kreed5120

I don't think them staying in the MAC is an option per NCAA rules. Your home conference is the one that your basketball program is in. It's my understanding that you can't be an affiliated FBS member in football to another conference if your home conference sponsors FBS football

MVC would be their best option for all sports. The MVC might have some interest in Toledo, but I can't imagine they would want NIU. Their best option would probably be Horizon.

I shared this file a few weeks ago. It's the MAC'S most recent tax filing. It has all the information you need, including total payout for each MAC school. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/310682486/202411369349308926/full

He's the leading passer and rusher on a team that is 3-0 with 2 P4 wins. He's pretty much been a 1 man offense. He's going to draw some interest. I don't necessarily think he's going to be the top QB in the portal. I think Caleb Williams got $1 million. He's certainly not that level of good. Perhaps I was overestimating saying $200k, but it's certainly going to be much more than $12k. Time will tell on what the exact figure is.

I think he'll be fine. He might even be able to come ahead of what the assistant verbally offered since he now has game tape showing he can perform at a high level against P5 competition. I wouldn't be surprised if he signs for $200k somewhere, which is certainly much more than the $12k he would have gotten had he stayed and exhausted his last remaining year of eligibility. Edit: Heck I imagine even Akron in our poverty state could come up with more than $12k to pay this kid with one call to Kaulig.

If Akron found a coach that could consistently go 7-5 or 8-4, he'd probably get a statue outside of the stadium. Regardless of if he won MAC championships or not. The bar is that low at Akron.

Gonzaga AD is saying it's fake news. Maybe it's being discussed, but not yet finalized. Who knows. https://x.com/SRJimm/status/1838308621865582649

I'm younger than most posters here. Even the Charlie Frye Zips teams were before my time as a fan so my Zips football fandom has been bleak. That said, two of my more fond Zips football fan moments were beating Northwestern and going to the Big House and nearly knocking off Michigan. I still claim the refs blew the call by not calling the jersey grab by the Michigan defender. You seem to be more optimistic than me. I feel we would be 1-3 regardless of who we played this year, unless we were able to schedule multiple FCS schools. That's not to say I want to schedule 3 P4 a year in perpetuity. I do however like having 1-2 of them on the schedule that way it has opportunities to create those moments. Preferably against programs like Northwestern, Indiana, and yes Rutgers. Avoiding the OSU, Alabama, and Oregon's of the world. What's made me grow apathetic to the football program is all the 0-3 win seasons in conference play. You can go 1-3 OOC and still make a bowl game game by going 5-3 in MAC play. The MAC looks like it might be better this season, but it had previously been historically bad. The MAC East was probably the weakest division in all of college football. We've had plenty of opportunities to pad our win total in conference play, but failed to capitalize.

Kent briefly became relevant under Lewis. EMU became relevant under Creighton. Leipold made Buffalo relevant. The right head coach is vitally important in the college game as he wears two hats. He functions as both the head coach and the GM. I wouldn't say the right head coach is the only thing that matters, but it's what's most important. I wouldn't be willing to give up on Moorhead if we finish with ~3 wins this year, but he certainly should enter season 4 on the hot seat if that's the case.

So many people seem to blame the schedule. South Carolina and Rutgers have been bottom to mid-tier P5 programs in their respective conferences for the last decade or so. Even if we swap them out for a game against App State, Marshall, or Western Kentucky, I have little faith that we would be better than the 1-3 record we are currently.

My complaint has never been about competing against the Penn State's or Wisconsin's of the world. My complaint is we can't compete against our peers (Toledo, WMU, NIU, etc). Even if the entire MAC drops down a level, we're still at or near the bottom of the MAC food chain.

This football program has been destroyed since I-Coach, maybe even longer.

College football I've been turned off watching for years because it's boring. I often get asked to meet up with friends to watch OSU at a restaurant or a friends house. Looking at OSU's schedule last year, I see they played only 3 games that were decided by 10 points or less. 7 were decided by 20+ points. That's just not entertaining to watch. Particularly in the 4th quarter when the game is out of balance. The only redeeming quality is that with so many games being on TV all at once, odds are one will be watchable.

