You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson. Cascade and Clavier joining you 6/11/20. Four is the date a lovely. Tuesday, some big things going on in Bloomington today, which we'll talk about in just a second. Lots of things to tackle. This is a shorter episode. Going to hit a. Lot of topics. Kind of microscopically as. There's just a lot to talk about. Right now and it. Is believe.
It or not, despite being summer, sometimes we get. We get some good news, weeks or weeks that. Just have some fascinating things some of this IU related, some of it not, but we'll just go ahead and dive into it now first and foremost, just a reminder we. Are brought to you. Here on the back home network, buy home field apparel. Your place to go. For the finest in college fashions. The softest fabrics, The coolest. Designs the place to. Go for all of those items to big
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those. Of you who have heard this on the last couple of podcast big. Big event coming up for IU volleyball and. Nil. That's. Coming up on the 27th of June, that's a Thursday and. What we've got. Is an event at the Hawthorne's Golf Club up in? Fishers, this is your. Chance to go meet the volleyball team It's a chance to to help make a difference on the NIL front at the Indiana volleyball golf outing at 10:00.
Shotgun start team and individual or individual registrations available depending on how you want to to. Parse that. And you get. I think a great deal with this as you've. Got not just the staff and. The players there, but you also. Get a chance to hang out with a lot. Of your fellow who's your fans? If you want to get an individual registration, it's 270. $5 you get breakfast. Prior to the round you get lunch. After the round, there's a silent auction with volleyball
athletes. You get some IU. Volleyball swag. You can also register. A foursome it's only $1000, so you save 100 bucks rather than doing 4 individual registrations. You also have the. Opportunity to sponsor a Whole 2. $150.00. For a whole sponsorship on the front nine or on the back nine, there's also course sponsorship. Opportunities elsewhere if you would like to. Get involved on that. Front Reach out to. Connect@hoosiersconnect.com and I'll have more information.
For you all. Funds raised from the golf outing benefit name, image and likeness opportunities. For IU volleyball athletes, you can also just. Donate if you can't make. The the the golf. Outing they have an option for donation. Straightforwardly to the IU. Volleyball NIO Fund go to inforindiana.com slash. Volleyball or just follow. IU volleyball on social media as they'll have information on it there. I will be there. Plan is to be MC ING the. Event, so you'll get.
To see me, but I am not the draw. Obviously that is. Our our great volleyball team and our coaching staff. With the coach Steve. Aired and and the whole crew so. Hopefully we'll see you there in a couple of weeks at the. Hawthorne's in Fishers. All right. A bunch of things I want to. Tackle as we. Go into the middle part of June with I Can't Believe We're. Already 1/3. Of the way done with the month. First of all, I wanted to give.
Some reflections on the NIL event that happened down at French Lick. Over the course. Of Sunday and Monday. That was a great time. A lot of donors down there and they got a chance to meet. A lot of our basketball players, both men's and. Women's with some. Football players there as well they got. A chance to hear from Mike Woodson and Kurt Cignetti, who got up and spoke Miller. Cop was there trace? Jackson. Davis was there, so. Great to see those gentlemen
still getting involved and. You know, it was, it was really. Much like the Hubers event. From a couple of weeks ago these. Events are really important from an. Nil perspective because you're, you know, a lot of this, this. Era with nil is, I think getting a chance to to feel. Like you're a little bit closer to the. Program and getting a chance to interact with the people who are going to.
Be directly benefiting. From NIL and you know, it's, it's clearly an interesting time within college sports. We've done several podcasts. Over the course of the last couple of of weeks that have talked about. Some of the seismic changes that are on their. Way we probably haven't. Gone far enough on that front. The the some of the changes are even more seismic than we've discussed. But. We're trying to meter this out. As we wait. For the settlement terms to get finalized and so on and so
forth, but. You know, I'll say. That in being at the event. It was just cool. Seeing that many people from around the IU sphere in one place and you know the I, I think that IU fans. Should feel really good about. Where Indiana's nil. Is at. You know, the event was was really well managed. I thought Hoosiers connected an awesome job with putting it all together and. You know, the fact that you know it was an event.
Wrapped around a a round of golf at the Pete Dye course at French. Lick was, I think, a really, really good way. To get people interested in what's going on. Obviously we've seen that same event happen now a couple of years in a row now. And, you know, I think you're going to see more of these things throughout the course of the next. Several years as you. Know NIL really isn't disappearing even with this new settlement term. I think a lot of people have gotten confused.
