GP1

George is a public figure and as such takes a bit of a beating on this board and elsewhere. Beatings go with the territory. However, he did throw the University a lifeline with this article as it relates to public discussion about the Athletic Department. Can the University right the public message?

You aren't missing much. Parking is terrible. Leg room for four foot tall people. Terrible traffic on game day. It would also be an inferno. Count your lucky stars

Who are these idiots? ⬆️ Baseball dad: 1/10th of the G5 schools will be killed? I wish people actually understood the words they use. Mike Conti: How was the MAC on thin ice? In spite of our horrible athletic directors and conference leaders, the schools were still functioning. The conferences don't lose the money. Schools lose the money. However, if you want to look at what a small amount of money it is in comparison. If every MAC school roughly had the same athletic budget as Akron, the roughly $20 million you point to is less than 10% of the budgets. The schools/taxpayers can find a way absorb those costs for a year. G5 schools have much bigger problems than athletics spending.

Just saw a Big Ten AD interviewed. Laying the groundwork for no football this fall.

Good. We can create something better.

BTW, my brother is close friends with a defensive coordinator at a P5 school. The cancellation of non conference games has been in the works for weeks now and they have been preparing for it. Do you think the issue of P5 schools going their own way isn't being discussed?

Immediately fill out the schedule with MAC schools. Play 11 games, have a championship and call it a season. If football can be played, the players on the team should get the opportunity to compete in as many games as possible with as little travel as possible. Now might be a really good time for that committee of G5 schools, excluding athletic directors, to start to form. Nothing can be done for at least 12 months so there is time. Something different needs to happen and it needs to happen sooner rather than later so G5s aren't standing around with only our wankers in our hands.

The ACC should take this opportunity to bring ND in for everything. ND needs to give up their idea of themselves as their current path is rapidly making them an irrelevant. If they cancelled their entire football program, P5 football would just shrug and move on.

It's all worth it when a Steely Dan song comes on. http://avidxchangemusicfactory.com/ One night the luckiest woman in the world, Mrs. GP1, and I went up to the NC Music Factory, or whatever they call it now to see Enrage Against The Machine at The Underground (below is a video of them playing at The Fillmore). We went to Small Bar for a couple of beers before the show and there were a bunch of people walking around in sailors caps, and I mean a ton of people. Obviously not a group of people looking to go see a Rage Against the Machine cover band. As it turns out, they were there to see Yacht Rock Review at The Fillmore. The show was completely sold out and there were middle age people, probably the swingers crowds from Lake Norman, paying a ton of money to scalpers to go. Very strange mix of people. North Carolina has some great 90s tribute bands and every year the Music Factory has an all day event called Grunge Fest. If you like that kind of music, it is a must see. Throughout the year, they have Saturday night concerts with 1-2 of the bands that play it as entertainment/promotion called Road to Grunge Fest. People from all over, including Ohio, should go.

Yes. Thank you. I was in the fog of posting while listening to Yacht Rock Radio yesterday and got my numbers wrong. Thanks for the correction.

I struggle with either/or propositions. Too Conflict Theory for me and life is much more complicated than the drivel Marx delivered to the world. I can't say one has no impact on the other. Nor can I say one is completely causing the other. I don't like looking at public education as a business because a public university should benefit the greater public. The business only has to benefit the shareholders and consumers. I will say many of the failures of G5 schools is treating their athletic departments like businesses in the past 15-20 years. It has caused many of them to lose sight of what is really important such as developing students, the overall student population, alumni and greater communities as well as they could. If they did these things well, the public would be more accepting of money being spent in college athletics. Treating athletic departments as businesses has also caused universities to make horrible spending and contract decisions that the schools are paying for now. Before G5 universities make further horrible bad decisions in the name of treating their universities like businesses, they should see if they can utilize their athletic departments to benefit students, alumni and the surrounding communities. It's a good bet to make. I believe if they can find a way to do this successfully, taxpayers will be more accepting when it comes to spending money within the overall university because it will show the university to be functional. Right now, all the public sees from public universities is malfunction and taxpayers won't stand for malfunction. Sorry for the long winded response. I got swept away in typing and a good few songs on Yacht Rock Radio.

It isn't. I'm not sure one has anything to do with the other. Were the students told they were going to cut their major in order to fund athletics? The Athletic Department is approximately 1% of the University's annual budget. They seem to be taking a disproportionate blame for the problems facing the University.

They should elect someone else because she presented such a bad case. Further, she is completely absent of any reality of college athletics and while she thinks she may be helping her membership, she is actively harming them. In European countries, unions look to boost up the organizations where their members work.

https://akronaaup.org/app/uploads/2020/07/athletics.pdf Here is the union's actual position statement. I took the time to read it. It isn't asking unreasonable questions. They hint around the question of what to do with not just Akron, but MAC schools, which is a good thing because it gets them close to the greater question of....What do ALL MAClike schools do moving forward and should this be collective action and not UofA acting unilaterally? Instead, they propose, "Let’s ask our athletics director to come up with a plan for conference participation that would maximize our teams’ strengths and immediately reduce support from the general fund from $26M to $12M." I do not know where to even start with this. Are there no history professors in this organization who could explain to the rest the failures in athletics the University has participated in when acting unilaterally? A Union should know the benefits of collective action and give it some consideration. Wait, consideration is the wrong word. They should encourage it. They should want to be part of something that big. The quote above should read, "Let's immediately organize a collective committee composed of interested participants in G5 schools, excluding athletic directors, and come up with a plan for conference participation that would bring our schools closer to the alumni, students and surrounding communities in a way that would make our schools a beacon of pride worthy of state funding for our athletic departments and public universities." I would also encourage the AAUP to consider the FACT that those who play NCAA sports are actually "students" within the student body of the University. Don't describe them as something else. I would also further remind them that many of these young adults come from minority and disadvantaged backgrounds. Athletics are the only chance many of these people have to attend and get a degree from a university. Limousine liberalism isn't going to help them.

Has our Board of Trustees been making very good decisions recently? The committee should communicate clear recommendations that would be difficult to screw up.