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What a waste of John Groce's work ethic and talent. He does all the heavy lifting of identifying young talent, nurturing it, living through the tough times...and when it comes to graduation day, a new "dad" with a fat wallet buys his way onto the scene and walks John's players across the graduation stage, taking pictures and smiling with his arm around them. John's left with a few hollow tweets, and yet another rebuild. The Zips steal no one's players. We get Freshman, castaways and reclamation projects. Groce works his ass off to get those guys into a cohesive, championship unit that the school and fans can be proud of...until the next April when another new fat billfolded MF'er buys his way onto the scene and strips the Zips down to the frame again. Go Zips...

We were 1 of 5 teams to offer him out of high school. Marshall, Western Kentucky, and Maryland were the other notable programs. Didn't have any stats last year as a freshman (not sure if he redshirted).

But you have the leak? Are MAC employees who may have the privilege to attend the discussion not bound by this? And to be honest, I don’t see a real benefit for Akron to stay in the MAC if they aren’t there for football.

I think it really hurts our chances at a serious "take the next step" type of season - We had a good chance with the whole squad back to beat a P5 team OOC and maybe take a game in the NCAAs. Now, ehh... I still think we are MAC favorites. We dominated the conference after losing everyone last year. Sharron, Shammah, Lyles and co. are still a very good MAC team. Groce knows how to reload and get the pieces to fit better than anyone. Here's hoping we do some good portal-ing now

The system is only going to get worse once revenue sharing is fully implemented. That's another $3-4 million/yr that programs like Utah and Kansas State will have at their disposal to poach our players. I setup a reccurring donation to the NIL, which I'll keep for now, but probably won't bother renewing once the card I have it on expires in a ~year. If role players, like Okonkwo, are getting $500k today then the money I'm contributing really amounts to nothing.

Tavari still isn't in the portal

Played in two games for Marshall. Not sure what went on there, but he’s a great athlete with plenty of potential. High upside, low-risk, reward type pickup.

I thought a basic rule of the portal was that entering it allowed schools to make contact. I think it is pretty damn obvious that schools are making contact with players before they ever enter. Also, if we're going to allow them to essentially be pros, isn't there an argument to be made that they should also be signing contracts? Tavari leaving opens the door wider for Young, which isn't a bad thing other than it speeds up him going into the portal after next season.

No one's been able to tell me yet how FCS saves us money over the current landscape of multi million dollar buy games.

Really? I guess I'm old and it's a brand new world. These guys are welcome to chase the money, but that doesn't mean I'm going to get excited about cheering for them here or wherever the go when all they do is play mercenary. That's not why I like(d) college sports. I will add that at least Nate stayed here for 3-4 years.

Well technically the player can’t owe the school anything as school’s aren’t the ones paying the NIL deals.

This really is a good article. I recommend reading it if you haven’t already. Towards the end it talks about players breaking their contracts, etc. I found this excerpt to be interesting: More schools are trying to protect themselves with strict liability in these NIL deals. For example, there's another high-major player who signed a substantial NIL contract near the end of the season but subsequently went into the portal anyway, seeking an even bigger deal. One of his coaches told me they were bracing for this, even though pen was put to paper weeks ago. According to this coach, this player now owes the school "the entirety of a contract he hasn't received a dime of yet." "They think we are bluffing," the coach said. "We are 100% holding them to the contract."

College basketball's 'lawless, cesspool' transfer portal must be fixed

NIL can be a contract though

One thing is clear ... MAC basketball should be a lot different next season. Only time will tell if it will be better. Ohio has made major inroads getting both size and proven 3-pt shooting out of the portal ... UMass has also added size to go along with a juco PG ... BG has gotten a quality player to return and added some size ... Toledo has added some perimeter experience and some unproven size ... Miami has lost some key pieces, but return as much as anyone in the league plus a stellar recruiting class ... CMU has a new coach from D-II, and has brought several of his former players/recruits with him ... Kent lost a trio of proven 4-year players (that might be a MAC trivia question/answer soon enough) but is still to be heard from re: portal pickups or new prep recruits. Of course now Akron has lost 3 starters - late - off its MAC title team to the portal. Actually 4 if you count Harris, who was starting before he was out with an injury. But returning youth/depth and a solid recruiting class should keep the Zips at the top of the heap -- with time and $$$ to help add to the roster as well. Different, yes. Better, who knows.

