E.B. Halsey could do anything on a high school football field.

That is why Prep Star, a recruiting service, rated him as the best running back in the East.

Halsey could have gone to any school in the country.

He chose Illinois. The Illini had the facilities Halsey wanted.

Halsey could run over opponents on the rubber-based AstroPlay turf, which was installed before the 2001 season at Memorial Stadium, and then watch the replay on a video replay board installed in 2002.

After the game, Halsey could brag to teammates about his running performance in front of his red oak locker, one of 100 such lockers that were refurbished after the 2001 season.

Halsey could credit his performance to his time spent in the weight room, which also was renovated in 2001. The football weight room is lined wall-to-wall with dumbbells, bench-press machines and squat racks – lined up in perfectly straight rows.

When the Chicago Bears played in Champaign in 2002, they paid for some of the upgrades such as the changes to the weight room.

“When you go through the recruiting process, you see all sorts of facilities,” Halsey said. “You see indoor facilities, you see weight rooms, you see things like that. You want that. You want to be at a school that has stuff like that.”

In the past 15 years, Illinois and the rest of the NCAA have been in an athletic building boom designed to update ancient arenas, to show a dedication to athletics and to give local community members new facilities to use.

But one of the biggest by-products of the boom has been in top high school athletes going to the schools with the new facilities. In order to have a chance to win, teams must build new facilities just to remain competitive.

The buildings may bring about stellar recruits, but the desired results don’t always follow.

“Facilities are not a crutch for teams to lean on to say that is why they are not competing,” said Illinois assistant athletic director Kent Brown.

In the last decade, Illinois has built a new softball stadium, tennis center, basketball practice facility and indoor football practice facility. An indoor golf facility is scheduled to open in November 2005.

In the next five to 10 years, Illinois plans to renovate Memorial Stadium by adding club seating, to expand the tennis center and to build a new multi-purpose gym for sports like volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling.

Illinois is also in the process of deciding if it wants to renovate Assembly Hall or to build a new basketball arena.

“People look at that stuff,” Halsey said. “If they are making plans to get it or if they already have it, kids pick the school that has it compared to one saying they will have it. I think facilities play a big factor in recruiting.”

The new buildings may bring recruits in, but the top recruits don’t always bring wins with them.

More than half of the football team was named to an all-state team in high school.

The football team won the Big Ten championship in 2001 but has only won eight games since then.

The men’s basketball team – with some thanks to the new practice facility – has had two of its last four recruiting classes in the top 20 and has won four of the last seven Big Ten titles.

The men’s tennis team routinely signs the top tennis players in the nation. They won the 2003 NCAA Championship, made the 2004 NCAA Final Four and have won seven straight Big Ten titles.

“(A new facility) helps recruiting, so you can get the best athletes here,” Halsey said. “That will give you the best shot. It goes hand in hand. Just because you build a tremendous facility does not mean you’re going to get wins.”

Division 1-A schools have increased spending on facilities by 250 percent since 1994 and have spent $4 billion in the building boom, according to a 2001 Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics report entitled, “A Call to Action.”

The report condemns the building boom in college athletics and calls it an arms race. It says some colleges are building new arenas just because others are – regardless of whether there is a real need to build them.

The report also states that some schools have dropped sports to balance their athletic budgets, while others must “siphon funds from general revenue to try to keep up with the Joneses.”

“If you’re building a facility for a recruit it is hard to justify it, but if it can be shared by others, it’s more of a justification,” said Ohio State Sport and Exercise Sciences Professor Donna Pastore.

At Illinois, the athletic department generates its own revenue. Students do not pay fees in their tuition for athletics, but Illinois dropped the men’s swimming and diving and fencing programs in 1993.

Illinois men’s tennis head coach Craig Tiley has read the report and takes issue with it. He says the report focuses too much on football and basketball and doesn’t spend enough time looking at non-revenue sports.

Tiley also wonders why only athletic departments get looked at as harshly as they do.

“If I was to look at a school academically and look at the buildings that are being built (the same could be said),” Tiley said. “It’s great to have a library, but do we have to have a library that big? Do we need to have a new building?

“I don’t see any of these questions going on with athletics going on with academics. I’m not critical of either one. I think if a need can be proved it should be done. If there is not a need then it becomes more of an arms race.”

At Illinois, the justification is that the public is allowed to use the facilities. The Atkins Tennis Center is open for public use from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. University employees can use the Armory track – which was recently renovated. Memorial Stadium hosts the Illinois High School Association football championship games.

But the Ubben Basketball Complex and the Irwin Indoor Practice Facility are not open for public use.

“If you have scholarships for the sport, it is kind of pointless not to have a facility,” Tiley said. “If you’re not going to commit to the sport, then it is kind of useless to have scholarships and coaches.”

The building boom would not be possible at Illinois without private donors. Richard Demirjian donated $1.7 million this year for the Demirjian Indoor Golf Facility.

Every new athletic building has a donor’s name attached to it. The Ubben family donated the Ubben Basketball Complex. Lilla Jeanne and Paul Eichelberger paid for the softball field.

The Atkins Tennis Center opened in 1992 and was voted the most outstanding facility in the country by the United States Tennis Association.

A decade later, it cannot hold that title, as tennis facilities have opened all over the country with more courts than Atkins has.

But Illinois is striking back with a 12-court expansion. While Tiley said the expansion will give community members more court time, he also said the expansion will give Illinois one of the best facilities in the country – again.

Will this building boom be a cyclical process?

“(Schools) have built about all they are going to build,” Pastore said. “There probably won’t be another boom for another 20 or 30 years. It is too expensive to continually do this.”

Halsey has utilized all the facilities he coveted so much in high school to try to turn the football program around.

He compiled 1,285 all-purpose yards and scored seven touchdowns last year. He was named a 2004 pre-season honorable mention All-American by Street and Smith.

“He is a gym rat,” said Illinois center Duke Preston. “He is always trying to get better.”

Halsey knows to get Illinois back to the top of the Big Ten, the Illini will just have to keep bringing recruits on campus and using the facilities to prepare for wins on Saturdays.

Halsey smiles as he says his recruiting pitch.

“A Big Ten program like this, we are going to get top-of-the-line facilities and things like that every year,” he said. “We will get the money and anything else it takes to get it done.”