Illinois State University Athletics Director Jeri Beggs said the Redbirds are coming off a banner year, but constant changes make it a tough time in college athletics.
“[It was] arguably one of the best years of Redbird athletics ever,” Beggs said during a media briefing with reporters at the Aaron Leetch Stadium Club to preview the 2026-27 season.
Beggs rattled off a list of accomplishments last season, including the Redbird football teams’ run to the national championship game, winning the Missouri Valley Conference [MVC] All-Sports trophy for the seventh time in eight years, becoming the first public school to win the MVC All-Academic Award and performing nearly 3,000 hours of community service among its student athletics.
Football facility
Beggs said the university is in the “dreaming” stage of building a new football facility at Hancock Stadium. Beggs said the Kaufman Football Building is not aging well after a quarter century and the football program has outgrown it.
“We have lots of road ahead of us in terms of fundraising, but also all the checks and balances that the university has in terms of working with facilities, getting approval from our Board of Trustees. We are really very early in the planning stage,” Beggs said, adding it’s too soon to estimate how much such a facility might cost.
Beggs said a new facility — as it's currently conceived — in the north endzone would house all football team offices and locker rooms along with a weight training facility and five premium suites for fans.
FBS?
Beggs said the Redbirds have no interest in leaving for a higher level of Division I football. She said ISU's run to the national championship game would have to become commonplace for the Redbirds to be looking for another challenge.
“The dollar amounts required to change conferences and move up to FBS are astronomical,” Beggs said.
Illinois State University currently belongs to the Football Championship Subdivision [FCS]. Two Missouri Valley Football Conference schools [Missouri State and North Dakota State] have fled for the Football Bowl Subdivision [FBS] in the last two years.
Beggs said moving to an FBS conference would also negatively impact the student-athlete experience by forcing them to travel greater distances to opposing schools.
Fundraising
ISU athletics raised nearly $10.9 million in donations last academic year — the second highest in program history — according to Deputy Director of Athletics Paul Kabbes, who oversees fundraising. He said that easily eclipsed the department’s goal of $4.65 million.
“It’s not just football that’s seeing the support. It’s not just the basketball programs that are seeing the support, we are seeing it across the board,” Kabbes said, adding that season ticket purchases for ISU football increased noticeably after the title run last year.
Kabbes said sponsorships, which are counted separately, have increased 15% and 9% in each of the last two years.
Kabbes said the university is looking for a sponsor to put on player jersey patches this season. The NCAA made corporate signage on uniforms legal as of Aug. 1 and many major conference schools have secured sponsorships.
Cost cutting
Despite the big bump in fundraising, ISU athletics has had to cut spending in some ways to account for major revenue lost to an NCAA class-action settlement and university budget cuts.
“We’re actually losing money right now from our budget from the NCAA. We lost $650,000 in funding this year because of the House settlement,” Beggs said, referring to the 2025 settlement which required colleges and universities to share revenue with student athletes.
Ex-volunteer coaches who filed claims for compensation also secured a class-action settlement with the NCAA and ISU has also had to contribute to the settlement, according to Beggs.
Beggs said the university budget cuts have called for shared sacrifice, but that job cuts have been minimal, while athletics had had to add positions in certain areas, including NIL [Name, Image and Likeness] and social media.
Beggs said while the men’s tennis program was eliminated last year partly for financial considerations, the university is not actively looking to cut any other programs.
She noted that ISU sponsors 18 sports teams, four more than the NCAA requires.
5-in-5
A new NCAA rule this year gives each student-athletes five years of eligibility to play, but it has eliminated the so-called redshirt for students who miss due to injury.
Beggs said coaches at ISU have offered mixed reactions, depending on the sport.
“Some of our coaches are thrilled to find out that some of their current student-athletes are going to be available for one more year," Beggs said, adding that could also complicate recruiting for coaches who are trying to build rosters years in advance.
She said keeping athletes for a fifth year may deter some recruits from coming.
Storm damage
Beggs said ISU athletics was largely spared the damage that other parts of campus encountered during last week’s severe storms and flooding.
She said some overhead lights inside the indoor practice facility were damaged, which means the venue will likely be out of commission for a few weeks.
Kabbes said it’s early enough in the year that it likely will have little impact.
“If it’s November or December, those coaches are going to struggle a little bit,” Kabbes said, noting that coaches of many the programs compete for space when the football team is not using it.
Beggs said the Weibring Golf Club, ISU's home collegiate golf, lost a few trees and some venues took on water, but there was no substantive damage.
“We got off pretty easy compared to the rest of campus,” Beggs said.
