There is no point today in believing that we can ever run with the big dogs in the P4 conferences. Their TV revenue, huge donors, and NIL are so high that they can shop and buy the best athletes and lure them away from the Mid-Majors and each other. How many millions did Mark Cuban donate to Indiana in the two years before their football championship?
From Sporting News 1-19-2026:
"How much money did Mark Cuban give to Indiana?
While there aren't exact dollar amounts for every donation Cuban has made to Indiana, some have been made public. In Dec. 2024, Cuban made a $6 million donation over three years to support the Hoosier Rugby program. In 2015, he donated $5 million for a new sports media center at IU.
As far as some of his other donations go, he has already helped in Indiana's 2026 transfer portal class. Earlier this month, he told Front Office Sports he was "already committed" for the transfer portal class:
Cuban clarified that he lets athletic director Scott Dolson decide what to do with the money, and didn’t say precisely how much he gave."
“Let’s just say they are happier this year than last year,” Cuban wrote.
In October 2025, Cuban told CBS Sports that he gave a "big number" to the IU athletic department."


UCSB, UCD, and UCSD have dreams of being dominant forces in their new conferences. Do they have enough big donors to climb the mountain? Will their dreams be realized, or will they hit the NIL funding wall? I suppose we should give them credit for dreaming and leaving the Big West. In the current sports environment, the CSUs, including Long Beach, are limited in NIL, state funding, and student fees. For me, I limit my interest in LB sports to seeing us win in the BW. It's too frustrating to think, in basketball, that we are going to win any games in the NCAA tourney.