kreed5120

You could take the 6 best teams from the MAC and the 6 best teams from the SBC and it would still be the 8th best FBS conference, especially once you subtract JMU. It wouldn't materially change anything.

Not to get political, but Jeff Goodman has said Mike Dewine has issued an executive order to give all Ohio class of 2022 a fifth year. This makes Evan eligible. https://x.com/GoodmanHoops/status/2110119117642776577

I feel there will be some major shifts forced unto schools in the coming 7-10 years. The number of high school graduates peaked at 3.9 million in 2025. By 2041 that number is projected to decline to 3.4 million. Considering ~40% of high school graduates attend a 4 year college that means a 200k reduction of incoming freshman per year. Schools that are in financial crisis right now are going to be in worse shape. Those barely running budget surpluses are going to quickly flip negative. Schools like Michigan, OSU, Indiana etc are going to be fine. A lot of your regional G6 type schools are going to desperately need to trim deficits. They will likely have to reduce the 20, 30+ million dollar deficits they're currently subsidizing athletics.

It makes sense in this case. The AAC TV deal pays about $7 million a year while the SunBelt is around 1.5M-2.0M. That means the move to the AAC gives them an additional $5 million in revenue per year. Probably more once you factor in sponsorship revenue and NCAA tournament credits. JMU will probably recoup their money within 4-5 years. The bigger issue many G5 programs face when making these moves is they need to drastically increase their athletic budgets. That won't be the case with JMU as their $79 million current athletic budget would place them in the top 3 of the AAC in spending. For comparison Buffalo has the highest atletic budget in the MAC and they spend $50 million, so about $30 million less. They were already operating as a high end spending AAC, but playing in the SunBelt. Edit: I do think your point is valid for most scenarios. This is just one of those times where the move made sense since they were already functioning as an AAC team. Not like they will have to increase expenses $20M-$30M in order to chase an extra $5M-$10M in revenue. That's what many of these realignment hopefuls, like Miami, would have to do.

Tipoff reception October 30th at 6PM, doors open at 5PM. I can't attend, but anyone who does I would be interested in hearing how it goes. https://twitter.com/ZipsMBB/status/2109736119738782146

I wouldn't see that at all. Going to and remaining at 10 teams is a viable option. It actually works nice once we implement the 9 game conference schedule as we would play all teams once Sac State leaves. Conferences don't need to be 12, 14, or 16 members. No need to add subpar teams. The MAC in the grand scheme of things won't be much different than it is now. It's currently the 9th or 10th best FBS conference prior to this hypothetical. That's what it will be after as well.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the SB lose another school and to then go pluck 2 MAC school. I just don't see how that suddenly makes the MAC in trouble. The AAC would be done with their round of expansion and the SB would be done backfilling. The MAC would still be left with 10 full-time members and the conference would still be battling C-USA for the honor of being the 9th best FBS conference. That's really no different than how things are now. We would just have 2 fewer teams, which has some advantages. It's less mouths to feed when splitting league revenue; corporate sponsorships, NCAA tournament credits, TV revenue, etc.

JMU is actually a nationally relevant G6 program. Meanwhile, Miami has had a 10 win season only 2x within the last 20 years. I feel the AAC has better options available. Now the possibility of backfilling the SBC becomes a possibility.

Kenpom has released their 2027 preseason rankings. I'm not really a person to put too much stock into them, but I'm ready for the season to start. https://kenpom.com/ Below rounds out how they place the MAC top 5. I read somewhere else, can't remember where, Kenpom has the MAC ranked 12th overall for conference strength. Akron - 109 Kent - 121 Miami - 123 Toledo - 136 Ohio - 143

Most of the students qualifying for this also get federal and state grants due to low income. City of Cleveland high school graduates also are eligible for scholarships through a separate organization outside of CSU. What CSU is paying is what's left after all those grants and scholarships are applied. I read the real cost for CSU per eligible student will be 2k-3k/yr. or 1k-1.5k/semester. Honestly, it still helps but it's much less the the $13k/yr people instantly think.

