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When Merchant’s Bank and Indiana announced its partnership on Thursday afternoon, it was multiple years in the making. It was a relationship that began even before Pam Whitten took over as university President. But, it wasn’t until recently when things truly shifted.
Flashback three years during one of Indiana’s basketball games. Scott Dolson was just a little over a year into his role as Athletic Director but he knew in the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, he needed to move quickly and confidently to ensure Indiana didn’t fall behind the rest of the conference with revenue generating ideas and soon-to-be world of NIL. And the vision both he and Pam Whitten had aligned perfectly with Mike Petrie — Merchant’s Bank Chairman.
“I think it was two years ago, maybe three, because President Witten was with me and I was introducing her to several new donors at halftime,” Dolson said on Friday. “And we ran into Mike Petrie. And I said to President Witten, I said, ‘Mike is the chair of Merchants Bank, an IU alum who’s done great things in the business world. Mike and I have talked at length over the years about, love to get Merchants Bank their name on our field. And Mike looked right at me and he said, yeah, ‘we’ve talked about that’. He said, ‘but I told Scott, I want us to be part of a winning program. That’s important’. And I looked at Pam and I looked at him and said, that’s our plan. And Pam [Whitten] said, absolutely.
“So that was kind of a little inflection point, I think, where we really just put it on the table that we’re committed. He could tell that we’re committed to building a winning program and that hecertainly wanted to be a part of that if it happened. And so last season as we started rolling, I would see Mike and he would just comment that he really is extremely happy with where things are going, feels the culture change that Coach Cig has created quickly.”
The hire of Curt Cignetti and Indiana’s 11-2 season and College Football Playoff appearance that followed certainly changed the trajectory of the program — and athletic department — in short time. And, quickly conversations with Mike Petrie and Indiana resumed.
The 20-year and $50 million investment from Merchant’s Bank is the first of its kind for Indiana. But, it’s not the first in the space of revenue generating ideas. In fact, it’s one of many that Scott Dolson, Pam Whitten and the entire athletic department continue to work on and enhance.
In the murky and cloudy world of NIL, it’s easy to get lost in the ‘pay-to-play’ language. But for Indiana, it’s different. It’s truly a way for Indiana’s student athletes to ‘maximize’ their opportunities and be successful both on and off of the field.
“Hoosiers Connect, I mentioned Stephen Harper and Kevin VanRoe and our internal team. I’m really proud that we do a lot of brainstorming, a lot of taking the pulse of what’s going on around the country and seeing what’s out there,” Dolson said. “And again, given the rules that we’ll play under, how can we make certain that we can compete and our student athletes can maximize NIL opportunities through the new system and do that in a way that allows us to compete at the highest level. So we meet on that and talk about that a lot. It’s super important to us.”
As the NCAA begins to create ‘fair market value’ rules and regulations, schools are now working with organizations to find creative ways to find additional endorsements and deals. So whether it’s Indiana’s day of giving, other community partnerships or working with Hoosiers Connect, Scott Dolson looks to ensure they don’t fall behind again, rather set the pace for what NIL should truly look like.
“I think we’ve always been a school that’s tried to stay on the cutting edge, and at the same time, I talk about balance a lot in our department,” Dolson said. “Balancing our tradition, our historical values, the values haven’t changed. We still are about maximizing opportunity for our students in every way.
“Certainly, the financial demands, the financial ability to generate revenues is critical, but we’ll never do anything that really undercuts the overall mission and foundation of values we have.”
So while Merchant’s Bank is just the newest partnership that Indiana announced, it’s just part of the numerous ideas and ways Indiana, Scott Dolson and Pam Whitten are looking to put student athletes in the best spot possible to succeed at Indiana.
“Certainly we have ref share internally, which we’re fully participating in, but beyond that, we’ve prided ourselves really since NIL became an option, certainly for our student athletes, that we wanna maximize that opportunity just like we do in everything else, academically and athletically and personally.
“And so in this new world, in the clearinghouse, and NIL GO, and certainly CSC (College Sports Commission) and the new enforcement rules, we wanna make certain within the guidelines that we’re given that we’re a leader around the country in terms of we want student athletes who come here to feel like they can maximize that opportunity.”
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