kreed5120

Considering the first game is 2 days away it would seem likely that jersey deal never materialized. Assuming Wendy's was the national company that reached out about it originally they must have opted into a less expensive, or at least shorter term deal, to get naming rights to the campaign along with likely some signage. At this stage I'm not sure why they just wouldn't try to sell it to Kaulig at a discounted rate for 1 year to both show their appreciation for his contributions over the years and to buy themselves some time to find a longer term sponsor. Some money is better than no money.

Honestly, I wasn't disappointed by it. It just jumped out to me. The alternative would likely be paying a Bucknell caliber team ~$70K to come to the JAR, which wouldn't really excite me anyways. I suppose it's just an extra $70K we can spend elsewhere.

Road game at Bucknell is an odd choice. Historically that's the type of team we have bought home games from in the past.

His status is probably up in the air due to the court battles.

I think it depends on how badly they beat up on one another. Like a 1 loss champion from MWC, PAC-12, or SunBelt will likely always beat out a 3 loss champion from the AAC.

It looks like Tulane is coming to the JAR on November 14th.

Edit: Wrong thread

Toledo just released theirs a day or two ago. They play both Michigan and Michigan State. I would think ours should be released any day now. Then again I've been saying that for like 2 weeks.

I think there is still value in college athletics as it keeps alumni engaged, enhances the college experience, and provides marketing for the University. All of this said, the costs have got out of hand. I get why the Nick Saban's and Urban Meyer's of the world made what they did. Their programs were highly profitable and they were highly successful. I don't think athletics necessarily needs to turn a profit, but it also shouldn't be financially crippling schools. IMO no MAC football coach is worth $600K+, yet you have multiple making $1M+. They're only able to command that because MAC Universities, along with most of the G5, are heavily subsidizing athletic departments to the tune of ~$25M+/year. If that subsidy was something more manageable, let's say $10 million, staffing costs across all sports and building costs would be greatly reduced.

I will say Akron's effort in the past has been poor. Under Goodrich the past 2 years the effort has seemed much improved. It just takes time. Rome wasn't built in a day. Not that Akron is Rome.

With extreme roster turnover week 1 lines have to be extremely challenging to bet. Even teams that loaded up on talent it might take time for them to gel.

I wasn't all that surprised to see PA, MI, FL, CA, and TX rank among the top 10 states for Akron alumni. I was surprised to see the heavy concentration of alumni in the VA, Carolina, GA region. Not that I wouldn't have guessed 1 or 2 of those states to make the top 10, but I wouldn't have guessed all 4. Scheduling more games against programs like Georgia Tech, Virginia, NC State, etc. would seem to make a lot of sense if we want to keep alumni outside of Ohio more engaged.

When you can't compete in the predominant sport you have to shift your focus elsewhere.

College athletics has become much less entertaining once a JD degree became required to properly follow. Probably why I watch much fewer random games than I did ~10 years ago.

I was going to call it alcoholism or insert whatever drug, but this works too.

TBF in a separate post I acknowledged they have a top 2-3 fry in the fast food game.

Haven't had either from there so I can't really make an argument. I will say Arby's curly fries are amongst in the best in the game. Probably in my top 2-3 when it comes to fast food fries.

I would assume this was the national sponsor they were referring to or at least one of them if there were multiple. It's possible I suppose. I just think they would have announced it if that was going to be the case. The season is only a week away. Is there plan to just surprise us when the Zips walk out onto the field against Wake Forest if that's the case?

They did advertise steak nuggets on the post so maybe a slight upgrade over the curly fries. It did mention football sponsor so we will probably see some signage. Maybe they will sell some Arby's food as well.

They pay Akron money. Akron name drops them and puts their logo in corner of video that will get hundreds of thousands, maybe a few million views.

I know some really wanted an influencer to win, but I feel this actually played out the best. Sure, someone like Big Cat would have generated more attention over the next 2 weeks, but once it was done Akron's 1 month of fame would be over. Everyone would think the contest was rigged and not want to participate again. Given that a Joe Akron won Akron can easily run this exact promotion or similar ones in future years and people will participate because they won't think it's fixed.

Yes, Akron's collective. The one Bud Wentz is heavily involved with. https://www.feartheroocollective.com/

That's the FTR collective logo.

Contest winner has been announced. https://x.com/ZipsFB/status/2092355978884764065

I saw Big Cat partnered with the Wisconsin collective and is offering 2 tickets to 25 winners (50 tickets total). To enter the drawing you have to donate $50 to Wisconsin's collective. An idea that was obviously built off of Akron's promotion. I'm sure these type of promotions are going to become very common in college athletics.