The sad reality is that no matter how much money Hoosiers Connect and Hoosiers For Good comes up with and spends on football players, Indiana is never going to break into the upper echelon of the Big 10. Not as long as Michigan, Ohio St., Penn St., Michigan St. and Iowa are around.
Indiana's had 3 winning seasons in the past 30 years. They've finished no higher than tied for 4th in the B1G prior to the conference splitting into two divisions, and no higher than 4th in their division since the B1G went to divisions in 2011 (with the exception of the covid year 2020, where they ended 6-2 and in 2nd place in the East Division). With the exception of the covid year, they've finished above .500 in conference play once in 30 years. They've only been to 5 bowl games in the past 30 years, and they lost all 5.
It's an arms race that Indiana is never going to win, or never even come close to being in the upper echelon. Yet, their supporters are going to shell out millions over the next few years. At what point in the next few years are those supporters going to say "why are we doing this?" It's just not a sustainable model.
And I'm not picking on Indiana, just responding to the post about IU. You can substitute any lower level team in a P4 conference - Rutgers, Illinois, Vanderbilt, Syracuse, Boston College, Arizona St., etc.