kreed5120

Really fantastic post. I'll just add even on many games days it sits mostly empty.

BGSU seems to have always done a better job than Akron at keeping their alumni involved in athletics. The Stroh Center was built 15 years ago at a cost of $30 million. Half or more of that money came from alumni. The Stroh family alone gave $8 million. Several other donors gave over $1 million. They also sold bricks that way they could gather money from the everyday fan, which also made them feel invested. Some here have criticized the Stroh Center for not being elegant enough, but honestly for being a rural MAC school it fits what BGSU needed. They could have handicapped themselves financially by taking the $15-$20 million they got from alumni to build a $75 million 8k arena that would sit mostly empty. They were smart enough to not financially handicap themselves.

I would guess 15-20 if Joe returns. I will guess ~30 if Joe leaves and a new coach comes in.

Yep, if he doesn't want to be here and we don't want him here there probably is no recovery. Maybe he will leave voluntarily for somewhere else. That said, if there is no real plan in place to improve things, I'm not sure how can can expect anything better than what we've experienced the past ~15 years. I foresee many 1-4 win seasons in our future.

If this was 10 years ago I would agree with you. In fact, I was one of the most vocal people on this board about Bowden needing to go as we needed to strive for better. A lot has changed since that time. Any new coach would need an infusion of cash to hire a full staff, recruit, have training tables, etc. You know the basics that all the other MAC schools currently have in place. Not to mention at least enough NIL that you don't lose your key players to other G5s. I don't want to say it's impossible to win at Akron (and by win I mean consistently winning 6-7 games), but they're certainly being setup for failure given the lack of funding. They will have to climb Mount Everest to succeed.

I'm probably not as optimistic as you about this being an 8 win team, but I agree we likely overachieved given the limitations placed on the program. Given the financial, practice, and bowl restraints the Akron job might be the worst job in all of FBS at the moment. Almost certainly a bottom 5 gig. Odds are vastly higher we bring in another Arth or Ianello over finding someone better than JoeMo. That's not even me trying to give praise to JoeMo. It's that nobody with any real prospects would want this job. It was surprising someone like JoeMo wanted this job in the first place and it required special circumstances for him to even have an interest. We'll really have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for whoever the next coach would be.

Calling both teams mediocre is probably being generous.

I really hope this game ends in regulation. I don't want to stay up late to watch this train wreck of a game.

I think Barre and/or Brisco will be needed more. Asking Lyles to give ~28 minutes a game for 3 games in 4 days will be a lot. Also, at some point it wouldn't be surprising if he faces foul trouble.

Back when there were talks of Akron getting a new arena ~10 years ago I kind of spoke against the 7k-8k seat arenas for this purpose. Although it would have been taxpayer funded through the city so not much pull the school would have had. It took exactly 1 game at Infocision for the new smell to wear off. I'm not sure we've hit 80% occupancy in a game since. Basketball after a season or two would almost certainly be back to averaging ~3k fans. I always thought the game day experience is better with the arena 80%-100% full, which leads to more fans wanting to return. It kind of sounds counterproductive but fewer seats can actually help improve attendance averages as it creates a false sense of scarcity and makes it a more desirable ticket to have. Particularly in an age where those under 30 want to brag on social media. It also creates a sense of urgency for people to get season tickets or buy single game tickets in advance. Key example is I would never feel the need to buy a ticket to Akron football in advance because I know I could show up to the gate and there will be 10k+ remaining. I do buy tickets in advance for Akron-Kent basketball because I know the risk for selling out is very high.

CSU is #254 in Kenpom. I wouldn't exactly say they are decent. Someone on the MAC board said Kent was told they would be in the Mountain bracket while CSU would be in the River, which would make sense as they would avoid one another since they already scheduled one another. Regardless, that whole situation is just another reason to not want to bother with that tournament. I heard the games were broadcast on an obscure stream nobody has. I'm pleased our games in the Paradise Jam are on ESPN+.

I hope not. The bracket Kent found themselves on looks miserable. These tournaments are one of the few times we have an opportunity to play quality competition on a neutral court and I feel we should take advantage. Radford, CSU, and Wright State are all programs we can schedule any season with ease. In fact, Radford is so pathetic we would just pay them to come to the JAR without offering a return game. Edit: The Mountain Division bracket would be appealing, but they only place power conference schools in it.

