I'm an old Hoosier. Basketball is a part of my DNA. Growing up in South Bend, dad would often tell me stories about his legendary coach, John Wooden, a man who coached basketball as well as baseball and taught English at Central High School. Over the years we watched many a game together and I was reared on Jimmy Rayl, the Van Arsdale brothers and other IU idols of the early 1960s. Those were special moments sharing the joys and sorrows of Indiana basketball with dad. When Bob Knight came on the scene, Indiana basketball was transformed into another dimension. For me there was no doubt IU had a special coach when I saw local Goshen star, John Ritter outscore the Notre Dame team at Assembly Hall back in December 1971 by a score of 31 to 29. In the car after the game I recall excitingly telling dad that Indiana is going to be really good with Knight as its coach. I was fortunate to be an IU student and see and experience the national championship teams of 1976 and 1981. Of course later, a number of us still recall the epic Keith Smart corner jump shot to whip Syracuse for the 1987 title.
Being an Indiana fan and supporter, I definitely also followed and pulled for the football team. Frustration came along with most seasons. In large part success was defined by beating Purdue, having a winning record and getting into a bowl game. Towards the end of the football season, my focus and anticipation would target the upcoming basketball campaign. For me Indiana basketball was #1 and football was a far behind #2.
The accomplishments of Curt Cignetti, his staff and players have dramatically transformed Indiana football and my mindset. They have made the impossible possible. I've got to confess, Cig has converted me over as all in to Indiana football. For all Indiana fans, we'll never forget the amazing story of the 2025/26 football season. I have no idea if Indiana will ever win another national championship but as long as Cignetti is coach, there's little doubt in my mind that Indiana will be at the top in collegiate football.
Hey Hoosier Nation, let's forever keep close the joy of these fantastic memories.
Great post.
Football is going to be #1 at IU as long as Cig is here. IUFB is approximately infinity better than IUBB.
And CFB is 5x bigger than CBB -- being good at CFB is generally more fun than being good CBB because it's a bigger deal, plus you've got the all-day Saturday experience with tailgating and the game and all that great stuff.
Once Cig is done here, it's going to be something like 10 years of conditioning our fans to follow CFB, go to games, donate, and all that. He'll leave a program with a lot of momentum and much more infrastructure. Of course getting his successor right will be a huge moment, but that's a ways away...
The whole fball vs. bball school label is a fun debate. Sure, we've got a lot of bball in our blood, but at the end of the day football is now king at IU and it's not close. From the fan support to resource allocation, everything has changed. It's crazy.
I always enjoyed watching football more than basketball...even during the down decades.
I don't even bother watching the basketball team much when they are bad, which has been most of the time the last couple decades. Majority of our coaching hires post-Knight have been for reasons other than just getting the best coach, whether it is a keep the current players happy hire, minority hire, or former player hire, we just don't seem to making winning the priority.
When they hired Cignetti, their lists of traits they were looking for actually made sense...like looking for someone good at getting production out of the QB position.
March Madness is cool but college football rules. It leads college hoops in viewership, revenue and fan interest.
Indiana athletics has, finally, entered the big leagues.
From an economic standpoint, reports say Indiana harvests 10M/game, which maybe the total sum of the BB season!
From an economic standpoint, reports say Indiana harvests 10M/game, which maybe the total sum of the BB season!
Just wait until next year. I am beyond curious to see how these season ticket sales pan out. They will almost certainly raise ticket prices to match the product, and they should. We have to help keep this train moving in the right direction.
I love college football, and am admittedly a recent bandwagon fan, as in, from the time they hired Cignetti. But, hurts my heart as a Hoosier to hear fans dismissing bball. There's no reason we can't be good at both and having a great football program, makes that far more likely than the reverse. My hope is that football drags bball up to it's standard and provides some of the resources to get us there. Basketball is in our DNA and I hope is always near and dear to the heart of Hoosiers. For a long time we had elite bball, soccer and swimming programs, so I see no reason they can't enhance each others success.
I'm an old Hoosier. Basketball is a part of my DNA. Growing up in South Bend, dad would often tell me stories about his legendary coach, John Wooden, a man who coached basketball as well as baseball and taught English at Central High School. Over the years we watched many a game together and I was reared on Jimmy Rayl, the Van Arsdale brothers and other IU idols of the early 1960s. Those were special moments sharing the joys and sorrows of Indiana basketball with dad. When Bob Knight came on the scene, Indiana basketball was transformed into another dimension. For me there was no doubt IU had a special coach when I saw local Goshen star, John Ritter outscore the Notre Dame team at Assembly Hall back in December 1971 by a score of 31 to 29. In the car after the game I recall excitingly telling dad that Indiana is going to be really good with Knight as its coach. I was fortunate to be an IU student and see and experience the national championship teams of 1976 and 1981. Of course later, a number of us still recall the epic Keith Smart corner jump shot to whip Syracuse for the 1987 title.
Being an Indiana fan and supporter, I definitely also followed and pulled for the football team. Frustration came along with most seasons. In large part success was defined by beating Purdue, having a winning record and getting into a bowl game. Towards the end of the football season, my focus and anticipation would target the upcoming basketball campaign. For me Indiana basketball was #1 and football was a far behind #2.
