DannyHoke

Indeed. That's an interesting story... read here https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2015/6/2/8702385/uab-football-return UAB Football, is of course Football in Alabama. Not exactly an apples to apples comp to Baseball in Akron. They are both sports, in college, at least sort of. As many have stated on this forum, even extremely bad football, is football, even when you win 1 game in 2 years and average less than 2,400 real fans per game, paid, and have to resort to have student fees pay for 70% of your athletics budget.

Are you Joe, or Frank Hardy? #Sleuthriffic

Here's the unique difference. AKRON is the only school in America to cut a sport, and then bring it back within 4 years. We lead the nation in STUPID. And to use the justification of adding the sport back, that you got a $1,000,000 donation, when the field that the team plays on cost $1,500,000 to build makes it ever more ridiculous. Then to top that off, our boy NWA comes on here and lauds the team for going 1-12, stating that it showed promise. Akron = Mediocrity

No doubt you shouldn't debate it as your continued stance that bringing back a dead sport was a good move. The fact that you think 1-12 was showing promise is even more sad. But hey, thanks for dropping by with your thoughts on coulda, shoulda, woulda from 5-6 years ago. Since you think everyone should have been thinking out this stuff then, what would you have done? Hey McFly, the first step in this direction of cutting costs and being smart with a lineup of sports was CUTTING BASEBALL as it will never add a single positive revenue dollar to the department. Instead, Akron's doofus leadership brings back a sport that is DYING on the college level and has never won squat and cuts three others. $1,000,000 donation in and spends over $2,000,000 to bring back a dead sport. Another million in the hole, what the hell? Akron Athletics = Clown Circus

100%. Adding back BASEBALL was a totally irresponsible decision on the part of the University of Akron Department of Athletics. For Gender Equity reasons outlined above it makes no sense. It's never been a revenue sport, ever, and never will be, but what it is doing is costing the Department money. Staff Salaries for coaches, added workload for sports medicine, facilities staff, academic personnel, etc... Facility cost to renovate a field for a sport that will never, ever bring in a single dollar of fan revenue. Even look at all of the new gear that this team was boasting about on social media... 5 different uniforms, custom gloves, bats, 5 different hats. That "million dollar donation" to restart baseball has been spent multiple times over on just the new field alone, which cost a minimum of $2,000,000. Everything else - salaries, travel, operational costs for a 30+ member team add up. In accounting terms, that's (-$1,000,000) from day one, season one. GP1 movin' on up resume builder material here. An outdoor sport that starts in February, played in Northeast Ohio, that this past year featured Cross country trips to California and Texas were not free and are necessary to play games in the first 6 weeks of the season. This was a 100% vanity project for the head of athletics fundraising as he was a former baseball player. A personal agenda making long term moves that are irresponsible. But he got to book a $1 million donation that looked good on his GP1 movin' on up resume. Scholarships are funded privately at Akron, which is another drag on the fundraising priorities for a program that is already not pulling it's weight in this area. Hard to fathom that the men's cross country team (which is 100% part of the men's track and field team) and the women's tennis team (10 girls) and the men's golf team (10 guys) are costing anywhere near what was billed as millions of dollars. That was total bullshit. Baseball is such a growth sport that Bowling Green just cut it and the MAC did as well. The cost-cutting measure is part of Bowling Green’s plan to shave an estimated $2 million off the annual athletic budget. Baseball accounts for approximately $500K of those costs. (-$1,500,000 on the tote board) Maybe we should have a telethon. Someone earlier talked about how well the team was doing before the virus hit. Laughable. They did win 100% more games than football did, and almost had a Zips Football record at 1-12. That's a .077 winning percentage with the 1 win coming against a 5-10-1 team from Marshall. Mediocrity. Don't give me the "it was their first year BS either" as Akron Baseball has never been good, even when it was "funded". First Year of Baseball:............................................. 1873 Seasons: .......................entering 117th season in 2020 All-Time Record: ............. 1411-1496-19 (.485) (116 yrs.) All-Time MAC Record: ................241-377 (.390) (22 yrs.) MAC Tournament Titles:.....................................1 (1996) Over 117 Seasons of Sustained Mediocrity Schools that have cut baseball... and kept it cut - BOLD = cold weather schools American University (discontinued 1986) Boston University (discontinued 1995) Bowling Green State University (discontinued 2020) University at Buffalo (discontinued 2017) University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (aka "Chattanooga") (discontinued 1982) Cleveland State University (sponsored 1932–2011) Colgate University (discontinued 1996) University of Colorado (discontinued 1980) Colorado State University (discontinued 1992) DePaul University University of Denver (discontinued 1999) University of Detroit Mercy (sponsored 1941–2004) Drake University (discontinued 1970) Drexel University (sponsored 1929–2003) Duquesne University (discontinued 2010) Eastern Washington University (discontinued 1990) University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Hampton University (discontinued 1972) Howard University (discontinued 1999) University of Idaho (discontinued 1980) Idaho State University (discontinued 1974) Iowa State University (sponsored 1892–2001) IUPUI (discontinued 2001) Loyola University Maryland (discontinued 1979) Loyola University Chicago Marquette University University of Missouri-Kansas City (aka "Kansas City") University of Montana (discontinued 1972) Montana State University (discontinued 1971) Morgan State University (discontinued 2001) University of New Hampshire (sponsored 1911–1997) University of North Dakota (discontinued 2016) University of North Texas (sponsored 1920–1925; 1984–1988) University of Northern Iowa (discontinued 2009) Northern Arizona University (discontinued 1981) Portland State University (discontinued 1998) Providence College (discontinued 1999) Robert Morris University Saint Francis College (NY) (discontinued 2006) Saint Francis University (PA) South Carolina State University (discontinued 1974) Southern Methodist University (sponsored 1919–1980) Southern Utah University (discontinued 2012) University of South Dakota (discontinued 2004) Syracuse University (discontinued 1972) Temple University (discontinued 2014) Tennessee State University (discontinued 1993) University of Tulsa (sponsored 1965–1979) Utah State University (discontinued 1968) University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP; discontinued 1985) University of Vermont (discontinued 2009) Weber State University (sponsored 1962–1974) University of Wisconsin–Madison (sponsored 1918–1991) University of Wyoming (discontinued 1996)

