Illinois athletic director met with the Fighting Illini press corps for over two hours on Tuesday to discuss a wide variety of tops.
Here were the main topics of discussion. We will have more in-depth stories this week from John, Alec, and myself.
Name, Image, and Likeness
To date, around 150 Illinois athletes have made NIL deals, totally over 400 NIL transactions. Roughly 200 of those deals are football or men's basketball players. 35% have been female athletes. All 21 sports teams have been involved.
Whitman said NIL is still in the testing stage, with some rules in place but issues with enforcing them. He emphasized that NIL can't be pay-for-play, nor can it be an inducement to recruits. They can highlight NIL opportunities for their current athletes.
"I think we've made great progress," Whitman said. "I think we remain very much in a fluid, evolutionary state. The changes that we made in the state law allows us to be more engaged in the NIL experience both with our student athletes, but also with third parties that willing to do deals.”
Ubben basketball complex rehab
The practice courts and player spaces such as locker rooms, lounges, and sports medicine area will be complete in August. The entire project will be complete before the basketball season and they will have a formal dedication in November.
“It’s an unbelievable facility,” Whitman said. “It will be one of, if not the finest basketball in the country. We anticipate we will complete it in phases starting at the end of August.
The strength and conditioning area will also be completed in August. Whitman said that will be a “dynamic” area. The south end of the facility, which will include the coach’s offices, will be complete in October.
Total cost for the renovation is $40 million. It will double the square footage of the building and will include additional court space, state-of-the-art sports medicine facilities, an enhanced strength and conditioning area, study spaces, expanded staff offices, and modern student-athlete amenities in new locker rooms and team areas.
Memorial stadium upgrades
The DIA had drafted a plan for a proposed multi-million upgrade to the stadium, but Whitman said that is unrealistic at this time. The plan is to make incremental upgrades, beginning with work done this spring in the east hall.
“Coming out of the pandemic, we have pivoted a bit with our strategy with the stadium,” Whitman said. “To do our dream house scenario, our estimates are around $200 million to tackle the east and the south.”
They’ve installed new windows and lighting, polished the floors, and painted the steel infrastructure. New, larger televisions were installed in the concourse. More work will be done next summer. Inside the stadium, a new turf was installed and the entire bowl was power washed.
Other facility upgrades
The Atkins Golf club opened in June. Expansion to the indoor golf training facility is also being completed.
The new indoor baseball training facility is set to open in the fall before the students return.
Huff Hall got a new video board and they are installing new lights next year. The DIA is also exploring upgrades to the seating.
A stand-alone wrestling practice facility is being explored.
Quick hitters
Whitman said its more a matter of “when” than “if” the College Football Playoff expands.
He likes having divisions within the conference, but would support moving away from divisions if there’s a compelling case for it.
The Big Ten is in the process of negotiating a new media deal that will bring in a significant amount of new revenue.
Whitman said the Big Ten needs to bolster its baseball profile. It was a “red flag” when only to B1G teams were selected to the NCAA Tournament. He believes 4-6 B1G teams should be in the tournament annually.
He’s pleased with the baseball program under Dan Hartleb and the season they had, but was obviously disappointed with how the season ended.
Whitman said new women’s basketball coach Shauna Green “hit the ground running”. He said she’s assembled a good staff that has energy on the recruiting trail.
Whitman said Kofi Cockburn’s jersey will be hung in the rafters at State Farm Center, but didn’t give a specific timeframe.
Illinois is submitting a bid for the IHSA football state championship games. They would need to find a way to work around the annual regular season ending game vs. Northwestern.
Last year’s DIA budget had a $14.5 shortfall that was borrowed from the university. There’s a three-year plan in place to pay it back.
Whitman said that if not for the pandemic, they would have been able to bring varsity hockey to Illinois.
Here were the main topics of discussion. We will have more in-depth stories this week from John, Alec, and myself.
Name, Image, and Likeness
To date, around 150 Illinois athletes have made NIL deals, totally over 400 NIL transactions. Roughly 200 of those deals are football or men's basketball players. 35% have been female athletes. All 21 sports teams have been involved.
Whitman said NIL is still in the testing stage, with some rules in place but issues with enforcing them. He emphasized that NIL can't be pay-for-play, nor can it be an inducement to recruits. They can highlight NIL opportunities for their current athletes.
"I think we've made great progress," Whitman said. "I think we remain very much in a fluid, evolutionary state. The changes that we made in the state law allows us to be more engaged in the NIL experience both with our student athletes, but also with third parties that willing to do deals.”
Ubben basketball complex rehab
The practice courts and player spaces such as locker rooms, lounges, and sports medicine area will be complete in August. The entire project will be complete before the basketball season and they will have a formal dedication in November.
“It’s an unbelievable facility,” Whitman said. “It will be one of, if not the finest basketball in the country. We anticipate we will complete it in phases starting at the end of August.
The strength and conditioning area will also be completed in August. Whitman said that will be a “dynamic” area. The south end of the facility, which will include the coach’s offices, will be complete in October.
Total cost for the renovation is $40 million. It will double the square footage of the building and will include additional court space, state-of-the-art sports medicine facilities, an enhanced strength and conditioning area, study spaces, expanded staff offices, and modern student-athlete amenities in new locker rooms and team areas.
Memorial stadium upgrades
The DIA had drafted a plan for a proposed multi-million upgrade to the stadium, but Whitman said that is unrealistic at this time. The plan is to make incremental upgrades, beginning with work done this spring in the east hall.
“Coming out of the pandemic, we have pivoted a bit with our strategy with the stadium,” Whitman said. “To do our dream house scenario, our estimates are around $200 million to tackle the east and the south.”
They’ve installed new windows and lighting, polished the floors, and painted the steel infrastructure. New, larger televisions were installed in the concourse. More work will be done next summer. Inside the stadium, a new turf was installed and the entire bowl was power washed.
Other facility upgrades
The Atkins Golf club opened in June. Expansion to the indoor golf training facility is also being completed.
The new indoor baseball training facility is set to open in the fall before the students return.
Huff Hall got a new video board and they are installing new lights next year. The DIA is also exploring upgrades to the seating.
A stand-alone wrestling practice facility is being explored.
Quick hitters
Whitman said its more a matter of “when” than “if” the College Football Playoff expands.
He likes having divisions within the conference, but would support moving away from divisions if there’s a compelling case for it.
The Big Ten is in the process of negotiating a new media deal that will bring in a significant amount of new revenue.
Whitman said the Big Ten needs to bolster its baseball profile. It was a “red flag” when only to B1G teams were selected to the NCAA Tournament. He believes 4-6 B1G teams should be in the tournament annually.
He’s pleased with the baseball program under Dan Hartleb and the season they had, but was obviously disappointed with how the season ended.
Whitman said new women’s basketball coach Shauna Green “hit the ground running”. He said she’s assembled a good staff that has energy on the recruiting trail.
Whitman said Kofi Cockburn’s jersey will be hung in the rafters at State Farm Center, but didn’t give a specific timeframe.
Illinois is submitting a bid for the IHSA football state championship games. They would need to find a way to work around the annual regular season ending game vs. Northwestern.
Last year’s DIA budget had a $14.5 shortfall that was borrowed from the university. There’s a three-year plan in place to pay it back.
Whitman said that if not for the pandemic, they would have been able to bring varsity hockey to Illinois.
