DannyHoke

An apt description of the job. Sports is entertainment.

With the changes in the NBA's CBA more and more elite players from the high school ranks will choose to go to the G-League. Will be interesting to watch and see if those games begin to gain traction and outdraw low level / mid major college programs like the MAC. The blue bloods like Kentucky, Duke, etc. will not see drop-off but others could well suffer. https://gleague.nba.com/news/no-1-high-school-prospect-jalen-green-signs-with-nba-g-league/

Soccer, Track and Field/Cross Country and Swimming are all seriously in play to be eliminated at Akron. Add in Lacrosse for the Zips, and Wrestling in the MAC overall. All have big budgets and the MAC will no longer be sponsoring championships in these sports. If you choose to believe otherwise, that's your right. Wait, Watch and Learn. The University is consolidating colleges into 5 tight groups - eliminating administrative positions, and The reality is that substantial cuts are about to be made here at Akron in Athletics and on other MAC campuses. You do not reach over $8,000,000 in cuts by disbanding the golf teams and laying off two trainers and an SID, or by scheduling more big $$$ games. Again, the big $$$ games only get paid if there are people in the stands at the big money schools. It's amusing to read the comments on this page every few days as some truly believe that Football brings in substantial dollars at Akron. Akron Football is an abyss. Basketball brings in more ticket sales than Football at Akron, and that's a fact. Akron Football has no big $$$ payday from TV contracts, sponsorships, or again, ticket sales. The only reason MAC Football exists on the planet earth is to provide ESPN mid-week programming during the MACtion portion of the season. Word is that ESPN is pressuring the MAC to consider an ALL MID WEEK SCHEDULE for Football 2020 to provide more programming across the various ESPN platforms. With FANS AT GAMES being in serious jeopardy, the MAC and Sun Belt are being pushed on this front. It won't happen, but that pitch has been made. This is Akron Football in Pictures Explain the positives that this imagery provides The University, it's Academic Mission, it's Athletic Brand, and adds to the value of our diplomas? From Gordon Larsen to Chris Angeloff, the Acme-Zip Game to Jason Taylor and Dwight Smith, and all points forward, I love Akron Football. I just don't think it brings a 10+ million dollar value to the University. Even if we go 12-0 in the regular season, win both big $$$ games that folks want us to play, and win the MAC Championship, we will never, ever, by the way the system works, play for a national championship. We are an organ farm waiting for others to use us for sustenance. Basketball, Soccer, etc. can be competitive outlets for excellence if the focus is made. The football stadium and associated debt is a challenge but keeping the program that is a whole disaster for the institutional brand is bad management.

The University of Akron will not be eliminating colleges as much as merging existing programs into 5, efficient models. Administrative positions will be streamlined and mirror positions within each remaining "college" will be channeled through a central management structure. Early retirement offers will be going out by the end of the month with an expected high conversion rate. Athletics will be cutting multiple sports and administrative positions that are open, or that come open in the near future, which mirror other university functions, will be eliminated. Athletics will be treated just like any other unit, not protected or spared the hurt. As of yesterday Football is being treated like a sacred cow by the Director of Athletics, as well as Baseball, due to donor involvement. Soccer, Track and Field and Swimming are all seriously in play to be eliminated. The MAC will be eliminating multiple sport championships, leaving only Football, Volleyball, and Men's Basketball + Women's Basketball. That means the championships being cut include men's and women's soccer, baseball, softball, tennis, golf, swimming. The MAC men's & women's basketball tournaments are also going to be reduced to where you have to earn your way into the tournament - various models being discussed but the leader as of yesterday was only 8 teams making the event.

