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Their absolute best chance to win a championship and play in the NCAA Tournament was to stay in Akron. Their absolute best chance to make between $500,000 and $1.5 million was to transfer to a P5 program. Compare Nate's income next season to any UA graduate walking across the stage this May. His income will dwarf the next closest earner by a factor of 10X. Hell...he'll be making $1,000,000 more than Enrique Freeman's made with the Pacers this season! Nate's the #1 '25 UA earner, and no one else is even close. Okonkwo and Tavari will be second and third on the list of Class of '25 UA earners. Then, some schmuck with a Polymer Science Doctorate comes in 4th, pulling in around $150,000. Playing time, championships, etc. do not factor into the transfer equation. As Don Olmeyer famously said: "The answer to all your questions is 'money'".

College athletics is far worse than baseball for a number of reasons. 1) Baseball gives teams 6 years of control. If a Guardians rookie wins ROY, a Red Sox GM can't just slide into his DM and steal him after year 1. 2) Baseball actually has a draft so talent is disbursed in a way that struggling teams get the most hyped prospects. Hence why Skene is a Pirate, not Yankee. You wouldn't see Cooper Flagg in a Chicago State, NIU, or insert whatever other MEAC school jersey. The top schools are getting both the best incoming freshman and the top players at the mid-major level. 3) In addition to draft picks by record, MLB gives small market teams and non luxury tax paying teams additional compensation. Baseball is a little broken, but can be fixed with some tweaks. It's nowhere near the level of s*** show college athletics has become. Even a school like Baylor is turning over their entire roster. It's the wild wild west with no sheriffs.

The existing "system" is great for those Power schools that make the rules. Say there's someone you want on the Zips...take them. It's free. If the Boston Celtics want Enrique Freeman, they need to pay for him either with players, money and/or draft picks. That's how pro sports works. "College" is now professional. The MAC shouldn't be a free developmental league for the P5's. You want Nate Johnson, you pay for him.

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."

I've mentioned it a million times, but it's just like the current MLB structure and being a fan of the Guardians. But so much worse. They will never win a World Series going against teams with payrolls 2-3x higher. Sure they can luck into the playoffs and maybe make a run every few years, but it will never be enough. Just like the Zips can make the tournament, but can never compete at the same level. In the end the "have nots" bring in talent, develop talent and those guys just get poached. But unlike professional baseball, we never get a return on our investments. We don't get compensation or the ability to trade a player for more capital. The system is beyond broken and nobody will say a thing because only the big schools matter. But I'll always be a fan even if I know we'll never have a fair shot. I'd rather cheer on my school than jump on a bandwagon of some school I have zero connection to like 90% of college sports fans.

Who cares when their bank accounts are greener?

I think we were always preparing for him to be gone after he ran out of eligibility

Probably a combination of both. He was probably hoping for close to Nate money, but P4 aren't eager to pay that for 5'11 guards. He would have still been a good get for a high major so I wouldn't be surprised if Bud gave him some of the money we had budgeted for Nate.

Saw a post that TJ is withdrawing from the transfer portal and returning to UA.

Take out the word "just" and I agree. What it is in addition to marketing could be so much better.

5 star, huh? Who knew?

I’m really sorry to report this, but I just heard that @clarkwgriswold has entered the portal. They’re even poaching our super-fans. Where does it end?!

Athletics is just marketing for schools. Schools like OSU get 100s of millions of dollars in free advertising from their games being on TV, word of mouth, and random people who have had no connection to the University whatsoever being a walking billboard for the school by wearing their hats and shirts. The problem is everyone wants to be a Texas, OSU, Michigan, etc. but thats not achievable. They drown in debt due to delusions of grandeur. No different than when Proenza tried to rapidly expand Akron's campus falsely believing if he builds it, they will come.

The two professional sports organizations with the least self-insight-- NCAA and MLB.

It would be odd if after decades of trying, Akron finally got a real D1 coach, turned around the program, had success and then dropped out of FBS. It would be the most Akron football thing ever. The only thing that would make it worse is if we joined the Big Ten.

Steve and his dad are incredible people. This is awesome news for Steve.

If it makes you feel better there is rumblings of doing away with redshirts and giving everyone 5 years of eligibility. That's probably the only carrot the NCAA has left to dangle to bring players to the negotiating table to restore order.

Interesting that it happened so quickly. Did he not get the offers he expected, or did UA pony up some more money to keep him? Either way, great news for Akron.

Prepare to be asked to respect my decision!

Lacrosse seems to have built some momentum under the ‘newish’ coach. I think she’s two seasons in based on the posts in this thread.

Or maybe we landed something big? 🤞

Looks like a commitment is incoming.

I'd just do the same thing I do now which is not watch Tuesday night football 😂

Yup. Sure is killing college sports fandom for the “have nots” though.

https://tenor.com/view/money-crying-woody-harrelson-wiping-tears-with-money-gif-6945518

Neither has eligibility remaining as of now, but some are speculating (hoping) that the house settlement will give everyone 5 years of eligibility instead of the current 4. They're entering the portal in case that happens.

Yeah... Passing on tens of millions in increased annual revenue doesn't benefit anyone you mentioned.

Thank you Coach Groce for a wonderful season. It was worth every penny to travel to Seattle and support my Zips. To the players leaving through the transfer portal the old adage applies here: Break a leg!

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...

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.

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

I lost track long ago and barely care anymore... but did we know Darrian Lewis was in the portal?

The gigantic difference between the Guardians and Zips is that the Guardians know exactly how long they have a player locked in, and can get compensated if they know they'll be leaving (either comp picks or trading them for prospects). The Zips got nothing in return for any of their players leaving.