kreed5120

I'm honestly not surprised. Out of all our players with remaining eligibility he probably has the highest market value due to his size, athleticism, and well rounded game.

$12K plus being a human billboard to raise awareness for both the team and collective

I'm looking at their website and they sell a lot of branded school merchandise that retails for $35-$40. I'm sure Bud is getting a discount for ordering in bulk, but I wonder what the margins the collective is earning on this stuff. I would be surprised if the collective is making more than $10-$15 margin per hat.

Mine is showing delivered based on tracking number. Will have to make sure to check when I get home.

I agree the talent is there and he's good enough to start somewhere. I'm more just pointing out the logjam at the position. If he stays in the MAC he could develop into an All-MAC caliber player in the future.

I actually don't think this transfer means much to them. He was their 4th best pg IMO. Ipsaro was arguably their best player last season until he got injured. Skaljac and Kirby IMO are better than Perry as well. All three of those guys as of now will be returning. Now they will be hurting if one of those three transfer now because they no longer have depth at guard.

That to me would imply chasing a paycheck. I don't think anyone here is claiming that, especially after seeing his salary is pretty similar to Akron. In fact, he might have taken a pay cut once you factor in cost of living adjustments. If it was about just collecting a paycheck I imagine he could have left Akron a while ago. I imagine at some point in 9 years a school called and offered him more money than Akron was paying. Groce is a competitor and wants to win. He likely believes that CoC provides him a better opportunity to make a Sweet 16 run because they have a larger war chest of NIL money.

Yep, this is the biggest reason. I'm sure weather, fan support, and amenities all are positives, but if NIL CoC was offering was comparable to Akron no way he makes the switch.

I don't really know if that's true, but if I was an incoming freshman I certainly wouldn't stay committed to a team where I don't know the coaches. After all I doubt Groce was actively trying to recruit any of those players while at Illinois so he had no relationships with them. I would either follow that coach to the new school or go to one of the other schools that was originally trying to recruit me. I imagine you would to if you were in their shoes. That's why coaching changes void NLI. Big Dog and Cheatham were graduating. I believe it was widely known Noah planned to transfer even if Dambrot stayed. I believe the same was true for Josh wanting to play with his brother at Robert Morris. As you mention the portal isn't what it is now so Akron was always in for a rebuild year. May have even played a role in Dambrot deciding then was a better time than ever to make the move.

Interesting to note, Campbell's head coach, who plays in the same conference as CoC, has stepped down to become an assistant coach at Louisville. He is very blunt in his letter saying he's leaving because the University isn't giving him the necessary resources to compete.

He didn't take Ivey or Utomi either. Hughes only played in about half the games. Combined TDM and Hughes averaged 5.8/2/1.5. That would be like if Halligan and Oggy enter the portal this offseason and someone posts well damn there goes our entire team. Nobody here would treat those losses as something we couldn't recover from.

I'm not as close to the program to know what differences Ford and Groce had philosophically so I can't speak to any schematic changes. I expect us to continue down the same path of targeting young players, developing them, and then using the portal to plug deficiencies. From much of what I've read online player development is what many have pointed out as one of Ford's strengths. We'll continue to rely on that and perhaps can even use it as a tool to recruit under the radar underclassmen who might still be a bit raw.

They were leaving anyway. Look at any coaching change and you see huge roster turnover. The exception is if you promote an assistant like we did with Ford. Even then it's no guarantee. Edit: Didn't he only take 2 if I remember right? Hughes and that undersized pg? Memory is fading at my old age. Edit 2: Tavian Dunn-Martin

I feel much of the hate Dambrot receives is misdirected. When he left there was a large contingent that appeared to be more Dambrot fans than Akron. Those people were very vocal and quit on the program. This time it feels different in that people are rallying behind Ford. Edit: People were also probably more overreacting because it was the first time in a don't know how long a ~decade long tenure coach with a lot of success left. People are more based this time because they've seen it happen before and are confident we can recover.

Coincidentally I just got an email a short bit ago saying it shipped.

How did you find out it was held up for postage? Curious if that's the same issue with my hat.

I definitely agree with you there.

Groce vest was kind of iconic because you don't see a lot of coaches wearing vests. I don't disagree with your post about Ford. I just don't know what they could sell that would be the equivalent.

They have a 39 game sellout streak and they allot 900 students per game. The arena was built in 2008 at a cost of $47 million. Inflation adjusted that would be $70 million. IMO if the JAR ever reaches a point of disrepair and we have to build something new, something like this should be the blueprint. Miami went way over the top with their $260 million arena. Edit: Akron, if I recall correctly, competed in the Charleston classic a few years back. Someone might be able to provide better details about it from attending in person.

Crazy how far the UB program has fallen. Under Oats they were prepared to spend big money. Now as soon as they show any sign of life they get gutted. I used to feel dislike towards them. Now I take pity on them.

The uncertainty is less than ideal. Likely an indication a few plan to test the waters. A bit surprised nobody has yet come out and announced it one way or the other.

It's not a sunk cost fallacy because I'm not saying we have to keep the sport because of the stadium. I'm pointing out eliminating the sport doesn't eliminate the annual expense for the stadium. All I'm asking for is an analysis that would detail the expenses saved from the elimination of the sport vs the revenue lost. That's called making an informed decision.

That's fine, I already previously stated I'm open to the idea. I would want a more informed opinion before feeling strongly one way or the other. It's more that if you want to present the numbers you should only factor in the expenses that would be saved by eliminating the sport. If an expense would still remain then it wouldn't be a savings. You would also need to factor in revenue lost and the delta of additional travel costs of moving all our sports to another conference.

To be fair Infocision is a sunk cost. Eliminating the sport doesn't make the debt financing for it go away. It's not like we could sell it to a third party to eliminate the financial burden. Edit: For me it's more the revenue share/NIL that has me discouraged about the football program. Forget competing against the P4. I'm not sure how we can compete financially against Miami (OH), Toledo, WMU, etc. They have a lot more money to throw at football compared to us.

Since he didn't mention anyone else by name I wonder if they rest are following Groce.