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Imo this class is "solid" a bit on the smaller side.

Lots of OL to build depth with 3-4 guys choosing Valpo over D2 offers. No PFL wins. Biesbor, Singh, Benavente, Snedegaf, Knoch all multiple offers. Modder just announced in WI all star game.  from an excellent high schools, Gorberg great size for a center. Good foundation there. Theis probably could move to DT

DE Nick Johnson was high on Drakes list. Muilenberg was a 2* on 247. DT we are light here with a 240lb and 245lb commits Think you'll see a portal / late commit here

TE we add two converted QBs to the room Dinuzzo had on offer to Wagner and looks great in the slot on film. Vickers , Jernegan, and Carter all back. Probably Redshirts here

LB Chris Kouts is a fast football player, gets to the QB HS RB. Feltdinelli was a tackle machine for a metro Indy 6A upper tier team.

WR Jimenez is the only returner with real stats, Mackay/Yeats played. We need help here. Caldwell was the #6 WR in Indiana and compares favorably to Davis. Same with OL think we are building depth and hoping something pops. Gawrys is multiple in a way Norberg was. Elgin a big body out there. Threat, Oelman, Ricketti , Givens all have speed

RB Simmons and Long are built more in the Vercher / Thomas mold. Simmons put up some real number in the Columbus metro and was a PFL win. Long was very multiple in what he can do on film

DB Pautenaude is an absolute athlete and should be able to help on special teams right away. Good size at Nickel. Wyatt Little smaller build Colin Graves type of safety. Jolil Walker had an excellent freshman season last year in a not so good D3 conference. Ortega is a pac 12 transfer , our last two respective transfers from that conference were all conference in their roles.

QB Marcus Brown is an excellent athlete and played a high level of football. Rivals 2* and a PFL win. If he stays all 4 (tough for a QB in non scholarship) we could be in a real good spot 2-3 years from now. Mains is a bit of a watered down Caron Tyler and probably is QB6 in camp , pretty athletic, May see on defense eventually

valpofb16, I continue to marvel at your knowing, snapshot scouting reports. I don't know what your method is for following and researching all these players, but it makes for a fun, quick read.

The floor keeps getting lower for some of these players. It's possible we've seen their ceiling already, I mean for this season. I was holding out for a late season surge, but now I know those hopes were misplaced.

And yet I still believe that VU has a young core of 5-6 players who, if they can be persuaded to stay, will be among the centerpieces of a strong team within a year or two. Schwieger, Williamson, Edwards, Sepp, Weatherspoon, and Ajiboye have all had their very good moments (and then some). Add Scroggins and Manyang (both of whom, fingers crossed, are lifting weights like crazy), bring in some new talent, and it's possible that we've got at least a .500 basketball team next season.

This team is closer to a respectable place in the conference standings than the W-L record indicates. Most importantly, VU's best players -- guys who have had some outstanding games -- have yet to reach their ceiling, in some cases not even close. This is especially the case with players who have 2 or more seasons of eligibility. I don't know if Stafford and Darius have huge upsides, but their shooting percentages should improve next year.

A good number of the losses against middle-of-the-conference teams have been very close. Some of the big losses have included a half of very good basketball. Even at 6-16, the scoring margin deficit is only 72.7 to 68.1. Granted, that includes a blowout win over Trinity Christian (+39), but it also includes bigger losses to Illinois (-23), Drake (-18), Virginia Tech (-21), Samford (-18), and Bradley (-25).

David81 - As always, you offer very insightful thoughts.

While I agree with your comments, I will add that I also think that part of this is out of self-interest. Administrators want to advance to more senior roles at their current or other universities and they know that some decision-makers associated with potential advancement are in the group that is excessively consumed with terminology that, in the end, has little or nothing to do with actual success. The same goes for academics looking for greater prestige (via publication or other scholarly achievements). Academics who try to publish work in important areas like student retention, organizational dynamics, or minority leadership can get strong pushback (from editors and reviewers) if the findings or terminology are not exactly consistent with these peoples' worldview (despite the findings probably being different than the worldview of those on the other side of the spectrum). Scholarly research should be about seeking the truth and new understandings, not confirming anyone's specific worldview.

vu84v2, sorry I'm returning to this thread belatedly, but I'm not sure what you're suggesting is my self-interest here.

If wanting conversations and policy discussions about difference and diversity to return to a saner place, then I guess that's self-interest. My point above went to the difficulty of having these conversations when fear over using the wrong terminology causes folks to not participate. It has nothing to do with scholarship, unless someone's pen is so tongue-twisted over terminology that they cannot even address these issues on paper. Of course, if someone is intentionally using a "wrong" or offensive term just to push buttons, then I'm not feeling bad for them if their article gets rejected because of it.

The number 77 came up for me, then I saw it did for others, too!

I'm pretty close to historyman:

SIU 77
Baby Beacs 71

I'll go with an optimistic 3-4. Modest progress on the W-L, as Coach Powell said in his last post-game, turning some of those Ls into Ws.

If anyone has any doubts that Roger Powell is the right guy, then watch the post-game that wh posted.

Sooooo many impressive things about what he said and how he talked about his players.