I thought we protected the ball fairly well. We only had 10 turnovers, which was 2 fewer than Purdue in what was a very fast paced game. Being outrebounded 45-26 was the real issue. They had a lot of easy 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chance points. I get we weren't going to win the rebounding battle, but Lyles only having 1 board just can't happen. Let's say he had 7 instead. That would have meant Purdue would have won the rebounding battle 39-32, which would still be a healthy margin, but not so large that you couldn't make up for it elsewhere.

My thoughts as well. They have size to exploit us down low and guards that protect the ball well. We were always going to have to generate turnovers to create some easy points in transition to keep this competitive. We weren't able to create enough in the first half and I'm not hopeful we will in the second half.

NET factors in who you play and margin of victory. There is more to the formula as well, but it's not all publicly known. If you play a UNC or Purdue, but lose by 40 it doesn't help you as you performed as or worse than expected. If you play a Purdue or UNC and lose by 5 then it benefits you as you performed better than expected. If you play NIU and win by 40 it can help you. If you play NIU and only win by 5 it will hurt you. It's not a simple SOS formula like RPI was. RPI was a much easier system to game.

RPI is obsolete. Oakland is just trying to collect paychecks.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/46966865/miami-ohio-qb-dequan-finn-ends-season-focus-nfl

Miami (OH) QB apparently quit the team to focus on the NFL draft lol.

This was kind of my thought process as well. Although at times you might need a big body enforcer type so there might be a game script that would call for him getting ~5 minutes of run time. That said, I wouldn't expect to see him in the rotation this year on a consistent basis.

This is why I only support Akron basketball, albeit modestly. At least with basketball we're getting some return for what we're putting into the program. Makes me feel my dollars aren't just being burned.

I've stated this numerous times, it's not just about having the money but also knowing how to spend it effectively. Look at MAC basketball as the prime example. UMass has more money than Akron there as well, but Frank Martin mismanages how it gets spent. Meanwhile, Akron has reportedly the 2nd most NIL money, but Groce spends it wisely retaining players and identifying under the radar pieces that fit his style of play. Now if Groce had next to no NIL then we would be in a similar boat to our MAC peers and forced to turnover our roster every single year. Do you think we would be having the same level of success that we are currently under that scenario? If my earlier comments were construed that the only thing that matters is NIL then I must not have conveyed myself well enough. Both coaching and NIL are important in today's college landscape. A coach won't have sustained success without NIL. At the same time a program with lots of NIL, but a poor coach, will also struggle. Edit: If you have both a poor coach and no NIL then you end up like NIU basketball.

It was late enough in the game that just prior to this Joe felt the need to attempt an onside kick.

Are you really trying to argue settling for a field goal on 4th and goal from the 3 yard line when you're down 11 late in the 4th quarter? Even after kicking the field goal you're still down 8 so you would need to convert a 2-point conversion from the same distance that you settled for a field goal on. The difference is a touchdown gives you 6-8 points while a 2-point conversion only gives 2. It's logical to take the risk when the return is greater since no matter what you will have 1 play from the 3-yard line with the game on the line in both scenarios. That was the one particular call that I found egregious. I don't mind taking the field goals earlier in the game, but near the end of the game we absolutely should have went for it on 4th and goal.

It might still be a little too early to say definitively. They have a lot of new bodies this year. It will likely take them most of OOC to find themselves. I certainly know last year we struggled in OOC play for similar reasons.

I honestly feel many are in denial about the state of our program moving forward. As @LZIp shared we have the smallest football operating budget in the MAC and little to no NIL. Realistically no proven coach is going to want this job. Odds are much higher that we will end up with another Ianello or Arth. 5-7 wins are about all we can expect under our conditions. There needs to be real vision behind the program if we want a chance to succeed. Boosters either have to step up big time or Akron needs to play more P4 games and invest that money we receive from OSU, Purdue, Iowa, etc. back into the program. Probably need to do some combination of both. I'm not sold on Joe as our long-term solution because frankly I don't think he sells the program well to boosters or local businesses, which is what's needed in this new age of college athletics. IMO Joe should enter next season on the hot seat for 2 reasons. One is the school literally can't afford a $1 million buyout. This isn't pro sports. We don't have a billionaire owner. Two is we need to develop a long-term plan to how we're going to improve this otherwise it's just going to be groundhogs day. New coach, very much all the same problems.