kreed5120

We brought baseball back, but axed cross country so that was a wash. Although baseball is one of the biggest money losers in D1 sports so that probably still wasn't a wise decision. Should have probably just left baseball dead. With women's lacrosse I think that would put us at 17. We might be able to eliminate 1 women's sport. Not sure which would generate the most savings.

What's the pathway to respectable? Miami (OH) will have a $6M-$8M roster at a time that we can't even afford a training table. Where are we going to come up with the money like that? Is Kaulig going to bankroll the roster? I don't think we can cut anymore sports. We shaved off all the sports we could during covid. FBS schools are required to support 16 sports. Non-FBS 14. I'm pretty sure we're at 16. Unless we added any since our last cuts. If so, I wouldn't be opposed to slashing to get back down to 16. Revenue share and NIL has widened the gap. The math has changed and the amount needed to compete, at least at a respectable level, has considerably increased. In fact, it's going to continue to increase as more and more schools are contributing to revenue share at levels Akron can't keep up with. If there was a good plan in place to make Akron football competitive and relevant I wouldn't have such a harsh look. I just don't see light at the end of the tunnel that leads me to believe we can consistently win 6+ games under the current circumstances.

I feel it's because of the whole positionless basketball movement. Teams want to be able to do switches defensively without getting mismatches. I would also prefer a dynamic guard, but the reality is there are a lot more ~6'1" guards available than 6'5"-6'8" guards/wings so that creates scarcity. Simple supply and demand.

Although not an official announcement, the verbiage signals to me that Bowen likely plans to test the portal.

That was one of the things that stuck out to me about Goodrich's interview. He pointed out Duke's basketball program needed football to remain in the ACC. That makes sense as at that level only the Big East could provide a comparable alternative if they scrapped football and even then that could be a step down. Akron will never get an AAC, let alone ACC invite so that makes it an invalid comparison. The A10 and MVC are non-FBS conferences in our own footprint that would be a step up in competition compared to the MAC for hoops. 10 years ago I wouldn't seriously considered canceling the FBS program, but with NIL and our well documented financial troubles I just don't see how we can keep up in both sports. It's reported the NIL spend in basketball is projected to be up 35% compared to last year. With that kind of growth it's just a matter of time before our basketball program decays over time. If we continue down this path I fear we will have 2 programs struggling. Maybe not now, but in 5-10 years out.

I imagine those aren't exactly cheap to host. Even though they were low majors we probably had to cover each teams cost and give them a little bit of money to make it worth their while. You're probably right about us exploring a less costly MTE. Maybe someplace like WV that Kent played in last year.

Would also imply that he plans to test the waters as the Instagram post read as an advertisement of his skillset.

Surprised a bit about the travel budget just because most of the schools in the MAC are within bus range. One of the ones that wasn't is is leaving the conference so I suppose there is a reduction there. Maybe it more impacted the OOC travel.

I think a forum like this is great for brainstorming ideas, certainly for one's they might use. Having a smaller focus group is probably better for working out how best to implement them.

What's to say they aren't here lurking already?

I guess he's not lucky 🤷

I agree with pretty much everything you'd stated, but found this to be especially true. Scarcity drives demand. Particularly in this age of people wanting to show off on social media. People buy season tickets because they feel they have to and then keep them because it's a great experience watching games with an energized crowd. Perhaps the change needs to start with us on Zipsnation. Last year I bought 1 season ticket and split it in half as many games my fiancé work schedule didn't allow for her to attend and there were quite a few games that frankly I had little interest in committing time to attend in person. I will commit to two tickets next season and try to invite friends to games when fiancé can't attend. Perhaps that leads them to getting tickets in the future.

A lot to unpack here. I don't really care to get i to dissecting it now, but I might jump in and say things if others comment. I appreciate much of the honesty displayed by Goodrich and Groce here.

I am a bit surprised. Not because he would be commanding top dollar elsewhere. Just that one would think he would be behind both Ipsaro and Skaljac in pg duties. You would think he would want an opportunity to showcase his talents that way he could command top dollar next year. I wonder if thar means one of the PG ahead of him will be transferring.

They have craft beers at the arena. You'll just be paying more than $2 lol.

Love the idea of a punch card. You can even expand it a bit to include perks that cost the University little to no money, but might be viewed favorably to others who don't typically get those experiences. 2 - courtside seats for 1 game 2 - tickets to Tommy Evans Lounge 1 game

That's actually more useful thoughts than we typically get in this thread. I think concessions might be outsourced so I'm not sure how feasible it would be to implement this, but it's worth exploring. I would certainly enjoy loaded fries on Friday.

There are teams in the CAA that aren't any better than the directionals in the MAC. The CAA is also a 1 bid league. CoC is averaging more fans now than when their arena opened 15-20 years ago. Obviously they have done something to improve the experience. Edit: They've also been the only show in town for many years. That wouldn't explain why their attendance improved while ours regressed.

Not really meaning to pour any salt on wounds. Someone mentioned CoC attendance in a previous post so I looked. If you go back 15 years they were averaging 3,400 fans, similar to us during the later Dambrot years, and that was with them having a relatively new arena. Fast forward 15 years and they're now on a 39 game sell-out streak, meanwhile our attendance has cratered to ~2200. I do think it would be worthwhile for the Zips athletic department to maybe take a look at what factors maybe helped improve CoC numbers at a time when attendance is shrinking most places. Perhaps see if there is anything they've done to engage the community or improve the gameday experience that is transferable.

Gather in friends, we secured our first commit of the Ford era.

I'm not privy to any inside knowledge, but I saw this post by Sam Amico on 330togo facebook page. I'm thinking Utah was maybe Utah State as that Utah job was never open.

Groce left on good terms. I don't see him actively poaching any players. If anyone follows him it will likely be because they were going to enter the portal anyway and we couldn't afford their asking price.

😂 Edit: had to leave this because I'm coincidentally out of reactions.