kreed5120

I meant to say Seth Wilson, but typed Hardman. Its been a long day.

I don't think anyone's replacing Nate individually. Tavari, Scott, and Young all played 24-25 minutes last year. We're not as deep as guard so I'd expect each to see closer to 30 minutes and we try to replace Nate in the aggregate. Eric and this guy will help fill the void along with filling the minutes vacated by Hardman.

Looking at her numbers, I can't imagine she'd get any meaningful amount of money.

The article I read said he collapsed on the court due to a heart condition. The scarier part is they weren't able to determine the root cause therefore he hasn't had any corrective or preventative treatment. He plays with a heart rate monitor to measure for any abnormalities. If he has another flair up, he's likely done for the year, perhaps career. Unless Groce thinks Brisco could give Akron 15-20 minutes as a contingency plan, I'm not sure how we could risk that.

The state of Louisiana is looking to pass legislation to raise taxes specifically to fund NIL. They're also seeking to make NIL tax free money. S*** is getting out of hand. https://lailluminator.com/2025/04/21/louisiana-legislators-to-consider-college-athletics-subsidies/

If we're talking Duquesne transfers, this is who I'd want.

If it makes you feel better there is rumblings of doing away with redshirts and giving everyone 5 years of eligibility. That's probably the only carrot the NCAA has left to dangle to bring players to the negotiating table to restore order.

Probably a combination of both. He was probably hoping for close to Nate money, but P4 aren't eager to pay that for 5'11 guards. He would have still been a good get for a high major so I wouldn't be surprised if Bud gave him some of the money we had budgeted for Nate.

Athletics is just marketing for schools. Schools like OSU get 100s of millions of dollars in free advertising from their games being on TV, word of mouth, and random people who have had no connection to the University whatsoever being a walking billboard for the school by wearing their hats and shirts. The problem is everyone wants to be a Texas, OSU, Michigan, etc. but thats not achievable. They drown in debt due to delusions of grandeur. No different than when Proenza tried to rapidly expand Akron's campus falsely believing if he builds it, they will come.

College athletics is far worse than baseball for a number of reasons. 1) Baseball gives teams 6 years of control. If a Guardians rookie wins ROY, a Red Sox GM can't just slide into his DM and steal him after year 1. 2) Baseball actually has a draft so talent is disbursed in a way that struggling teams get the most hyped prospects. Hence why Skene is a Pirate, not Yankee. You wouldn't see Cooper Flagg in a Chicago State, NIU, or insert whatever other MEAC school jersey. The top schools are getting both the best incoming freshman and the top players at the mid-major level. 3) In addition to draft picks by record, MLB gives small market teams and non luxury tax paying teams additional compensation. Baseball is a little broken, but can be fixed with some tweaks. It's nowhere near the level of s*** show college athletics has become. Even a school like Baylor is turning over their entire roster. It's the wild wild west with no sheriffs.

https://tenor.com/view/money-crying-woody-harrelson-wiping-tears-with-money-gif-6945518

It's still TBD what minimum, if any, the MAC plan to impose. I know the AAC has $10 million planned for 2027 (likely 4-6 million of which will go to football). Furthermore, if other MAC, SunBelt, and C-USA schools decide to spend multi million of direct support, that puts pressure on others to follow. Not doing so will leave you destined to be the Pirates of FBS.

Neither has eligibility remaining as of now, but some are speculating (hoping) that the house settlement will give everyone 5 years of eligibility instead of the current 4. They're entering the portal in case that happens.

Sounds like you're talking about collusion of schools against players, which certainly wouldn't hold up in court. Besides, players technically aren't being paid to play even though in reality that's what's happening. They're paid for 'name, image, and likeness.' That's why a collective bargaining is needed. Anything that restricts player movement will get challenged in court otherwise. The NCAA tried to implement things, like restoring the 1 year sit out for transfers, but the courts told them they can't do that.

Contracts and transfer fees won't hold up in court. They only work in professional sports because the players are unionized and collective bargaining agreements are in place.

This is mostly my thoughts as well. I will say I'd slot Miami just ahead of us right now, but things are subject to change as rosters get filled out.

I noticed his X bio says professional athlete. My have collegiate athletics changed...

Not anymore, but it was previously. By laws were amended after they decided to grant Akron permission.

The system is only going to get worse once revenue sharing is fully implemented. That's another $3-4 million/yr that programs like Utah and Kansas State will have at their disposal to poach our players. I setup a reccurring donation to the NIL, which I'll keep for now, but probably won't bother renewing once the card I have it on expires in a ~year. If role players, like Okonkwo, are getting $500k today then the money I'm contributing really amounts to nothing.

Kicked from the conference. Baseball was a required MAC sport as well, but Akron was granted permission to eliminate it.

The only benefit is it would allow us to keep travel costs down. Using the MVC as an example, it would be a step up in hoops, but I believe Valpo would be our closest conference mate. Per Google maps thats nearly a 5 hour bus ride away. We can get to nearly all the MAC schools in less time than that.

Obviously not that secretive if it's finding it's way to a MAC message board...

I feel it's still TBD how much revenue sharing and direct institutional NIL support will impact the cost of college athletics. If the standard becomes G5 schools paying players $3 million, that means schools like Akron would have to play 2 paycheck games just to fund the players. A cost that doesn't currently exist today.

In the case of Nate, probably not much. The top 20-25 P5 teams are spending an estimated $7-$10+ million in NIL. The Toledo Blade article had other MAC coaches guessing Akron was set to spend ~$1 million. That means Nate received more from Kansas State than Akron had to spend in total, assuming that ~$1.5 million is accurate. As for Nate, it's hard to blame him. $1.5 million for him at his age is pretty life changing. If he's smart with the money and invests the bulk of it, he should be fairly comfortable for retirement by the time his European basketball career comes to an end.

Assuming this was true, I would think that wouldn't roll out Kent. Financially their situation isn't as dire as Akron, but they're still facing budgets deficits. Their president or maybe athletic director a few years back said they were going to prioritize basketball over football. They've pretty much been at the bottom of the MAC in spending and have played 3 paycheck games a year much longer than Akron ever did. Also, they don't play in a city, but they're in close proximity to both Akron and Cleveland.