NCAA needs teeth. Tampering is against rules but there's zero enforceability.

Yes, you want the free market benefits of being a professional you should also take on the responsibilities.

Yes, contracts and transfer fees.

If they're wanting success, Utah and Kansas State aren't exactly winning programs. This is purely a 1-year money grab and they cannot be blamed given the $$$ amounts we're hearing. They absolutely benefitted from the system Groce has in place here, and they're cashing in. All the more reason I'm in favor of transfer fees.

Can somebody name one Akron player who jumped to the next level and excelled at the next level? I just don't see Okonkwa, Nate or TJ excelling at the next level where they will be playing against bigger, faster, and more talented players each game. I think these players benefitted from weak MAC competition, Groce teamism, and years of good coaching. I really hope they succeed and enjoy great success. But my gut tells me they will have the Ali Ali experience their senior year and when they need film for Europe, if will be when they played for the Zips.

A few thoughts: - I can't blame Nate based on the money thrown at him. He won't reach the NBA and wouldn't get paid that much playing professionally overseas. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and he took it. If Tavari is getting similar money, good for him too. - I do wish neither would've posted on social media that they were returning. Yes, they're young. Yes, it's possible they didn't know. But Nate literally went 6 days between his "I'm returning to Akron" and "I'm out" posts on IG (the Akron post hasn't even been deleted). I hope these young athletes or the adults guiding them do a better job of this moving forward. - If this is the end of the defections, I still think we can compete for the MAC Championship. Evan Mahaffey will be a good MAC player, Sharron Young is the real deal, Amani Lyles and Shammah Scott should get even better over the summer, and I've heard nothing but great things about Eric Mahaffey. - I wonder if Perkins or Henderson may play next year. Redshirting players doesn't seem to make much sense anymore unless they're just not ready to contribute. - We have 3 spots open now, and I trust our staff will find winning players. We have to add at least one big (I've heard us connected to at least one already) and some scoring. They'll need another PG, too, unless Perkins plays right away. - I really hope this doesn't make it harder for Groce and others like him to want to stay at mid-majors. I can only imagine how frustrating it is and how tough it will be to build something sustainable.

Kicked from the conference. Baseball was a required MAC sport as well, but Akron was granted permission to eliminate it.

brother we lost all 3 returning starters, the mass exodus happened

I completely forgot about the potential for JUCOs. There has to be a ton of value at that level if we can find it.

Assuming this was true, I would think that wouldn't roll out Kent. Financially their situation isn't as dire as Akron, but they're still facing budgets deficits. Their president or maybe athletic director a few years back said they were going to prioritize basketball over football. They've pretty much been at the bottom of the MAC in spending and have played 3 paycheck games a year much longer than Akron ever did. Also, they don't play in a city, but they're in close proximity to both Akron and Cleveland.

I have, you just made a poor original claim and won't concede that. It's all good. Go Zips indeed.

The portal closes Tuesday. I'm not sure if that means players have 1 or 2 days left to enter their names. Either way I'll be holding my breathe.

Any player who isn't a true post player who can't shoot outside of the paint is going to be limited offensively. Can he slash and score some buckets at the rim? Sure. Can he do what Nate did in the MAC Semis or Championship? I highly doubt it. Suggesting there isn't a big drop-off offensively from Nate to Evan is just disingenuous IMO. We can be optimistic but still realistic.

I like Nate, appreciate his contributions and wish him well. That being said, he very much benefited from the lack of dominant MAC players in winning MAC POY. He had some great games for the Zips but when I look at the history of MAC POYs he's one of the least impactful. As I said, I like Nate. He seems like a great kid. I don't begrudge his decision to head to Kansas State for life changing money and I hope to hell he proves me wrong and has a million dollar year as far as accomplishments but I think he's a contributor as opposed to a standout in the Big 12..

I hope he does well at Kansas State but my common sense tells me he will struggle against better competition on a daily basis. Obviously the coaches at K State must think he can play at that level.

No - MAC POTY, 1st Team All MAC, and MAC DPOY are worth that if a team is desperate enough to make a "splash".

I noticed his X bio says professional athlete. My have collegiate athletics changed...

Rumor has it K State offered north of $1 million.