kreed5120

Akron football definitely has some amount of money. Bud helped setup their NIL a year and a half ago. He talked about it in an interview. It's just a very small amount they have, perhaps smallest in the MAC. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Now that the NCAA allows schools to pay players directly Akron needs to schedule 3 P5 paycheck games a year. Take half the money collected from games 2 and 3 and invest it in the roster. That would generate an additional $1M-$1.5M in NIL. The MAC is garbage. We can go 1-3 in OOC play and still go 5-3 to make a bowl as can be seen this year.

UMass also just hired the AD from Rhode Island to be their 2nd AD for them. They're pretty much paying him ~$380k to just oversee football operations. Their current AD will oversee the other sports. They're very much stepping up financially to try to compete on the field. Hopefully the UMass football coach is as inefficient at spending his war chest of money as Frank Martin has been with his.

Yes, athletes careers are relatively short. If he's able to live off his overseas basketball income until he's ~35 that money should grow enough that he could be in a position to retire (if he wants to) without needing to get another 8-5 post basketball.

I'm obviously an avid Zips basketball fan. That said, if I had a son who was gifted enough to play D1 basketball and was on the Zips and some school came offering him that kind of money, I would be the one packing his bags. That's life altering money at a young age. Assuming he's not stupid with managing it.

I don't know how accurate it was and don't remember who posted it, but someone here posted he got ~1 million.

From the articles you shared it sounds like the program is in a rebuilding year. Their top player transferred to Florida and their second best player is sitting out this season. They're going to be relying on a lot of players who are either incoming or only played ~10 minutes/game last year.

A lot of the guys that are leaving also aren't transferring up. Some are going down to the FCS or never find another school as they weren't good enough to play at this level to begin with. Key contributors that are leaving for greener pastures are likely getting $50k or in that ballpark. Some much more. I think you would be surprised by the amount of NIL money P4 and top G5 schools are spending.

Money talks. I like my job, but if a recruiter called me and offered me an additional $50k to do the same exact job elsewhere I'd have my 2 week notice submitted tomorrow. Edit: You have to remember we graduated and/or spent decades being fans so we have loyalty to the school. These kids have come from all over the country. Maybe have spent 2-3 years in Akron at the most. They don't hold those same loyalties.

He would make a lot more in Europe over the G-League. The top players there make in the millions, but it's unlikely he would reach that level. He will probably make low 6-figures somewhere overseas after graduation, which would still be far less than he is making at Kansas State so your point still stands.

Do you really want to see a repeat of our game against FAU? Any average MWC, AAC, or SunBelt team would likely mop the floor with us. The team has improved. We're at least able to compete with and/or beat the worst of the worst in FBS. I don't see us in a position to compete with average to above average FBS rosters.

Yes, I'm sure Gant will get some MWC or AAC money. I'm not sure what other starters have remaining eligibility, but we will lose guys on our offensive and defensive line to programs who have more NIL. Maybe even 1-2 to teams in the MAC. It's why I said getting to 6-7 wins next year. We really can't expect 8+ wins annually when we have to rebuild our team every year shopping the clearance rack for bargains. You can get lucky here or there and find good value, but not possible year over year. Fortunately going 5-3 in the MAC is possible most years because half the conference (ourselves included) is FBS bottom feeders.

I think he will be fine at Kansas State. He has the size and athleticism to keep up. I'm sure he won't be putting up 20 9 9 a night against better teams, but something more modest like 10 3 3 is doable. PJ Haggerty is expected to be the star on that team and draw a lot of the defenses attention. Nate is likely expected to be the 3rd or 4th scoring option whose job is to defend the opposing teams best guard.

People were talking about wanting him fired as little as 2-3 weeks ago. Let's not go ahead and put the cart ahead of the horse. We have to see 6-7 wins next year before any discussion of an extension comes into play. Even then something needs to be done about the buyout terms of these deals. A coach can leave for another school and it only costs him 10%-20% of the contract value. If a school fires a coach they're on the hook for damn near 100% of the remaining base.

Someone else is now the MAC's punching bag instead of Akron/Kent competing for that "honor" each year.

Degenerative gamblers...the MACs target demographic

They certainly get a lot of practice with them.

In the post game interview Groce said in a round about way that MMK is outperforming them in practice. He plans to play them, especially against bigger teams, but they need to earn their minutes in practice.

Maybe for quality D1 football. This is a matchup featuring 2 bottom 15 programs (per Massey). I'm seeing tickets to the Browns for under $15 on Stub Hub. To me that's a vastly better deal if I wanted to pay to see bad football get played.

I'm not sure if it's feasible, but if they could schedule them in a way that there were 3 midweek games per week and each team was required to only play 2 (1 home and 1 away) I think that would be ideal. That way ESPN still gets to fill their time slots, MAC programs still receive the money they desperately need, and fans/students get another Saturday home game. I would think it would be achievable as you would have 6 teams used a buy to set themselves up for midweek games the first 2 weeks while the other 6 teams play on weekends. Those teams can just rotate opponents those weeks. Then after 2 weeks the 2 groups rotate.

My uninformed opinion is Groce was like honest with him and told him it was going to be challenging for him to earn minutes given our depth at guard. Probably gave him the option of mop up duty or preserving a year of eligibility.

To tute my own horn I said at half-time that the Zips would need to rely on defense to create offense, which they did. I still have some concerns when we face more cohesive teams with better guard play. It won't be as easy for us to generate turnovers and score in the open floor. We should obviously look to run whenever we can, but it's going to be important for us to improve our half court offense as the season progresses. We can't expect our opponents to turn it over 20 times per night.

Kent losing means from my Zippy colored glasses that the MAC really went 6-7 on the road. I don't really follow women's hoops. I'm not sure if Kent was expected to be like a Akron/Miami on the men's side as a step up from the competition or if they were just expected to be marginally better than everyone else.

I didn't know there were transfer penalties still in existence.

Eric played. Not sure what is going on with Cody. Groce said Barre and Brisco will be used, but this match-up didn't necessitate it. Said MM earned his minutes by his performance in practice.

Last year the series was tied 12-12 with both conferences go 8-4 at home. The MAC will have to go 5-8 on the road to secure the win.