He uses these post-games to message to us and to his players. The remarks about practicing free throw shooting? Awesome. He's using that moment not only to tell the fans that these kids have been encouraged to work on their FT games, but also to remind the three young men at the table with him about how that extra work is paying off.

His remarks about admitting his mistakes? That's for us and for them as well. It's about learning from mistakes and moving on.

Brilliant, exceptional coaching character.

Alas, in academe, it's all too often the noisy, raging extremists on both ends who are dominating these debates and painting with very broad brushes. That includes folks on the far left who are deeply consumed over labels and tags like Latinx and personal pronouns. (Some of them regard me, an old fashioned pro civil rights liberal, as being insufficiently progressive.)

These issues of difference and diversity are really treacherous right now. And, as I tell my students when I teach my Employment Discrimination Law course, it's even more difficult when you're not sure if the term you use to describe a certain group is going to result in a loud, politically correct rebuke, or if someone is going to ridicule you and tag you as woke merely for acknowledging that bias exists. Walking on eggshells is no fun, and a lot of thoughtful people are being dismissed by knee-jerk critics who lack the capacity for nuance and complexity.

As I've said before, VU may have some appeal to applicants who seek to explore that nuance and complexity and to challenge their own points of view, among other things. But as I've also said before, it needs better messaging about itself to attract those kinds of thoughtful students.

Some signs of 2nd half of the season improvement.

The guards are terribly inconsistent shooters from game-to-game; it seems they're either hot or they're not. They're all shooting under 40% on the season. Is Stafford sufficiently feared that keeping him out there while he's denting rims (or missing them completely) is a good coaching decision? Can the coaching staff find a way to go with the hotter hands???

An easy peasy, back-of-the-envelope answer to "how much endowment income is available for immediate spending?" is to multiply the current endowment by 4 percent, which is the standard draw to ensure that the principle continues to grow.

Bigger percentage draws because the endowment just had a fabulous year are a possibility, but it may be much wiser to hold onto the money to ensure that you can draw more than 4 percent during down years for the market.

Agree with the philosophy presented by David81, but from my experience talking with advancement and finance people within universities the annual draw is usually 5 percent unless, for individual items, doing so draws the item under the original donation amount.

vu84v2 is right...around 5 percent is often the presumptive draw...sorry, I keep mixing up with retirement funding standard draw of 4 percent. (Not that I'm thinking about that any time soon......😆)

An easy peasy, back-of-the-envelope answer to "how much endowment income is available for immediate spending?" is to multiply the current endowment by 4 percent, which is the standard draw to ensure that the principle continues to grow.

Bigger percentage draws because the endowment just had a fabulous year are a possibility, but it may be much wiser to hold onto the money to ensure that you can draw more than 4 percent during down years for the market.

New Commit: Trey Ortega 6'0 195 RSJR Safety, Colorado Buffalos / Broomfield Colorado

2022: 7GP

was a Coach Prime holdover. Will probably be fantastic at Valpo

valpofb16, I'm assuming that this young man would've never considered Valpo or a similar program coming out of high school. Am I correct? If so, then having him for 2 years could really be something.

Baby Beacs 74
UIC 68

Thinkin' positive. (Not exactly my nature, but sometimes a team rebounds after getting slaughtered.....)

OK, so it isn't directly about VU enrollment, yet elsewhere on this topic we have discussed the situation at Bradley University. To my knowledge, this hasn't been posted as yet - it shows how Bradly is cutting 15 majors in response to low enrollment and a $13M budget deficit. The announcement is as of December 11, 2023.

https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/local-news/the-latest-on-degree-programs-being-cut-at-bradley-university/

Gotta love the corporatized language: "'These changes are designed to help build a stronger, more agile Bradley, focused on the needs of today's students and the world the university is preparing them for,' the news release said."

I get why they're doing it, but this Orwellian language is bonkers. Program and job cuts will help us "build," leading to us being "stronger" and "more agile." What the heck does that even mean in the context of cuts?

David81 - nice, but you are drinking too much brown and gold koolaid. They won't win a game in the MVC tourney.

The way we've played the last seven games we'll be lucky to win two games. If we can get back to the GB to Drake stretch, and improve as the season progresses, we have a chance to be competitive in home games and some on road. As 12th seed, we'd be playing Missouri St, Northern Iowa or Bradley. Play a great game and we could win one in Arch Madness. Very unlikely, though.

I thought we'd be more competitive in MVC play by now. Tough few months ahead for the fans.


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Aww heck, I may as well Quadruple Down on my prediction that Valpo will pick things up at the end of the season and enter Arch Madness with a chance to win a game or two.

I'm not going to wager a Greek's pizza on it (I'm not that foolish), but I still think the potential is there. A season can go in distinct chapters, and we saw evidence of the talent on the roster before this losing streak hit. Let's see if Coach Powell can get these guys to harken back to the kind of play that was so tantalizing at the beginning of the schedule.

Hi David81.  You are the most knowledgable guy on the board along with a few other professors. And the political side sounds fair.  So I defer.  But "misuse of federal funds" sounds a bit different and a wider net on the surface than GCU's exaggeration of its product and not spelling a contract to adults. Maybe more is being alleged against GCU practices and I don't know.   

