kreed5120

I don't think it's a given that a Purdue or Indiana would never make the playoffs in the expanded 12 team format. Forever is a long time and its not like bad P5 programs don't have runs where they find themselves in the top 10-15. Kansas has been one of the worst P5 programs this century. Now they look like a program that will be contending for one of those coveted playoff spots. A 4 team playoff I'd certainly agree.

I could understand that argument if they were having similar success to a Dayton or VCU. Reality is for the last 15-20 years they've performed like an upper mid-tier MAC team. The guys talks about Kenpom, but if he took the time to go through it I'm guessing on average Akron, Toledo, and Buffalo have all outperformed UMass. Ohio and Kent are probably around the same ballpark.

Why would a Northwestern or Rutgers walk away from $60M-$100M in annualized revenue just so they could compete against Toledo or Marshall for a 2nd rate championship?

I wouldn't say they should be perennial favorites, but they should be perennial contenders. I'd place them in a similar category of an Akron or Toledo.

Couldn't you really say Groce will be looking to hit the portal at any position? Is there any player on this roster who will be returning next year that you would be thrilled to see as a starter?

There is no chance for an NIT at-large. The tournament isn't seeded based off of NET. If it was there wouldn't be a need for a selection committee. Also, because of auto-bids to the NCAA tournament, there are 20-25 teams who aren't even in the top 100 that make the tournament. That means even if they picked the teams for the NIT solely based off of the best NET remaining, it wouldn't be teams 69-106 going. It would be teams ~45-~81. Akron is well below that.

I'd prefer the #1 seed, but it's not much of a prize anymore now that the NIT did away with the auto bid. It's going to be either win the MAC tournament or no Zips postseason regardless of what seed we are.

It's my fault. I placed a moneyline bet on the Zips. I normally don't bet on my teams, but coming into tonight the Zips are 0-2 when I have this season.

Missing a lot of free throws

Buffalo is down because they made a poor hire when replacing Oats. They have shown a commitment to spending and investing in their basketball program so I'd expect them to at least work their way back to respectability.

I'm sure in football discussion those schools are saying the same thing about Akron. Really the only programs that have done well at both football and basketball are Toledo and Ohio. Everyone else has been good at one or the other.

I could have had the tie-breaker wrong. My thought process in that scenario was that Akron and Toledo would have the same record. Ohio would pass CMU for 3rd place since they would own the head-to-head. Toledo went 2-0 against Ohio, but we would go 0-1. Toledo would have the better record against the 3rd place MAC team. Was there another tie-breaker that comes in play before that I'm missing?

What's great is the people who say that MAC needs to make a move are the same ones who complain when they do. Frankly, I'm a little indifferent. I follow MAC basketball more than MAC football so I'm excited about the move for that. Financially, between the MAC CFP playoff pool, NCAA tourney credits, etc so much of the revenue is fixed so adding more teams just means you split the same sized pie into more pieces. That's not even getting into the TV deal. I obviously don't know the terms of the deal financially so I can't cast judgement.

Delusions of grandeur. At times I see people post thinking Akron can join the AAC or a conference like that. As if they would want our perennial 0-4 win football program. In general, online forums don't have the most rational fans.

They will instantly compete with Akron and Toledo at the top of the MAC. Their win totals are going to improve when they replace games against Dayton and VCU with Northern Illinois and Western Michigan. Using this season as an example, they're ranked 5th in the A10, but they're still currently ranked ahead of the MAC top ranked team (Akron).

A loss, combined with a Toledo win and CMU loss would slide us down to the #2 seed.

Yes, the A10 also isn't what it was 10 years ago. Now it's pretty much a 1 bid conference, like the MAC, but much harder to win. It probably made the pill of leaving men's hoops easier to swallow.

Reality it was a huge mistake to bring in a guy with no FBS experience without requiring him to have a Chuck Amato type of OC/DC. He was way in over his head. You see it all levels. Some people are fantastic OC/DC/ position coaches, but when promoted to a higher role fail miserably.

@Hilltopper might be able to assist here. He's usually privy to these type of things.

A lot of selective readers on the internet these days.

Travelzoo usually has deals every year. Someone here typically posts the code once they find it out.

I would have to take some time to view the rest of the MAC in order to make predictions. I will say Freeman should be a runaway favorite for MAC POY. Groce should won COY, but I could see Barbee winning it instead. CMU was projected to finish dead last in the MAC, but are currently in 3rd. Even though teams 3-12 all suck I can still see voters giving it to Barbee for "overachieving". Not that I would agree with it.

They might also hope it drives better attendance for the women's game to give them a better send-off.

We don't even have a starting 5.

It's impossible to blame this all on 1 person. Although Scarborough certainly didn't help. Pew research published this study in December. In the US College enrollment peaked in 2011. In 2022 there were 1.2 million fewer enrollees attending college compared to 2011. That would mean it's not just Akron feeling this burn, but most places. There are fewer Gen Z than there are millennials and a fewer percentage of Gen Z are going to college compared to millenials. In the coming years I'd expect more and more small private Universities to fail as they burn through their endowments and more consolidation. I feel Proenza is more to blame for Akron's poor financial standing. He dug the University into massive debt expanding the campus. Now we have all this excess space that we're paying for that we really don't need. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/12/18/fewer-young-men-are-in-college-especially-at-4-year-schools/#:~:text=College enrollment among young Americans,fewer young men pursuing college.