The Illinois State football team came up one point short in the national championship game in Nashville two weeks ago, but athletics director Jeri Beggs says the university came out a winner in many ways.
Beggs said it's hard to quantify how much good publicity the university got from its title game run.
“As a former marketing professor myself, I’ve said over and over and over again you cannot buy advertising like we just received over a four-to-five week period of time,” Beggs said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
The championship game, televised on ESPN, had three million viewers, the third highest total for any Football Championship Subdivision [FCS] title game in history. The Redbirds' own social media saw record traffic, including 3.6 million views in the 24 hours after ISU’s upset of North Dakota State.
Beggs said the FCS title game helped meet ISU President Aondover Tarhule's goal to bring national recognition to the university in 2026.
“I think Athletics has checked the box for him already,” Beggs said in a briefing with reporters Tuesday at Hancock Stadium.
Beggs said she wants to see ISU football get the point where fans expect to go deep into the playoffs and don't schedule travel during the opening weekend of January, in anticipation of another championship game appearance.
“I’d love for Illinois State to have plans, expectations, that we are going to make a run. We’re not going to call it a run anymore. We are going to get there every year or on a regular basis, like a North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Montana State,” she said.
Financials
Unlike the NCAA men’s basketball tournament that provides cash payments to participating schools, Beggs explained the FCS playoffs do not have such a financial reward. That, plus ongoing costs associated with ISU five postseason games have come at a financial cost.
Beggs said it’s too early to tabulate now, but the price tag is expected to top $100,000.
“If someone would have said to us back in August ‘You’re going to play in the national championship game, but it’s going to cost you six figures,’ we would have all been happy to pay that cost,” said Beggs, adding the athletics department hopes to see increased revenue through donations, sponsorships and ticket sales.
Paul Kabbes, deputy director of ISU Athletics and external operations, said the department is positioned to capitalize on the excitement generated by the football team’s success.
“It might have been a short-term loss when you look at the financial side, but it’s going to be a long-term gain,” Kabbes said, adding Athletics has raised nearly $7 million this budget year ending in June.
“That’s way past where we were last year,” he said. “That’s way ahead of where our goal was trending and football is a big part of that.”
Kabbes said the football program plans to announce a new capital project soon that will help recruiting.
He noted the last two major construction projects for ISU football, the renovation of Hancock Stadium and the indoor practice facility, were soon followed by FCS title game appearances.
He added the department also plans to increase its spending on Name, Image, Likeness [NIL] contracts for student athletes next year, though he did not offer specifics to avoid signaling to the competition.
“It's good number of growth, we’ll say that,” Kabbes said.
Beggs said ISU Athletics wants to ramp up its budget for football, noting its spending is in the bottom half of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and is 75% less than the conference’s top eight schools.
“We’re going to have to do better,” she said.
ISU has introduced a competitive excellence fee for football season-ticket holders. That money will help support NIL contracts and other expenses for the football program. Beggs said that fee will likely added to its other ticketed sports in the future. That's men's and women's basketball and volleyball.
Beggs said added support for football should not come at the expense of the university’s other 18 sports.
“People talk about how you’re either a football school or you are a basketball school. I defy that definition. I think you can be both,” Beggs said.
