kreed5120

If there is one positive of the portal it's that we can land a higher caliber freshman than we could 5-10 years ago. Akron's best selling point to these kids is they will have an opportunity to earn playing time by year 2 and can use that to cash in elsewhere (if successful). The alternative for many is to go to a lowly P4 program, ride the bench for 2-3 years, and then transfer down to a G6 program.

No disagreement there. Generally these deals I believe include a signing bonus and then a monthly stipend so hopefully Akron is able to recoup a large chunk of it.

I'm not exactly sure what you're disputing here. I simply stated I don't think he was a highly coveted transfer, especially since his eligibility was a bit murky as it relied on an approved 5th year that had to make it through the courts, so I don't feel we spent a ton to acquire him. We're not in a position to win bidding wars against anyone. Especially at a premium position like QB. The other 2 QBs you mention also probably make little to no money. Maybe a small token stipend. I'm not really in a position to argue how much better he is or isn't than the players we have playing QB currently. The opinion I shared is irrelevant to whatever this point is.

Probably not as much as you would think. He was unproven at the FBS level. We were probably one of the few, perhaps only, school that gave him a chance to start. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of our NIL went to keeping our skilled position players. That's where the majority of our returning talent resides.

I'm laughing because this post is pretty spot on.

That was before Freeman was a breakout star. I do agree keeping someone like him 4-5 years probably just isn't going to happen moving forward under the current rules. There is legislation that plans to limit how often players can transfer without penalty so perhaps that could restore some order for both basketball and football. The MAC is terrible. 6 out of the bottom 10 teams (per Massey) in FBS are MAC schools. That's not including NIU, who just left the MAC, that is also in the bottom 10. There is a big difference between beating 3-4 MAC cupcakes (who are on par with an upper tier FCS program) and actually being able to consistently compete with the top handful of teams in the MAC. I don't even think we have the full allotment of assistants and support staff so that would eat up a decent chunk to get just there before even getting into NIL.

We literally took UCLA to the final seconds in the tournament. Probably win if Freeman doesn't foul out on a bogus call. Ohio won a game just a few years ago. Buffalo a few years before that so MAC teams winning games can be done. The thing about basketball is it's significantly cheaper to compete. I think between operations and player spend Akron is around $4.5 million. Even if you gutted basketball to bare minimum and redirected all of that to football that might only free up $2 million. That's not enough to materially improve the football program. It's not a situation where Akron has the money to be competitive in football, but decides to invest it in basketball instead. It's that Akron acknowledges they don't have the resources to be good in football so they just decide to punt on the sport financially to free up a little extra for basketball. If they didn't do that Akron would be terrible at both sports and nobody would be happy.

I have heard Joe talk less about the programs limitations this year compared to previous ones. I feel some have unrealistic expectations for the program. Programs like Miami, WMU, and Toledo are probably spending ~$8-$15 million more than us per year when you combine NIL spend and operating costs. Even with that none of them are going to come close to sniffing the playoffs this year or the foreseeable future. Akron's athletic department was wise focusing what little resources we do have on basketball. Dollars go further there. The current FBS system is stacked against conferences like the MAC.

With just under 3 minutes until half-time Buffalo is trailing Robert Morris 14-7.

Unless Poffenbarger can play defense I don't think the outcome of this game would be changed. Maybe with him we only lose by 17, but it's still a loss. Something needs to be done to correct the break downs defensively. That's our biggest struggle.

We were on our 3rd string QB and competing against the preseason MWC favorite. Offense seemed to play well in the first half, which helped mask the poor defensive performance. In the second half it seemed like UNLV figured something out defensively as Akron was no longer able to sustain long drives. Without Akron's offense able to eat the clock with long drives it left the defense very exposed. Against an opponent like UNLV Akron needed to minimize possessions and hope for a few bounces to go their way. In the first half that's what they were able to do minus forcing a turnover or two. The second half everything unraveled. Luckily for Akron the MAC is very bad. 4-5 wins is realistic.

Too many large chunk plays given up. This team has more talent than previous years, but there is little to no talent in the secondary.

I get that P5 programs can be a struggle to schedule, and I understand why we might choose to schedule a non-D1 school over a bottom-tier D1. The guarantees you have to pay those schools are significantly lower, and either way, it’s essentially a cupcake game. That savings is money we can actually invest back into our roster. I’m just not a big fan of Tulane or Bucknell. Both are objectively pretty poor basketball programs. I would have much preferred doing home-and-homes against MVC-type teams or some of the better mid-major programs in the Horizon, C-USA, etc.

Why would it have to be one or the other instead of something in-between?

I came here to post the same. It seems like @Captain Kangaroo has a job waiting for him in the marketing department. https://x.com/AkronZips/status/2103242625906278424 Edit: The QR code on the back of the shirt is fitting for today's version of college athletics. Honestly I don't mind a QR code on the back as much as the sponsors that are normally on them. At least it's different.

I don't disagree. I feel it's comparable how many over react when their first time long-term relationship ended. Dambrot gave Akron prolonged success that we hadn't seen in basketball up to that point in perhaps ever. Groce came in built off that success. I feel Akron fans now see the program is in a place where it's bigger than just 1 coach and they have faith Ford will continue the success. Personally, I was bummed when Dambrot left. The main resentment I had towards the situation wasn't so much directed towards Dambrot, but more so towards the complainers who were just Dambrot fans who masqueraded as Zips fans.

I just looked at the map and you're probably good. Back 10-15 years ago when I volunteered for the event one of the courses involved Spicer, which is why I said the lot you wanted might be full. That doesn't appear to be the case now.

It's been a number of years since I've been in Akron on marathon day so things might have changed, but there is a lot of family, volunteers, and friends in that general vicinity so the lot you might normally want to park in might be full. Given that the stadium is directly off the highway I can't imagine traffic will necessarily be terrible if you're coming from 77, but you may be forced to park in one of the lots surrounding the stadium or the parking garage.

I could see Bobby Knight saying something like that during one of his childish tirades.

I guess the ABJ is a trendsetter.

Yep, as more and more regional newspapers are closing and/or eliminating dedicated beat reporters this is becoming increasingly more common in sports. I read the Seattle Sounders, who average over 30k fans/game and play in a major city, just lost their beat writer due to the newspaper cutting staff.

Honestly, I'm not really heartbroken. It's not that I didn't like Bowen, but he was very much a 1 dimensional player that really couldn't create his own shot. If his catch and shoot shots weren't failling he suddenly became a huge liability on the floor. I wish him success (unless he goes to PCCC), but I'm glad it seems this year's roster has more multi dimensional players.

The only thing that makes this messy is they should have been proactive and announced they would be grandfathered in back in January/February. Rosters getting filled and NIL largely being committed before any of these injunctions took place really messed up team building this year. We already saw it in football some as our "starting QB" can no longer start. Basketball seems to have a lot more of these type of players so it's going to be much more chaotic comparatively to football.

I suppose a terrible history is still history. Just like Akron is a storied FBS program. The story is just how not to run a program.

I want to give this a like, but that OOC schedule is a Miami (OH) level of bad.