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With all the recent conversation about Akron football APR scores it makes me feel even more grateful to have Groce running a basketball program that we can be proud of. On numerous post game interviews over the years I've heard him talk about players getting their degrees and praise individuals success in the classroom. He's the embodiment of what a college coach should be. He could be looking to cut corners and bring in unruly characters in hopes of adding an extra win or two, but he's not. He genuinely seems to care about his players and their long-term futures.

We can criticize the APR system all we want, but every other school is under the same system.

The hits just keep on coming and coming! The program looks bad. Joe looks bad. The NCAA looks bad and like clowns. But most of all the university, that has excellent students pursuing excellent degree programs, looks bad. Despite all this I believe building a quality, winning football program is achievable. I'm tired of feeling bad every time football is mentioned. I'm hoping Nemer and Goodrich are the people we need. The right people can do amazing things.

If this was 2014, I get it. But nowadays...how do you even calculate who is credited for a player's graduation after they've been at 4 different schools? We get 40 new kids every season and the NCAA is complaining about them not graduating? Who knew? When Joe signed on, at his press conference he stated "I don't just want kids to get degrees...I want my kids to get meaningful degrees (not just major in eligibility)". That noble goal lasted about 47 minutes, then the portal concept blew up and put the kibosh on any football-academic fantasies. The bulk of today's players are no longer in college for an education. It's a job. Their goal at UA isn't to get a degree, it's to perform good enough to get noticed by a bigger program. Along with the training tables being cut last year, was the academic support staff reduced too?

I just saw this. It is damn embarrassing. Bad football is a little more palatable if we can say the kids are at least excelling academically. When they are inadequate on and off the field you have to wonder what the hell is going on.

I'm sure there will be a long line of quality candidates if and when the job becomes available given the program's recent success and the past and coming cuts. Oh well, at least Joe pays his bills and doesn't use his school credit card for Chuck E Cheese visits.

what's his GPA?

This is unacceptable. What a joke of a program and players. Go to class. This school just cannot stop shooting itself in the foot.

Recruiting a bunch of dumb kids from Last Chance U who caused nothing but trouble for the University is allegedly partially why Bowden was canned. Hate seeing JoMo make the same mistake for an even worse record. We were already bottom feeders of FBS, but now the team is making the University look bad academically. Enough is enough. Would love to see the new AD beg the A10 to let us in. Better basketball and a higher media payout without even having football. We could house football in an FCS conference, where we’ve historically been much better in.

Nope. Also prohibited from playing in the MAC title game. This is on Joe. This program has exhibited little/no discipline concerning player behavior (and, apparently, academic performance) since day one of his tenure. When your backup QB (Undercuffler) gets a 15-yard penalty from the sideline for launching F-bombs at the officials (clearly heard on the TV broadcast, BTW) and your coach does nothing about it, you've become a renegade program. When your players come out of the locker room at an away game with middle fingers flying at the opposing fans (Peden Stadium in 2024) and no one is sat down, it's time to question whether you're doing things the right way. This program is an embarrassment to the university.

Translation- stop throwing good money after bad?

What about if the team is a combined 10-38 over this 4 year look back period? What if the program has only had 1 winning season in the last 15 years? This isn't a Vanderbilt or Northwestern issue where we're missing out on quality players because they don't meet academic standards. We've been admitting anyone who has a pulse and have still been the dumpster fire of the MAC.

Actually, it was the Supreme Court of The United States of America.

The Zips are ineligible for a bowl game this season due to low APR.

I wouldn't be surprised if Akron strongly encourages Joe to take an OC position elsewhere next offseason. Whoever we bring in next will be coming in handicapped as our practice time will be reduced 20% and no postseason for at least 1 year, maybe 2. Shockingly he might leave this program in a worse place than the one he inherited from Arth. I wouldn't have thought that was possible.

Joe will not be here much longer, and I hope his replacement talks just as much about inheriting an awful program, as Moorhead bashed Arth for the last 3 years. Can't count on my fingers how many times he's talked about it.

Just like football, it's all about the education. 😄

At this point I'll just be happy with our winning record and bragging rights.

At this juncture they may need a magician rather than a head football coach. The continuing nature of failure over years and years and through multiple administrations and coaching staffs tells me that the problem goes far beyond just the guy who is head coach at any given time.

Well that changes things a bit. Fire JoeMo.

I couldn't imagine. It's not like we're in the financial position to pay a buyout while also paying another coach.

Only one school is dumb enough to fire a head coach this late in the off-season.

I'm just a realist. The new leadership group is serious about stopping the bleeding.

"kids"? These are grown ass men who now are playing a type of minor league professional sports. Some of these "kids" are 25-26 years old. I'm not even certain why academic standards are a consideration. To me, if some of these men want to take classes towards a degree, that is good for them. If not, see you at practice, meetings and games.

In the NIL era, degrees are being handed out left and right. Players transfer from school to school and I doubt there is much cogency to the curriculum from school to school. On line masters programs are devaluing undergraduate degrees far faster than anything.

Wonder 4…5…6 years after the Arth era how many kids graduated, and if they didn’t, who it reflects poorly on? This is a good litmus test for our new AD. Will he have a knee jerk response and be swayed by collegejocksniffer.com’s click bait and memes? Or will he perform a real investigation and make meaningful changes? If tomorrow he says “Hey, I didn’t hire that coach” be very afraid.

All publicity is good publicity /s

Let's not act like college degrees haven't devalued themselves over the years with what's offered as courses nowadays. Do whatever it takes to keep the football program afloat and out of these types of headlines.

College athletics used to be a means to an end. Players went to schools, got an education/degree while playing sports then entered adult life prepared for success. Today, college football is the end and there is no preparation. I don't know how many more times I have to say this. College athletics are now minor league professional sports. I don't expect a college athlete to get a degree anymore than I expect an Akron Rubber Ducks player to attend classes and graduate from a university. Accepting this would allow coaches to do what they are brought to schools to do. That is preparing athletes for events that will be broadcast so TV networks can make money.

In an era when it's almost impossible to flunk online classes, this is pretty inexcusable. OSU probably has a 5 to 1 ratio of "academic assistants" to football players. The primary job of the assistants is to take tests for the players who coincidentally happen to be in the same classes. Sanders joked when he was at Colorado that he had not seen the inside of a classroom. Let's not pretend in the NIL era players are at the schools for the education and get these issues addressed with some academic assistants of our own. Some call this embarrassing. I don't know about that. If nobody is paying attention or even cares, how embarrassed do you need to feel?

It's the head coaches job to make sure the players are holding up their end of the bargain.

First of all, the APR is a joke. In the Portal/NIL era, academics don't matter. The only reason Akron is being punished is because we don't make the NCAA enough money. Second of all, how embarrassing. Two straight years of penalties. Pure negligence by JoeMo and his staff.

I overheard Guthrie designed our OV background? Just a rumor tho...

Purdue may have more wins in the MAC than Buffalo next season.

Purdue is projected to be a top 5 team in the country. This helps explain why.

Malik Henry working!!! 🤩 👏👏👏

I doubt this holds up. NCAA has turned a blind eye to APR in the recent portal era.