kreed5120

BG knocks off Marshall in OT 34-31

52-3

I'm hearing the 2025 season. They told them to cancel because the 2nd game of the series would be in 2025 or later

Scheduling 1 FCS, 2 home and home, and 1 money bag game had been the norm for years. It's only in the last 5-10 years or so that scheduling 2-3 money games has started gaining steam at the MAC level. Reality is pretty much all MAC schools were spending and expanding their campuses expecting enrollment to keep growing. Now that it's falling they're all struggling to just get by. As migration shift continues it's only going to keep getting worse. The places that have benefited are places like Georgia, Carolinas, Tennessee, etc as people are moving where the climate is better. This allows conferences like the Sun Belt to expand their budget

They should have just kept Bo Pelini. He was winning 9-10 games every single season with them, which is about the best Nebraska could hope for now. This isn't the 90s anymore.

St. Francis is a pretty mediocre FCS team at that. They last finished a season with a winning record in 2016 and most years hover around 5-6. If our offensive and defensive line gets dominated by them then I'm really concerned how bad it will look when we're facing FBS level competition

A few take aways I had. 1) Why was this game on a Thursday when it wasn't even televised? Why not have it on a Saturday so more students and alumni could attend? 2) The offensive and defensive lines both need lots of work. We were out played on both fronts by an FCS school. 3) I had us winning 4-5 games this year, but after this game I'm going to revise that to 2-3. I'm still on board with Moorhead, but I feel I might have overestimated how fast he'd be able to infuse talent, particularly in the trenches.

I saw the commitment here, but I admittedly haven't watched any tape. He obviously has the size and build I'd like on the roster. I'll wait for @Hilltopperand others opinions once he's on campus on whether or not he's ready to contribute right away or will be redshirted because he's too raw.

I wasn't arguing that it would level the playing field. It might slightly change who is near and at the top. NIL is still relatively new and many schools and boosters haven't gotten too deep in it yet. It will take time for it to play out on which schools will have the largest war chests and which ones won't. By then Saban will be long retired

There is no dispute that coaching is important. I'd say really only Clemson and Ohio State have had anywhere near the talent Alabama has had over the last 5 or so years. Texas A&M actually received the most booster donations over the last 2-3 years. They have more money than you think. Texas Longhorn boosters have already endowed a fund to pay each offensive linemen, regardless of starter or backup, 50k per year. Alabama boosters certainly have money, but they don't have big Texas oil money.

NIL definitely negatively impacts Alabama. While Alabama definitely has their fair share of boosters a school like Texas A&M or Texas has a larger and wealthier alumni base

The P5 have no incentive to boot the G5 out. They pretty much already have the G5 by the balls so the G5 pretty much will accept whatever scraps the P5 throws them. FBS football is pretty much a system of the bigger fish eating the smaller one. OSU/UM feasting on Wisconsin/Iowa. Iowa/Wisconsin feasting on Purdue/Northwestern. Purdue/Northwestern feeding on Rutgers. Rutgers feeding on G5. With no G5 programs like Rutgers would win 0-3 games pretty much every year as they would now be the bottom of the food chain. That would deteriorate their fan base. It would have a similar, but not as drastic impact on Purdue/Northwestern tier as well. As Akron fans know cheering for 0-12 & 1-11 teams is no fun.

If the hope is landing Pete Nance, I'm sorry to tell you you're going to be left disappointed. I wouldn't be surprised if 20 P6 coaches have already reached out to him.

I like the concept of blending the Z into the A, but the logo left me unimpressed

https://tenor.com/sYaC.gif

You're right that's what started to make conferences like the A10 and MVC back out. The only thing that makes me hopeful that this goes through is that now even fewer at-large bids are going to mid-majors compared to even 10 years ago. With the latest round of realignment pretty much all mid-majors need more opportunities at getting Q1 and Q2 wins since programs like Butler, Xavier, and Wichita State all left their respective mid majors. That's not even getting into programs like Houston or Cincy (both strong basketball brands) leaving the AAC for the Big 12.

Probably not where this belongs, but didn't think it was worth it's own thread. It looks like it's being discussed to bring back a bracket busters type tournament in mid-February. https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/the-bold-new-college-basketball-flex-scheduling-model-that-would-bring-big-nonconference-games-into-february/

Dambrot is already 63 and I've heard him say in past interviews that he doesn't plan to coach into his 70s. I'd be surprised if Dambrot is coaching in another 3-5 years regardless of the outcome of this next season.

As I understand it May 1st is the deadline to enter the portal without having to sit out a year. This means we should theoretically be done seeing players transfer out. Groce now needs to work his magic and land us 2 forwards to fill out the roster.

Kent definitely needed a big to neutralize Freeman given the abuse Freeman put on them last season. Fortunately for us Thomas isn't that player.

Freeman just won MAC DPOY. I'd say he is that player you're referring to. I'd say 5 and guard are the positions we're most set at. I'd be thrilled if we can add a 6'5-6'7 wing who can run the floor and guard multiple positions. Groce pretty much always runs a lineup of 3 guards, 1 SF playing PF, and 1 big.

Aziz never would have been able to share the court with Freeman. That means at best he would have been playing ~10min/game until he was a senior. Him transferring was likely the best for both parties. He can transfer somewhere that he has a chance of earning minutes to develop. Akron was able to use his scholarship to bring in someone like Hunter who on paper is a better fit and provides some lineup diversitility.

I'd imagine the money is even higher now that boosters/companies don't have to be as discreet. There are probably more boosters involved now too

There is a 1st team, 2nd team, and another handful of honorable mentions. That means only ~15 players get recognition with there being 12 teams. That means on average 1.25 players per team. Hankerson was NIU 2nd best player. He's an above average MAC starter IMO and his efficiency scoring numbers should improve with him accepting more a role player role instead of having to shoulder the load. Compared to Tribble he is an upgrade. Day 1 Hankerson will likely be our 3rd or 4th best player. The real issue is we still need to address our biggest hole, which is finding a replacement for Ali. Speaking of which Akron was the only D1 school to offer Ali so that tells you all you need to know about offer lists at the mid-major level. I may end up being wrong, but I don't buy Hunter as being the guy to put up 25-35 solid minutes a night at the 4 position. When it comes to 4th and 5th year transfers I care more about how productive you've been on the court than what offers you got out of high school.

I'm honestly not thrilled with Hunter or Wynn starting. I don't like Akron's chances of repeating with either if I'm to be perfectly honest. I'm just curious why are you guys so bold on Hunter? His numbers were terrible and he didn't get much playing time on a very bad Ole Miss team.