About the role. Of collectives and the role of where NIL is going to be in all of this. And it was interesting hearing some of the comments from from the coaches. You know, there's there's clearly an. Appreciation on the part of certainly both Coach Signetti and Coach Woodson about the the amounts of money. That are there. It was interesting. Listening to to Cignetti. Talk. About, you know, the need to continue to raise the bar with NIL funding for football.
And he's right. You know one of the things that. Really sticks. Out to me as I've looked. Through all the literature. And I've heard all you know the. All these people talking. About nil. It's just clear that like. Until there are actual financial barriers put in at the top end, this is going to be an arms race. Probably. Like we've not really seen in college sports up to this point. And and we're, we're coming. Out of a huge. Arms race right now, so that sounds like quite a thing to
say, but. It's true. There is just an overwhelming. Need for money because your. Competitors are going. To be focused on generating as much money as possible and football's where most of that money's going because that's where most of your revenue is going to be coming back. You know, Indiana's in a really fascinating spot. We've talked. About this a bunch. Over the course of. The last year, really. About this need. To evolve the. Way that not just IU thinks
about sports in general. And I mean what I mean by that is like. Historically, you know a lot of IU. Fans have really attached their understanding of the brand of IU athletics and a lot of. Certain people's pride. In IU athletics has come from this idea that well, you know, we don't pay athletes they come of their own volition and you know we do things the. Right way. Unlike you know, name your name, your opponent from from the SEC. Or the ACC or.
Heck, even in the Big 10, you know now how much that was. Actually true versus hyperbole. Doesn't really matter at this point. What does matter is that you know Indiana because. A lot of the. Infrastructure has been focused around. A different approach than a lot of other schools. Have taken It means Indiana has a lot of catching up to do.
Now that everything is. Essentially on the table and you know is not against the rules according to the NCAA and even the things that are technically against the rules, the NCAA is not really shown an ability. To police. You know, you see this now with Miami football. With Florida State. Maybe to a lesser extent, but you know. There was a lot of big talk from the. NCAA about cracking down on on NIL payments and we even in the settlement we keep hearing about
how. You know, these payments have to be, you know, for actual. Name, image and likeness. They can't be performance based. That really falls. Apart the closer that you look at it, so the. Point being, IU. Has got to figure out a way to. Get competitive on the nil front and events like what we saw at French Lake, events like what you saw. At Hubers, those are really going to. Help and and this volleyball. Event that I've been. Talking about, I mean, I think there's a lot.
Of sports that are going to. Need their own nil support structures because I. Don't think people understand truly. How much money is going to have to go? To support football and basketball. So, you know, the the thing, the thing. That stuck out the most from the event at Hugh at. At French Lick was. Certainly how dynamic. Kurt Cignetti. Was not. Taking anything away from from Mike Woodson or the OR the rest of the. Speakers but. You know, Cignetti, that that
same bravado. That we keep. Hearing from him when he does interviews with national media or with local media, it shines through in the donor events too and obviously. I know there's there's some people that are still. Keeping things at arm's length, shall we say? Because you felt like, well, I've gotten. Burned by IU football and getting excited about IU football. Before I don't blame. You for feeling that way, perhaps? I should feel. That way more. But it's hard.
Not to get caught. Up in a positive. Way in the infectious. Positive and. You know, and confident attitude, I think that you you could say that Kurt Cignetti has been bringing to the table that his assistant coaches, especially on social media, brought to the table. That really stuck out, but what else has stuck out, you know, was. You know. NIL is still not. Where it has. To be to truly.
Be competitive in football and I think that's going to be a battle Indiana's got to. Fight for a while. And at this point like it's. You know, whatever's happened before. This point is kind of water under the bridge. It doesn't really matter. You know who was right or wrong or. Anything like that? It's just here's. Here's where things are, and here's where things have to go. And it's going to be. Really interesting watching IU navigate these waters. Because I think if if.
One thing has been demonstrated. Over the course of the last. Year and a half in terms of college, conference realignment and all of those things, it's that you're not going to be able to afford to not be at least competitive in football. Doesn't mean you have to win. You know the conference. Doesn't mean you know. You you just can't be last or close to last consistently. And Indiana hasn't been as bad as I think people often have in their heads.
Over the last 10. To 12 years in football. But they're, you know, the level of the program. Is still kind of. Very very low compared to where it. Needs to be, in terms of just maintaining A level of competition and especially in this era, moving. Forward there has to. Be a financial focus and that yes, that involves certainly the athletic department, it involves corporate partners and sponsors, but. It also is going to involve. Fans, at least until. A lot of this stuff meters.
Itself out in terms of, you know, how stuff gets paid for and how college athletic departments deal with the reorganization that's going to have to happen as these new financial realities settle in. With not. Just with this $22 million? Salary cap or whatever. You want to call it but also with all the knock on effects that that will have. For other sports.
