After an 11-2 season that saw Indiana reach the College Football Playoff, the football program is seeing unprecedented support in Bloomington.
But relative to the upper financial echelon of the sport, the Hoosiers are still somewhat vulnerable at a time when there are virtually no rules.
When it comes to the transfer portal, the highest bidder wins more often than not, and IU coach Curt Cignetti told CBS Sports he believes there are programs with $40 million roster budgets at the moment.
“I think our little pot of gold is pretty nice, but we’re not at $40 million. Or $30 million. Or even $25 million,” Cignetti told CBS.
Complicating things is the delay in the anticipated NCAA vs. House settlement that will formally implement revenue sharing, and ostensibly add some measure of legitimacy to third-party NIL deals.
But at the moment, as the college sports world waits for House, chaos has ensued on the portal front.
“This is an unprecedented couple days, weeks, where everybody’s waiting on this rev share, and the five or six out there that have unlimited NIL resources, it’s kind of scary for everybody else,” Cignetti said.
What does scary look like? Schools are tampering with signed athletes, and players are holding out for more money. Those are just two examples. Rules? What rules?
With the transfer portal open this spring from April 16-25, it seems no one on a roster is safe, just as programs attempt to find stability with fall camps opening in a bit over three months.
And while Indiana is enjoying the luxury of being one of the best-funded men’s basketball programs, Cignetti’s football team doesn’t sit on the golden tier. Who does?
The second-year IU coach included a couple Big Ten schools — the teams that played in the 2024 Big Ten Championship game — as two of the handful operating with the deepest pockets right now.
“I mean if you want to be the best, you got to be able to compete against the best,” Cignetti said. “Right now I understand that is Oregon, Ohio State, Texas. … Texas Tech because of their oil money. I think Notre Dame’s up there pretty good right now, too. Miami, of course.”
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