OT: D1

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I'd argue this is why IUP football will never return to elite status - the lack of scion donors to bring back a chasmic funding advantage. IUP has some big money donors, but none that view IUP football as a priority.

Can't get what you don't ask for.

[TheBigCat2192]

Curt didn't exactly have the financial resources of a certain billionaire from Mt Lebanon and prominent Indiana (Ind.) alumni when he was running the show at IUP.

For that matter, if only Mark Cuban was as financially committed in recent years to the Dallas Mavericks, then imagine the number of NBA titles they'd have won in Dallas. As it stands, they were lucky to win it all in 2011.

Sports Illustrated recently ran an article about IU DC Bryant Haines titled "Bryant Haines Spent 2 Years on Welfare. Now, He's Indiana Football's 'Mastermind'" that included him living on food stamps when he was at IUP. It's not a flattering look for our PASSHE schools to be mentioned that way in a once-prominent sports magazine even if the article makes it clear that money was tight for him at other stops.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Sports Illustrated recently ran an article about IU DC Bryant Haines titled "Bryant Haines Spent 2 Years on Welfare. Now, He's Indiana Football's 'Mastermind'" that included him living on food stamps when he was at IUP. It's not a flattering look for our PASSHE schools to be mentioned that way in a once-prominent sports magazine even if the article makes it clear that money was tight for him at other stops.

IUP at least pays its long-tenured assistants fairly well (for D2). Of course, that doesn't leave much else in the piggybank.

When you get beyond HC at most of our schools ... the pay is quite shocking (and not in a good way). Heck, we have HCs making under $100k.

Most would be shocked what our schools typically pay the OC and DC. I'd guess the range is $35,000-$50,000.

Assistants behind them ... just say life is rough.

Typically the lower-tier assistants will share a house, etc.

[TheBigCat2192]

IUP at least pays its long-tenured assistants fairly well (for D2). Of course, that doesn't leave much else in the piggybank.

When you get beyond HC at most of our schools ... the pay is quite shocking (and not in a good way). Heck, we have HCs making under $100k.

Most would be shocked what our schools typically pay the OC and DC. I'd guess the range is $35,000-$50,000.

Assistants behind them ... just say life is rough.

Typically the lower-tier assistants will share a house, etc.

The article doesn't give a specific number of occupants but does say that Haines was living with other assistants making <$700 a month in a house that was apparently provided by Cignetti.

He lived down the street from Tyler, in a reduced-priced house Cignetti provided for all the young coaches who weren’t making more than $700 per month. The house no longer exists — the roof over the bathroom caved right after Haines moved out.

I don't think it's a secret in coaching circles, or even to more knowledgeable fans, that assistants with lesser responsibilities don't make much below D1 or the NFL. I have to imagine seeing the numbers was quite shocking for the casual sports fan who came across this on their Facebook/X feed or in a magazine they found in their doctor's waiting room. Since SI doesn't have the same reach it once did I don't think it will discourage future coaching job seekers but IMO it's still not the best marketing for our PASSHE schools; although Cignetti winning it all this year could potentially offset that and then some for IUP specifically.

[Chuck Norris]

Yes..amazing what Curt can do when well funded. Imagine if IUP had been as well funded during his time. His father had it figured out 35 years ago but got punished for it.

It’s not just the money, everyone is spending. It’s the approach, ignoring the 5 star who barely played at Alabama in favor of the experienced and productive 2 or 3 star who never got P4 attention and plays with a chip on their shoulder.

I don’t know if they’ll ever have a year where it all comes together like this again. The field will catch up. Assistants, no matter how loyal, will eventually be offered that job they can’t refuse. But Indiana should be a major player as long as Curt is there. It’s on the very short list of greatest college sports stories ever.

[Fightingscot82]

Sports Illustrated recently ran an article about IU DC Bryant Haines titled "Bryant Haines Spent 2 Years on Welfare. Now, He's Indiana Football's 'Mastermind'" that included him living on food stamps when he was at IUP. It's not a flattering look for our PASSHE schools to be mentioned that way in a once-prominent sports magazine even if the article makes it clear that money was tight for him at other stops.

Haines was a part-time assistant. Part-time in PASSHE is usually measured as a percentage of full-time status. Sometimes that's 17.5 hours/week for 52 weeks and sometimes its 37.5 hours/week for 26 weeks. His salary was $15,000 for the 2015 season (this is public record).

Its pretty common for those entry level grad assistant, part-time, and entry level coaches to live together and/or hold second jobs in town.

[boatcapt]

It’s not just the money, everyone is spending. It’s the approach, ignoring the 5 star who barely played at Alabama in favor of the experienced and productive 2 or 3 star who never got P4 attention and plays with a chip on their shoulder.

I don’t know if they’ll ever have a year where it all comes together like this again. The field will catch up. Assistants, no matter how loyal, will eventually be offered that job they can’t refuse. But Indiana should be a major player as long as Curt is there. It’s on the very short list of greatest college sports stories ever.

Beyond the top of the top tier programs, we have built a system with transfers that lends itself to extremely high variability, season to season. A not top program is going to have to hit an inside straight with transfers (in...and out) every year for the program to be relevant for multiple years.

Bottom line, unless UI hit's on all their transfers this year, their slide back to the bottom of the B1G could be just as swift as their rise to the top of the national D1 football pile. Welcome to the new age of college football where every team and every fan base can have national championship dreams every year and success is just a transfer QB away.

[IUPNation]

So...the NIL is being touted as ruining college foosball.

