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Can the opinion writers of NE Ohio do anything else to harm the school? My goodness are these people the enemy. What do petty morons like Pluto, etc. think their endless articles about cutting sports do to recruiting, enrollment, etc. It's a conveyor belt of stupidity in NE Ohio opinion writers.

Arth and Groce are Akron's 2 highest paid employees. Just because the student body doesn't care about athletics doesn't mean the administration feels the same way. In fact, Akron has tried bribing students with things like free tuition just to get them to games. Nothing has seemed to work. What I really think we're seeing is people losing their pride in their local community. ESPN has preached for decades the if you're not first, you're last mentality. Their viewers have bought in. Cable tv has made it easy for Akron alum and area residents to sit at home on a Saturday and watch what they believe to be a superior product instead of going out and supporting the local team. People have proposed dropping down divisions in hopes that being more competitive at a 3rd rate division would make people care. Mount Union has been the Bama of D3 for decades. Below are their attendance figures from last season. I'm seeing home attendance as low as 1840 and as high as 4631 for their home games. I've lived within 20 minutes from their stadium for virtually my entire life and I've never attended a game, nor do I have any desire to attend. Not a single one of my friends who attended Mount have been to a game neither. I know I certainly would never attend a game of watching Akron playing Otterbein, Capital, or Heidelberg. Granted I haven't attended a football game in 2-3 years, but I would attend if they were ever to consistently become competitive in the MAC.

I hope there is a way to salvage the program. I don't want to throw it out just because of last year's season. All MAC schools must be in the same boat with this. Just because a team was 7-5 or 4-8 doesn't mean the state of that program is much better or makes more $ for the school. The MAC needs to find a way for the schools to protect their best programs and have flexibility with the others.

the basketball players have a gray uniform with just the half kangaroo head above the # on the jersey. They are very cool.

Times are tough now. Its easy for these writers and naysayers to take pot shots at a struggling/rebuilding program. Hopefully by mid-summer, fall things will get back to normal. I hope Arth will get this program back on track. His recruiting classes so far are encouraging. Winning cures a lot. Its not just Akron, but other MAC schools going through the same things.

But administrators are in part politicians (except Scarborough, LOL) and part of their decision making involves where they'll take heat from and what decisions won't draw criticism. The students and the teaching unions aren't marching on the President's office over cuts to sports. Don't get me wrong guys, I don't want to see drastic changes, I'm just saying in a world of pay to play and criticism of the finances of athletics that a winless football program is an easy target. Hopefully, there are enough donor alumni to apply enough pressure to prevent drastic changes.

This is an awesome image. One of my all-time favorites in sports.

That doesn't mean it always has to be like that.

Who? Shouldn't they stick to writing about the Cleveland scene and CSU football?

...or had a little fun with it. Have the kid come in for a visit, print him a jersey, throw the ball around. Hook him up with eSports for a little Madden. Get some positive pub...

I think it would also help fuel local interest in the team. I think some kids though just want to go away to college and there's not much you can do about that.

It's why schools and conferences like ours need to collectively and look at the options. One school cannot do it alone. I don't even like to look at them as cuts. As much as I hate it, I'm about to use a corporate Americaism....."right sizing". If everyone agreed to right size together, it is easier to take to the public. A school can claim to make decisions for the "greater good" or whatever sounds good at the time.

Niko BLASTED that PK, right in the teeth of Louisville student section! Great memory!

Many of those 'people' U said U never heard from have been posting here for years. By the way basketball is another thread.

To be fair to Terry, he actually compared us to Alabama. ?