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Indianapolis Star
29-05-2025
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
'Get the industry fixed': Why Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti wants 'regulation, rules'
BORDEN — Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti is eager for some clarity from the governing bodies of college athletics. He anticipates the House v. NCAA settlement to move forward in the coming weeks, but told reporters Wednesday during an appearance at the athletic department's annual booster dinner at Huber's Orchard that the coming revenue-sharing framework and NIL clearinghouse won't solve all the issues plaguing collegiate athletics. "We need regulation, we need rules, so that we all can plan and do what we are hired to do cause right now there's just a lot of uncertainty," Cignetti said. "How many (transfer) portal windows are there going to be? When are they going to be? And I could go on and on. We got to get the industry fixed, the game is great. We got to get the industry fixed." The final approval of the settlement won't do much to impact IU football's day-to-day operations. Much of the Power Four was already operating under the proposed revenue-sharing framework back when the portal opened in December. "There was a lot of front-loading of NIL deals, people trying to make transactions before the rev-share did pass because of the NIL Go will go into effect immediately," Cignetti said. "That created a bit of a different world and some anxiety, a little more anxiety than normal." Cignetti is more concerned about the lack of clarity on the other major topics impacting collegiate athletics, including the transfer portal and eligibility rules. He circled back to the topic when he talked about IU's 2026 signing class. The class currently features nine verbal commitments — Cignetti hinted that there's more to come — but he's still not sure how many players the Hoosiers will take thanks to the lack of overall clarity with the portal windows. "If I just knew when the portal date would be, and what the portal pool would look like, I could figure out whether we are taking 20 or 17 high school guys relative to what our team needs look like next year," Cignetti said. "Right now it's hard to plan cause we can't get any answers." Insider: How 'Operation Bigfoot' brought Hoosier the bison back to life. Why IU finds value in mascot Twelve teams? Sixteen teams? How many automatic bids should each conference get? Should their be automatic bids at all? The discussion about the format for the College Football Playoff in coming years has taken center stage at the SEC Meetings this week in Destin, Florida, with commissioner Greg Sankey along with the conference's athletic directors and coaches all weighing in. Cignetti wasn't interested in adding his voice to the growing chorus of opinions on how things should be structured. "I've been part of all the different formats, DII and FCS, at the end of the day there's one team standing whether you start with 64 or eight — there's going to be one standing at the end, no matter what the number is, somebody is going to feel bad that they got left out," Cignetti said with a smirk. "That's just the way it works, you can't make everyone happy." Also in Borden: Will Luke Goode, Anthony Leal play for IU basketball next season? Where eligibility stands The closest Cignetti got to weighing in was admitting he likes the tweaks the committee made for next year that include removing the automatic byes for conference champions and goes to a straight seeding format. "The straight seeding is a good thing, would have been nice to have that last year and had a home game, 12 and a half point favorite," Cignetti said. "We were still in control of our own destiny and didn't get the job done. If you pinned me down, I'd probably have an opinion, but it's not worth stating."
Indianapolis Star
28-05-2025
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
How much it costs to keep 'cutting edge' Indiana football staffer from joining Big Ten rival
BLOOMINGTON — Derek Owings' new contract with Indiana, signed in early May, places him among the top five highest-paid strength coaches in America. Per a USA Today database, Owings' new salary — $925,000, with $400,000 in base salary and the rest in outside compensation — ranks third nationally behind only Oklahoma State's Rob Glass and Alabama's David Ballou. Owings also received a third year on his contract, which now runs through May 1, 2028. That marks a significant increase on the $635,000 per year Owings was scheduled to make per the terms of an improved contract signed last winter, in the afterglow of IU football's appearance in the College Football Playoff. The university at that time rewarded Curt Cignetti and nearly every member of his staff (Tino Sunseri left for UCLA) with new deals after the Hoosiers reached a program-record 11 wins in 2024. Owings, who has been with Cignetti since his time at James Madison, is often cited by his coach as a key cog in Cignetti's winning process. 'Derek Owings is a guy I've got a lot of confidence in,' Cignetti said in February 2024. 'Strength and conditioning has really changed through the years. It's become a very scientific thing. I think he's on the cutting edge, gets great results. I have 100% confidence in him. I don't mess with him. That's his area. I let him go.' Cignetti's confidence transformed into outside appeal, in the wake of that playoff run. Owings was reportedly a serious candidate for the same position under Lincoln Riley at Southern Cal earlier this spring. That prompted IU to offer Owings improved terms, which he accepted May 2. In addition to his base salary and outside, marketing and promotional income (OMPI), Owings can earn bonuses for a variety of team-performance benchmarks. He receives 10% of his base salary, for example, if IU reaches a bowl game and he remains employed at the time that game is played. Owings also receives 12% of his base salary if IU reaches nine wins, 15% if the Hoosiers get to 10 wins and 20% if they reach 11 wins. Other bonuses include appearances and success in both the Big Ten title game and the College Football Playoff. All bonuses are payable only if Owings remains employed at the time of the game in question. Insider: How 'Operation Bigfoot' brought Hoosier the bison back to life. Why IU finds value in mascot His new contract also affords Owings meaningful buyout protection. IU would owe 100% of his guaranteed annual compensation if Owings is fired without cause before the end of his contract, subject to mitigation. The university would also owe him six months' guaranteed income if Cignetti left or was fired. Owings would likewise owe Indiana if he chooses to break his contract early. He's required to pay 50% of remaining guaranteed compensation if he leaves before April 20, 2027, and 30% of the same if he leaves May 1, 2027-May 1, 2028. This deal makes Owings the third highest-paid member of Cignetti's staff, behind only coordinators Mike Shanahan and Bryant Haines. Offensive line coach Bob Bostad earns slightly less, at $900,000 per year.
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.'
