In Big Ten, build or get left behind: Conference cash means everyone can spend big on football facilities

In Big Ten, build or get left behind: Conference cash means everyone can spend big on football facilities
World-Herald News Service

CHICAGO — In his opening statement at Big Ten media days, Illinois coach Lovie Smith made sure to mention the program’s facility upgrades — even though, according to plans unveiled in June, the new $79 million stand-alone football building won’t be ready until 2019.

That’s because Illinois, along with one other program — Rutgers — is perhaps furthest behind in the Big Ten facilities arms race. Even Illini Athletic Director Josh Whitman conceded that.

“My first car was a 1985 Nissan Stanza, and that’s kind of what we’re driving right now with facilities,” Whitman said.

With the Big Ten officially announcing its TV deal with ESPN and Fox Sports on Monday, and more money than ever about to pour into league schools’ coffers, more facility upgrades are within reach of even the Big Ten’s traditional weak links.

Illinois has its building in the works. Northwestern is building a lakefront palace that should open in 2018. Minnesota’s “Athletes Village” is opening in 2018, and the fundraising campaign is called “Nothing Short of Greatness.” Purdue’s Football Performance Center is expected to open just before this season. Maryland is finishing the Terrapin Performance Center. Iowa’s football building — which Whitman cited as a place he wants to see — opened in 2015. Penn State and Michigan State recently finished makeovers of their locker rooms.

BTN analyst and former college coach Gerry DiNardo has traveled throughout the league over several years and can recall by memory the updates and features of each league facility.

“If you don’t have a state-of-the-art football facility, you have some explaining to do,” DiNardo said. “It’s a commitment issue. It used to be a financial issue. Now it’s there to spend on something.”

Said Whitman: “As much as anything, it’s symbolism to the recruits that there’s an institution here that cares about football and is prepared to make football a priority.”

DiNardo said Iowa, Ohio State, Michigan State, Penn State and Michigan have the best overall setups in the league because all have stand-alone football complexes that function as a one-stop spot for players to practice, get dressed and meet. Michigan’s Schembechler Hall, DiNardo said, “needs to be freshened up.” UM regents in May approved a $14.8 million sports performance center project to update the facility that will be finished in winter 2018.

DiNardo said Nebraska’s facilities are “great” and similar to Wisconsin’s. NU’s only problem, DiNardo said, is that much of the football-centric stuff is housed inside the “pre-existing building” of Memorial Stadium. Wisconsin has the same setup.

“It doesn’t hurt them in recruiting,” DiNardo said. “If I’m a recruit and I walk into this beautiful weight room and I walk into this beautiful indoor facility, I don’t really understand that, when I come to school, I’ve got to go here, here and here. So it doesn’t hurt them getting 25. It hurts them with the 85. That’s the difference.”

At Illinois, Smith has very little, DiNardo said. Smith noted that Illinois’ lack of elite facilities has affected recruiting.

“In the summer, most (recruits) now, they go on a campus tour,” Smith said. “They have different stops along the way, making comparisons.”

Whitman was, again, blunt in his assessment.

“It’s not a secret — you walk into the locker room at Oregon and you walk into the locker room at the University of Illinois and you see that they’re two very different environments,” Whitman said.

And once those state-of-the-art facilities are built, DiNardo said, Big Ten schools have to keep them up to date.

“It’s not a static universe,” DiNardo said. “Everybody else is moving. And so you’ve got to get out and see other places before you can say you have the best.”

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