It’s no secret the IU football program had some work to do this offseason to enhance their facilities.
In an era when raising cash earmarked for players is every bit as significant if not more, finding money for facilities is a bigger challenge than ever.
But in advance of a major recruiting weekend in late May, Indiana got at least two offseason facilities projects completed.
A couple weeks ago we shared with you photos of Indiana’s renovations at their indoor practice facility. Completed in 1996, the Mellencamp Pavilion is a bit of dinosaur in Power Four college football. But IU installed an impressive new field surface and otherwise freshened up the structure just northeast of Memorial Stadium.
In photos, Mellencamp looked impressive.
Indiana also completed renovations to their north end zone weight room, turning it into a football only facility and completely refreshing the equipment.
The program released photos of the new weight room in late May.
There is no doubt plenty more needs to be done. Indiana still doesn’t have a shiny new indoor practice facility and dedicated football-only complex like some other teams in the Big Ten and beyond.
If and when that will happen remains to be seen. New head coach Curt Cignetti has said the financial commitment to football at Indiana has exceeded his expectations on multiple occasions since he was hired.
But with athletic department budgets pinched by upcoming revenue sharing payments to players, it will probably take a massive donation for Indiana to take the leap and build entirely new football facilities.
In the meantime, they’ve done enough to at least make a good impression on visits this offseason.
The Hoosiers earned commitments from three of their official visitors in late May/early June, including class of 2025 Georgia-based defensive back Jaylen Bell.
The former LSU commit told Najeh Wilkins of Score Atlanta the football facilities factored into his decision to commit to IU.
“Bloomington is a lively town with plenty to do,” Bell told Wilkins. “The IU facilities surpassed my expectations. The weight room, players’ locker room and indoor practice facility were phenomenal.”
With 11 commits, Indiana’s class of 2025 is currently ranked No. 40 in the nation according to On3. If that ranking held up it would be their best since the class of 2022.
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