So anyway, I really enjoyed the. Event it was great to be down there was great to see so many people and looking forward to seeing what what all happens moving forward with nil it really. Does feel like. Indiana's in in in great shape compared to some other schools. Who do? Not have everything together. Quite. Like Indiana seems to at this point. So that's a positive. Let's switch gears and talk a little. Bit about something that I posted on the. Crimson cast. Twitter feed and also if.
You're listening to this and you got our sub stack e-mail. You got a. Couple of pictures of it as well. But if? You if you go. And look at those. Pictures You saw a large scoreboard being lowered in. To the upstairs pub via Crane and it's. A really exciting. Thing so I I think we've talked. About this a little bit on the podcast before, but. If you're not familiar, or if you haven't been back to Bloomington for a while or haven't been over. To the the South side of Kirkwood.
And Dunn, the upstairs. Pub has been going. Through this. Series of acquisitions. And renovations over the course. Of the last several years and. You. Know upstairs you know for for many people, especially people that were here in. School in the 80s and 90s. It was always that kind of little place up on the. Second floor of Dunkirk. And it was. It was AI was always a bar. Like a lot of people that I went to school with, that was one of.
Their two favorite? Places that they would go 'cause it. Wasn't K OK? It wasn't Nick's. It was. It was kind of its own thing and over the course. Of of the last five years we've seen. Them acquire several different spots. The the old. Dunkirk Library slash Jungle Room depending on what area. You were. That came under the umbrella. The patio in between those two came over to the upstairs umbrella, and they've really.
Built out a lot of those items. Now what they're doing this summer is a renovation on the old library Jungle Room side. I guess it. Was maybe it was recess? I forget what that bar was specifically called, but. That the. The West side, basically. They they're raising the roof and they're throwing in a bunch of new televisions and new seating. So the basically kind of gutting that side of the bar and starting from scratch. And. A lot of cool. Features that we'll talk about a
little bit later on in the. Summer, but one of the things that. That happened over the course of the last. Couple of years, one of the original scoreboards from Assembly Hall that got changed out when they renovated the scoreboards and renovated some items back I think in the late 90s or early 2000s that got. Acquired by Upstairs. And so. They took this scoreboard and craned it in. And that's going to hang in that W room and they're going to replace. The the bulbs with LE DS.
And it's going to be fully functional. That'll be. Really fascinating they'll be. An awesome centerpiece to have on that side of the bar so. Just neat, you know? This is one of those things we will talk about more at some point soon, we'll have another Bloomington food review. Podcast, episode, series. That'll come down from Crimson Cast Headquarters, which if you missed those back in. The day we talked through, you know, some of the. Different aspects.
Of of eating and. Drinking in Bloomington, we did several. Episodes back in 20. Twenty time to kick those back up again, but one of the things that we'll talk about. Is there is this relentless March? In Bloomington, that often times doesn't really sit. Well, with alums because. It means that places. That they went. To when they were in school change. You know that places closed down, places renovate and I know that doesn't always sit well with everybody and we've seen
over the course of the last. Decade several places that were stalwarts historically unfortunately disappear Irish. Lion just closed yo. Yogi's several years ago closed and and now. That building's gone like you drive. Past 10th and Indiana. It's not there anymore. They they. Tore the building down. And yes, I know that you know, Finney Hospitality Group. Bought Yogi's and. And moved it to where Scotty? 'S used to be. You know, but. One of the things. That. I think.
Is important for. People to understand is. You're going to have to constantly kind of change over things unless you've got a model that's just completely sustainable and it's cool to watch. A place like upstairs. Transition from where it was to. What it's at right? Now and where it's headed and, you know, I think it it, it helps to. Re Enliven. Interest in some of these areas and it and it also. It's. Nice to see you. Know places that we went to.
School, you know and and went to on a regular. Basis find. Ways to not just keep themselves relevant in the mix of things, but also find new ways and, and you know, expand from their original footprint and whatnot. And so that has been fun to watch and all the renovations that upstairs are supposed to be done by by like mid. August like by the. Time students get back. So we'll, we'll talk more about this as you move forward, but go check out those pictures if you haven't.
Yet check out upstairs. Twitter feed as well as they've had several pictures posted from. Things. It's just, it's kind of. Cool watching a. Huge stadium scoreboard get hoisted by crane over Kirkwood and then swing into the the roof. Of a building so. Definitely worth checking out. Switching gears again, a couple of items news wise that. I think are. Noteworthy. First, let's talk about the Dan Hurley situation at UConn, where Hurley was.
