The Big Ten released each team's conference opponents for 2024-28. @lou v breaks down how each season will look for the Wildcats.

Can I get a reason why my thread "The victim" was deleted? What specific rules did the thread break? @CappyNU @lou v

Many posts/threads getting deleted and moved around for no reason and no explanation being given. New moderation style is bogus.

OL Aiden Newbill is Northwestern's first commit since Carson Grove on July 31. I talked to him about his visit for the Penn State game, his thoughts on the team and his decision to commit in this premium recruiting story.

Anyone have two that they will not be using for the game today?

I registered for the NGN luncheon tomorrow. Never been to anything NGN before. Is it casual attire?

Back to the future
Cats channel '90's brilliance
October Project

Looks like it will be on BTN 4:00 ET Friday, Oct. 6.

Lou, you guys should do a story on them.

OL Aiden Newbill is Northwestern's first commit since Carson Grove on July 31. I talked to him about his visit for the Penn State game, his thoughts on the team and his decision to commit in this premium recruiting story.

The Big Ten released each team's conference opponents for 2024-28. @lou v breaks down how each season will look for the Wildcats.

Well I guess we are lucky that NBC does not value Northwestern Basketball. Jaskson St is the Cats only game on there.

https://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/...ten-mens-basketball-games-for-2023-24-season/

Schools with at least four games exclusively on Peacock this season:



https://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/...eaturing-caitlin-clark-and-the-iowa-hawkeyes/

If you are a Caitlin Clark fan, I guess you will have to pony up since she will be on there 8 times.

We made the trip to Evanston for the Penn State game this past weekend.

TL;DR Very nice campus. Awesome Lake views. Expected more team support/spirit. Loved the N Zone concept and easy access to the stadium.

Here’s my writeup of our visit.

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Northwestern hosts Howard tomorrow for Homecoming, and an opportunity to head into their mid-season bye week at 3-3. @lou v and I weighed in with our predictions.

Northwestern hosts Howard tomorrow for Homecoming, and an opportunity to head into their mid-season bye week at 3-3. @lou v and I weighed in with our predictions.

I believe NU offered the ESPN top-50/Rivals top-100 player last year, and some services still had him connected to NU. But it was fairly obvious NU hasn't been in play for awhile.

Yesterday, he chose to be one of Jon Scheyer's guinea pigs next year at Duke.

Would something like this be allowed at NU assuming the funding is there? Seems like a great recruiting gimmick. I like that it is for all scholarship players as a baseline benefit and it implies more available for stars. Need to be in this part of the game to effectively compete.

Are there additional rules at NU on NIL? Just haven't see the traction for such an important part of building a program.

Timi Oke from England picks up an NU offer. 🤷‍♂️

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Northwestern is in this sorry state of affairs due to Michael Schill's actions, most notably, the national press release of publicly disparaging Pat Fitzgerald and stating that Northwestern athletics had a hazing culture. It now looks like Schill's incompetence will cost Northwestern $1+ billion, which will be a huge hit to the endowment or financed by increase debt.

Let's take a look at all the ways Schill has cost the University:

Fitz Settlement - As the Daily Herald article states, it's estimated that Fitz will recover 2-3x what his contract guaranteed because of Michael Schill's statements.

Player Lawsuits - Michael Schill invited lawsuits based on his statements that he believed there was a culture of hazing. Also as the Daily Herald article points out, Northwestern lawyers now need to argue they fired Fitz for allowing a culture of hazing, and then at the same time, argue against the players that there was no culture of hazing and/or it was mundane with no harm being done. No matter what, the players lawsuits will cost legal fees, and likely some sort of settlement.

Loretta Lynch - On campus, nobody has heard from Loretta Lynch and nobody really cares what she says on the topic of culture or hazing. The cynical view is that Michael Schill hired Lynch's firm Paul, Weiss as a way to pre-pay his salary for when they hire him after the NU BoT fires him.

