How will these resources help in the 2026 recruiting class? We have no OL recruits and we might lose Petit and Latimer. It's too late in the game to get better recruits. So we're going to bring in top transfer talent? That doesn't always work.
Good analysis Dillon, thanks. A little history lesson: Here's what Donna Shalala said at the Orange Bowl (which we won) brunch about the success of Badger football. After becoming Chancellor she proceeded to visit every booster (alumni +) meeting in the state. After 6 months of hearing complaint after complaint about the football program, she decided that action was needed because she wanted to work on her mission which wasn't to answer questions about the football program. She fired the AD and hired Pat Richter. Pat hired Barry who was the Notre Dame's Defensive Coordinator at the time. 4 years later we won our 1st ever Rose Bowl game with Darrell Bevell running 21 yards for the TD that won it 21-16. I was there. Mnookin should have followed the same path. I wrote over and over again on a competing website that our Collective is made up of 608 amateurs. Tennessee with 7 million population raised $20,000,000 for their football collective. The 608 amateurs only raised $3,500,000 from a state population of 6 million in 2024 (Google - Varsity Collective IRS Form 990). The General Manager was an incestuous promotion. The Badger GM's job description must read "finds $20,000,000 a year to compete" in football. I keep hearing that Wisconsin doesn't have that type of money. WRONG: Google "the 100 biggest public owned corporations in Wisconsin" and "the 100 biggest privately owned companies in Wisconsin". There is plenty of money in Wisconsin. For many of the Wisconsin companies a $1,000,000 a year donation would be a rounding error. The problem is no one in 608 land knows how to raise funds. The Foundation waits for the money to walk in the door and the example of this is the wonderful Morgridges, John and Tashia. I think that they have donated over $500,000,000 to UW. Guess where they were raised.....Tosa, 414 area code. I served on a UW department's Council for 10 years. There were 6 of us from out of state, 14 from Dane County and no one from 414 land. For a decade the 6 of us begged the department head and our Foundation professional to get 414 alumni on the council. I even asked "have you even gone to Milwaukee ?" No answer. How many of the top 200 companies in Wisconsin do you think our General Manager has visited outside of Dane County ? I doubt he's even made a dozen phone calls. The vagueness of McIntosh bothers me. Is Ted Kellner (God Bless Him) going to put Mark Cuban money into our Collective ? If he doesn't where will Mnookin come up with $20,000,000 a year to compete and not have to answer questions about the football program ?
I'll believe this when I see it. Are they telling us that Iowa has had more resources ($) money to be competitive? Or Illinois or even Minnesota? And is it not the AD's job to identify areas where we supposedly fell short and do something about it before we got to where we are today? And I would be slightly more optimistic if I hadn't seen so many questionable in game decisions by Fickell.
Something just doesn't feel right
How will these resources help in the 2026 recruiting class? We have no OL recruits and we might lose Petit and Latimer. It's too late in the game to get better recruits. So we're going to bring in top transfer talent? That doesn't always work.
Good analysis Dillon, thanks. A little history lesson: Here's what Donna Shalala said at the Orange Bowl (which we won) brunch about the success of Badger football. After becoming Chancellor she proceeded to visit every booster (alumni +) meeting in the state. After 6 months of hearing complaint after complaint about the football program, she decided that action was needed because she wanted to work on her mission which wasn't to answer questions about the football program. She fired the AD and hired Pat Richter. Pat hired Barry who was the Notre Dame's Defensive Coordinator at the time. 4 years later we won our 1st ever Rose Bowl game with Darrell Bevell running 21 yards for the TD that won it 21-16. I was there. Mnookin should have followed the same path. I wrote over and over again on a competing website that our Collective is made up of 608 amateurs. Tennessee with 7 million population raised $20,000,000 for their football collective. The 608 amateurs only raised $3,500,000 from a state population of 6 million in 2024 (Google - Varsity Collective IRS Form 990). The General Manager was an incestuous promotion. The Badger GM's job description must read "finds $20,000,000 a year to compete" in football. I keep hearing that Wisconsin doesn't have that type of money. WRONG: Google "the 100 biggest public owned corporations in Wisconsin" and "the 100 biggest privately owned companies in Wisconsin". There is plenty of money in Wisconsin. For many of the Wisconsin companies a $1,000,000 a year donation would be a rounding error. The problem is no one in 608 land knows how to raise funds. The Foundation waits for the money to walk in the door and the example of this is the wonderful Morgridges, John and Tashia. I think that they have donated over $500,000,000 to UW. Guess where they were raised.....Tosa, 414 area code. I served on a UW department's Council for 10 years. There were 6 of us from out of state, 14 from Dane County and no one from 414 land. For a decade the 6 of us begged the department head and our Foundation professional to get 414 alumni on the council. I even asked "have you even gone to Milwaukee ?" No answer. How many of the top 200 companies in Wisconsin do you think our General Manager has visited outside of Dane County ? I doubt he's even made a dozen phone calls. The vagueness of McIntosh bothers me. Is Ted Kellner (God Bless Him) going to put Mark Cuban money into our Collective ? If he doesn't where will Mnookin come up with $20,000,000 a year to compete and not have to answer questions about the football program ?
I'll believe this when I see it. Are they telling us that Iowa has had more resources ($) money to be competitive? Or Illinois or even Minnesota? And is it not the AD's job to identify areas where we supposedly fell short and do something about it before we got to where we are today? And I would be slightly more optimistic if I hadn't seen so many questionable in game decisions by Fickell.
Wow can I have some of what he is smoking. There will be less season ticket holders for sure