Latest news with #Dolson
Indianapolis Star
17-07-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
'You have to schedule strategically.' Why Indiana football cancels series vs Power 4 opponents
BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football's future nonconference schedules took shape in recent weeks. The Hoosiers canceled a home-and-home series against the University of Virginia for 2027 and 2028 while adding games against Kennesaw State (2027), Austin Peay (2028) and Eastern Illinois (2029). They still have openings to fill in 2026 and 2028, but as of now won't face a non-conference Power Four-caliber opponent until it heads to South Bend to play Notre Dame, an independent, in 2030. Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson described the strategy as the best way to position the football team as a postseason contender in the years to come while factoring in the discussions over future format of the College Football Playoff. 'You can't afford a bad scheduling year,' Dolson said in an interview with The Herald-Times. 'You have to schedule strategically.' Indiana's recent decisions align with the scheduling moves they made before Dolson hired coach Curt Cignetti. The Hoosiers started having discussions about canceling the final two games of a three-game series against Louisville for 2023-25 before the first game was played. Louisville beat IU at Lucas Oil Stadium, 21-14, in 2023, but the home-and-home series that was on the books after that was scrapped. The Hoosiers added Western Illinois to their 2024 schedule and Kennesaw State in 2025. 'We want our nonconference schedule to put us in the best position for success at the end of the season,' Dolson said. 'What we really want to do is make sure we are competitive in the back half of the season and create meaningful games in the Big Ten because we are really playing for postseason opportunities." Indiana's canceled series against Louisville and Virginia were scheduled at a time when the Big Ten was requiring member schools to face at least one nonconference Power Five opponent. The conference reversed course before adding four members from the Pac-12 to the league. 'If a game sticks out and doesn't fit what we are trying to do, we say let's try to get on that now, and be paying attention to that,' Dolson said. 'We don't just say well, we signed up for that, it's just going to be a tough year.' Insider: How IU Athletics will handle revenue sharing: 'We're keeping it simple' The Big Ten's shift in 2017 to a nine-game conference schedule factored heavily into IU's thinking as well. The SEC and ACC haven't followed suit and only play eight conference opponents each year. It's a point that Cignetti brought up when addressing the criticism his team faced last year for having the second lowest strength of schedule among non-automatic qualifiers (ranked No. 35) in the College Football Playoff. 'When we entered last year our schedule looked pretty formidable,' Cignetti said in an interview with The Herald-Times in May. 'We played the two teams that played for the national championship and we had eight or nine teams that had been to bowl games the previous year. I think when you look at this year's schedule, the Big Ten part of it at least, it's a nice formidable schedule and we play nine conference games. There's a lot of value to that.' Remember IU's historic run to the CFP with IndyStar's book! Dolson's team also analyzed national trends, and didn't see IU's nonconference scheduling strategy as an outlier. That's true in the Big Ten for 2025 when the Hoosiers are one of five teams who won't play a Power Four opponent in nonconference, but they are the only team in the league without a Power Four opponent through 2029. There are teams in the Big Ten with as many as seven openings on their schedule over the next five seasons, and could end up going multiple years without playing a nonconference Power Four opponent during that stretch. Indiana's schedule isn't necessarily set in stone either. "I think everything is on the table in the future, everything on the table,' Dolson said. 'I would say we are on a month-to-month basis. We look at the football schedule a lot, we have to stay nimble.' The future of the College Football Playoff is driving the scheduling discussions teams are having. The format for the CFP in 2026 and beyond remains up for debate with conferences haggling over how many teams will make the field and what the format will be. Much of the focus has been on a 4-4-2-2-1 model that would grant the Big Ten and SEC four automatic qualifiers and a 5+11 format that would include automatic bids for the five conference champions and 11 at-large selections. 'We hear different scenarios that are being played out in the media, or in our Big Ten AD room,' Dolson said. 'I bring those strategies back home and look at them with our team. How does our schedule fit with those?" Toppmeyer: Why the Big Ten desperately wants to rig College Football Playoff Indiana will adjust its scheduling strategy accordingly once a final decision is made on the CFP's future. Cignetti will be involved in those discussions as they regularly sit down to discuss key issues impacting the program. 'If you are in a situation with automatic qualifiers and they are based only on your conference wins, that changes your nonconference tolerance," Dolson said. "You are willing to add more challenging nonconference games because it doesn't hurt your postseason chances.' Under the current format, Dolson sees winning as the most important metric of all. That view is informed by his recent experience on the Division I Baseball Selection Committee that he was added to ahead of the 2024 season. 'I know it's different, but I know from sitting in those committees, no matter what you have to win,' Dolson said. 'Winning matters, but as things are tweaked we have to understand what goes into the process and put ourselves in the best position to succeed."
