kreed5120

I'm in agreement with you. It shouldn't be a challenge to get 3,500-4,000 people to an Akron game given their success. It's not like the JAR is some oversized Wolstein Center that we need to get 9k to in order to make it an exciting atmosphere. IMO the larger problem is apathy and small STH base. Need a larger, more dedicated fanbase. Not just people who show up for just Kent and the MAC tournament. It's more a matter of how can that be achieved. I also kind of enjoy the Friday games, particularly when the Zips are on the road, as it's nice not being on ESPN+. The production quality is better.

It's not much of a surprise if you attended a non-Kent home game this season. Pretty much all the games the JAR was only 1/3-1/2 full.

Providence offering Hodgson $1M more in NIL is why he took that job over Syracuse. Syracuse historically is a much better program than Providence but none of that matters because Providence is willing to pay players more now in the present, which is what is driving coaching decisions in this new age of college athletics. If CoC is willing to 2x-2.5x Akron's NIL spend it is a step up. It's unfortunate it has come to this, but that's the price we're paying by trying to field both an FBS team (albeit also poorly funded) and a D1 basketball program. Our resources are going to be spread much thinner compared to a school the focuses primarily on basketball.

Not all returns have to be financial. He's obviously getting fulfillment, as are others, but there will always be limitations to what those experiences are conceivably worth. Bud obviously has money, but he accumulated his wealth owning and building a small investment office. It's not like he's Dan Gilbert rich and can write blank checks.

Here I thought you meant he would he would write a check for ~$500K to buy a player or two. Instead you think he's going to gift the University 10s of millions for a new arena. I think there is a greater chance of one of us on this board winning a $1 billion mega millions jackpot and gifting the University ~$75 million than LeBron doing that just because his friend is the coach.

This is what I imagine as well. Any pay bump he or his staff might get would likely be offset by COL increase. It's probably more about revenue share and NIL commitment. If he leaves for CoC it's probably because he thinks he can turn them into a Utah State with a $2-$3M NIL budget, but feels he took Akron as far as he could given the financial constraints.

Noticed Groce's buyout is only $350K. For comparison Mack's at CoC was $1.5M, which was reduced to $1.3M by USF agreeing to a home & home. That seems like a very low sum for a coach that would be on the short list of a lot of coaching searches.

Have you seen his record at Duquesne? He's not been bad, but it's hard to get excited about his performance. Also, if LBJ was going to be a benefactor for his friend wouldn't we already be seeing that take place at Duquesne?

I feel you're underestimating this new age of identity politics. People constantly vote against their own interests on both sides of the aisle and still do mental gymnastics to defend how they voted when they get 'screwed' over. Edit: An example, I have a friend whose wife works in a department at UA that I imagine would be on the chopping block. He will 100% still vote for Vivek.

Yes, will keep Engineering, Law, and probably the business school/MBA program. Eliminate mostly everything else.

Biggest difference appeared to be travel, but MAC is very close. Much cheaper to bus than fly. Edit: I would imagine main difference is in NIL. Either school plans to do more revenue share or they have boosters lined up to commit $2M+. Edit: I see @tpsjugglerdude already touched on this.

What's overlooked is we're about to lose @Illini Zip

I will say Ford was still kind of an unknown and wasn't even the top assistant when Groce left OU. He wasn't going to be offered that job. No way was he going to be offered the Illini job. Butler could have paid him as much, if not more, to be an assistant. Akron can pay him a lot more to be head coach than CoC can pay him to be an assistant.

I actually thought you were using sarcasm like you sometimes do.

If this is even true that would be eye opening. With Butler that's a team that he has prior connections to, plays in a major conference, and reportedly plans to spend $9 million on next years roster. The CAA is a lateral conference relative to the MAC and CoC has been something between Akron and Kent when it comes to on the court success. It would be a signal that he just wanted out of Akron if he took this job.

Not something that I disagree with. I was more just pointing out any 19 would have probably said something similar if put on the spot infront of the local media, his coach, and fellow players. Not like he took to social media and left a heartfelt post saying he was going to run it back or something.

I don't know if he made a big deal. He was just asked after losing to Akron if he would be back and he just responded absolutely. Really what else was he to say? "Hell no, I'm ditching this pathetic sh**hole." Toledo fans seemed convinced he would return because apparently one of Toledo's assistants is a family friend. You would think they would have learned after Simmons ditched their program last year.

It could just be schools gauging the market. Some of those schools he might be their option if their top 10 guys fall through. Either way, if there is that many teams him signing at Akron will probably be unlikely. Odds are some team will value him much higher than we might. I looked at his numbers against D1 competition, 2 of which were low majors. Nothing really jumps out to me that he's a must get.

My guess, at least for the hats, they probably didn't have too much in stock. They said they had over 1k orders and if they had that many hats pre-made it would have been a huge waste of money had Scott not hit that shot and the Zips didn't 3Peat. As for the hoodies it could be what @Zips1991 said or it's very possible they ran out of stock there as well and had to place another shipment.

Acceptance is the first step towards recovery 😅

Going four schools in four years route I see.

Link isn't working for me.

Once again I don't think anyone thought he was going to the College of Charleston. @NWAkron was clearly being facetious and some took the bait.

Yes, and I would say Miami sacrificed athleticism for perimeter height. They were also very undersized in the post, as can be seen by how they were bullied by UMass and Tennessee, so not sure if that's a terrific example. I don't disagree that height is important. Just that other schools with deeper pockets are going to pay a premium for it. IMO if Tavari was 6'3" he probably gets similar offers to Nate in the portal when he put his name in. Maybe it's still worth sacrificing athleticism if it means we get taller. I'm more pointing out there will be trade-offs.

I feel a big part of the problem is we're not going to be able to afford a 6'4" Tavari or a 7' Lyles. We would have to sacrifice skill for height.