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Have him going #49. Indiana Pacers (via Cavaliers): Enrique Freeman | 6-7 forward | 23 years old | Akron

If I'm not mistaken, Bud Wentz mentioned that some sort of renovation is in the works for the JAR. There is legitimate money coming into athletics (baseball just got over $1M from the Skeeles family) and Guthrie stated "we're just getting started".

Right there with you. Was cool to be a student during that time, but had no idea all the expansion wasn't done in a responsible manner. With that said, many universities are facing similar challenges, with smaller ones even closing. So not an issue unique to us at all, but we dealt with it earlier and the reputation from that seems to have had a lingering effect.

I used to idolize Proenza (dumb college kid) but now as an alumni, I cannot do anything but look back at Proenza's tenure as anything but disastrous. He oversaw a bubble and double-downed on debt. Where were the people to say that wasn't a good idea?

I think you accurately describe what is going on at a lot of private universities with small endowments. For example, Mt Union has over 200 players on the football team and less than 2,000 total students. It's 10% of their student body and 150 of them have no shot at playing. The 150 players with no shot are $3.75 million in revenue for the school. I would bet at least 25% of their students play sports. Birmingham Southern was into the D3 baseball playoffs when their school went belly up. I have a brother who went to Cap University in Columbus and he has no idea how they stay open. This story is going to become more common.

TST (the 7v7 soccer version of the TBT basketball tournament) starts tomorrow. I haven’t checked all the teams, but I did see that both Adam Najem and Luke Holmes will be playing for a team called Pasha Luxury FC. They have two group stage games tomorrow and one Thursday. i wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few other Zips playing on other teams as well. If I see anything about those I’ll post.

I just know players were never "forced out" at anywhere close to the rate that they are now.

Bill and Mary Skeeles have made another generous donation to Zips Baseball. $1.3 million will fully fund scholarships to the max level allowed. https://gozips.com/news/2024/6/4/william-and-mary-skeeles-fund-university-of-akron-baseball-scholarships-with-1-3-million-gift

Just in case anyone has ever been looking...Influxer now has Akron Zips Football Jerseys available for players of your choice. Influxer was the same place you could get the Enrique Freeman Jersey earlier this year.

That type of hire is almost always a failure. I can't recall even one that worked unless we consider KSU’s hiring of Darrell Hazell from OSU as a position coach). The MAC in particular seems to sniff around large programs for anyone, absolutely anyone, from P5 programs to lead a program. I have an allergic reaction every time I hear something like "Notre Recruiting Coordinator" or "Ohio State assistant to the assistant WR coach..." Ionello is certainly the best worst example of name-brand candidates without any proven skill. It’s been a long time since he was fired, but it still seems like his two years at UA is part of the problem today.

I would love to schedule more A10 teams… I think we can beat them and pad the resume

Larry's son Devin has an offer from Akron

More teams interested and interviewing Freeman. https://www.si.com/nba/pistons/detroit-pistons-showing-interest-in-akron-standout-ahead-of-nba-draft-01hysft5btxe

https://www.si.com/nba/raptors/toronto-raptors-have-interviewed-Enrique-Freeman-ahead-of-nba-draft

The more I read about President Nemer the more I like the decision. I like that he's an Akron native and a two-time graduate of The University of Akron. It is true that it is often desirable in academia to seek candidates from outside of your institution - “new blood” (from graduate students to professors to presidents/chancellors), but UA needed a fast transition to its next leader in these difficult times. In this case, the best person for the job was one of our own. He can hit the ground running and continue President Miller's progress. Tough times are ahead for UA and many state universities, but I feel confident as a UA alumnus and father to a current UA student that this was a smart move on the part of the Board of Trustees, a governing body that has not always made particularly good decisions for UA.

I'm excited to finally have a college football game to play again, but I know it will take a few years until they actually pay attention to schools like Akron. It took several years of playing in a generic stadium before they actually included InfoCision in the older games.

Antonio Smith to Valdosta State

people rarely factor in how difficult it is for some players to be away from home or even out of state. When lifting starts in June local guys can still make it home to see friends and family.