Season Tickets - Northwestern has already seen the cancellation of 700 season tickets since Schill's actions, which is about 3-years worth of new sign-ups. They are afraid that there will be massive deluge after this season, since most people had already re-upped their tickets for the 2023 season when Fitz was fired and because the 'Cats will be playing elsewhere during construction.

Stadium Donations / Corporate Sponsors - The plan is still to do an ~$800 million stadium with the Ryan's good for half. However, at least three donors who had committed $100 million among them, have backed out / put their donation on hold. The development office is having non-stop conversations about how everyone hates Schill and there are very few donations. Which alumni are going to sign 10-year contracts for suites or tickets right now? On the corporate side, they don't want to be associated while there is a cloud around NU, so naming rights for the "Ford Terrace", "United Skybox", or "McDonald's Patio" are dead. This means the balance of the stadium costs will be paid for by debt (or by the endowment loaning money to the athletic department).

City of Evanston / Events - Everybody agrees that the Evanston City Council is a bunch of clowns, and they are always looking to extract as many concessions from Northwestern as possible. The problem is this: Pat Fitzgerald was extremely popular and was able to rally public support, but Michael Schill is unlikeable and there is no pressure for Evanston to make any deal. Already, NU has had to reduce the number of concerts from 12 to 6. A sold-out Ohio State game is expected to generate $2 million in game day profit. A concert might generate $1 million. So losing 6 concerts per year is losing $5+ million per year every year in operating revenue that would help pay for the stadium and the athletic department budget.

Guaranteed Coaching Contracts - You think CC or KAH didn't notice? Every single coach at Northwestern has watched how Schill fired and disparaged Fitzgerald without due process. Every single coach is now asking for more guaranteed dollars and better contract language. You can bet the same will be true for the next set of football coaches.

Overall Donations - Similar to the athletic department donations, overall donations have dropped substantially (although I don't have specific numbers).

UnderArmour - UnderArmour has dropped several universities from their sponsorship, including Cal, UCLA, BC, Cincinnati, etc. The athletic department fears that Northwestern may be next and that if we're dropped, the next deal won't be as beneficial.

Schill Termination / Replacement - Schill will be fired, so NU has to pay his severance and then hire a search firm and a new President. [Gragg will be gone regardless of who is President. Trustees do not like Gragg. Has zero support from anyone.]

P.S. WORST CASE DISASTER THINKING: Super Football Conference - Northwestern will never be kicked out of the Big Ten, but football is becoming a beast and is much different than every other university sport... The fear is that in the next round of TV contracts in ~2030, the Big Ten will drop football as a conference sport, and a new super conference for football will be formed. If it's the most marketable 32 teams, would Northwestern be invited? If it's the most marketable 64 teams, would Northwestern be invited?

The fall out from Schill's incompetence is just starting and is likely to cost Northwestern $1+ billion in direct and indirect costs.

Let's hope we win some football games. #GoCats

My company is bidding work on Ryan Field. This round is said to be final for sourcing. Looks like things continue to move forward. Really want to win...Will see what happens.

The link on ESPN's homepage reads "Fitzgerald suing NU for $130M for wrongful firing."

at least ESPN said NU, and not NW?

Expanding a comment from a thread into a bigger post: does anyone have any sense on what budget NU will have for a coach?

But, check out THIS article. Purdue's coach was not a "splashy" hire & he's one of the youngest in the country, but he's at $4M/year.

I have to imagine the Tommy Rees/Jim Leonard's of the world will need to be at $6M+/year range + admissions support to even consider this job.

Is NU willing to play ball with these salaries? Are we being unrealistic for even mentioning these candidates as possibilities?

@lou v has the breakdown on what you need to know about the Howard Bison before they play Northwestern for the first time in program history.

Here's the quick story with Class status, profile and highlights for Williams. How about the Wildcats tonight? More to come on Williams from WildcatReport.