The accomplishments of Curt Cignetti, his staff and players have dramatically transformed Indiana football and my mindset. They have made the impossible possible. I've got to confess, Cig has converted me over as all in to Indiana football. For all Indiana fans, we'll never forget the amazing story of the 2025/26 football season. I have no idea if Indiana will ever win another national championship but as long as Cignetti is coach, there's little doubt in my mind that Indiana will be at the top in collegiate football.
Hey Hoosier Nation, let's forever keep close the joy of these fantastic memories.
Saw John Laskowski for a minute at the game in Miami. Remember how Digger passed over him and he came to Bloomington, with Donewald and Abernethy following. I still have the SI cover he was on doing a reverse layup against Wisconsin in Madison.
I don't see many people saying IU can't be good at both FB and MBB.
I hope IUBB figures it out someday, but at this point I can't explain why the struggle never ends.
From an economic standpoint, reports say Indiana harvests 10M/game, which maybe the total sum of the BB season!
Just wait until next year. I am beyond curious to see how these season ticket sales pan out. They will almost certainly raise ticket prices to match the product, and they should. We have to help keep this train moving in the right direction.
Rick Greenspan and Fred Glass both tried to generate interest in suites, to no avail. Plans were drawn up and presentations were made but there was no interest beyond people saying it sounded great but that they couldn’t sell the seats they had. Certainly zero financial interest. That’s changing by the minute now, so it shouldn’t be a surprise when this starts to actually materialize.
@jackskip23 - That's the hope. They have to make the product so appealing that you get a larger group of formerly casual fans from Indy and other surrounding areas, decide to make their weekend plans in the fall/winter revolve around IU football, 7-8 weeks a year. This is what happens for the big programs and IU doesn't need to be any different. I feel like the team has done their half of the job.
With that being said, we need more hotels if we plan on selling out every game. Gosh forbid we expand capacity.
@jackskip23 - That's the hope. They have to make the product so appealing that you get a larger group of formerly casual fans from Indy and other surrounding areas, decide to make their weekend plans in the fall/winter revolve around IU football, 7-8 weeks a year. This is what happens for the big programs and IU doesn't need to be any different. I feel like the team has done their half of the job.
With that being said, we need more hotels if we plan on selling out every game. Gosh forbid we expand capacity.
What those two guys needed and tried to get were financial commitments, and none were ever forthcoming. There were never anything close to naming gifts or pledges for suite leases, so nothing went anywhere. Glass, who loved facilities as much as he did the sports, badly wanted to get it done, but he couldn’t get anywhere with it before he had to give way to Dolson. That will very likely change now.
From an economic standpoint, reports say Indiana harvests 10M/game, which maybe the total sum of the BB season!
Just wait until next year. I am beyond curious to see how these season ticket sales pan out. They will almost certainly raise ticket prices to match the product, and they should. We have to help keep this train moving in the right direction.
They've already said they're raising prices, but I don't believe they've announced by how much. From the fan survey we got post-season, it appears to me they're going to be increasing the number of premium opportunities & overall experience vs trying to increase seats. I think that is a very good idea considering that we weren't able to sell out the first three home games this season coming off the most wins in program history. Granted, Indiana State was on a Friday night, but ODU & KSU got roasted too much as being weak when they weren't.
Even if it was only a paper sellout and the corners were empty I could live with that. But I don't like thousands of unsold tickets that were going for a song at the end. Of all the online criticisms that IU got during this run, a bandwagon fanbase rings the most true. I have concerns that they will be able to sell out MS for every game next year or the coming years. I am almost certain that it will be a problem if there is a down season and I mean an actual down season not an 8-4 season where the fairest of the fairweather fans stop coming.
The most important thing, IMO, is to get the season ticket sales up so we have consistent paper sellouts. The second most important thing is to string together about 2-3 more seasons where we're in the CFP conversation. That's how you'll build an entire generation of alumni who are all-in and a hook a bunch of little kids early into being fans.
I love college football, and am admittedly a recent bandwagon fan, as in, from the time they hired Cignetti. But, hurts my heart as a Hoosier to hear fans dismissing bball. There's no reason we can't be good at both and having a great football program, makes that far more likely than the reverse. My hope is that football drags bball up to it's standard and provides some of the resources to get us there. Basketball is in our DNA and I hope is always near and dear to the heart of Hoosiers. For a long time we had elite bball, soccer and swimming programs, so I see no reason they can't enhance each others success.
I don't even enjoy the sport of college basketball anymore. It's a rough watch. All ball screens. Horrible officiating. It's not the sport i grew up watching and I don't really care much about it any longer. I'm sure IU sucking ass for the past decade plays a role in that, but I just have little urge to care about the sport in general.
I have concerns that they will be able to sell out MS for every game next year or the coming years. I am almost certain that it will be a problem if there is a down season and I mean an actual down season not an 8-4 season where the fairest of the fairweather fans stop coming.
We'll see, but I think the fuse is already lit. Can IU fans, including myself, be better? Absolutely, but good gravy, don't see how you can look at the turnout for the Rose, Peach and NC games and think we're not selling out every home game next year and for a few years to come. As long as Cig is here and 100% invested, I think our floor will be 8-4ish. Look at whatever Smart or Saban's worst seasons were and that's where I expect we'll be. And, I hope he puts as much thought into succession plan as he does everything else and can keep the train rolling.
Latest Post: Anyone remember La Bamba restaurant Our newest member: Doug Beder Recent Posts Unread Posts