I agree, with Akron's defense the offense needs to put up points to win. Roggow, while not bad, I just don't see being able to run a high octane offense. Broughton with his legs adds the extra dimension that Roggow can't provide. If the defense was better we wouldn't have to ask so much of Roggow.

I suppose not football specifically, but one has to appreciate Mick Cronin candor. https://x.com/FullCourtNet/status/2108570386161860689

I'm not blaming the kicker as it was by no means a give me field goal. That said, he had the distance so it's obviously a field goal he's capable of making. What percentage of those kicks he makes I don't know, but I imagine Joe was reasonably confident he could make it. It was the right call in the moment. It just didn't work out. The bigger special teams blunder that probably more directly led to the loss was the blocked punt. I don't know how we let that happen.

Plural, those renovations set back your retirement lol.

I attended my first Akron football game in about 10 years. Went with about 10 people who also hadn't been to a game in quite some time and they convinced me to get a ticket even though I planned to just tailgate. Honestly, if Akron played like this and were just Browns bad instead of losing by 20+ I wouldn't be opposed to going to games more often. It was actually entertaining despite losing and most of the people I was with expressed interest in returning.

It's homecoming, I see the excitement is building for the game... Any inside scoops on whether CB will be available?

I didn't really want to create a new thread for this, but I thought it was a pretty great promotion. Not necessarily for boosting attendance a ton for this year, but for establishing the culture of alumni attending games after graduation. https://x.com/AkronZips/status/2108569508197617934

I feel the expanded playoffs has more to do with it. Before each regular season game was a playoff matchup. To leave yourself any margin of error you also had to schedule tough. Now with this inclusive playoff structure teams can afford that early season unexpected loss to a Minnesota, Purdue, etc. Teams also no longer have to schedule challenging OOC opponents and have little incentive to since as long as they're in a P4 conference and have 2 or fewer losses they're in. Defending national champion Indiana is a prime example of that. Unless you're an Indiana fan who wants to watch them beat Indiana State, Old Dominion, and Kennesaw St. by a combined score of 156-46? It's only going to get worse with an expanded playoff as what's the point when 4 loss teams make the playoffs? Schools like OSU only play 3-4 "good" teams a year and if they lose each of those games they can still make the playoffs. Makes it hard to get excited for an OSU-Oregon regular season match-up when the stakes are reduced.

I know Akron doesn't have a ton of money, but it's very possible that we prioritized what little money we do have to keep Gant.

I don't disagree that some might give a hometown discount to return. It's just that the vast majority are chasing the highest bidder. Not that I fault them. As for Gant, RBs are one of the cheaper positions in the portal. There are a lot of good backs out there. I'm glad he's in an Akron uniform, but he doesn't seem to have that explosive athleticism that allows him to break game changing 40 yard runs. If he did, he wouldn't be in an Akron uniform.

No, I can't download them yet. I was only in the account today because I decided to add the 2nd season ticket. I renewed my previous one a few months back. I was measuring the number of tickets based off the ticket symbol 🎟

I bought 2 season tickets, but it appears it only came with 1 ticket to the YSU exhibition game. Not that I'm going to lose sleep over it. Not even certain if I'll attend. I just found it strange. Not sure if others experienced something similar. Edit: I only had 1 season ticket last year and split it up since my wife worked during a lot of the games and there were a few I had no desire to attend anyway. Nothing really changed from last year, but I just decided to get 2 to step up my support. Not sure if maybe the YSU exhibition only came as a perk for those who renewed.

He has his next NIL deal to play for. All these players are just 1 year mercenaries. If he's healthy to play, he should play.

I mean it depends on what the record is. Our OOC schedule I don't think is any worse than Miami's was last year. The 14 seed I think has more to do with them expecting Akron/Miami to not be as good as last year. You also have to remember the expanded tournament this year moved the bubble line down. A 14 seed this year is probably an equivalent to a 13 seed under last years format.

The MAC outside of 3-4 teams have all looked very bad. Even then none of those 3-4 teams are remotely in discussion to get the G6 bid. Given there aren't really anymore OOC games to measure ourselves against external competition, MAC play is mainly just about determining who is the tallest midget.