A few things. Toledo also plays midweek games. Akron in the past has hosted big events on game days. I remember a few years ago they even offered a free concert headlined by Soul Asylum prior to kickoff. I've seen other similar kid events that you shared that Akron has hosted. I don't think Toledo is doing much more than Akron besides establishing a winning culture and having competent decision makers/ADs. Akron has been miserable for so long that apathy has settled in. I was an undergrad during the Coach I years. I remember pregaming with friends to go to the games and by the time we'd sober up around half-time we were down 3 scores and were bored so we'd leave. Eventually we just quit going to the games altogether. I've tried offering these same friends free tickets after graduating to attend, but nobody wants to go because they remember how terrible the experience was. It's not fun watching "your team" lose by 20-30 points each week for a decade plus. The Browns were terrible for many years, but still most games were decided by 10 points or less. Akron games have historically been over at half-time. Put a product on the field that's worth investing 4-6 hours of one's time to attend and then maybe people will show up.

I see the excitement for this game is brewing. Only a handful of posts today.

I don't know the details behind it, but if it remains P5 on a technicality, I can guarantee the Big 10, SEC, Big 12, and ACC will fix that during the next round of negotiations.

Sure it's a cultural one. There is a reason why the Big East is all private schools, excluding UConn. That's how the conference presidents, who have a vote, want it. If this was the Big 10 or SEC I would agree with you as those conferences only care about the money. Cultural differences nearly destroyed the Big East in the past. They won't go down that road again.

It's not a cultural fit. They would never accept us. Excluding UConn, which they have history with, the Big East is made up of Private (predominately Catholic) schools. We're a public university. If we were a Private University, like Case Western, that might be a possibility.

Notre Dame is often overrated. I don't really attribute it to a Jesus thing. It's a combination of them playing a lot of softer ACC schools, which pads their win totals and from name recognition of being a blue blood. Nebraska was also overrated for many years in the early 2000s. Surviving on their prior success. Eventually the bottom gave out and anyone with have a brain could see they were no longer elite. Notre Dame is still a good/great program today. They're just clearly a tier below the elite programs that they often get grouped with. Regardless, phenomenal win by NIU. As AL Davis use to say, "just win, baby." They do that and they will continue to add more votes. Polls this early in the season shouldn't carry much weight.

I'm not really sure a P4 job, even as an OC, would be any less stressful. The pressure to win would be much higher and you still have to worry about NIL and re-recruiting you players every year. At least in the MAC you're on relatively even footing compared to your competition (other MAC schools) and you don't have 100s of callers calling into sports talk radio shows every Monday criticizing every micro decision you do or calling for your job. Edit: Joe could get off the bus when he returned from Rutgers and take his wife to Luigi's or Lockview and it's likely not a single person would recognize him. That wouldn't be the case for Ryan Day in Columbus. Imagine the heckling he had to deal with after each loss to Michigan. You don't have to worry about that at Akron because Joe Akron frankly doesn't care.

I stumbled on this today. It's the MAC'S most recent tax filing. If you go to form 990 you can see the MAC distribution to each MAC school. Akron received just over $2 million. Ohio and Toledo received the most money at ~2.8 million. I presume this was based off of performance incentives for football and Ohio earning the MAC an extra NCAA tournament credit when they made the round of 32 a few years back. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/310682486/202411369349308926/full

If you want to use that logic then OSU and Cincinnati athletic departments are also taxpayer funded therefore us taxpayers should be eligible to free tickets for those events as well. After all those schools athletic programs wouldn't exist if the school didn't. I'll go ahead and take my free tickets for the OSU-Michigan game. That way I can sell them and pocket the money.

The game has changed a lot at the B10, SEC, B12, ACC level, but has much changed at the MAC level? I know NIL exists, but are there many, if any, MAC schools that are spending $1 million plus? I'm coming for a position of ignorance so that's a genuine question.

I don't really think it's the taxpayers funding athletics. The institutional support athletics receives from the University comes from student fees. The students already receive free admission. Edit: Ohio already ranks near the bottom in state funding per full time student. We're currently 44th out of 50 states. It's hard for taxpayers to make a justifiable complaint considering we're already getting shown up by much poorer states like West Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, etc. https://ncses.nsf.gov/indicators/states/indicator/state-support-for-higher-education-per-fte-student

I don't feel it would be my place to tell anyone how they should spend their money. Theoretically it would still help the University if it meant the University no longer had to subsidize the cost of athletics.