BLOOMINGTON – Tom Allen promised for two years Donaven McCulley would become this kind of player.

He had all the tools, Allen swore. McCulley, originally a quarterback, just needed time to comprehend his prodigious ceiling as a wide receiver. Then he could remove that ceiling for good.

It took the best part of a year and a half, but by the tail end of last season McCulley started to look like the player Allen promised he'd be. Like one of the best wideouts in the Big Ten. Like potentially one of the league’s greatest playmakers. Like, frankly, the sort of player the transfer portal and NIL opportunities might eventually take away from Indiana.

All of which made his publicly announced decision Friday to withdraw from the portal, and return to Bloomington for his last college season, so meaningful.

IU coach Curt Cignetti got an impressive talent around which to build his passing attack, yes. But McCulley’s return also signaled something crucially important for a program striving indefatigably to improve name, image and likeness resources for football — it’s possible for Indiana to put the resources on the table necessary to keep its best players, even when college football’s heavy hitters get involved.

And why wouldn’t they? The likes of Penn State, Michigan and Texas A&M all formally offered McCulley during his transfer recruitment (and depending upon who you believe, Notre Dame and Florida State were involved). They saw in the Lawrence North alum what IU fans did, particularly across the last five games of 2023.

In that stretch, McCulley corralled 28 passes for 420 yards and five touchdowns. Averaged across a 12-game season, that would be 67 catches, 1,008 yards and 12 touchdowns. All numbers would’ve been top-three in the Big Ten in 2023.

These are the kinds of players who tend to up-transfer in college football. Especially with the arrival of waivers, the portal and NIL opportunities; it’s never been easier for talents like McCulley to climb the proverbial ladder.

Indiana’s trying to convince others to do it as you read this. Elijah Metcalf, Middle Tennessee State’s leading receiver a year ago, is on the wish list. So is Miles Cross, who enjoyed a strong career at Ohio catching passes from Kurtis Rourke, the quarterback who this week announced his intention to transfer to … Indiana.

Someone’s always trying to reach across the fence and convince somebody else the grass is greener in the portal era. No one is safe, and no one stays out of it.

What matters, in this case, is the Hoosiers managed to fend off that interest. Programs with serious, national ambitions called. McCulley listened. He was surely interested. And in the end, he stayed.

It’s a momentum boost for Cignetti, to be sure. It gives him a signature skill player to build his first IU offense around. McCulley should compete for All-Big Ten honors again in 2024 (he merited honorable mention in 2023).

But it also says something broader about Indiana in this moment in college football. It tells the rest of the sport the Hoosiers have the ambition and resources to keep their best players.

For two years, questions swirled over whether Indiana would be serious about NIL in football. Would the Hoosiers be able to put the money down necessary to compete, in a time when nobody’s allowed to declare themselves a basketball school anymore?

This is only one win, but it’s an early win, and it’s a big one. It sends a message Indiana wants received loud and clear.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: What Donaven McCulley return means for Indiana football, Curt Cignetti