December 8, 2025 • 8 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
In case you may have heard there was a football
game over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well, there were a couple of football games over the weekend,
but I imagine you're talking about one in particular.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Yes, Indiana course winning the Big Ten championship in the
first time they've defeated Ohio State since nineteen eighty eight.
They're the number one team in the entire country.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I know a lot of people are very excited about this.
And you know what, we got a guy. Oh, let's
go straight to the top. At IU, we have the
Associate athletic director on the line. His name is Jeremy Gray.
Good morning, Jeremy, good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Good morning. I mean, just as you guys predicted in
August that Indiana would go thirteen to zero and you know,
beat Oregon on the road, Ohio State and probably have
the Heisman Trophy winner. And I think it's all due
to middle management.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Taking full credit, are you yes?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yes, what does an associate athletic director do?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Did my mother in law put you up to this?
So each as socio athletic director has areas of responsibility
in the department. So I have marketing, media relations, the
Mark Cuban Center, which is our fancy way of saying, photo,
videographic design, broadcasting, digital, social media. So those are my
areas of responsibility.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Jeremy, I wanted to ask you, how does you plan
to leverage this championship to boost recruiting across all sports?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Now, you know, it's been interesting at our home football games.
We've got a legendary swimming and diving program, which is
a program that I actually oversee, and for years they
never brought swimmers to our football games because they did
not want athletes that found that appealing. Now on the
sidelines before games, it's absolutely packed with prospective student athletes
(01:51):
for all of these sports because of the atmosphere. How
it's changed things and there is something about football that
is kind of a leader of perception. And we're now,
I think, kind of a cool school. We've had kind
of an image makeover similar to what Oregon experienced about
twenty years ago, where a lot of athletes and a
lot of different sports find I you appealing, and frankly,
(02:13):
the social media engagement that they have when they make
their official visits here taking pictures of themselves in the crowd,
it's been golden.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Jeremy Grady, the Associate Athletic director at I You is
our guest. Okay, so can you talk about because Signetti
gets this big new contract right and everybody's like he's
totally worth it, can you talk about from a financial perspective,
what it means when I You wins the Big Ten
is getting a buy in the college football playoffs, going
to play in round two. Economically, what does that do
(02:42):
to the athletic program?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So we've actually done an economic case study on this,
and every time that your team is participating in College
Game Day on ESPN, for instance, that's three million dollars
worth of unpaid advertising. Tonetty, it has taken over as
head coach. We've been on Big nowon Kickoff three times
and ESPN College Game Day three times. So I don't know,
(03:08):
I'm gonna use my old public school math here. That's
eighteen million dollars of unpaid advertising alone, just from doing
that the year prior to his arrival. And this is
no shot at the Big Ten Network. I actually used
to work for them. We were on the Big Ten
Network nine times in two thousand and twenty three. This
(03:28):
year we were on the Big Ten Network twice, which
is a conference mandate. All of our games have been
on Fox, CBS or NBC, So just an unpaid advertising
on the media. It's paid for itself, you know, multi
times over. We've set every concessions record. We had five
straight sellouts to close out the year. Donations are up.
(03:51):
I believe applications to IU are up over fifteen percent
now as well. Wow, it really has changed the game
here in anyway.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
How do you think now A lot of people are
saying this is in part because of the new NIL
open portal that happened recently. How do you think that
that's going to influence your NIL strategy going forward?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well, One, it makes perspective business owners or business owners
that would be perspective people to pay an IL to
student athletes more likely to do so because we have
you know, athletes using worth using as sponsors for their
businesses or services. So I think it's going up that
way in the transfer portal. This is really Churt Signetti's
(04:37):
secret sauce. He is the best talent evaluator, in my opinion,
in all of college football. He can look at somebody
who's playing for a small college, a mid major, maybe
a backup for a high major program, see potential in them.
And he is able to find He's like the guy
who shops at you know, the vintage store and finds,
you know, like like the diamond in the rough. So
(04:58):
he's able to do that and he's going to great job.
And now the type of athlete that is looking at
Indiana as a landing spot has changed in two years too.
There are high major starters who'd like to come to Indiana.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Jeremy Grady, associate athletic director at I. You is our guest,
So can you talk about because obviously I'm a Hoosier lifer.
Growing up, it was all IU basketball, right, Oh, we
have a football team. That's interesting, right? Everything was IU basketball.