However before it...a very few group of schools were winning titles.

With it....the losingest program won a National Title.

Is it really that bad when it leveled out the playing field and drawing in more interest?

WAs it better to see Alabamastan and Jawja or Clemson play for the title evey year?

I think the only major issue is the portal. It needs to be tamed.

However, the NIL....it's brought more parity to FBS....and those the most upset are the ones who benefitted by the old ways.

[Fightingscot82]

So...the NIL is being touted as ruining college foosball.

However before it...a very few group of schools were winning titles.

With it....the losingest program won a National Title.

Is it really that bad when it leveled out the playing field and drawing in more interest?

WAs it better to see Alabamastan and Jawja or Clemson play for the title evey year?

I think the only major issue is the portal. It needs to be tamed.

However, the NIL....it's brought more parity to FBS....and those the most upset are the ones who benefitted by the old ways.

Yeah but NIL isn't the reason Indiana had a sudden turnaround. Their players aren't getting payouts bigger than other places. Its not the Yankees vs the Pirates. Indiana orchestrating this turnaround is a combination of a dynamic coach, a school and its boosters 100% behind him, and the relaxing of transfer rules. Even 5 years ago, Cignetti would have needed 3 to 5 years to see nationally competitive football because he wouldn't have been able to go player shopping several times.

To a lesser degree, the expanded playoff is a factor. It gave opportunity for a team like Miami to play for something more meaningful than a Truth Social Rimjob Bowl trophy. Gr,anted, in my ideal scenario I'm not sure Miami would have played - but just as much as Duke's upset shows maybe conference champion auto bids aren't the best thing, Miami showed its possible for a team ranked #16 to play for a championship because they had an invitation.

[IUPNation]

Reviewing Fake Indiana’s season..it seems crazy that it was Penn State who came the closest to beating them.

[ctrabs74]

So...the NIL is being touted as ruining college foosball.

However before it...a very few group of schools were winning titles.

With it....the losingest program won a National Title.

Is it really that bad when it leveled out the playing field and drawing in more interest?

WAs it better to see Alabamastan and Jawja or Clemson play for the title evey year?

I think the only major issue is the portal. It needs to be tamed.

However, the NIL....it's brought more parity to FBS....and those the most upset are the ones who benefitted by the old ways.

Go figure. I don't know that I would call it parity when two of the last three national champions - Meatchicken and THE Overrated State University - are bluebloods in the traditional sense, though at least it destroys the theory that the SEC is the dominant force in FBS college football. Whether this new parity results in seeing new teams winning the title every year or if Indiana (Ind.) is on the verge of an Alabama-type run remains to be seen.

And, yes, the portal is doing more harm than good, especially when you have players hopping from team to team - as many as five or six, in some cases.

[ctrabs74]

Reviewing Fake Indiana’s season..it seems crazy that it was Penn State who came the closest to beating them.

In the regular season, yes. Ohio State came close to beating Indiana (Ind.) in the B1G title game.

[TheBigCat2192]

In the regular season, yes. Ohio State came close to beating Indiana (Ind.) in the B1G title game.

Miami arguably played a better NCG on a down-to-down basis, but Indiana won on the margins through superior special teams and conversion down performance, particularly the blocked punt for a TD and Mendoza's 4th down TD run.

[TheBigCat2192]

It’s not just the money, everyone is spending. It’s the approach, ignoring the 5 star who barely played at Alabama in favor of the experienced and productive 2 or 3 star who never got P4 attention and plays with a chip on their shoulder.

I think people are overreacting to two good years by Indiana with this stuff. I can't deny that the Hoosiers were the best team in college football this year and performed fairly well last season, but I'd like to see more success from them or replication by another program before I conclude that they've really changed the game. Especially given that:

1. They aren't the only team in FBS to be old with all of the COVID years, medical RS, and the one-time extra year for JUCO guys. There were other programs with comparable average player age (such as Oklahoma State) who were mediocre or even terrible (again, like Oklahoma State). Age does typically help in development, but when you're dealing with the far right tail of human athleticism I don't know that the evidence supports the idea that the difference is as pronounced as it is for people near the median. If other teams start loading up on 5th year seniors/medical RS guys/grad transfers and can't replicate IU's success those coaches (and a lot of pundits and internet commenters prattling on about the Hooser's age) are going to look very silly.
2. From what I can tell Indiana is still the only team since the turn of the millennium to win it all without a roster of primarily blue chip recruits (i.e. 5 stars and the most highly-rated 4 stars). Perhaps they've really unlocked the secrets of development or found a hole in evaluation methods that will render the star system/HS recruiting obsolete, but I need to see more before I buy that.

It's possible that Cignetti and the Hoosiers spell the end of blue chip roster dominance or the emergence of a competing roster construction philosophy, but they may also end up being an aberration. I think it's also entirely possible that a synthesis of the tried and true (blue chip HS recruiting) and Indiana's strategy (accomplished transfers) might come about among some the top programs and lead us back to where we already were. In fact, we've already seen this; the first national champion in the expanded playoff era had two key contributors from the portal who had been less-heralded HS recruits (Howard and Judkins), but they also had a portal addition who'd been a blue chip (Downs) and a slew of homegrown blue chip guys (Henderson, Smith, Egbuka, Tate, Sawyer, etc.). I don't see enough data yet to draw a conclusion on how this will play out and look forward to this experiment over the next few years.

[Fightingscot82]

A lot of people outside this board are ignorant to Cignetti's ability to flat out coach. Dude has a .800 career win %