The different pieces of info on NIL don’t fit together

The money NU has

• “upper half of B10 NIL money”
• Revenue share money is coming; eventually to be ~$15M/year

So I’m assuming NU has ~$5-$10M in the bank and more coming next year.

Where NU is NOT spending the money

• Signing high schoolers. Braun made that clear today
• Paying for top talent (e.g: Miller Moss) because they are “a few million” and therefore too expensive
• Overpaying to keep key pieces (e.g: Theran Johnson should get more from NU to stay)

My question is: where did the money go?

Did retention of players like Tiernan and Saka use it all? Is NU doing Fitz’s idea of paying everyone?

I don’t know how to reconcile the fact NU supposedly has money with the fact they don’t seem to be spending it

How long do the players declaring for entry into the portal get to keep their scholarships and are they allowed to use the training facilities, weight room, meals, tutors, etc.?
Also, we have always had a graduation rate in the upper 90% range for undergraduate degrees but how many of the players who stay for 5 years get an advanced degree?

I talked to safety signee Alijah Jones about his state title winning season, his mindset on Signing Day, and more.

I talked to safety signee Alijah Jones about his state title winning season, his mindset on Signing Day, and more.

Here are our takeaways from head coach David Braun's National Signing Day press conference.

NU made the short list (well, shorter, anyway) for three-star safety Benjamin Perry of Mt. Carmel.

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But that game still sucked ass.

After any sporting event, if it's a bad or heartbreaking loss, I give myself ten minutes after the game to get over it, and then it's time to move on with real life. Because, hey, at the end of the day, it's just a game. BUT man, I woke up this morning and my first thought was how much that game last night still sucked. Maybe it's because I live in Iowa, but whatever it is, I hate losing to that team. Especially a game like that.

The ten minute rule ain't working on this one.

Noah Sanders’ Uncle went to NU!

Hilton signed with Wisconsin; Jacobs signed with Clemson.

Also, Plaxico Buress’ son signed with Notre Dame.

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Braun referenced seven early enrollees in his press conference today. They are:

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Login to view embedded media First team SoCon selection. For comparison, Derrick Simmons, who we previously offered was second team.

First Big Ten game... and another gut punch. We should have won this game.


I'm going to give the star of the game to Justin Mullins, in his excellent 11 minutes. Ty Berry played great until the last 1:45 of the game, but then things went south.
Obviously Jalen Leach struggled again in front of a large, hostile crowd - two road games, 2 bad efforts - which is a concern going forward.
The starters came crashing down to earth as they were outscored 25-15 in 11 minutes. Thats bad offense and bad defense. Most of that came in the opening 5:39, when NU fell behind 13-3.
The results when Hunger was playing center stand in sharp contrast with the Nicholson results. 55-39 in 22 minutes of Hunger. 24-39 in 18 minutes of Big Matt.

The most positive development of the night was that Coach Collins may have discovered a lineup that works when Luke Hunger is in the game.
Hunger had not played with Barnhizer/Martinelli/Berry/Mullins all season. Against Iowa that was the lineup that went on a 17-5 run, turning a 51-40 deficit into a 57-56 lead with 10:31 left. Unfortunately Mullins fouled out of the game at that point, having committed only 1 or 2 legitimate fouls.

On the downside, Keenan Fitzmorris got to play 1 second and Iowa outscored NU 3-0 in that 1 second. That projects to a 7200-0 score over 40 minutes. It is impossible to do worse, so things can only improve.

Windham did not see the court. Ciaravino played 1 minute. Not going the right direction for either of the two freshmen.

The last column is strength of schedule relative to the Big Ten, using my ratings.
My systems don't place much weight on blowouts of inferior opponents.
Nor do they severely punish teams for not blowing out inferior opponents.
Nor do they care how good a team is supposed to be, based on last year's team or roster moves.
(In other words every season starts with all teams considered equal)
This shows up readily in the ratings differences.

Some examples...
Illinois beat Arkansas-Little Rock 92-34, a 37 point outlier. However, they lost to Alabama 100-87.
Maryland beat Canisius 108-37, a 41 point outlier. Not impressed.
You can see that Torvik and KenPom are fooled by that sort of thing.
On the flipside of that, unbeaten Oregon has an 83-81 win over #13 Alabama, a 78-68 win over #29 San Diego State and an 80-70 win over #41 Texas A&M.
The game that lowers Oregon's rating for Torvik and friends is an 80-70 win over Portland, where they were supposed to win by 40 or so.

Unbeaten Wisconsin beat #7 Pitt by 6, beat #65 UCF by 16 and #43 Arizona by 15. But they have a couple of clunkers, like the 3 point win over Texas-Rio Grande and the 21 point win over Chicago State.

UCLA has played one game against a team they weren't supposed to blow out. They lost that game to #44 New Mexico 72-64. However, their blowouts of Lehigh (85-45) and Southern Utah (88-43) have some systems thinking UCLA is a very good team. To me, they haven't given any serious evidence of that.

As the season plays out, these differences reduce and teams improve or decline, but treatment of outliers is important as it can be misleading (and hidden).
We'll see how things look at the end of December, when conference play begins in earnest.

Northwestern has offered four-star 2026 shooting guard Josiah Jervis White Plains (N.Y.) Archbishop Stepinac.

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@lou v breaks down David Braun's Signing Day comments and the context of Northwestern's NIL and transfer portal future.

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Follows the offer to MacPherson’s kid last week:

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Rhett Smeins recently went from NU’s recruiting department to Iowa’s, wonder if that had anything to do with it.

Either way… INTERESTING.

EDIT TO UPDATE: Ryan Fitz’s offer is as PWO. MacPherson’s seems to be scholarship based on his X/Tweet. Still interesting regardless.

I talked to Janesville (Wisc.) Craig kicker Baylen Woodman about his visit to Northwestern last weekend and the PWO offer he received from the staff.

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Here are our takeaways from head coach David Braun's National Signing Day press conference.

LaMarcus Hicks II, the son of LaMarcus Hicks, just committed to NIU. Also had an Illinois State offer. A little perplexed why he didn't just PWO at NU. Playing time, I guess?

Keep your fingers crossed…7-footer from Yale is in the portal. Would be a terrific fit to back-up and eventually replace MN. He’s from Glencoe; played high school ball at Northfield Mount Hermon. Won a silver medal with Team Israel at the FIBA under-23.

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Cash Jacobsen of Jenks HS picks up an NU offer. His recruitment appears to have picked up as of late. Cash has the perfect name for the NIL era.

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2026 OL, Vlad Dyakonov out of Folsom HS in California picks up an NU offer.

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