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LeBron gave his name and not a dollar more. That's how he rolls.

Men's basketball IMO should be the safest of all the sports. It's way too expensive to try to keep up with the Joneses in football. Even when we tried to with Infocision and Stiles, we got a pretty poor return on our investment. At least with basketball we've shown we can get pretty decent value for the amount we put into it.

I can't fathom that they'd cut ALL sports. There are changes ahead but the AD's charge is to cut 20% of the budget, not euthanize athletics.

Jamal Davis to Packers

The article shows this is not just an Akron problem. And it shows some of the responses from different people. Different perspective.

If I'm an Akron area dance studio, I'm signing up Boogie Knight as my spokesperson asap.

Everyone is in agreement that the athletic subsidy needs reduced. This isn't an argument unique to those wanting our football program drop down to a lower level. Those arguing we stay FBS are simply arguing that any costs we save by dropping down to FCS are more than offset by revenue lost and increased travel costs. We can still slash the football budget while remaining FBS. We can also schedule more buy games to boost revenue and help cover the costs of the other sports.

I just thought it was an interesting article...not the Holy Grail.

(quoting from the article) "experts warn against cutting sports" ? "Experts in college sports spending..." ? "Despite likely revenue decreases, experts say universities still don't have to cut teams" ? "Donna Lopiano, the president and founder of consulting firm Sports Management Resources and the former director of women's athletics at Texas...'The first thing you say to a school facing financial exigency is: Do not cut sports'...." ? "Every alumni that ever played that sport at your institution in the last 100 years will be on your case, and the loss of future donated revenues and goodwill is not something you want to deal with." ? Alright I'll stop here. I put the laugh emoji because I want to emphasize that these comments and "experts" in this case is synonymous with people who have a non-objective bias/benefit from maintaining the gravy train. There would be a lot less opportunities for Donna Lopiano to get lucrative jobs as the head of "Sports Management Resources" (whatever the hell B/S that is) if there was a mass exodus of Universities from sports. Sports that are artificially held inflated and propped-up by a socialized cost (student fees, universities footing the bill) and not an actual market demand. There's a LOT of fat to be cut out, and a lot of the fat "middlemen" that would be cut out are the "experts" who profess you shouldn't cut them. As for the Alumni thing. I'm tired of this argument. Yeah, I'd be pissed and probably not have as intimate a connection to my Alma Mater. But the U wastes more money on maintaining these bloated sports programs than it gets from Alumni. So what if Jason Taylor would get mad if Akron cut Football? When was the last time Jason Taylor did anything major for UA other than show up for a bobblehead giveaway? Like...not a good argument.

From the video and what I've read, the whole '6 of 11 colleges' statement needs some context. Seems like they are looking at some consolidations (ex. CBA and law school as mentioned above) to reduce administrative overhead that probably isn't really necessary. Doesn't seem like over 50% of the majors are being cut, which is what I think somebody would take from that comment on its face.

A bird told me that we will have an idea about the athletic dept this Wednesday. googling all the MAC schools in Ohio, I see that they all have millions and millions in budget shortfalls.

Some show on Netflix I bet.

Frank Solich shares a portion of his salary with his top assistants.

A 20% reduction in The Athletic Dept. budget is going to come from where? The Department is already nowhere close to be 'self supporting', never has been. 20% is a big chunk of change particularly when there is an over reliance on student fees to stay in business. Obviously a lot of that support will go away because it appears a lot of student fee revenue will go away. To me the most telling part of the statement was when Miller said 'there is considerable uncertainty about the future of mid-major Division I athletics'. That shows his attitude toward what all athletics will look like at UofA in the future. I fear that this health crisis simply accelerated what may have occurred further on down the road.

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.

God help us. We should know in the next few weeks. I saw rip off the band aid and move forward.

I've been arguing for a leaner, more focused university for years. Akron and Kent are 10 miles apart. They both should be focusing on what they're best at and eliminate programs the other school is far superior at. Kent should be focusing on becoming an elite liberal arts school for the NEO region and Akron should be looking to do the same in STEM.

Buflobo, your writeup on the CDM position is incredible. Your analysis is excellent. I loved how you told the story of Perry Kitchen and his leadership qualities. I have never seen an 18 year old seem to be always where the ball was going. Will and Perry were tremendous college players and have gone on to shine in MLS. Buflobo, your writeup is clearly from your huge zips soccer loving heart. Your passion and heart shine thru with every word in your writeup. Thank you for your fair words on Victor Souto and for recognizing that Victor was clearly one of the 3 best CDM's to play for the zips from 2010-2019. Victor hated to lose and the 2015 team would not have advanced to the NCAA college cup without Victor's passing and ball hawking skills in the midfield. Victor also graduated summa cum laude. That is an incredible accomplishment for any student athlete.

I agree, and the win will not come against YSU. I predict it will come against UMass.

From the Onion. Had to be a Zips fan. ?

Some people just see what they want to see. Sometimes consistency= mediocrity (see Rob Senderoff). Consistency can also mean you spend your entire life making the fries. Moving on often means you've done well and are sought by others for the quality of your work.

When It rains it pours. It’s no wonder nobody has any pride in this school. Constantly treading water.

Maybe it was just me, but I kept reading the article waiting for the answer that doesn't involve cutting sports and all they could come up with is salary cuts (not to mention it would supposedly save "millions")? Does not compute.

I hate to disturb the lovely quiet over here but here's a Beacon article on the anticipated budget deficit. The original article is short enough to paste here- The University of Akron’s financial woes as a result of the coronavirus outbreak are “at least a $65 million to $70 million challenge,” President Gary Miller said in a video message to campus Monday. That number takes into account both “real and anticipated” loss of revenues for next fiscal year, Miller said. Miller also announced an initial plan to consolidate the university into five colleges. Newly appointed Provost John Wiencek will announce further details within the next week, he said. The announcement came a week after Miller released a similar video sharing plans for substantial cuts to athletics and a reorganization of departments. Executives will also take a 10% pay cut. The university was already expecting financial uncertainty, as enrollment has continued to drop for the last decade to just under 20,000 this year. The budget approved for the current fiscal year, which ends in June, called for dipping into the university’s reserves by about $11 million.