Rumored and you know, it sounded like was a real strong possibility to take the LA Lakers head coaching. Job they were tossing around insane numbers from a salary perspective. It then sounds like the Lakers didn't actually offer nearly as much money as as you would have. Perhaps expected them to. And I don't know if that was the. Reason why Hurley decided not to go. Any anywhere. But he did. Decide that instead of. Going to coach the LA Lakers Who?
Whatever you think of the Lakers, I mean that. Is the that's the pre eminent franchise in the NBA. He instead decides to stick around at UConn. And it's, it's a really fascinating choice. And it was kind of funny because. First of all, the rumors that he was going to. Head to. To the Lakers immediately touched off this whole series of oh, college sports is clearly in trouble. And here's the best college coach in the game, just leaving in the middle of the offseason
to go coach the. Lakers college sports clearly you know the other is is in bad. Shape. Of course, Ben Hurley decides not to take the. Job we did not suddenly get a rush of hey, college. Sports is in great shape or gosh, what's? Wrong with the NBA stories, but. I do think it's. Interesting to think about. College athletics and. What? People are going to choose to. Do you know we hear a lot of complaints from coaches? About where college basketball and college.
Football, but mostly college. Basketball are right now. In terms of, you know the. Quality of life as a as a coach is real bad because you don't get any time off you're either coaching. Or you're recruiting. Or you're dealing with NIL related stuff, Or you're trying to get donors. It's basically. Like an all year job, whereas you know there was at least some offseason. In in the past. And. Yeah, I think about that a lot. Because it's true, you know, there it is pretty much a a
full. Time job. And it's a very complicated job, largely. Because the rules keep changing. And there doesn't seem to be anybody steering the ship because there's not the NCAA is. Just kind of letting. Things happen as they happen. They're making big changes to the rules. Based upon. What they think the courts are saying, and you know, there's no commissioner, there's no board. Of governors per Southeast, a lot of the decisions are being.
Made on a conference by conference basis and it's it's a very challenging time if you. Have matriculated through the traditional college. Coaching ranks. It's a very different looking environment from what it was even like a decade ago. You know, so I, I think we're. Going to hear a lot of complaints about that, especially on the college. Basketball side of. Things because I don't think that. There's any chance? Of it getting better in the short term. You know that a lot of people
have been saying well. They need to close the transfer portal. Well, they just did the opposite. Like the NCAA basically has had to say, well, we we can't really control transfers. And then they're right. They can't because. They keep predicating everything. On the idea that. Athletes are not. Employees. They're students, and just like there's nothing that restricts a student who's not an athlete from transferring to one school to another, you can't really
restrict an athlete from. Going from. One school to another, if you're going to turn around and say, well, they're students, they're not employees, you know, so you can't find them to a two year contract if you're not going to give them employment status. So you know that is a problem for. Coaches, because you are. Basically starting a new. Roster every year and. You know you may. Have some some carry over, some retention, but it changes the entire approach in terms of, you
know, do you go out and. Recruit high school recruits. Knowing that they may be there for a. Year and then leave. And go to somewhere else. You know how much? Are you? Really able to develop players. In your own program and so. You know, when I think about a guy like Dan Hurley. On the one hand, I'm a little bit surprised. That he didn't jump. To the NBAI mean, this is like the perfect time for him to do it.
He's still young as a coach, It's a ton of money, and there's really no downside to going and coaching the Lakers. You know I've. Heard a lot of people say well gosh, you know. Coaches going from college to the NBA never works out if you really look. At the track record. Yeah, you. Don't see those? Coaches winning titles, Necessarily, but very. Few coaches win titles. In the NBA, if you really think about it like it's a very, very small club, so you have to kind of, you know, you.
Have to judge based upon different. Things you know, I mean are you are. You able to maintain. Some level of competitiveness, So much is tied up in your roster and you look at. A lot of the coaches that have gone to the. The Pro. Level and the ones. That have gone, I think in the more recent times have actually done better than people are giving them credit for. So, you know, there's not really. A downside for Hurley? To go to the Lakers.
That's the best franchise in in in the league in terms of their willingness to commit financial resources over and over and. Over again, it hasn't. Worked in terms of titles that often in the last, you know, 12-13 years, they got the. They got the bubble title, but that's about it. You know if you go to the. Lakers and it doesn't. Work out every. College team in the. Country would take you back. With open arms.
If you're Dan Hurley and if you get $60 million guaranteed, well, that's $60 million that you're guaranteed to have. But I I also see the argument. For Hurley saying, you know, I've got a really good thing going here at UConn, I'm going to be paid well enough and of all the. Coaches that are out there, right? Now at the college game, Hurley. To me is by far the best at understanding. How to build? A roster in this? Era, I mean, if you look at what they've done over the last couple of.
