Leaderboard

I still have quite a few game programs and a few buttons and patches etc. I just recently tossed my rubber bowl 50 year anniversary metal tray since it was getting badly corroded. I also kept my Frye for Heisman yard sign for a long time until moving recently. I always thought it would be cool to have a zips clubhouse somewhere for watch parties and as a repository for souvenirs, zips media archives, etc.

Finally...

The "Face" of UA seems to be ex Zip QB Matt Kaulig. Wonder how he'd feel about dropping a division or two in football, or eliminating it? I'm guessing he wouldn't like it. UA has too much already invested in The Stile Center and InfoCision to just walk away from football. Infocision has to be over 50% paid off by now anyhow? I wish the President wouldn't have left everyone hanging. That's all Arth needs is some open-ended comment from the guy regarding de-emphasizing athletics...as if recruiting for the Zips isn't tough enough right now. And a final note -- I get that football is an easy target given our lack of any sustained success for 35 years. But why has no one ever been held accountable for it? There's no reason, in NE Ohio, with a beautiful new football stadium, and top notch training facilities, that we should be racking up 1-11 and 0-12 seasons. We should be The Toledo of the East of Ohio. I wish we had any semblance of leadership that knew how to run a D1 football program. We just lather, rinse and repeat the same malaise with every administration.

I think you're just going to see the MAC/C-USA/Sunbelt programs run an FCS budget program at the FBS level. This allows them to save face by not having to move down, but also allows them to greatly reduce costs. Akron's program has been running at an FCS level on the field for 3 decades now. All this does is lets us save some money in the process.

None! I'd rather the money go to basketball than football nobody cares about. If I wanted to be associated with somewhere like Ashland, thats where I would've went. However, once again, I find it hard to believe football is in real danger. We've already invested the facilities and we can't make those costs go away and we get the most exposure from football and men's basketball. I really do believe those two, along with men's soccer due to the success of the program, would be the last to go (obviously without considering all the TItle IX hoops). I'm also not in favor of FCS..though all G5 creating their own thing in shall I say, spring, would be intriguing, and a way to gobble up more money than before. There is no competition with the XFL gone.

President Miller's message is scary and necessary. Akron can't survive doing things in athletics like we have. Change is coming and it will hurt. It is clear that we cannot compete with P5 conferences and all their money. They can continue to have games w/o fans because they do not need ticket revenue to survive. Case in point, the Big Ten last year sent each member $45.7 million from the Big Ten TV channel alone. If a UA sport cannot be self sustaining I see it as being in jeopardy. Football is at the top of the list. It is desperate for ticket revenue to increase but has yet to show signs of life. I can see Akron joining many other G5 schools in forming a division below D1 that is less expensive to operate. This division would be above the D1A that YSU and the rest compete in to try to save face and earn some semblance of a TV contract. I can see sports being cut. If football doesn't go I can see men's golf, cross country and track being eliminated. On the women's side I can see tennis, lacrosse and volleyball being cut. No new sports would start. Facilities will be modest and emphasized. As Miller said things will never be the same. Our better coaches will be poached and we will not have any hope of competing nationally in most sports. We were running financial deficits before COVID-19 hit. Now enrollment, and consequently deficits, will be worse than planned and we will have to pay a dear price to emerge as a survivor. We can do it, but it will hurt in many areas. For us on this board athletics may hurt the worse.

@fknbuflobo I have to add another very significant match for Jake Fenlason. In the 2015 College Cup semi-final, Jake kept Stanford scoreless, with 6 massive saves that allowed the Zips to take the game to Penalty Kicks, where the good guys had several opportunities to advance. During the run of play, the Zips shut out a potent Stanford attack that included USMNT player (first cap November 2014) and future Seattle Sounder, Jordan Morris. Jake was HUGE vs Stanford in Kansas City as well as the Elite 8 match you mentioned vs Creighton in Akron. ?⚽??

I think a proper penalty would be that Mballa cannot play against the MAC champs. That'll teach 'em. ?

I'm sure that Buffalo assistant was a lone wolf, just like that guy at Louisville that sullied poor Rick Pitino's reputation. ?

1. ACC 2. Big Ten 3. Big-12 4. Pac-12 5. SEC 6. Dayton

I know it is a sore spot with many, but the last guy that proposed budget cuts was Scarborough and he was run out of town on a rail. He was brought in to be the bad guy and make cuts then was run in part for being the bad guy and making cuts. He didn't have the COVID-19 crisis for cover. Don't get me wrong, he messed up plenty, but he was the budget cuts guy.