kreed5120

Thanks for sharing. I don't find this all that surprising. Last year Utah State was at ~$850K and this year they climbed to $2.4M per Calhoun. NIL is still relatively new as is revenue sharing. I wouldn't be surprised if we see double digit annual growth for the next several years until we see the market mature.

Thad Matta was getting paid $2.6 million/yr. They might appear poor compared to UConn, but they have a lot more resources at their disposal compared to a mid-major program like Akron or Kent. If a program like Nebraska/Iowa can make a run to the Elite 8 I wouldn't see why Butler couldn't. They might not be able to keep their coach after doing it so it might not be sustainable year over year and certainly not the standard, but they can still get there.

I honestly don't know. Maybe someone else can answer.

IMO making rivalry weekend the first Saturday in October is something the MAC should fight for with the next TV deal. If they make it a point of emphasis I can see it being something ESPN or whoever agrees to.

If it keeps Groce in Akron I won't fight the narrative.

That last bit doesn't seem to do Groce justice IMO. Akron finished #54 in NET and currently sits at #69 in Kenpom. There are 85 schools in the P4 + Big East. I imagine it's fair to say all of them had more NIL than Akron. Probably 3x-10x as much. Add in many teams from the A10, MWC, MVC, AAC, WCC, and some one offs like High Point/Liberty that outspent Akron and Akron might have had ~130-150 highest payroll in college basketball. Fielding a top 75 team while spending around the median amount in college hoops is still excellent. Very few programs likely got a better bang for their buck.

I think you may have missed that they play EMU week 0.

Maybe he will find more consistent playing time and better production at a low major, like NIU.

It kind of shows how college athletics is shifting. NC State by a small margin has probably been the better program historically and plays what had been known as the basketball conference. 10 years ago you probably wouldn't expect an SEC school not named Kentucky to be able to poach NC State coach. The landscape has shifted.

I agree, I'm not sure what more they could have realistically done. What's disappointing is we see terrific turnouts in Cleveland every year which makes me wonder where these fans have been all season. I get if they live in Westlake, Bay Village, or Parma it might be a bit of a drive for them to regularly attend games, but even if we could get them to go to 3-4 games a year it would help attendance numbers a lot.

I have to imagine they would have scaled down or not built Wolstein Center at all had they known the Cavs would be relocating only a few years later.

Even so those things don't fit the fix that sports/concerts does. Much of the things you listed are reasons why I said people are unlikely to make an all day event out of both attending Akron games and then also attending Browns games. Adults have responsibilities so there is only so much time they can carve out for personal entertainment. People in Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo still have to do all those mundane things you mention and the free time they have they have many more options of how to spend it. I grew up in a small city and people went to the high school football game on Fridays because that was the only thing to do. Stadium seated maybe 6k and the population of the city at the time was ~9k-10k. Every home game the stadium was probably 80% full. As I grew up I realized that everyone attending the local high school game wasn't the norm in other cities, particularly the larger ones. You can pretend that Jonesboro, Arkansas has all the alternative entertainment that Cleveland, Detroit, or Buffalo does, but it doesn't. The same way that Cleveland has less competition than a city like LA or NYC. I never said a product still wouldn't be important to attract people. Just that people in Jonesboro are more likely to go watch a 5-7 college football team than someone in Cleveland because frankly there are fewer big events for them to attend. I'm not saying the product doesn't have to be good to get people to show. I'm saying the more competition you have to attract people the higher the threshold is needed to get them. I would think that would be fairly obvious. I'm not sure exactly what you can dispute about that.

What cow tipping? But seriously yes, I agree you still have to put a product on the field that is worth someone committing ~5 hours of their day or more. I just feel that threshold is much less in rural places like WV than it is in places like Cleveland, Buffalo, Detroit etc.

I'm still concerned about ripple effects from UNC. Like he's obviously not getting the UNC job, but it could open another downstream opening that could be appealing.

A couple things. The Sun Belt still plays some midweek games. Not as many as the MAC, but they still get played. Also, the Sun Belt has much less competition, particularly in sports, compared to the Midwest schools in the MAC. The reality is if Richard in Richfield has the option of either going to the Browns game on Sunday or Akron game on Saturday, he's going to the Browns. Most people don't have the ability to commit an entire weekend to make an all day event out of both. Schools like Marshall, Troy, Arkansas State etc don't face those same challenges.

It's a better job then Akron. Whether it's marginally better or clearly a step up is to be debated. I still think Claymann makes the most sense there as Groce has never coached outside the midwest and from a recruiting stand point he recruits Cincinnati and Cleveland fairly heavily. Not sure if he has the same connections in Florida or how he would do if fully reliant on the portal.

This may prove to be true, but Hubie being let go was kind of obvious and expected. I'm not sure that in itself proves validity.

If Bobby Hurley can get a job anyone can.

I would agree his run at Illinois is the bigger deterrent. I was more commenting because I was pointing out that tournament wins is not a requirement to get a P4 job. Steele's performance at Xavier is probably also why he wasn't taken as a more serious candidate. Had he went from assistant at Xavier to taking the Miami job and after 3 or 4 seasons put together the season he did I think given he is a Butler alum he would be the no brainer candidate.

Not to mention by playing the games on Friday you don't have to compete with rivalry Saturday. OSU-Michigan attracts a ton of attention. Usually a friend of mine hosts a watch party for the game. Even those who don't care much about OSU or even football still attend because who doesn't enjoy having an excuse to hang out with friends, drink beer, and eat pizza/wings. Trying to compete head-to-head would the game would be disastrous for any Ohio or Michigan MAC school from an attendance standpoint.

I feel that job goes to Flynn Claymann.

You don't have to get a NCAA Tournament win to get a P4 job. This offseason we've seen Casey Alexander take Kansas State job, McNamara get the Syracuse job, and Byran Hodgson take Providence job. None of them have an NCAA tournament win. In fact, with so much fewer mid-majors winning tournament games these days there is going to be fewer opportunities for P4 schools to hire the candidate that you described.

We'll have to see what ripple effects ND and potential UNC hiring have, but looking much better than 48 hours ago.

Randy Bennett probably took St. Mary's as far as he could. I'm not sure if you've seen them play outside of the tournament, but they play in what looks like a high school gym and he built them into a consistent at-large caliber program. I don't think ASU made that hire looking long-term. Probably more to right the ship and fix the culture mess that Hurley left behind. Perhaps making the job more attractive in 3-5 years for whoever they pivot to in the future.