kreed5120

Great for Akron, sad for Cleveland hotels/bars. A lot of Miami fans about to cancel 2 nights of hotel stays and make that sad, silent 4 hour drive to Cincinnati. Perhaps calling their boss and letting them know they can cancel their PTO request for tomorrow.

MAC tournament tickets about to get much cheaper on the secondary market.

Water found its level.

I'm surprised by that. A lot of the negative I've seen online has been about Dabo is his reluctance to embrace it.

If that was the case it probably would have went to the Miami bench warmer who talked s*** to Ohio fans and flipped them the bird lol

You forgot it's about a lot more than just being good. If success was all that mattered Rutgers and Maryland wouldn't be in the B1G. North Carolina is an attractive team not just because of basketball. They're in a rapidly growing market and has lots of businesses. Clemson IMO is a washed has been football program. They don't have the money to compete in this NIL era, which is why they've regressed. They are probably the 5th or 6th best option for someone to pluck off. A program like UNC has money to compete, especially when you consider they would get a nice bump in TV revenue joining the B1G. Edit: What do you mean UNC doesn't care about football? They made a huge financial commitment to football just last year by bringing in Bellichick. They wouldn't be doing that if they didn't care.

TBF Miami (FL), North Carolina, and Florida St. are all bigger brands than anything left in the Big 12. The ACC just has a lot more dead weight. The Big 12 is more solid top to bottom. Their strength is in their depth. If you're an B1G school and you want to add 2 schools it would make sense they would take 2 of the bigger brands from the ACC over any of the teams from the Big 12 IMO.

If that was the case they simply would have given it to Gillespie. Unlike Suder, there was actually an argument to be made for him winning it depending on which stats a voter would prioritize. IMO voting has just turned into giving it to the best player on the 1st place team. It's a similar model that the NBA has been running for what I'm guessing to be 2 decades now.

It will be what the PAC-12 will be this coming season. Pretty much on par with what the AAC was 5 years ago.

I feel you could make a decent fan committee from just this forum. We have people from all walks of life. Some former players. Many die-hard 30+ year fans. Some more recent grads. Many Akron alumni and a few who weren't that still want to support the local team. Just take 10 people from this board and mix in 2-3 current students and there you go, you have your committee. No need to do a further search.

Wouldn't you imagine Evan would have to guard Byers? Not sure who else would be able to take that assignment given his 6'8" frame. I think we might rely on Eric to guard Suder.

I looked at Miami's message board and even they were surprised that Suder won POTY.

This might be sacrilegious to say, but I don't think Suder should even be the 2nd choice. Gillespie IMO was the 2nd best player in the MAC this season. I can see Suder at #3.

2025-26 MAC Men’s Basketball All-MAC Teams & Specialty Award Winners Coach of the Year: Travis Steele, Miami* Player of the Year: Peter Suder, Senior, Guard, Miami Defensive Player of the Year: Javontae Campbell, Senior, Guard, Bowling Green Freshman of the Year: Leroy Blyden Jr., Guard, Toledo* Sixth Man of the Year: Shammah Scott, Graduate Student, Guard, Akron *unanimous selection All-MAC First Team Tavari Johnson, Senior, Guard, Akron Amani Lyles, Senior, Forward, Akron Javontae Campbell, Senior, Guard, Bowling Green Delrecco Gillespie, Senior, Forward, Kent State Peter Suder, Senior, Guard, Miami All-MAC Second Team Leonardo Bettiol, Graduate Student, Forward, Massachusetts Brant Byers, Redshirt Sophomore, Guard, Miami Eian Elmer, Junior, Guard, Miami Jackson Paveletzke, Senior, Guard, Ohio Sonny Wilson, Junior, Guard, Toledo All-MAC Third Team Shammah Scott, Graduate Student, Guard, Akron Ryan Sabol, Junior, Guard, Buffalo Marcus Banks Jr., Graduate Student, Guard, Massachusetts Luke Skaljac, Sophomore, Guard, Miami Leroy Blyden Jr., Freshman, Guard, Toledo All-MAC Honorable Mention Evan Mahaffey, Senior, Forward, Akron Daniel Freitag, Sophomore, Guard, Buffalo Morgan Safford, Graduate Student, Guard, Kent State Antwone Woolfolk, Senior, Forward, Miami Javan Simmons, Redshirt Junior, Forward, Ohio MAC All-Defensive Team Amani Lyles, Senior, Forward, Akron Evan Mahaffey, Senior, Forward, Akron Javontae Campbell, Senior, Guard, Bowling Green Nathan Claerbaut, Senior, Center, Central Michigan Delrecco Gillespie, Senior, Forward, Kent State MAC All-Freshman Team Eric Mahaffey, Guard, Akron Mohammad Habhab, Forward, Eastern Michigan Quinn Woidke, Guard, Kent State Danny Carbuccia, Guard, Massachusetts Leroy Blyden Jr., Guard, Toledo