Some thoughts from above.... The goal every year should be to win the MAC... Ya think? Do you feel this is not the goal now. Gimme a break. Just playing a few buy games every year is not going to solve this riddle sportsfans. Akron is cutting 20% of the athletics budget on top of an earlier announced cut, which may or may not be, wholly or in part of this 20%. Even then, Akron is in for change. This is not solely based on COVID 19... It's the fact that Akron Athletics is irrelevant to the current students, and the alumni do not support the athletics program through attendance or donations at a level commensurate with the current spending. Akron wants to be D1, and if you think that being able to play a buy game and get destroyed by Clemson this fall is going to help increase the value of our Akron diploma, you are high. Getting beat by 50+ points makes you a joke. Clemson is paying you to come get beat. It's called a GUARANTEE GAME because 99% of the time these are WINS. Smart people do not base their business plans on the hope of the 1% occurrence. Ohio has too many schools in the higher ed system and would be best served by unloading 1/2 of the schools into the private sector. Akron, Kent, Cleveland State and Youngstown State, all in one geographical quadrant of NE OHIO is overkill. Fewer people are going to 4-year colleges and Cuyahoga Community College is $70 per credit hour and has as good, if not better job placement than Akron. That's a fact. Akron's campus has exploded with a lot of unneeded stuff that jacks costs up and thus the enrollment is down. Non athletes are not coming to Akron because of some pole vaulter on the track team was in the olympics or because a decade ago we won a NCAA title in men's soccer. The only people that care about Zips athletics are those of us who played, and even then, along with the die hard fans, there are not 2,000 season ticket holders for football and we do not average more than 3,000 fans per game for men's basketball. (2703 announced). Akron would be best served by selling/trading off Infocision Stadium to the City of Akron, allowing that venue to be operated by the City, and getting the debt off the books. Pay rent to play football games in the stadium and be done with the overhead. Move to D2 and call it a day. No way that this program is worth what is put into it and taking away from the educational mission of the institution.

D2 makes geographical sense. From 85 to 36 scholarships and salaries across the board are reduced. Cannot think of the current D2 as what a new D2 would resemble, as the landscape is changing. The Big $$$ buy games are going bye bye bye as these were predicated on BIG CROWDS at the games. No crowd, no guarantee. This is not rocket science folks. It is funny how many of you think that the MAC is making big $$$ on television rights and sponsorships. Just ain't so. ESPN owned Bowl games and ESPN MACtion TV dates all are tied into getting basketball slots on ESPN in the winter along with the championship game is a nice slot. Very little is any cash flows back to the schools. That's a fact. Most of college athletics could well be headed towards CLUB SPORTS status... smarter play as you keep the opportunity to play but reduce varsity mandates. Unfortunately like GP1s Title IX dream this too is not going to happen quickly.

Look at UA President Gary Millers' last 18 years as a leader in Higher Ed... Can anyone share what all of these schools have in common? University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (2014-2019) University of North Carolina Wilmington (2011-2014) Wichita State University (2006-2011) University of the Pacific (2002-2006). "What's past is prologue" William Shakespeare, The Tempest

Akron has not had a football season for two years regardless. The losing streak lives on... #Arthed

Anyone holding their breath on substantial Title IX reformation will be dead quickly. Nice thoughts GP1, but the reality of what you outline is a long runway, not something that happens in the blink of an eye. Per your quote, "...you want it to be one way. But it's the other way."

Mr. Pillow Guy... good one! Not sure it's a relevant comparison as College Athletics and its quagmire of NCAA mandates (minimum # of sports), Federal Government (Title IX), and Current Peer Group (MAC) all have to work in unison for ANYTHING to get done. It's not as simple (irony) as regular business, which is why it's normally not run by true Business people. Most true biz pros will lose their mind by the nonsensical nature of what college sports "business" has become.