Indianapolis Star
20-06-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
Indiana football will 'definitely have sellouts' as ticket sales rise after historic season
BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football rolled out a plan for 2025 single-game ticket sales this month that's slightly different from what it was a year ago, but for good reason. The Hoosiers will play seven games at Memorial Stadium, including four conference opponents: Illinois (Sept. 20), Michigan State (Oct. 18), UCLA (Oct. 25), and Wisconsin (Nov. 15). Indiana staggered the availability of single-game tickets by opening up a pre-sale to donors June 10 and a "build-your-own" two-game bundle for non-donors that includes one nonconference and one Big Ten game. The program will make the remaining individual game tickets available to the general public July 8, nearly a full month after it opened sales for single-game tickets for the 2024 season. Indiana tweaked the schedule due to increased season-ticket sales following the team's first appearance in the College Football Playoff under coach Curt Cignetti. "Ticket sales have been phenomenal,' Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson said in an interview with The Herald-Times. 'Best I've seen in my long history, in terms of year-to-year improvement.' Buy IndyStar's book on IU's historic College Football Playoff season Going into 2024, Indiana football's ticket sales were up 10% in most categories, and Dolson was happy with those numbers, considering the Hoosiers were coming off a third straight disappointing season. The expectations changed amidst IU's historic 10-0 start. There was a stretch early in the year when Cignetti made the atmosphere at Memorial Stadium a weekly talking point. He urged fans to 'Pack the Rock' and penned a letter to students encouraging them to stay for all four quarters in hopes of creating a more imposing home environment. Indiana fans responded by setting a single-season attendance record (386,992) that included four straight sellouts (53,082) to end the year. That momentum carried into the offseason. 'We will definitely have sellouts,' Dolson said. 'I don't know if we will have sellouts for every game. I think we will be close, maybe closer than we've ever been in our history. There's no question that Hoosier Nation has responded just how we hoped they would.' Indiana's season-ticket sales are up 50% from last season, Dolson said. They were in the low 20s last season and are up in the mid 30s as the program prepares to open up single-game ticket sales. 'It's remarkable, even anecdotally, people saying to me they are legitimately worried about not being able to get a ticket,' Dolson said. 'That's what you want, to create enough demand where people worry about the supply. People are starting to worry about supply, and that's a good thing.' Explainer: Indiana football incorporates personal seat donations in 2025. Here's what it means The improved sales came after IU introduced a personal seat donation (PSD) program in February that raised season-ticket prices upwards of $250 per seat. The program is expected to generate $2.5 to $3 million in annual revenue as the athletic department looks for ways to cover revenue-sharing expenses. 'The personal seat donation, people understood,' Dolson said. 'It's never easy to increase prices and we've always tried to keep (ticket prices) modest and at market value. I do think people see the investments we are making and appreciate the results of those investments." Indiana's biggest challenge in recent months has been figuring out the optimal number of individual tickets to make available. 'We still want to maintain single-game opportunities because not everyone can come for a full season, and with an alumni base that's one of the largest in the country, we want to accommodate as many people as we can, but what's the right number?' Dolson said. 'But those are awesome problems to have when you've been around a long time and had to find extremely creative ways (in the past) to generate the interest we want." Get IndyStar's IU coverage sent directly to your inbox with our IU Insider newsletter.
