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Tom Wistrcill Resigns. Larry Williams hired.


zippy_ua_00

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Spin... I think you see it heading where I see it heading. As far as baseball, I am almost certain it is not a requirement, but a total number of MAC sponsored sports is. In reality, the MAC is a financial gun to Akron's head... and all the other schools. The MAC is full of non revenue generation athletic depts--. that really cant afford to be in an athletic/ coaching arms race... it will implode.

As for the subsidies.. 330 pointed out the Akron receives the 15th most money in D1...I believe (I know I saw it somewhere) that Akron is like 3rd in the percentage of student funding % of subsidies... at any rate I would look for Akron to drop to the minimum required number of sports in the MAC on hold on.

EDIT

Per Zach below-- baseball is required... so the move is to become affiliate member in football , find a basketball only conference, become an affiliate member in soccer somewhere, dump a bunch of mens sports and stay Title IX compliant..... (but Im sure there are bylaws against current members dropping to affiliates)

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I don't have any statistics to support it but it certainly seems to me that college baseball is starting to grow in popularity even as the Major Leagues are experiencing a decline in popularity nationwide. Maybe I am out of touch on that subject because I am a big fan of the sport though.

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Akron Baseball averaged 256 fans per game this past season for a free event http://www.gozips.com/sports/bsb/2014-15/teams/akron which is not a very impressive number.

If sports are going to be a marketing tool then Akron simply needs to cut away anything that they do not have to have in order to focus capital on football, basketball and soccer which are the things that people care about.

We just finished pretty high in the track and field tournament, had a kid win the NCAA title in the pole vault, and no one could tell you his name.

All D-I schools must field teams in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women, with at least two team sports for each gender.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_I

Men's Sports

Football

Basketball

Soccer

Golf

Tennis

Rifle

Women's Sports

Volleyball

Basketball

Soccer

Golf

Tennis

Softball

Rifle

Lacrosse

Akron should drop 8 sports - Baseball, Women's Swimming and Diving and the Cross Country and Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field programs. While swimming and track/xc have won MAC titles no one knows about this outside of friends and family and no one cares in the general public.

Add back men's tennis which was dropped in the late 1990's and add a new sport in women's lacrosse which could play at Infocision Stadium or in the converted track and field area out on Lee Jackson Field.

Right now there are 20 sports, get down to 14 and make football, basketball and soccer the best they can be.

N.B.: If you want to post on ZipsNation .. signup with your own login. Don't spoof mine. <from the actual Zip Watcher>

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Akron Baseball averaged 256 fans per game this past season for a free event http://www.gozips.com/sports/bsb/2014-15/teams/akron which is not a very impressive number.

If sports are going to be a marketing tool then Akron simply needs to cut away anything that they do not have to have in order to focus capital on football, basketball and soccer which are the things that people care about.

We just finished pretty high in the track and field tournament, had a kid win the NCAA title in the pole vault, and no one could tell you his name.

All D-I schools must field teams in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women, with at least two team sports for each gender.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_I

Men's Sports

Football

Basketball

Soccer

Golf

Tennis

Rifle

Women's Sports

Volleyball

Basketball

Soccer

Golf

Tennis

Softball

Rifle

Lacrosse

Akron should drop 8 sports - Baseball, Women's Swimming and Diving and the Cross Country and Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field programs. While swimming and track/xc have won MAC titles no one knows about this outside of friends and family and no one cares in the general public.

Add back men's tennis which was dropped in the late 1990's and add a new sport in women's lacrosse which could play at Infocision Stadium or in the converted track and field area out on Lee Jackson Field.

Right now there are 20 sports, get down to 14 and make football, basketball and soccer the best they can be.

I take it you have never been to a rifle or tennis event.

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Akron Baseball averaged 256 fans per game this past season for a free event http://www.gozips.com/sports/bsb/2014-15/teams/akron which is not a very impressive number.

If sports are going to be a marketing tool then Akron simply needs to cut away anything that they do not have to have in order to focus capital on football, basketball and soccer which are the things that people care about.

We just finished pretty high in the track and field tournament, had a kid win the NCAA title in the pole vault, and no one could tell you his name.

All D-I schools must field teams in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women, with at least two team sports for each gender.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_I

Men's Sports

Football

Basketball

Soccer

Golf

Tennis

Rifle

Women's Sports

Volleyball

Basketball

Soccer

Golf

Tennis

Softball

Rifle

Lacrosse

Akron should drop 8 sports - Baseball, Women's Swimming and Diving and the Cross Country and Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field programs. While swimming and track/xc have won MAC titles no one knows about this outside of friends and family and no one cares in the general public.

Add back men's tennis which was dropped in the late 1990's and add a new sport in women's lacrosse which could play at Infocision Stadium or in the converted track and field area out on Lee Jackson Field.

Right now there are 20 sports, get down to 14 and make football, basketball and soccer the best they can be.

