The Athletic: Does your college football roster cost $8M or $50M? Here's our report on 68 teams

trfhawk

Junior
Jul 10, 2020
199
368
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So Iowa is 17th in BIG ,ahead of only Purdue.
Glad we play boilers.

How long can kf keep Iowa afloat in top tier of league with the lowest payroll?

I hate to think gravity of money will ultimately bring Iowa fb down with rest of poors.

The data is hard to refute...the golden age of Iowa FB is severely threatened unless rules change or an Iowa Larry Ellison shows up eager to spend.
Probably as long as Ferentz is our coach.
 

IowaCityLit

All-Conference
Aug 30, 2025
1,517
2,425
113
No, they are comparing apples to apples.

Team payroll = rev. sharing( 15 million) + nil( cept for a Caitlyn clark type national ad payout).

Iowa probably does 15 million revenue sharing plus 2-6 million swarm type donations to get to 17-21 million total.

Texas total does not include much of arch Manning's 10 million from national ads, for example.
Iowa has no national ad players
Iowa will need to find the revenue/NIL money. Their model was great and sustainable before NIl when just a handful of teams were cheating and/or swimming in cash. Now more and more programs are.
It’s just a lazy take to say it was all Cuban’s money. Just look at his first two portal classes. Mendoza was the only top 100 portal player in either class.
The Cuban money has definitely been spread around. Their bball team hasn’t been helped by being one of the most well funded. Their volleyball program has authorial been one of the worst and now in the S16.

But IU is buying top QBs. Thats what’s missing with Iowa.
 

IowaCityLit

All-Conference
Aug 30, 2025
1,517
2,425
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Looks like our guy is doing a pretty damn good job of fielding competetive teams.
There’s also a value piece here. Firmly top 25 in revenue is outstanding. Reflects a lot of positives beyond just the B10 revenue sharing pie. But it also makes the tiny NIL more disappointing.
 

trfhawk

Junior
Jul 10, 2020
199
368
63
Mark Cuban and Curt Cignetti bonded over the fact that they are both from Western Pennsylvania and were apparently born in the same hospital three years apart. Cuban is worth over 6 billion dollars according to the basic internet search.

As a 40 year Indiana football fanatic, I'm in a paradise. All of that said, Cignetti could clearly win with much less money, IMO. He's a HOF coach chasing a 2nd natty.
Mark Cuban and Curt Cignetti bonded over the fact that they are both from Western Pennsylvania and were apparently born in the same hospital three years apart. Cuban is worth over 6 billion dollars according to the basic internet search.

As a 40 year Indiana football fanatic, I'm in a paradise. All of that said, Cignetti could clearly win with much less money, IMO. He's a HOF coach chasing a 2nd natty.
So you have been one of the two dozen or so "Indiana football fanatics? Stadium has been a graveyard for 50 years and no one in Indiana gave a **** about football, including Mark Cuban. Fair weather Fanatics is what I would call Indiana football fans.
 

BroncHawk

All-Conference
Jan 21, 2026
1,274
3,535
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So you have been one of the two dozen or so "Indiana football fanatics? Stadium has been a graveyard for 50 years and no one in Indiana gave a **** about football, including Mark Cuban. Fair weather Fanatics is what I would call Indiana football fans.
Well yeah but that’s not unique to Indiana. You win you get bandwagon fans. You lose and stadiums empty.
 

Palmerhawk

All-Conference
Jul 3, 2025
2,177
4,333
113
Simon family is bigger donor than cuban or mellencamp.
Mendoza was the #1 portal guy ...he did not come cheap.
Cignetti did great with his cheaper james madison transfers the 1st year.
Price went up year 2.
Year 3? They are big spenders.

Iowa simply cannot compete for top portal QBs currently..they command almost half our entire budget.
Depressing as hell.
 

2D

All-American
Oct 8, 2013
3,124
6,525
113
The issue with Quarterback conundrum is that Lester's offense is different than any other that's run in college. He wants guys who have been in the program multiple years to lead the team, that way they know the terminology, the playbook, and all the ins and outs his Shanahan offense has. Not sure if that will ultimately be a good thing or a bad thing for us. The only caveat is that we don't have a good track record of developing QBs. We need to find an elite QB coach, that's what we need.
 
Jan 3, 2004
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836
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The cheap take is that Cignetti is winning because of Cuban's money. You can read that thought process literally all over the internet.

His first year in Bloomington he went 11-2 and made the CFP with a roster of 2 star players. That team's NIL wasn't in the top end of the sport. Cignetti is an excellent coach and that's the biggest key to his recipe.

Ferentz is handcuffed by a cruddy offense that doesn't produce at a championship level.
Was handcuffed. I blame KF for the Brian fiasco. But he made a HR hire in Lester. This could be a top 25 offense.
 

85Bears

All-American
Aug 31, 2019
5,661
5,862
108
Simon family is bigger donor than cuban or mellencamp.
Mendoza was the #1 portal guy ...he did not come cheap.
Cignetti did great with his cheaper james madison transfers the 1st year.
Price went up year 2.
Year 3? They are big spenders.

Iowa simply cannot compete for top portal QBs currently..they command almost half our entire budget.
Depressing as hell.
I agree, but there are affordable fcs qbs who can be found, the kid from Oregon State was at Mercer last year….no star rating, he’s a baller, passed for 413 yards against Texas techs defense last week. Lester needs to scout the lower ranks.
 
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85Bears

All-American
Aug 31, 2019
5,661
5,862
108
Google top ten fcs qbs, there are some very good players id take as starter right now, Chris parson at Austin Peay, think Banks but much better passer, maybe a better runner too. Of course, unless Bessinger takes over for three years next year. Which I hope is the plan.
 
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squeezebox_1

All-Conference
Mar 6, 2018
954
1,410
93
Roster retention is going to be a much bigger issue moving forward. It's likely due to the draft the hawks will lose a decent number of starters in Lauck, Pieper, probably Lutmer, maybe DJ. So here we are again replacing the oline. Will James and Diaz stick around? James hasn't been targeted much, and Diaz is going to be a hot commodity.
 
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