Indianapolis Star
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indianapolis Star
How 'Operation Bigfoot' brought Hoosier the bison back to life. Why IU finds value in mascot
BLOOMINGTON — For Christmas last winter, Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson's children gifted him something nearly no one else would understand. A clapperboard — the black-and-white apparatus snapped together to signify the start of filming on a movie set — with the words 'Operation Bigfoot' written on the production line. The clapperboard sits on Dolson's desk. Sharp-eyed viewers will have spotted it in the background of a video posted to IU's social media channels Tuesday. Because that was the day Operation Bigfoot went off, and Indiana brought back the bison as its official mascot. The idea of a mascot has steadily gained traction with Indiana fans in recent years. For a little more than a century, Indiana's athletic teams have gone by 'Hoosiers,' a term meant to refer to a native of the state whose origins have long been debated and almost certainly cannot be historically proven. While 'Hoosiers' embodies a certain cultural resonance for IU fans, it's hard to assign a physical manifestation to a word with no universally agreed-upon meaning. Decades ago, for just a few years, drawing on the animal figuring prominently on the state seal, IU tried a bison mascot. It was introduced in 1965 and abandoned by the end of that decade. But it never really went away. Nick's English Hut pound jars still feature a bison image. Fans produced AI-generated graphics depicting an IU bison on social media. 'Bring back the bison' became a rallying cry stretching from podcasts like the popular CrimsonCast, to independent retail, including popular Indianapolis-based company Homefield Apparel. Bring back the bison: A look back at the history of IU's mascot Athletics officials felt that groundswell, which came to a head in December when IU Student Government passed a bill reinstating the bison as the university's official mascot. From that point forward, the department was in. 'The students really pushing it was a big determining factor,' Jeremy Gray, IU senior associate athletic director for strategic communications, told IndyStar. 'It was clear the fan base had really rallied behind the idea.' Department officials settled on the code name 'Operation Bigfoot' as a way to talk about the mascot introduction process in official correspondence while sidestepping premature attention. Dolson firmly supported the idea. His predecessor, Fred Glass, had in a variety of ways softened the ground for bringing a mascot back, and Dolson was excited to see the idea through to reality. Last year's football success, which included Indiana's first Saturday visit from ESPN "College GameDay," brought into relief the value of an identifiable mascot. When legendary "GameDay" analyst (and former IU coach) Lee Corso picked the Hoosiers to beat Washington, Indiana had no mascot headgear for him to pull on as is his custom. Corso opted instead for a hat commemorating his team's 1979 Holiday Bowl victory over BYU. 'Finding something to represent the school in those large, public ways,' Gray said, 'I think it became obvious a mascot could help with that.' No more headgear? Former Indiana football coach Lee Corso will retire as ESPN 'College GameDay' analyst The department met with student groups, including Student Government and IU's Board of Aeons — a student advisory group that works closely with the university president — to discuss ways to introduce the bison to the student body. IU began subtly implanting bison imagery across its branding, with small logos in the corners of video scoreboard graphics and horns crashing through schedule posters for the 2025-26 athletic year. Beginning in 2024, winners of the men's and women's Little 500 bicycle races received plush stuffed bison on the winners' podium. 'We decided to lean into it,' Gray said. A variety of considerations went into the selection and design of 'Hoosier the Bison.' Concerns over staffing, upkeep and animal welfare steered the department away from a live mascot toward the more common option of a person in a suit. IU knew from the outset it wanted a mascot muscular and imposing enough to project a robust image of the department. Able, as Gray put it, 'to win a play fight against a turtle.' But also one that was approachable and endearing to children. Enter graduating senior Adam Day, who last spring built one of his final projects as a student around studying mascots over time. Working alongside department officials, he found the key to giving mascots personal appeal lay in their eyes. Specifically, they needed to be soft and sympathetic, rather than hard, or empty. The department engaged Alinco Costumes in Utah, a company with a history of designing mascots or characters for professional baseball, football and basketball franchises, as well as corporations like Nestle and Disney. Its website claims credit for more than half of the NBA's team mascots. Mark Skirvin, senior assistant athletic director for marketing, worked with Alinco through several rough sketches before settling on a design. And thus, Hoosier was born. He still needed an announcement. Operation Bigfoot went to studio. Gray, a self-professed cinephile, drew inspiration from several movies for a series of videos released across the last several days on IU's official social media channels. 'Something magical happening here': Indiana announces return of bison mascot Gray's own character, Ray, opening a glowing box in the first video nodded to "Pulp Fiction" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Recently graduated IU women's basketball player Sydney Parrish assumed a role akin to Sigourney Weaver's Ripley, from the Alien series, in discovering evidence of a large, unidentifiable creature. In total, the department also included nods to films including "ET," "Pulp Fiction," "Silence of the Lambs," "Scream," "Jurassic Park," "Return of the Jedi," the Marvel series and "The Usual Suspects." The final shot of the mascot standing, back to camera, atop the Memorial Stadium press box drew from the final scene in "The Last of the Mohicans." When IU approached football coach Curt Cignetti about a Roy Schneider's-"Jaws"-inspired scene, he replied, 'Nah, I've got what I want to say.' In his cameo, Cignetti is seen watching film when the silhouette of a bison head appears behind him. Cignetti turns and says simply, 'Where you been?' 'What's in the box?' Indiana trailer has fans wishing for return of the bison mascot Bison-branded products should become available soon, according to Gray. The department's research suggested reintroduction of a mascot would both open meaningful revenue streams (at a time when departments are pursuing more of them) and also capture fans from a young age with a face to assign to IU sports. 'An identifiable mascot is one of a few visual tools a university possesses that can cut through noise and create positive brand association, particularly for youth,' Homefield Apparel founder and CEO (and IU alumnus) Connor Hitchcock said. 'Indiana is capitalizing on a unique opportunity to simultaneously honor its past while creating opportunities for kids to begin their lifelong fandom.' As for the full reveal, fans will have to wait. The mascot will be filled by current students via a tryout, common practice across college athletics. Gray said it's custom not to reveal said students' identities until their tenure concludes. While bison paraphernalia should be available moving into the summer, Tuesday's profile shot from behind of Hoosier surveying the athletics campus in Bloomington might be fans' best look at the real thing for a while. When asked when he would make his first public appearance, Gray responded simply: 'Stay tuned.'