N.B.: If you want to post on ZipsNation .. signup with your own login. Don't spoof mine. <from the actual Zip Watcher>

Let me get this straight: We should drop swimming and track/cross country because no one cares in the general public, but we should add men's tennis and women's lacrosse. Huh. I must have missed the clamoring of the general public for these.

If the interest of the general public justified the existence of Akron athletics, I dare say we could do away with all of them. Immediately.

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The MAC dropped baseball as a requirement for membership a few years ago. A full conference member in the MAC only has to participate in Football, MBB, WBB and volleyball.

Remember on Sesame Street when they used to sing that "Which of these things doesn't belong?" song?

Susanthesethings.jpg

Note: Successfully answering the above question was also worth 85% credit on several K.e.n.t. Doctoral thesis papers.

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According to the MAC site, all 12 MAC schools currently compete in the following sports:

Baseball

Basketball (men's and women's)

Cross Country (women's)

Football

Soccer (women's)

Softball

Track and Field, Indoor (women's)

Volleyball

Other sports range from a high of 10 (women's golf) to a low of 5 (men's indoor track and field).

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It's a sad pathetic time when we look at collegiate sports only as a way to draw attention to the college. This is the kind of bs that is slowly turning me off college sports.

We can pretend the Big Three sports hemorrhage money by the truck load in order to bring notoriety to the school, while complaining that (in reality) they're ridiculously under-marketed and do get few eyes on the school. It works for tOSU, not so much here.

So let's hatchet the crap out of intercollegiate sports that the students pay for that we don't think serve our vision of what the programs are suppose to do. What other student activities should we take away from them without asking? Who are we (or the AD) to tell those hundreds of student athletes they can't play here anymore?

Because we have delusions of grandeur of other student athletes? e5142633.gif

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Hopefully more of the people who were searching for Bowden and less of the people who were "searching" for Embick.

Right..sort of. Hopefully we can luck into that situation again. Set your sights HIGH.
“So the guy says, ‘I’m calling on behalf of the University of Akron. Would you be interested in the job?'” Bowden leans back in his chair. He told me he’d had his eye on the Akron job for several years, though it is an odd job for anyone to covet: Before the school chased Bowden, they went after a former Zips player and assistant coach named Paul Winters, who led Wayne State to the Division II national championship game last season. And Winters chose to stay at Wayne State instead. Only then, Bowden says, did he get the phone call from the search firm. “So I tell him, ‘Yes, I’m interested,'” he says. “And the guy goes, ‘Really?'”
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It's a sad pathetic time when we look at collegiate sports only as a way to draw attention to the college. This is the kind of bs that is slowly turning me off college sports.

We can pretend the Big Three sports hemorrhage money by the truck load in order to bring notoriety to the school, while complaining that (in reality) they're ridiculously under-marketed and do get few eyes on the school. It works for tOSU, not so much here.

So let's hatchet the crap out of intercollegiate sports that the students pay for that we don't think serve our vision of what the programs are suppose to do. What other student activities should we take away from them without asking? Who are we (or the AD) to tell those hundreds of student athletes they can't play here anymore?

Because we have delusions of grandeur of other student athletes? e5142633.gif

I wouldn't suggest "asking" students if they're willing to pay (and they are paying, big time, through subsidies) for intercollegiate athletics. I'm guessing that any school outside the elite programs would find that a majority of students would vote to keep the money in their own pockets. This is certainly true of MAC level programs, which are so heavily subsidized. I was stunned to learn recently how heavily students at Rutgers subsidize their football program. It's just not a winning proposition. I'm all for MAC type programs taking a stand and doing college sports the way they should be run - as a true competition among student-athletes. That's something to be proud of.

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I have an idea. Make college athletics return to what it should be, which is an athletic competition between two schools. Nothing more. The cost for scholarships, uniforms, stadiums maintenance and travel was pretty much the total budget.

Yale and Harvard certainly battled for what they thought would make their schools superior to each other, and gain the better crop of students. But it made sense. They WERE the superior schools, just trying to earn an extra edge. If people are going to SEC schools because they have the superior football teams today, it's for the wrong reasons.

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LZip....I'd like to see some data that shows that "college experience" is NOT "the" determining factor, as you say. Really. I'd like to see where student's minds are today. I'm sure plenty of students make their decision based on that.

I went to school in the early 80s. Akron had a top-notch program in my field of study, but others were good as well. But I can tell you that my decision was completely based on Akron's proximity to my hometown, and the cost. I'm certainly not alone. In fact, I can tell you that several other people from my hometown were going to Akron for the same reason.

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TW reflects on his last six years.

Thanks for posting. Good interview.

Highlights:

* Tom says he made the decision to leave.

* Admits he didn't know a whole lot about Akron when he took the job

* Funding model is the biggest challenge as an AD at Akron and most schools

* Zips need a new arena, and the city, county, and biz community need to come together to make a downtown arena

* Learfield is like IMG, he will be selling their services to AD's across the country

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