronts year in abs tear out. And quite frankly, some of us “supporters” have reached our limits and will choose to observe instead.
Not normally but to Fran it does. Sandfort should have been the 4 last year but we had to have 2 bigs on the floor.
Fran will probably play Koch at the 3 because there will be too many forwards and not enough guards on the roster again.
Cross isn't a post. He's very similar to Sandfort's build but a better rebounder and defender. He's a very prototypical modern 4.
I mostly agree with you, but I think Dembele could be much better, and could be a major contributor in future seasons, maybe even next year. I like getting a true 4 with a year left, like Cross, because, like you said, we can't bank on the freshmen or Dembele being ready for major minutes. The other two bigs would be a huge surprise to me if they are ready to give more than a few minutes of solid play, so Dembele might get minutes at center behind Freeman.
I also agree that another guard, preferably a combo guard who plays all aspects of the game, would be a great addition. Three guards is not enough.
You honestly think the women bring in more revenue than the men? I hope this was a joke and I just didn’t get the punchline.
Men generate more money in every category. It may not be fair, but it’s the truth.
In 2023 Iowa men went to the tournament and lost in the first round. They received $2 million in NCAA distributions. The women went to the National Championship. They got $380,000
Media rights? Men got $5 million, where the women got $110,000. Ticket sales? Men out earned the women 3:1 there.
The men had a revenue of $14 million and a profit of $4.3 million. The women had a revenue of $3.8 million, but an overall loss of -$4.4 million.
So long story short, let’s just cancel mens basketball and give all the money to the women. That may be the most Iowa thing ever.
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I don't know anything about revenue, but didn't they draw more fans than the men, and ticket prices at away venues were crazy, at least in the last part of the season.
I think a lot of posters are on edge because Fran does not exactly have a great track record with the portal - he nabbed Krikke last year at this time and he turned out to be average at best and Brauns just warmed the bench all season. We need someone who will move the needle and I venture to guess the really good portal players will sign in this first wave….😎
Note: If you wait until bar closing time to make a score, odds are there was a reason she was available. 😉
They were, but 1) that’s not likely to continue, 2) it’s not like Iowa sees any of that for away games, and 3) secondary markets were likely the biggest winners in all of that.
Ticket sales will obviously be up for the woman and down for the men, as will media rights. Ticket sales revenue will be close, but media will still strongly be sided towards the men. Iowa men will still make a lot more money this past season than the women. That’s just the nature of CBB, but the gap is closing some thanks to CC.
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