USA Today
17-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Mystics vs. Dream Injury Report, Betting Odds
Mystics vs. Dream Injury Report, Betting Odds | May 16 Here's a look at the injury report for the Washington Mystics (0-0), which currently has two players listed, as the Mystics ready for their matchup with the Atlanta Dream (0-0, one injured player) at CareFirst Arena on Friday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Watch this game on Fubo! (regional restrictions may apply) Washington Mystics injury report today Atlanta Dream injury report today Mystics vs. Dream game info Game day: Friday, May 16, 2025 Friday, May 16, 2025 Game time: 7:30 p.m. ET 7:30 p.m. ET Location: Washington D.C. Washington D.C. Arena: CareFirst Arena CareFirst Arena TV channel: ION ION Live Stream: ESPN+ Watch this game on Fubo! (regional restrictions may apply) Mystics players to watch (2024) Stefanie Dolson put up 9.5 points per game last season while adding 4.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists. Dolson was prolific from the three-point line a season ago, connecting on 1.8 per game. Jade Melbourne averaged 0.6 steals per game. Emily Engstler collected 0.8 blocks an outing. Dream players to watch (2024 stats) Allisha Gray scored 15.6 points per game and dished out 2.7 assists per outing last season. Brionna Jones collected 5.5 rebounds per game. Rhyne Howard had a solid showing from long distance a season ago. She connected on 2.7 shots from deep per game. Howard collected 1.8 steals per game. Brittney Griner averaged 1.5 blocks an outing. Watch this game on Fubo! (regional restrictions may apply)
USA Today
17-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
How to watch Mystics vs. Dream on TV or live stream - 5/16/2025
How to watch Mystics vs. Dream on TV or live stream - 5/16/2025 The Washington Mystics go up against the Atlanta Dream on Friday, May 16, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. ET in the season opener for both teams. The matchup airs on ION. In the article below, we provide all the details you need to know about how to watch this matchup on ION. Watch this game on Fubo! (regional restrictions may apply) How to watch Mystics vs. Dream Date: Friday, May 16, 2025 Friday, May 16, 2025 Time: 7:30 p.m. ET 7:30 p.m. ET Location: Washington D.C. Washington D.C. Venue: CareFirst Arena CareFirst Arena TV channel: ION ION Live stream: Fubo (regional restrictions may apply) Mystics players to watch (2024 stats) Stefanie Dolson scored 9.5 points, pulled down 4.9 rebounds and dished out 2.6 assists per game last season. Dolson knocked down 1.8 threes per game a season ago. Jade Melbourne averaged 0.6 steals per game, while Emily Engstler notched 0.8 blocks per contest. Dream players to watch (2024 stats) Allisha Gray scored 15.6 points and distributed 2.7 assists per game last season. Brionna Jones averaged 5.5 boards per game in addition to her 13.7 PPG average. Rhyne Howard knocked down shots from beyond the arc at a clip of 2.7 per contest a season ago. Howard averaged 1.8 steals per game, while Brittney Griner collected 1.5 blocks per contest. Mystics vs. Dream 2024 stat comparison Last year, the Mystics recorded just 0.5 fewer points per game (79.3) than the Dream gave up (79.8). The Dream put up 5.3 fewer points per game last year (77) than the Mystics gave up (82.3). The Mystics and Dream rebounded at around the same rate, averaging 31.9 and 36.1 boards per game last season, respectively. Watch this game on Fubo! (regional restrictions may apply)
