AkronAlumnus

Me - worse conference, same pay, higher COL, and he left a top mid-major for it. The only upside is Charleston is probably a better place overall. I'd like to play them 🤷‍♂️

I hear you—it’s frustrating to see, no doubt. But at the end of the day, he’s just one guy making a bad career move. That’s not worth us getting worked up over. The program’s bigger than any one coach, and it’ll be fine. I’m way more focused on the players we’ve got and what’s next for them than putting that kind of emotional weight on someone who chose to leave.

Top dodgeball school too!!

With the announcement of Coach Ford's promotion, is it safe to assume that our guys will run it back?

Looks like Coach Ford will continue the UA Hoops dynasty, as the HC. I'm happy for him and his family.

We don’t need a full national search to do this right—just quickly talk to a few strong candidates and see what’s out there. Akron is a top mid-major job, and there’s likely already interest behind the scenes.

100% agree about your first point. Anyway, support from former players and people around the program matters a lot, but it’s often based on relationships and familiarity—not an objective evaluation of who the best head coach is going forward. The hire should be about proven ability to lead a program, make tough decisions, and elevate Akron moving forward. I'm not hating on Ford whatsoever, I'm just trying to be open-minded.

The Michigan football team (and myself) said the same thing about long-time assistant Sherrone Moore. One of my degrees is from U-M, so I follow Michigan FB as closely as Akron hoops, everyone wanted Moore. Turns out not only was Moore a POS, he also just wasn't a good football coach. Ford very well could be the guy but I think having an open mind could benefit in the long run. Andrew Goodrich has to get this right. To me, Ford is the easy choice, idk about the best - time will tell on that IG

Ford might be the guy, but I'd still run a national search. He lacks necessary head coaching acumen. Ford should be the guy if he keeps our big 2 though!

💯

Makes me think the Butler ones weren't either..

I'm w/ you on this. I could see Butler, but CoC is a puzzling.

I’d only be fully on board with hiring Ford if it guarantees Sharron and Eric return. Otherwise, it makes sense to explore other options—Dru Joyce, the App State coach, Maciariello, Robinson from CSU… and hell even hear out Bob Huggins. Obviously not apples to apples, but the admin and players thought they had their guy at Michigan, and it resulted in a train wreck. Just saying—due diligence matters. Don't make a rash hire for the sake of making a rash hire.

at least we can get rid of Connor, that kid sucked. I'm better at hoop than him, and I was just average in HS.

After sleeping on it, I too agree w/ many of you - CAA is a step down from the MAC.

Not as bullish on Ford as most of you. I have a guy in mind - if it comes to it, haha

I think it's smoke but we shall see.

Feels like the most lateral of laterals. Yeah they don't have FBS ball but I was just in "low country," Citadel has more of a presence in the city than CoC. MAC > CAA

3/6

Got my hoodie in Nashville yesterday, still waiting for the hat - figured they would have shipped together.

They won!!

Regardless, doesn't really matter. Go Zips!!

Based off this year's success, I wouldn't be surprised if both schools surpass $25M next season. I can't find any numbers but I'd guess Iowa's roster spend was north of $20M this season Edit: Iowa Swarm collective website is down ATM

I'm with you 100% on the revenue sharing as I understand schools divide it amongst all sports. I'd think the NIL coffers would be bigger for a litany of reasons. Even at a 3-1 football to hoops donation ratio, I'd still think B1G programs would far and away surpass - it's so hard to determine bc this stuff isn't publically accessible.

Nebraska and Iowa aren’t comparable to Butler in terms of scale: Butler has ~5.8k students Iowa has ~30k students Nebraska has ~ 50k students That’s 5–8x the enrollment, which translates directly into much larger alumni bases and NIL donor pools. I somewhat agree that Butler can make a run, but it’s not operating with anything close to the same structural resources as a B1G program.