Can you talk about sort of the vibe on campus
because obviously the IU basketball team has had its fair
share of struggles and not sort of met the expectations
(05:35):
that many people have. Is are you becoming a football school?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Well, you know, it's interesting, you said. So. We had
the bi centennial in twenty twenty, and obviously that got
knocked all over the place because of the pandemic. But
through all these big plans and they talked about what
was going to happen the homecoming week of the bisonentennial,
and they had you know, guest speakers, concerts, all that
kind of stuff. They didn't even mention the game. He
didn't mention the homecoming game for homecoming week. It was
(06:03):
that much of an afterthought. On orientation visits, sometimes they
would make fun of the football program. The city was
largely not that helpful as you know, as it relates
to to hotel prices and things like that. It was
it was just not a football community at all. Now
you come to IU and it's completely transformed that way,
(06:25):
where all the city storefronts have our mascot painted on
it or be Beat such and such. They've changed the
marquees you know, of local businesses to you know, Beat
Ohio State. The city is now starting to change the
way they operate. There are no more youth soccer games
on Indiana home football weekends, you know. So they have
(06:45):
really reoriented it. Football is a centerpiece of the school's
advertising strategy. It's it's it's a major part of orientation
and really it is a focus on campus. It has
become a football school.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Where do you think that this moment ranks among milestones
during your tenure, Well, I mean we've.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Had some we've had some great moments since I started
working here, and you and I have known each other
for a long long time. I mean, this would have
to be number one. And I'm gonna be honest, maybe
I was part of the problem. I didn't think, especially
when they went to the conference championship game model and
we expanded the league and added all of these other
great football programs, that Indiana's chances of ever winning a
(07:25):
Big Ten championship in football had passed. And for this
guy to do this in year number two is just insane.
I mean, I don't really have a great explanation for it,
and I work here.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
You've got one more big game though, coming up. Thoughts
on the championship game, yeah, I mean going.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
To the Rose Bowl. That's going to be My wife
is very excited that we get to go there. You know,
after Christmas. I think IU alums are going to flood
that area. There's a huge intensent of IU people in
southern California. I think it's going to be mad. It's
just surreal to say that Indiana would be a favorite
against either Alabama or Oklahoma in a bowl game. But
(08:08):
it's twenty twenty five, baby, so we're really excited and
I do think that Indiana is one of those teams
that's got a chance to go all the way.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
And Jeremy, we'll get you in here with this. We
can all agree that should have been Oklahoma and Notre
Dame because then we could have had Notre Dame and
IU into Rose Bull, you know what.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
And Casey knows my background that way, it would have
been great for Indiana to play Notre Dame again. I
think it would have been special for the state, people
in this people in this area, and frankly, I think
it's the one hump Indiana has not gotten over, you know, historically,
and so a chance to play Notre Dame would have
been special. I do think Notre Dame was one of
the twelve best teams and should be in the playoff.
(08:47):
But that's not for me to decide. I knew I
liked him. Jeremy Gray, thank you, Hey, thank you, guys.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
You're listening to Kennilly Casey. It's ninety three WYBC.
In case you may have heard there was a football
game over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well, there were a couple of football games over the weekend,
but I imagine you're talking about one in particular.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Yes, Indiana course winning the Big Ten championship in the
first time they've defeated Ohio State since nineteen eighty eight.
They're the number one team in the entire country.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I know a lot of people are very excited about this.
And you know what, we got a guy. Oh, let's
go straight to the top. At IU, we have the
Associate athletic director on the line. His name is Jeremy Gray.
Good morning, Jeremy, good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Good morning. I mean, just as you guys predicted in
August that Indiana would go thirteen to zero and you know,
beat Oregon on the road, Ohio State and probably have
the Heisman Trophy winner. And I think it's all due
to middle management.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Taking full credit, are you yes?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yes, what does an associate athletic director do?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Did my mother in law put you up to this?
So each as socio athletic director has areas of responsibility
in the department. So I have marketing, media relations, the
Mark Cuban Center, which is our fancy way of saying, photo,
videographic design, broadcasting, digital, social media. So those are my
areas of responsibility.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Jeremy, I wanted to ask you, how does you plan
to leverage this championship to boost recruiting across all sports?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Now, you know, it's been interesting at our home football games.
We've got a legendary swimming and diving program, which is
a program that I actually oversee, and for years they
never brought swimmers to our football games because they did
not want athletes that found that appealing. Now on the
sidelines before games, it's absolutely packed with prospective student athletes
(01:51):
for all of these sports because of the atmosphere. How
it's changed things and there is something about football that
is kind of a leader of perception. And we're now,
I think, kind of a cool school. We've had kind
of an image makeover similar to what Oregon experienced about
twenty years ago, where a lot of athletes and a
lot of different sports find I you appealing, and frankly,
(02:13):
the social media engagement that they have when they make
their official visits here taking pictures of themselves in the crowd,
it's been golden.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Jeremy Grady, the Associate Athletic director at I You is
our guest. Okay, so can you talk about because Signetti
gets this big new contract right and everybody's like he's
totally worth it, can you talk about from a financial perspective,
what it means when I You wins the Big Ten
is getting a buy in the college football playoffs, going
to play in round two. Economically, what does that do
(02:42):
to the athletic program?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So we've actually done an economic case study on this,
and every time that your team is participating in College
Game Day on ESPN, for instance, that's three million dollars
worth of unpaid advertising. Tonetty, it has taken over as
head coach. We've been on Big nowon Kickoff three times
and ESPN College Game Day three times. So I don't know,
(03:08):
I'm gonna use my old public school math here. That's
eighteen million dollars of unpaid advertising alone, just from doing
that the year prior to his arrival. And this is
no shot at the Big Ten Network. I actually used
to work for them. We were on the Big Ten
Network nine times in two thousand and twenty three. This
(03:28):
year we were on the Big Ten Network twice, which
is a conference mandate. All of our games have been
on Fox, CBS or NBC, So just an unpaid advertising
on the media. It's paid for itself, you know, multi
times over. We've set every concessions record. We had five
straight sellouts to close out the year. Donations are up.