My impression is that the bigger picture with the GCU controversies is that the state of Arizona granted them a return to non-profit status after they pocketed income as a for-profit, getting their cake and able to eat it too. On the tax side of that issue Arizona was willing to forfeit that tax revenue. But Uncle Same wants their cut.  That non-profit issue impact on Federal taxes is a reasonable debate in the courts. I think the cynical aspect is wondering if GCU is now targeted for avoiding Fed taxes.   

Crusadermoe, thanks much, but you're giving me too much credit on a matter where I'm trying to speculate and read between the lines like everyone else. I think the tax thing you've discussed could well be in play, too.

I was looking at my previous comments above and felt like I wasn't explaining myself all that well, so here goes again: I think one reason why GCU is getting all this love from the feds is that while they appear to run their undergraduate residential operation like a pretty solid, private non-profit university, their online graduate division still has the look & feel of a for-profit university. And that's not a look & feel that anyone wants to have these days given the unsavory record of so many for-profit schools.

That somewhat yucky look is why I've been almost knee-jerk against VU looking to expand its revenue bases by trying to create a huge online operation like GCU and Liberty. It has a cheesy optic to it.

I predict Valpo win win at least 3 more games this year based on overall improvement.

They keep fighting and many of the losses are oh-so-close. I'm tripling down on my prediction that so long as the key group remains relatively healthy, we'll see some of those close losses turn into wins as the conference season winds down, with the Baby Beacs primed to win at least a game or two in Arch Madness. And hopefully it will give the talented young players a taste of what this team can become, maybe starting as early as next year.

It's a testament to the coaching staff that they assembled such a promising group of underclassmen after getting into the recruiting season so late. I'm betting that more than a few solid mid-majors would now happily trade their top recruits for the best freshmen and sophomores on the VU roster.

The portal will tell us a lot about Coach Powell and his ability to buck the realities of transfer decisions for mid-majors. Now and going into conference play, not April or May, determines whether the coaching and mentoring relationships that he builds with these promising young players are sufficiently strong and meaningful that they believe in this program and want to stay -- even in the face of these tough losses.

Some of these posts apparently assume a political or politicized motivation, but that doesn't take into account actions that the federal regulators have taken against other universities, including those that have a social justice orientation.

For example, DOE has fined the Union Institute & University, a pioneering flexible/distance learning non-profit university with fewer than 1,000 students located in Ohio, $4.3 million for financial irregularities involving $750K in student loan monies. There's no way this school, with its minuscule endowment, can pay off that kind of fine. Union embraces a left/DEI point of view. Unfortunately, it apparently is also being badly managed under its current leadership.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/11/27/education-dept-cuts-federal-funds-union-institute#:~:text=The%20department%20also%20is%20fining,department%20wrote%20in%20a%20Nov.

I do see why GCU is attracting interest from federal regulators. The fine is for alleged misrepresentation of their doctoral program expenses, a favorite federal target for for-profit universities. Under "GCU ADDRESSING REAL ISSUES OF HIGHER EDUCATION," one sees GCU mounting its defense in part by pointing out how it has kept costs and student debt service down at its residential campus.

However, reading between the lines, it's a pretty fair bet that the 92,000 online students are subsidizing the 26,000 residential students. Non-profit and state universities are not immune to more flush academic units subsidizing the needier academic units (at many schools, law schools serve this role). But this may be occurring to an extreme degree at GCU, and the Ed Dept may regard GCU's online division as operating essentially as a proprietary institution set up to fund the undergraduate residential schools.

On the other hand, I'd like to see if doctoral continuation fees of $10k or so are normal in doctoral programs, as a $37.7m fine seems pretty huge to me.

[Elon University falls 49 spots in U.S. News 'national universities' ranking]

Elon University falls 49 spots in U.S. News 'national universities' ranking
Elon drops in 7 other categories in 2024 college report

According to the article they fell from 84 to 133. Undoubtedly, Valpo (#201) would like to have Elon's problem.

https://www.elonnewsnetwork.com/article/2023/09/elon-university-falls-49-spots-us-news-national-universities-ranking

The changes in ranking criteria and weight given to certain factors are causing huge jumps and drops, leading some people to think that the changes are "real," that suddenly their school either legitimately leapt or fell 50 spots in the rankings. No doubt Elon's president and other central admins are having to explain to anxious alums, students, and prospective students that Elon is not in a free fall.

Baby Beacs 71
Elon 69

VU has had a chance to absorb the early season losses. It's time for a win.

This picture was shared on the Facebook page of Illinois HS Glory Days website



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Tom Hicks of Willowbrook would opt for football in college, play LB at Illinois, be drafted by the Bears, and precede Mike Singletary as Da Bears starting MLB.

President Padilla has been playing up VU's future as being more intertwined with the NW Indiana region. This Lilly grant program seems to be a good fit for that, so hopefully future applications will bear some fruit. That's a boatload of grant money being put on the table.

Valpo Football, the place for Punters to get consistent action and work

We're becoming the "Punt U." of the FCS!