Athletics should go back to sharing their financials in an annual report. They quit doing this 2-3 years ago. Hard to develop a feeling of confidence in the program when they operate in the shadows. Matt Kaulig is not worth a billion dollars, but he is a whip smart young guy who has been building a juggernaut. Good article here. https://www.crainscleveland.com/people/gutters-nascar-kaulig-races-ahead

When baseball was cut a few years ago Akron honored the scholarships for the remainder of those impacted athletes time on campus. I am told this is NOT the case with today's cuts. The athletes from women's tennis, men's golf and cross country are all out, effective immediately. No transition plan.

First, $4.4m is not 23% of the budget. unless our budget is $18m. Second, I'd love to see the financials of how women's tennis, men's golf and men's cross country add up to $4.4m. Third, this is no where near a prudent action that sets Akron Athletics up for long term success. This is not the last of the cuts, maybe not this year, but in years to come as the overzealous spending for no return is going to continue to be an issue.

Akron has 21 total sports and needs 16 to remain D1. Track & Field is actually counted as 2 separate sports, INDOOR and OUTDOOR - they have separate NCAA Championships. For men and women, that's a total of 4 sports. There are 54 men and 36 women on the track and field rosters, along with 7 full-time coaches. OHIO STATE only has 6 full-time track coaches. Why does Akron have 7? Swimming & Diving has 30 women on the roster, along with 2 full-time coaches. Cut these (5) sports, while eliminating 9 full-time coaching positions, and making the remaining cross country teams non-scholarship, is a smart solution. With 120 fewer athletes, the number of support staff can also be reduced, meaning a reduction in academic support staff, sports medicine staff, etc. There is also a 1.5m track and field construction project that can be wiped off the books, along with a major expense on the recruiting side as 13 athletes from the track team along are from overseas. Baseball playing games in California is also a ridiculous notion for a first year, startup program that was reinstated under the guise of being non scholarship. I love baseball, but what Athletic Director in his/her right mind adds a sport back when the athletics program they are in charge of is running at a 7-figure deficit? Answer, a bad one.

Men's Soccer will not eliminated but the budget will be cut back substantially. In NET terms, Football will continue to lose 8x more than the school spends on soccer, based on the 2019-20 budget. If not for Infocision Stadium, football may well have been eliminated.

No, it's not a varsity sport and is not associated with the athletics department.

https://akronaaup.org/2548-2/

https://www.wksu.org/post/university-akron-cut-athletics-teams#stream/0 The University of Akron will announce Thursday what its president calls fairly substantial cuts to the school’s athletics program. “Students have to have an expectation that their tuition and fees are principally going to their education," Schulze, a professor of child and family development, said. University President Gary Miller says being a Division I school helps Akron attract students and 56% of the 515 student athletes are not on scholarship. He says less than 6% of the school’s overall budget goes toward sports. “We agree with the union that we spend too much money on it," Miller said. "So that’s why Thursday we’re going to announce some fairly substantial cuts in athletics for next year.” Miller says that will mean the elimination of some sports. But he says they are committed to remaining a Division I school. Miller says changing divisions would be costly. “You don’t lose costs when you move to other divisions. You still have to pay for coaches, still have to pay for facilities, you still have to travel students. We believe that the best course of action is to work with our Division I partners in Ohio and the region to develop a better Division I model.” Miller also says there’s a $4 million exit fee to leave the Mid American Conference. He says constructive conversations are going on among MAC schools to develop what he calls a more rational mid-major DI program.

