kreed5120

It's worth remembering that these penalties come with a reduction in practice/meeting time. That's going to impact on the field performance.

What NIL money? Odds are we weren't going to go bowling anyway this year.

Unless there is one that I'm missing it looks like we were the only mid-major to make the list. Edit: I see Gonzaga/St. Mary's now

These ringers you speak of don't have to be non players. Just fill out the roster with guys who did well in school, but were maybe a few inches too short or a step too slow. It's not like all HS players are stereotypical jocks. Those guys can still contribute on special teams or in practice. I think the bigger problem is we just brought in too many JUCO or players that got by in high school because the school wanted them to play football on Fridays.

Only scholarship athletes.

I assumed those were the players @Hilltopper made mention to that the administration told them theh could come back and get an education for free. That was Akron's attempt to mitigate the issue.

You can do a Google search for yourself, but it is that simple. If a player has a career ending injury I would imagine any University would either continue to honor their athletic scholarship or give them an academic one. That would be horrific PR otherwise. @Hilltopper, if I understood correctly, said Akron offered to allow players that were no longer on the team the ability to continue their education here for no charge. That's an incredibly generous offer.

The threshold is 930. Year 1 we were in the 880s. The past 2 seasons we were around 920. All 3 years we have been below the 930 requirement.

I've tried fighting the good fight of arguing to keep the program FBS. Each passing year as the cost of FBS escalates and the football program reaches new levels of ineptitude it's becoming harder and harder to defend. If this path continues one has to ask at what point should we explore the decision of joining Dayton in the non-scholaship Pioneer League? I'm not saying we're there yet, but that date might be approaching. I don't see the value in scholarship FCS as any cost savings there is more than offset by reduction in revenue.

I don't disagree that the athletes we are targeting play a big part in this mess. The problem is this isn't a Miami (FL) issue where we're bringing in questionable characters, but still winning. Joe is bringing these players in and we're still going 8-38. Akron football is an embarrassment both on and off the field. We should probably revisit our recruiting strategies.

That was my thought as well. Why wasn't an action plan put in place after that disastrous 885 score year? This is already looking like a 2 year minimum ban. I wouldn't be surprised if it's more realistically 3 years. The University being reactive instead of proactive is a big reason why we find ourselves in messes so often.

You're correct. There a many players who haven't been able to enroll at a school because of grades.

Every scholarship athlete can earn 2 points per year. 1 for staying in school and another for keeping grades above a certain threshold. If you have 85 scholarship athletes that means a team can earn 170 points per year. If you have 80 then it would be 160 and so on. They take the points earned and divide it by the points possible. That score is then multiplied by 1000 to arrive at APR. For Akron to be at a 913 it would be the equivalent of us scoring a 155/170 (based on 85 scholarships) a year. You don't get penalized for players who transfer to another school. The penalty would be if they drop out of school entirely or enter the portal, but don't enroll anywhere (which would also be the equivalent of dropping out).

A former Akron football player spending 3 pages arguing how a public University should be able to use tax dollars to subsidize a football team made up of non-student players tells me all I need to know about the culture surrounding the football program. As others stated 'they aren't here to play school.' This isn't the first time Akron football has faced sanctions for poor grades. In the early to mid 2000s on two or three occasions we got hit with scholarship reductions. One was a 4 scholarship reduction another was 5. Bad APR performance has plagued this program for a while. We normally just managed to do well enough to stay above water. With Moorhead now we've yet to even see a season over the 930 so we've just gone from bad to worse.

Attending class and maintaining eligibility is literally in the job description. If it's something they don't want to comply with, they shouldn't apply. They won't be able to transfer "to another job" if they don't maintain grades. Look at all the players over the years that have been forced to do a year of JUCO because they failed to meet academic standards. Erick Howard committing to Akron, but not being able to attend because of grades is one that comes to mind. If you can't meet grades, you will quit getting paid.

I would find a new job. These players can do the same if attending class is such a burden. Nobody is forcing them to be here. Perhaps they could work the grill at Arby's until they work themselves up to manager. After all you pointed out earlier no degree is required for that.

Thanks for sharing. This kind of confirms what I shared yesterday. This will end up being a 2 year ban minimum as it will take both this year and next to cycle out that 2021-2022 score.

Take your complaint up with the NCAA. Edit: Part of being an adult is complying with what your employer instructs. If my boss told me that they need me to be in the office and I tell them I'm not going I'm quickly going to need another job. Part of their job is to attend class. They aren't holding up to their part of the bargain. They're failing to behave like adults.

Many professions require college degrees. Many even require continuing education after obtaining a degree. You act like that's abnormal.

My original comment, the one you responded to, clearly stated that they will end up going pro in something other than football. If after their college eligibility dries up and they need to find a new profession, what I said would still be factually accurate. The only way it wouldn't be is if they're able to make enough from football to retire. You can claim that they're professionals now, but they will still need to become professional in something else long-term. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

How much money do you honestly think they're making on Akron's roster? Do you think it's enough for them to live off of for the next 40, 50, 60+ years? Odds are if they aren't disciplined to attend class, they're also not disciplined enough to save for retirement. They will be working 9-5 jobs like the rest of us.

Exactly, odds are 84 out of the 85 guys on scholarship will go pro in something other than football. This isn't like basketball where there are dozens of overseas leagues they can professionally play in.

If a players main prerogative is to make a bowl game why would they choose Akron regardless? Akron has been in the MAC for 30+ years and has made 3 total bowls. That equates to 1 every 10 years. They would have better odds of making a bowl game at literally any other MAC school. The players we're getting IMO are coming for a variety of different reasons such as; they have limited options, they want an opportunity to see the field, want to play locally, like a coach, etc. I would add money to the list, but I'm not sure if the NIL for the program is really in a place to win bidding wars.

I used to believe Akron could consistently be competitive in football and that was true pre-NIL era. Now our enrollment has shrunk considerably and even programs like EMU are getting 7 figure donations for their collectives. We aren't going to be able to win in a system where our competition is able to pay $100k for a starting OL, but we can only afford to pay $30k (numbers are made up, but inputed to emphasize a point). Unless some massive donors come out of the woodwork, I just don't see how Akron can win, at least to the consistency of someone like a Toledo.

I wouldn't be surprised if Akron strongly encourages Joe to take an OC position elsewhere next offseason. Whoever we bring in next will be coming in handicapped as our practice time will be reduced 20% and no postseason for at least 1 year, maybe 2. Shockingly he might leave this program in a worse place than the one he inherited from Arth. I wouldn't have thought that was possible.