kreed5120

This is kind of where I stand. Financially we're kind of constrained as a University. We simply can't out spend all MAC schools in everything. At least not without some billionaire alumni magically coming forward to fund the athletic department as part of a vanity project. We could theoretically strip funding from basketball and soccer to use towards football, but that's what other MAC schools have already done. Instead of having 2 great programs and 1 bad, we'd have 3 mediocre ones. The reality is our dollars go further funding basketball or soccer than they do football because you have fewer schools spending to compete in those sports. I'm sure hearing this won't be a popular take on the football board in northeast Ohio, where football is supreme, but it's the sad reality.

More like we can barely afford to fund the program as is. What's the alternative? Take money away from a football program that's already near the bottom of the MAC in funding and using it to pay a mid six figure buyout to bring in another coach?

I'm not really sure, nor care. What I do know is BGSU has a TE with over 100 yards receiving and a TD at the half against a top 10 ranked Penn State team. He played his high school ball at McKinley. It would be nice if we could keep the best MAC caliber recruits from our area away from our rivals.

Rutgers doesn't even look good and they're handing it to Akron. This looks like another 2-10 or 3-9 season for the Zips. When does basketball season start again?

Ohio's roster seems to be the only one that didn't see major turnover. It's probably fair they're the preseason favorites as it will take all the other contending team time to build chemistry. What's important is that we fully hit our stride come March.

Intramural football or Esports, while nice to offer students to enhance the college experience, isn't paying the bills. That's why I specifically made mention that it would be nice if it could be used more for concerts or other major events as those actually bring money to the school. You were probably right that Blossom makes it challenging to do.

I don't feel it has to be an either or. Likely all 3 things contributed to declined attendance.

@Captain Kangaroo also didn't account for the revenue from the CFP. The MAC's share would be $1.8 million per school. That improves the situation some. If you exclude the football stadium, which is a sunk cost, the football program generates enough revenue that it about breaks even. It might slightly still be in the red. The stadium is a huge burden on the athletic department financially. It would be great if they could utilize it more to host concerts or whatever else to help generate additional revenue. The same would be true for the JAR. There just must not be any demand for that for whatever reason.

Rutgers had a few horrendous years under Chris Ash. With Schiano at the helm they're a below average-to-mid Big 10 team, which puts them on par or slightly above top echelon MAC caliber teams. If we can keep this within 17, I'd be pleased.

Honestly, I feel that's tough to judge at this stage. We likely won't face another pass rush remotely as talented as OSU the rest of the season. We couldn't really judge the downfield passing because frankly Finley was getting lit up while waiting for the play to develop. If we see the same struggle against a good, but not great, Rutgers squad then I'll agree.

If being a fundraiser for the athletic department is the objective, they're failing there as well. The debt financing on Infocision the last I saw alone was $4.5 million. If you add in all the other costs (scholarships, travel, staff pay, coach buyouts, equipment, etc.), at best they're operating at a slight deficit. That's assuming 100% of the TV money and other shared conference revenue is allocated to football since its the main driver.

I think this team will go 4-8.

I don't have the figures, but I'd imagine we're near the bottom. As several of the ADs mentioned, we spread out our spend into sports like soccer and basketball. Many MAC schools are throwing everything they have at football, which is a big reason why the MAC has regressed so much in MAC basketball. You only have Akron, Kent, Toledo, and Ohio spending on the sport.

Even if Akron stumbled into being good, I feel it would be challenging to get enough fans to games to make it an exciting atmosphere. A big issue is they built Infocision too big as they had delusions of grandeur. Nothing says small time like going to a game and having a whole row of bleachers to yourself. The Rubber Duck's have a lot going for them. It's very family friendly with ticket and concession prices. The ballpark is small and intimate, which creates a fun atmosphere. If you took those 4k fans at Rubber Duck's games and spread them out across Progressive Field, the game would begin to feel as sad as an Oakland A's game. That's what Akron is currently facing.

Last year we lost to both Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan. Why are you trying to count wins before games are played? Nothing is a guaranteed. I don't see any team in the MAC like those Buffalo teams of a few years back where they're head and shoulders better than every team. No team is too good that it makes me scared to play them. In fact, I'd prefer a 'tougher' schedule. We play enough cupcakes OOC. Why would I want to play more during conference play?

Ah okay

Hasn't that how it normally has been. The easy work around for that is if you want 4 tickets for 2 adults and 2 kids, you create 2 accounts and buy them that way.

They had one surprisingly good year under Huger. They have pretty much underachieved every year since. The MAC looks to be very weak at the top this coming year. Even Akron or Ohio, who look to be the favorites heading into this season, would probably only be 3rd or 4th in the MAC if this was 5-6 years ago. The MAC is full of cupcakes these days. If we can't win it outright, we don't deserve the meaningless regular season title. I say meaningless because without the NIT auto-bid, what value does a regular season title even have?

Akron definitely is paying them to come. All the cupcakes we've played at the JAR over the years we had to cut them a check to come. Akron is also getting paid to compete in the Sun Bowl invitational. My guess is they're using that money to cover much of the costs to pay these lesser programs to come here.

To be fair, I'm guessing that's a home and home with Princeton so I'm operating under the assumption they will play at the JAR next season. Overall, there is a lot with the schedule that you can criticize.

It's because we're hosting a MTE

The MAC is too horrendous to even think about at-large chances. Despite our OOC SOS being #45, our overall SOS finished at #206. Even if we won 2-3 of those Kenpom top 100 games, we weren't going to be close to sniffing an at-large, nor should we. I think you might be confused. I'm not saying we shouldn't have scheduled more challenging OOC games. I'm saying Groce likely didn't schedule them because he cares more about using the early part of the season to develop chemistry and build continuity. I'm fairly indifferent as with how bad the MAC is, the only realistic path to the big dance is winning the MAC Tournament. The MAC needs to return to being a top 10-12 conference before an at-large becomes remotely realistic.

This is my thought as well. Last years team had a lot more hype than this years team and Groce had no problem compiling a top 50 (per KenPom) OOC schedule. In the past if we wanted games against P5 or top echelon mid-majors we could find them. Groce probably just wants a lighter OOC schedule as he wants to give the team time to gel since it's mostly a completely new roster.

There are also only so many MTE and only so many destination locations. For some schools they might schedule these because the alternative is they weren't invited to a tournament therefore would play no games at all. Playing 3 games against cupcake schools is better than playing no games. I don't know if this was the case for Akron.

League offices are in Cleveland. Logistically it makes the most sense.