Lord Elrond

Coach Tillett just re-tweeted (is it proper to call it a re-tweet now that Twitter is X? Did she re-X it?) Anyway, she repeated that a Billiken is on route. Guess we’ll wait and see, three slots open between returning players and incoming freshmen.

Yep, there are complaints. I actually think SLU will have its work cut out for it to get a good quality schedule together. At least we have a blank slate to work with, but I think getting any game against a good P5 opponent will be hard to pull off. I’m thinking it will be MVC heavy, with maybe a dusting of Summit or ASUN or OVC. And don’t forget we owe a favor to SIUE for hosting the WNIT for us, not sure how they will want to collect on it, but it is there. Also, aren’t most of the Nov tournaments also booked? I’m not going to complain about heading to Sioux Falls against the best opponent they can get for us play. What I’m impressed with is how good a job they do getting teams to head to Sioux Falls. Down here we have Missouri vs Illinois in the Border War and the MVC championship. How about the St Louis Sport Commission set up a Nov tournament, or a least a few more games? Maybe A10 vs MWC challenge? Get a couple good MWC teams to face off against SLU and another good A10 opponent? Maybe a 8 team tournament with both Chaifetz and Enterprise Center hosting games?

Let’s see who the opponent actually is before complaining about it. I don’t think it’s set in stone, or they would have announced it and started selling tickets, The Dec 21st game of Iowa vs Utah is not only announced, but ticket sales started April 10th. The Nov 20th game is the Iowa women vs Kansas, tickets also on sale. They would have announced it and started selling tickets if SLU vs Santa Clara was a done deal. Apparently they are trying for multiple games up there, the rumored Santa Clara game may end up being against someone else on a different day. Gotta give them credit for doing their best to bring good teams to Sioux Falls.

That is the more valid point. Just how many really good P5 teams are going to want to play us, home or away? The answer is none, they don’t need to schedule a team like us (they all saw what Shertz’s team did last year, after all). A neutral sight game like this, with the extra TV money thrown in, is one of our few chances at a really good non-conference opponent. Travis Ford, for all his faults as a coach, was able to get teams like Auburn to play us in a home and away series with his lifetime of connections in D1 coaching. Josh Schertz, with his time in Indiana State and D3, doesn’t have those same connections. What would be nice is if the St Louis Sports Commission would offer some cash to help get good opponents to come here (either Chaifetz or Enterprise Center) to play some games and draw in fans and attention.

If it has a concrete block foundation, you truly are living large….

Bragger!

In 2022 it was Baylor-Gonzaga.

Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls has hosted some neutral site games.

So will there be a Goggles Give-a-Way night?

And the coach’s son

I assume they were 30 year bonds, since 15 year bonds would be due right now. Does anyone know what the status of bonds for Chaifetz are? Did someone try to take advantage of low interest rates a few years ago to refinance any bonds? That could have had a huge impact when they are due.

Give Centene the naming rights in exchange for Centene giving money directly into BVF

Not with this amount of money. Back in the days of shady guys handing kids bags of money it was all under cover. Now, it’s all public and semi-public, and people can throw in money without worrying about going to jail. The cost to everyone has skyrocketed, and no one putting in NIL money is getting any return on their money (no share of ownership, no part of revenue from the sport) other than the pure ego of buying their team a championship. And most of the money will not buy a championship, and the rate of increase is crazy. I just don’t see this as being sustainable.

Sustainability seems to be impossible to me. Pro sports works because you make money off of it. This is just people putting ever increasing amounts of money into this purely for what? Ego? It’s just not sustainable into the future.

Still nothing. I did find out that Mackenzie Hare from Marquette went in the portal when they changed coaches up there. She was committed to coming here before we changed coaches, it would be nice to get her down here. I’m sure we could find a place for someone who shoots a 3 like she does.

All new players should be required to post videos of them dunking over a trash can.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a system like the transfer market in international soccer for player development. Not sure how college sports fits into that though.

I think the previous coaching staff realized at the start of the year that the team needed to perform or Coach Travis Ford would get fired (and his assistants). When they realized the season was going to be a disaster, the assistant coaches saw no reason to worry about future Billiken players because they (the assistants) weren’t going to be here, so they didn’t bother recruiting and instead started working on finding an off ramp. My own guess is that it was right after the SIU game.

Question- Pete mentioned on the podcast that he had noticed that the staff under CTF hadn’t done much recruiting activity recently. I would assume that’s about the time that CTF’s assistant coaches came to the conclusion that CTF was a dead man walking, and they needed to start polishing up their resumes. About what time do you think they reached that conclusion? The SIU game? Sometime around then?

Both Josh Shertz and Rebecca Tillett got introduced at CityPark before the City SC soccer game vs Dallas, brought out the opening ball and raised the flag in the supporters section.

Hey, if getting them a tour from a professor in the political science department helps land a recruit, you’re up, @SluSignGuy

Exactly, that’s the model for NIL in women’s sports, it comes from companies that want to promote a product or service, whether nationally or locally. Caitlin Clark got big money because of her playing, online presence, and personality. Julia Martinez got a deal with 2 Men and a Garden locally, much less money I’m sure, but something. Emily Gaebe from SLU women’s soccer got her picture on a Billboard in her hometown of Union promoting a bank. That’s how the model for NIL is playing out for women athletes. Will that change and you see more play for pay like the men? I don’t know, guess we’ll see how it develops.

Most of the NIL for women comes from companies trying to cash in on the popularity of individual players. Caitlin Clark probably made more money in NIL last year than any male player you can name, but I don’t think any of it came from the Iowa NIL collective. Will this stay the case? I don’t know. A good test case to follow this year would be Gracie Merkle of Bellarmine, who is in the portal. She was injured last year, has 3 more years of eligibility. As a freshman, she had a monster season, averaging 15.1 pts and 11 rebounds a game, with 78 blocks. She’s 6’6”, and while averaging 70 percent FG shooting, she never tried to shoot a 3. It’s hard not to see how she could help a lot of teams. Will she get a big NIL offer from a school collective to play? I don’t know. It will be interesting to see where she ends up and what money she gets and where it comes from.

I think he’s a free agent when the NBA free agency period starts. I think the Grizzlies can talk with him any time between the end of the season and the start of free agency, and sign him if they come to an agreement.

It’ll sound something like - “Max (mouthfullofmarbles)