Of all the people celebrating Indiana University’s unexpected college-football championship Monday night, Mark Cuban is the most prominent. (Well, after John Mellencamp.) A graduate of the business school, the Texas billionaire has been pouring money into IU since at least 2015, when he contributed $5 million to start a campus sports broadcasting center where much of the footage from IU games gets edited.
With the Hoosiers going from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the heap, the two-season arc was downright cinematic — ESPN commentator Kirk Herbstreit called it “a movie” — an idea Cuban seconds. He also believes the victory means something for the country at large at a time when college sports has become professionalized and celebritized at an astounding rate.
The Hollywood Reporter talked to Cuban in Miami just before he went to the national championship game at Hard Rock Stadium. He reflected on the team, AI, why he left Shark Tank behind and why he’s jumping into live-event promotion, as he just did last week with a stake in the live-DJ promoter Burwoodland. The conversation was lightly edited for clarity.
We’re talking just a few hours before your beloved Indiana takes the field to try to do the improbable. Why do you think a national-championship win (the team would go on to beat the University of Miami 27-21) for Fernando Mendoza and the other players would mean so much not just for the school but for the country?
This is the American Dream. To go from the outhouse to the penthouse, isn’t that what it’s all about? This is something no one ever imagined would be done. Too often in life we jump to conclusions, we stick to the conventional wisdom. “Indiana football sucks.” We presume that because it always was that way it will always be that way. And when someone changes the narrative and perception, as Coach Cig [Curt Cignetti] did, and you realize it won’t.
There’s a bit of a moneyball aspect — or, if you will, an indie-film narrative — to what he did, since the school’s NIL cash was so much lower than other programs.
That’s I think what makes it so special and inspiring. It would be different if Cig and Athletic Director Scott Dolson did this by spending more money. But they did it with role players; they did it by outmaneuvering and out-strategizing the competition. How do you make this fit here and that fit there? It was almost like Shark Tank — a startup operation.
I was going say but thought that might be too on the nose.
Haha, but it’s true. We saw it all the time on the show, someone comes from a small town and they have a story and no one believes in them and the next thing you know they’re really successful. Investing in this school feels a little like making a good deal on Shark Tank.
A deal you alas won’t be making anymore [after departing the show at the end of last season]. Why did you leave?
I really liked doing the show but what would happen is I would get bored when Mr. Wonderful would take someone behind the barn or Laurie would ask “tell me about you” and so I would make a deal just to alleviate the boredom. And then once I did a deal I was committing to spending a lot of time [with the founders]. Because this is their lives and this is their future and also I don’t want to be in a story where someone says “we did a deal with Mark Cuban and then he ignored me.” So it would just take a lot of time and some of it was babysitting. I love working with entrepreneurs but I don’t miss the babysitting.
You’re saying it’s not all the rainbows and sprinkles of those success-story updates we see later??
Haha no. I mean there have been many success stories like that. BeatBox Beverages and so many other incredible exits. But the demands are much greater than what you see on the show.
Between your own exit there and no longer controlling the majority of the Mavs, it must leave you with plenty of free time.
I’m really busy with Cost Plus Drugs. I co-founded it [in 2022] with the mission to change the costs of health care and I think we’ve been insanely successful. I spend about 90 percent of my business time on that.
You did just make a Shark Tank-esque investment, buying an undisclosed stake in Burwoodland, the promoter behind Emo Night Brooklyn, Gimme Gimme Disco and Broadway Rave. What resonated with you about what they’re doing?
To me it was about AI. I think with so much of AI coming we’re doing to be spending even more time indoors, more time with our screens. And we’re going to want to be spending time with other humans. To say “let’s go out and do something fun tonight.” These guys have figured that out and we need that.
Finally, I have to ask on behalf a lot of our readers who are NBA fans and Lakers fans, what do you make of where the Mavs are? Obviously there was a lot of consternation about the [Luka Doncic] trade to L.A. a year ago, and now the GM is gone too…
I thought the trade was a bad idea and I advised on that but I’m not in charge and nobody has to listen to my input. I felt bad for Mavs fans since there was a lot of change and a lot of heartbreak. But [No. 1 overall pick] Cooper Flagg has been better than I thought he would be a rookie so that is a bright light and there is hope for the franchise.
And we just saw how fast a team can turn things around.
From the outhouse to the penthouse.
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