Years and if you look at where UConn was. Five years ago when when Hurley got there. Or six years ago. I mean that program had. Declined so precipitously. To watch. Him not just revitalize. It but take it. You know. You know, just as far as. Jim Calhoun ever did, And I mean, Calhoun never won back-to-back national titles, has been really impressive and he's done it. With a bunch of of pieces that didn't. Start at UConn combined with a bunch of pieces that did. Start at UConn.
I've just been really, really impressed with how he's gone about things there. And you? Know his ability. To take a player like you know. The Camp Spencer's a great example of this. I mean, here's a guy who. You know was at. Loyola Maryland and then was at Rutgers for a. Year and then they. Figure out a way not just integrate him into the system at UConn, but he was the most. Efficient scorer in college. Basketball this year. I mean, he was. He was among the.
Best players in the whole country at 3 point shooting you know to. Watch him. Be integrated alongside guys like Tristan Newton and Donovan Klingen and and to bring in a player like Stefan Castle as a freshman, I mean, it's really been impressive what he's done and there's no reason why he can't continue to do it because it really. Does feel like. The the. Guys, got a sense? Of the alchemy that you have to put together in college basketball right now to have a successful.
Roster. So I'm I'm really fascinated to see how all of this. Plays out with Hurley. It's real hard to win two. Titles in a row, you know it's almost. Impossible to win three. Titles in a row. It's only been done, I think once. UCLA did it, I think. Maybe they did it twice, but but it was the same program, same coach. It isn't insanely difficult to do. And even if he doesn't win another title. This year it feels like the model that he's got at. UConn is really sustainable and
Uconn's an interesting school. You know in this. Era, you know there. There's there are programs. In Indiana, frankly fits into this category. There's. Athletic departments where the. Basketball program's. Going to bring in a lot of eyeballs and attention, but the football program is what's going to financially sustain. I mean, UConn barely has a football. Program. Yes, it's D1. But they've, you know. They've tried so hard to make that.
Program work, and if they're just, you know, they're in. A terrible geographical situation. From a recruiting perspective, they don't. Really have a background. Of success. You know Uconn's going. To have to maintain a national presence almost entirely on its men's and women's basketball. Programs and. The fact that they've been able to figure out a way to make it work in. The transfer portal and. Nil era. Up to this. Point, you know. I if they. If they hadn't been able to
retain Hurley, that's a dark. Future pathway for UConn? For him to be able to stick around and for them to pay him enough money to get him to stick around and for him to feel comfortable and feel like that's where. He's supposed to be. I. Mean it's great news. For them, it's bad news for the rest of college basketball. You know, but it's going to be fascinating as as programs watch what U. Conn's doing trying to figure out how do we.
Replicate that where we're at. How do we apply that to the era that we're currently? In these are the things that I'm really fascinated about with this. Also if you didn't. See this news? There's a coaching opening in the Big 10 on the men's basketball side right now as Mike Hopkins. It was just announced this morning is leaving Washington and is going to become an assistant with the Phoenix Suns. And so that's that's fascinating because now Washington's open.
I am curious. Who takes that job, that is, that is rapidly like. One of the tougher jobs in in the Big 10 at this point. I mean, you are. Washington's had a weird history. You know, they've been to a Final four, they've they've been competitive. They were one of the better teams consistently in the 20 tens in the PAC 12, and now they're kind of in a. Spot where you know they're going to be a fish out of the water in. In terms of recruiting in the in the Big 10, it's a their.
Brand is absolutely football, you know I. Mean as much as Washington's had some success in basketball, their their brand is football. How do they adapt? And now they have to go find a coach in the middle of a. Basically this summer, who who is going to leave their job? And go to Washington. That would also be. A coach of the caliber to lead a school like that. Into this era that is going to be fascinating to watch. So it probably a good move for Mike Hopkins.
Things just clearly had not taken off for him at Washington and and who knows whether that's his fault or. Washington's. Fault. I mean, it's, it's hard. To say, but it's worth noting that you know you don't normally get coaching. Vacancies in the Big 10 in June. And yet here we are anyway. That'll wrap up this episode. I appreciate everybody. Tuning in. We'll be back. Later on in the. Week we'll have some more podcast info on a couple of different things coming up, so
keep your ears. Out for that thanks to. Home field apparel Thanks to all. Of our friends. At the back. Home network. They will catch you, folks. On the flip side, bring. Back the bison. So everybody.