(03:51):
I believe applications to IU are up over fifteen percent
now as well. Wow, it really has changed the game
here in anyway.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
How do you think now A lot of people are
saying this is in part because of the new NIL
open portal that happened recently. How do you think that
that's going to influence your NIL strategy going forward?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well, One, it makes perspective business owners or business owners
that would be perspective people to pay an IL to
student athletes more likely to do so because we have
you know, athletes using worth using as sponsors for their
businesses or services. So I think it's going up that
way in the transfer portal. This is really Churt Signetti's
(04:37):
secret sauce. He is the best talent evaluator, in my opinion,
in all of college football. He can look at somebody
who's playing for a small college, a mid major, maybe
a backup for a high major program, see potential in them.
And he is able to find He's like the guy
who shops at you know, the vintage store and finds,
you know, like like the diamond in the rough. So
(04:58):
he's able to do that and he's going to great job.
And now the type of athlete that is looking at
Indiana as a landing spot has changed in two years too.
There are high major starters who'd like to come to Indiana.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Jeremy Grady, associate athletic director at I. You is our guest,
So can you talk about because obviously I'm a Hoosier lifer.
Growing up, it was all IU basketball, right, Oh, we
have a football team. That's interesting, right? Everything was IU basketball.
Can you talk about sort of the vibe on campus
because obviously the IU basketball team has had its fair
share of struggles and not sort of met the expectations
(05:35):
that many people have. Is are you becoming a football school?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Well, you know, it's interesting, you said. So. We had
the bi centennial in twenty twenty, and obviously that got
knocked all over the place because of the pandemic. But
through all these big plans and they talked about what
was going to happen the homecoming week of the bisonentennial,
and they had you know, guest speakers, concerts, all that
kind of stuff. They didn't even mention the game. He
didn't mention the homecoming game for homecoming week. It was
(06:03):
that much of an afterthought. On orientation visits, sometimes they
would make fun of the football program. The city was
largely not that helpful as you know, as it relates
to to hotel prices and things like that. It was
it was just not a football community at all. Now
you come to IU and it's completely transformed that way,
(06:25):
where all the city storefronts have our mascot painted on
it or be Beat such and such. They've changed the
marquees you know, of local businesses to you know, Beat
Ohio State. The city is now starting to change the
way they operate. There are no more youth soccer games
on Indiana home football weekends, you know. So they have
(06:45):
really reoriented it. Football is a centerpiece of the school's
advertising strategy. It's it's it's a major part of orientation
and really it is a focus on campus. It has
become a football school.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Where do you think that this moment ranks among milestones
during your tenure, Well, I mean we've.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Had some we've had some great moments since I started
working here, and you and I have known each other
for a long long time. I mean, this would have
to be number one. And I'm gonna be honest, maybe
I was part of the problem. I didn't think, especially
when they went to the conference championship game model and
we expanded the league and added all of these other
great football programs, that Indiana's chances of ever winning a
(07:25):
Big Ten championship in football had passed. And for this
guy to do this in year number two is just insane.
I mean, I don't really have a great explanation for it,
and I work here.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
You've got one more big game though, coming up. Thoughts
on the championship game, yeah, I mean going.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
To the Rose Bowl. That's going to be My wife
is very excited that we get to go there. You know,
after Christmas. I think IU alums are going to flood
that area. There's a huge intensent of IU people in
southern California. I think it's going to be mad. It's
just surreal to say that Indiana would be a favorite
against either Alabama or Oklahoma in a bowl game. But
(08:08):
it's twenty twenty five, baby, so we're really excited and
I do think that Indiana is one of those teams
that's got a chance to go all the way.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
And Jeremy, we'll get you in here with this. We
can all agree that should have been Oklahoma and Notre
Dame because then we could have had Notre Dame and
IU into Rose Bull, you know what.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
And Casey knows my background that way, it would have
been great for Indiana to play Notre Dame again. I
think it would have been special for the state, people
in this people in this area, and frankly, I think
it's the one hump Indiana has not gotten over, you know, historically,
and so a chance to play Notre Dame would have
been special. I do think Notre Dame was one of
the twelve best teams and should be in the playoff.
(08:47):
But that's not for me to decide. I knew I
liked him. Jeremy Gray, thank you, Hey, thank you, guys.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
You're listening to Kennilly Casey. It's ninety three WYBC.
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