Factually incorrect. See here https://getsomemaction.com/news/2019/7/22/football-mac-partners-with-espn-events-for-four-bowl-games-in-next-bowl-cycle.aspx

There was a nice sense of irony there. Thanks for noticing.

You have never seen 50,000 people at a Zips Football home game. If so, the media guide is wrong as I just checked. Biggest Rubber Bowl crowd was Sept. 20, 1969 – While on the way to matching UA’s best record ever, a 9-1 mark, breaking 32 UA records and finishing with the football team’s highest national ranking ever – third in the AP college division poll – the Zips upset favored Tampa, 40-0, before an Acme-Zip Game crowd of 42,869. Little All-American halfback Jack Beidleman scored four TDs to lead the UA attack. 50 years ago. Really. This is the basis of a logical discussion.

When was attendance good? 1971 Acme Zip game? (49 years ago... LOL) The glory years of Gerry Faust? How many of those tickets were paid for vs comped? Akron has not had legit attendance of over 15,000 butts in the seats for a season in... ever. Not in any way that would actually stand up in an audit. If paid attendance was over 15,000 there would be no fiscal crisis in athletics. Take out the bands and the team comps and the ticket dumps with the local schools and "free tickets" given to the students who actually pay for them with their student fees and there are less than 1,200 paid people per game on average for the games played in October and November. In all of your posts you still cannot give one sound business reason why Akron should be playing FBS football.

Bowl games are 100% a result of conference affiliation and connections. ESPN owns the bowl games and basically makes all scheduling deals as they pertain to their air time. Thus, MACtion. https://www.bannersociety.com/2017/12/15/20707270/espn-bowl-games-playoff

The tonnage of your arrogance is impressive. Your scenarios 1 and 2 are both the lifesource of the MAC. Go play in FCS and you don't worry about midweek games set up by the MAC to benefit men's basketball positioning or having to play multiple big $ paydays. If you are so omnipotent about how things should be run in athletics then why are you not volunteering your wealth of knowledge to your alma mater?

OK, so you think that Faust was a great D1 program developer and was held back by Jim Dennison as the AD? On what facts? It's interesting that you come on and rail against people, but what makes you an expert on anything regarding athletics and management of a D1 program?

It's all about cutting costs and getting rid of replicated positions. It's budget savings. Zero here about being better for the students, improving the graduation rate, and increasing the prestige of an Akron degree. Hope springs eternal.

Hmmmm... everything I have posted is exactly what Miller has danced around... Miller also said he expects the university to continue with Division I athletics, although a proposal for substantial cuts to the athletic department budget will be released next week. • Wait and see this report and compare to what I have posted Miller said it was the “sense of the board” that the university will continue to have DI athletics, and that he was moving forward under the assumption that would continue to be the case. • Akron can (and will) cut multiple sports and still be D1 Miller has proposed a reorganization that would take the university from 11 colleges to five, but so far does not cut any programs. • Exactly what I shared. Just rebuilding all that exists now in 5 funnels and cutting a lot of administrative dead weight Some of you truly have no idea what you are talking about on any level. It's comedic.

If you try and apply logic or business principles to the operations of a University you will be forever lost. The costs of scholarships are REAL in terms if how U of A does budgeting across the board, so yeah, the costs are the costs. Only Football (85), Men's Basketball (13), Women's Basketball (15) and Volleyball (12) are full scholarship sports by NCAA rule, all others are partial scholarships. Akron Athletics is looking at mandating that all student-athletes live on campus for 3 years, which would save money as if they choose to live off campus they get the room & board part of their full scholarships in a cash check. Athletes also get a cost of attendance stipend from the U of A, and then are eligible for Pell Grants and other NCAA based financial props that can add up to as much as $18K a year, tax free. Don't forget that every full scholarship is also inclusive of the exhaustive number of student fees. https://www.uakron.edu/admissions/undergraduate/tuition_fees.dot

Just because it's not on the web does not mean it's not being discussed. I'll share in BROAD terms what I know to be true from multiple sources. Watch.

Do you read? The MAC will no longer sponsor these sports. Per Lacrosse, There were to have been five MAC teams competing in women's lacrosse in 2020-21. Akron, Central Michigan and Kent State will be joined by affiliate members Detroit Mercy and Youngstown State. Eastern Michigan plans to add women's lacrosse in 2021-22, giving the MAC a sixth team in the sport. That's all now off the table. When you do not have a conference to play in, why have the sport? Lax was only added to balance Title IX numbers, and that will be addressed now with wholesale cuts. Also, per costs, scholarships are not the only costs. Facilities, Equipment, Insurance, Training, all of the support staff needed to prop up a 500+ student athlete population, and so on. You are so busy trying to rebut my facts that you fail to put forward factual, thoughtful statements.