kreed5120

Maybe Akron can expand it's law school to add some specialities in NCAA and NIL litigation. It seems to be a growing segment /s

Louisville signed a G League player named London Johnson so I'm not going to pretend to know the rules these days. We're at our roster limit though so we can't sign anymore players anyways.

All I know is the real winners with all this litigation is attorneys and their billable hours.

It ended up being Sam Houston State.

I imagine they will play a lot of 3-guard line-ups. Considering their top 3 guards are all 6'2" and under and not great defenders, I think their success will depend on their 7 footer. They will need rim protection from him to make up for their defensive deficiencies elsewhere.

The max salary for Amani Lyles in the G-League this year would be $130K without a two-way deal. He could probably make around $1 million on a P5 roster, especially after his NCAA Tournament performance. He could be a starting PF on a lot of P5 teams or at least be good enough to be the first big off the bench. That said, Akron has no roster spots available so I don't expect him to return to Akron regardless.

Fairly big pickup for them. They should have one of the best backcourts in the MAC next year and Simmons to accompany them. Definitely a contender for one of those top 4 MAC seeds.

It certainly increases the odds one of the celebrity online personalities makes it to be a finalist. Particularly if they bought a number of season tickets. In that case I'm sure they would spend several segments talking about it. Edit: Big Cat is evidently up to 18 tickets purchased. Eric Sollenberger, his co-host, said on another Barstool podcast he himself bought 10. If you add up all the Barstool employees they probably have 100+ tickets. There is a realistic chance of one of them making it to be a top 10 finalist.

The winner will be announced on August 25. There are more details in the article below. https://gozips.com/news/2026/8/15/football-top-10-finalists-for-oc-of-the-game-to-be-revealed-at-meet-the-zips-event-wednesday I wouldn't be surprised if part of this is so they can make the finalists aware ahead of time that way they're available to be interviewed at the time of announcement. I know I personally don't answer calls from unknown numbers due to countless spam. If they want that NFL draft type call it kind of only works if the recipient is expecting the call. Otherwise they might not answer and it creates an awkward moment.

Not mentioned in the article, but the field naming rights are also set to expire. Summa Health is paying $250K/yr so in total between Infocision and Summa the naming rights were $750K/yr.

We can't offer what Miami (OH) offers either if the $8-$10 mil reported roster spend is to be believed. I think the bulk of the MAC teams are around $3-$4 million. That would be achievable, but will take work.

Tavari Johnson to College of Charleston.

I would expect high roster turnover until the federal government passes legislation that regulates college athletics. More money will help some, but even programs that are spending substantially more face major roster turnover.

I'm on mobile so can't copy and paste it. I asked ChatGPT to summarize it for those of you who struggle to access. AKRON IS PRODUCING OUTSIZED RESULTS ON A TINY BUDGET • University of Akron spent $33.8M on athletics in 2025-26, the smallest budget in the MAC and second-lowest among public FBS schools. • Despite that, Akron had arguably its best athletic year ever: seven conference championships, men’s basketball went 29-6, won the MAC Tournament and reached the NCAA Tournament, and the department finished 104th nationally in the Learfield Directors’ Cup. • Huron ranked Akron No. 9 among public FBS schools for athletic value/efficiency. FINANCIAL CHALLENGE Akron faces about a $700K budget hit in 2026-27: $500K less in institutional support plus roughly $200K in employee-raise costs. University funding makes up nearly two-thirds of athletics revenue, making new revenue especially important. FUNDRAISING IS IMPROVING • Athletic cash contributions increased 109%, from $1.7M to $3.6M, just $129K short of Akron’s single-year record. • The ACE NIL Fund raised more than $664K in its first year. • Akron also balanced its budget. SPONSORSHIPS AND NAMING RIGHTS ARE A MAJOR OPPORTUNITY AD Andrew Goodrich is actively pursuing football jersey-patch sponsors, along with naming-rights deals for James A. Rhodes Arena and the soccer stadium. The InfoCision Stadium naming-rights agreement expires in 2028 and currently pays $500K annually. Goodrich wants to replace it with a deal worth roughly $1M per year. Akron is pitching potential sponsors on its reach, including 2.5M unique football viewers, 880K unique basketball viewers during March Madness, and its social-media audience. ATTENDANCE REMAINS THE WEAKNESS Football attendance averaged 7,729 per game, up 21%, but still last in the MAC and second-lowest in FBS. Goodrich wants to sell out at least one game, pointing out that more than 3M people live within 45 minutes of campus. GOODRICH’S VISION Hired in 2025, Goodrich wants Akron to become the “pound-for-pound best athletics department in America.” After just one year, Akron has already reached the top 10 nationally in athletic efficiency, giving him some evidence that the ambitious vision may be achievable.

This article is dated August 3, 2026, but Zips social media just shared it and I saw no mention of it. Lots of good information. I would list some bullet points, but frankly there is a lot of things worth discussing. https://www.crainscleveland.com/sports-recreation/ccl-akron-budgets-20260730/ It's behind a paywall, but if you go to Akron Zips facebook page and click the link I was able to view the article in its full length.

Temu version of Barstool was also the vibe I got. Speaking of which, I think Barstool would be a fantastic jersey sponsor if we didn't sign with a local company.

I wasn't really equating physical people showing up. Just average tickets sold per game. If anything basketball having 15 games makes basketball have even greater value for season tickets as you get 15 games for $100 vs football where you get 5-6 games for $75. Edit: I think in basketball you only have to show up to about half the games to get your money's worth. There are all kinds of other metrics that show college football is more widely watched compared to basketball (TV ratings, NIL spend, coaching salaries, etc.)

Never heard of them so I wouldn't believe. Assuming they signed an FBS deal it would have to be G5. They look like a social media sports company so the fact Akron's promotion went viral I think it makes them a real possibility as it gives them marketable content. I would have preferred Goodyear or something like that, which is still a possibility, but if the check clears so be it.

Snapback Sports has announced that they signed a jersey patch sponsorship with an FBS school and they will announce who on Monday. Possibility it's Akron. https://x.com/i/status/2087953525330325861

A player regressing in a step up in competition wouldn't be a first time occurence. I think it's a solid addition for Kent. Not a league winning move, but they added a MAC caliber starter. All that said, I'm fully expecting another season sweep of them.

Probably the best selling point. As a fan it doesn't feel like much of a prize to have an 11 AM tip-off on a work day where many can't attend in person nor watch on TV.

Top 8 format is what I saw. Why does it need to be easy for a seed 5-8 to be champion? It should be a challenge for them if we want the regular season to have more meaning.

I'm fairly indifferent to it. They can still play 4 games those days. It will just be 2 men's, 2 women's. In fact, it's probably what they're doing. I haven't looked at the women's tournament to validate.

Throw the records out the window. The rivalry alone gives it plenty of stakes.

I'm sure someone will post Zips schedule graphic later, but the MAC released the conference schedule today. There will be 22 games. https://getsomemaction.com/news/2026/8/12/mac-announces-2026-27-mens-basketball-conference-schedule.aspx