I wouldn't even say he was the biggest snub on that list. Freitag should have made 2nd Team. UB was a completely different team with him healthy.

TJ got robbed. I'm not even sure if Suder put up the best numbers on his own team, let alone the MAC. They should just change the award name to best player on the best team. That's all it ever is anymore.

I'm almost certain athletic department contributions are no longer tax deductible unless it's to do something like endow an athletic scholarship. Even if it is you would have to itemize to get the deduction. Only 7%-10% of Americans itemize. I'm not one of them. I'm fairly certain the athletic department is only allowed to revenue share 22% of athletic department revenue. This excludes Hollywood math, like student fees, that ADs try to claim as revenue. That means if Akron generates $10M in revenue they are only allowed to revenue share $2.2M. That excellence fund is to help cover that $2.2M so Akron doesn't have to pay for it out of pocket. FTR isn't tied to any cap. I'm not 100% certain of everything I've said, but that's the conclusion that I've gathered from my previous internet search into the matter. If I misspoke someone please correct me. At the end of the day there must be a reason to have both otherwise we likely wouldn't have both. I trust Bud with my money more than I do Akron's administration.

IMO 2-3 guys will transfer due to lack of playing time or fit. I would expect 3-4 portal additions. Add in Young, Eric and MMK that bring us to 6-7. From there that leaves opportunities for 2-3 additional players to earn solid, consistent minutes. I'm not as knowledgeable on who we have redshirting or true freshman coming in, but I'm sure we'll have some competition to fill out those roles.

I felt the same way with the team Freeman's senior year. We went out that offseason and reloaded. Made it right back into the tournament the following year.

Can this conversation get moved elsewhere? While it's an educated and civil conservation, it's completely unrelated to Akron athletics.

$150M is too much for Akron IMO. I get it everyone wants the flashy BMW, but Akron isn't in the position to afford the monthly payments or maintenance on that. If Akron was to ever look seriously into building a new arena they should look for a Toyota Corolla. Something that is dependable and gets you from point A to point B with minimal upkeep. To me that would be something like the Stroh Center. In today's dollars that would cost $43 million. Sticking to the analogy I would want an upgraded trim to get capacity closer to 5,500 and maybe a few smaller amenities. Let's say that brings the cost to $65 million. That would be a much more achievable goal.

MAC women's basketball accolades were released today. Only Shaena Brew received recognition. She made the All Freshman Team.

Mods, is it possible to sticky a post? I'm sure all the regulars are well aware of FTR, but we might draw some additional foot traffic from the casual visitors come tournament time. It's useful to make them aware.

I have donated too. I even have a monthly reoccurring donation setup. I wasn't talking just helping financially. I wouldn't be donating if there was no FTR collective to donate to. Yes, I can agree with this point. It's also why I contribute to men's basketball and not football. Not just because of the success, but because I also feel my dollars stretch further. Akron spent some say $1 million on this years basketball which wasn't far behind UMass for the largest dollar amount. An article was released yesterday that Miami (OH) is spending ~$8 million NIL on football this coming year. That's ~6x the amount UMass is spending on basketball. The hard truth is we can't compete in both so it makes more sense to focus on the one we stand a chance with.

Not to mention compounding investment returns. I just don't see him being interested in contributing to arena. That doesn't really fit the profile for the charity work he has done. At most he might lend his name and shake a few hands, but he's not cutting a $100M check.