100% agree that the ADs that have been at Akron have been lesser than since Mike Bobinski left. Helsel was clueless. Thomas was looking for a job every year, as was Rhoades. Wistricil was a clown and Williams has proven to be a true phantom, likely the worst of the group. The AD is only as good as the staff around him/her, and at Akron it's been the same group of core people running athletics for the last 25 years. An AD needs a strong University President and Board of Trustees. That has not been the case at Akron. Do we really need to address these dysfunctional further? The business leader as an AD is a concept that has been pushed. Not new. Not successful for the most part.I have have missed some but these two immediately pop into mind. Dave Brandon helped build Dominos Pizza into a top American brand. Brilliant business mind. He then was named the AD at Michigan and drove the program into the ground. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/2014/10/31/dave-brandon-university-michigan/18241453/ Jack Graham was a great businessman out in Colorado, then was the AD at Colorado State. A few years later he was canned as again, the "Business Mind" left lots to be desired in terms of operating an athletics department. https://www.denverpost.com/2014/08/08/jack-graham-fired-as-csu-athletic-director-calls-decision-surprising-disappointing/ Fred Glass at Indiana was a lawyer before, same as Larry Williams. I'd say Fred's time at IU has been weak. Basketball is bad and football is, well, still Indiana football. Committees only work if they have teeth and are empowered by a plan that carries out their recommendations. Without follow through you are wasting everyones time and making things worse by giving the impression that you care about change. The University of Akron enrollment is on the downswing. That's a bigger issue than anything in Athletics. Focus needs to be there, not on sports. Akron Athletics receives 70% of its funding from Student Fees and other institutional support. The people raising money for Athletics are weak, unable to focus on a long-term mission, and that's because the AD is failing at his#1 job. Have a workable strategic plan. Larry Williams may be a nice guy but he's using a day trade mentality. The day has come from the UA's mindset that Athletics has a margin call. First it was an 8m cut, now it's another 20%. As such, D1 Athletics as we know it is over. Any student who has completed a Business 101 Intro Class could tell you that. Another poster asked if Matt Kaulig would approve of downsizing athletics? Who cares, he's not writing a big enough check to have that veto power. The last guy who did ran Infocision, and he died in 2013. He committed contributed $10 million for 20-year naming rights for the newly constructed UA football stadium. That was in 2009, so that deal has 9 more years on it. Akron is a lot like Dayton, only UD is private and UA is public. UA should look into privitizing the school, downsizing for the current economy, and dropping football from D1 to D3. Play D1 in all other sports like Dayton, Davidson, Drake, San Diego, etc... Lots of D3 football in the area and no reason why we could not make basketball a true powerhouse. Football at the MAC level with MACtion killing the schedule every year is an anachronism. Get busy with a true strategic plan and leadership in athletics who operate in a transparent nature. Larry Williams has been too secretive in his operations, or in most cases, lack thereof. Since his hiring in 2015 he has been a ghost. His leadership is no where. Contract is about up... don't look for a return. Akron needs to clean house on the athletics staff side. These folks have all had their time and perhaps bringing in a Matt Kaulig would be appropriate. Someone who has skiing the game and a brain for business. No one on campus now has a clue and it's time to make some waves.

I push no narrative, I give you facts. The University of Akron paid for its $34.9 million sports program last year in large part with a $24.3 million university contribution from non-athletic sources, the school reported in its financial filing with the NCAA for the 2017-2018 school year. The subsidy was reported as “direct institutional support.” This includes, according to NCAA reporting requirements, any support the school provided to the athletic department from state money, tuition, tuition discounts, federal work study programs and more. The subsidy amounted to 70 percent of Akron’s sports budget. Based on Akron’s total enrollment, the $24.3 million subsidy amounted to $1,359 per student. Ohio State is the only public university in Ohio that operates its athletic program without a subsidy from non-athletic sources. No matter how you spin this Akron Athletics is losing money, has been losing money since the move to Division I, and without this ATHLETICS TAX on the students there would not be enough money to fund the program at the current levels. If you cannot see this, you are blind and cannot add and subtract. Low ticket sales and low donations = low interest. Truth hurts.

https://www.sportsmanagementresources.com/library/proper-use-and-abuse-roster-management Men's Basketball - 13 Women's Basketball - 15 Men's Soccer - 25 Women's Soccer - 23 Men's Baseball - 33 Women's Softball - 21 Men's Golf - 8 Women's Golf - 10 Men's Tennis - 8 Women's Tennis - 10 Men's Rifle - 7 Women's Rifle - 9 If the NCAA would allow schools to restructure with FOOTBALL, BASKETBALL, BASEBALL, SOFTBALL, ICE HOCKEY and VOLLEYBALL being the only Varsity Level Sports and all others reclassifying to CLUB SPORT STATUS that would work as well. Akron currently sponsors 31 club sports... https://www.uakron.edu/rec/club-sports/current-sports

Your plan will put Akron in Title IX Jail. You cannot cut 3 scholarship women's sports and non scholarship baseball. Athletics programs are considered educational programs and activities. There are three basic parts of Title IX as it applies to athletics: Participation: Title IX requires that women and men be provided equitable opportunities to participate in sports. Title IX does not require institutions to offer identical sports but an equal opportunity to play; Scholarships: Title IX requires that female and male student-athletes receive athletics scholarship dollars proportional to their participation; (Akron is more or less 50/50 gender split) Other benefits: Title IX requires the equal treatment of female and male student-athletes in the provisions of: (a) equipment and supplies; (b) scheduling of games and practice times; (c) travel and daily allowance/per diem; (d) access to tutoring; (e) coaching, (f) locker rooms, practice and competitive facilities; (g) medical and training facilities and services; (h) housing and dining facilities and services; (i) publicity and promotions; (j) support services and (k) recruitment of student-athletes. Division I member institutions have to sponsor at least seven sports for men and seven for women (or six for men and eight for women) with two team sports for each gender. Each playing season has to be represented by each gender as well. There are contest and participant minimums for each sport, as well as scheduling criteria. Football Bowl Subdivision schools are usually fairly elaborate programs. Football Bowl Subdivision teams have to meet minimum attendance requirements (average 15,000 people in actual or paid attendance per home game), which must be met once in a rolling two-year period. NCAA Football Championship Subdivision teams do not need to meet minimum attendance requirements. Division I schools must meet minimum financial aid awards for their athletics program, and there are maximum financial aid awards for each sport that a Division I school cannot exceed. Division II institutions have to sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women, (or four for men and six for women), with two team sports for each gender, and each playing season represented by each gender. There are maximum financial aid awards for each sport that a Division II school must not exceed. Division II teams usually feature a number of local or in-state student-athletes. Many Division II student-athletes pay for school through a combination of scholarship money, grants, student loans and employment earnings. Division II athletics programs are financed in the institution's budget like other academic departments on campus. Traditional rivalries with regional institutions dominate schedules of many Division II athletics programs. Division III institutions have to sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women, with two team sports for each gender, and each playing season represented by each gender. There are minimum contest and participant minimums for each sport. Division III athletics features student-athletes who receive no financial aid related to their athletic ability and athletic departments are staffed and funded like any other department in the university. Division III athletics departments place special importance on the impact of athletics on the participants rather than on the spectators. The student-athlete's experience is of paramount concern. Division III athletics encourages participation by maximizing the number and variety of athletics opportunities available to students, placing primary emphasis on regional in-season and conference competition.

Athletics Donors give 1.87m (5%) annually Ticket Sales are 1.38m (4%) annually Student Fees provide $24.29m (70%) annually Yeah, Student Fees are 7x the amount of total donors and tickets sold. Perhaps the U of A should be more concerned with keeping students in a period of declining enrollment, and not loading the students down with fees to fund the athletics department.

Do you have these big figures that you speak of? cfp money/tv deal > 3.47m = NCAA/Conference Distributions buy game guarantees > 1m for football out of the 1.3 on the chart ticket sales > I will give you 100% of the total listed, 1.38m on the chart advertisements? We will round up to $1m That's 6.85m, and that's assuming we have no $ for ticket sales for basketball and soccer. And please, if the football total here is likely less than 400K... no one goes to the games. Football Expenses are around 12m. Hmmm. 12m - 6.85m = 5.15M of net savings. Focus on Basketball and Soccer. Heck, you can even give Baseball some scholarships and they can go .500 and play in front of absolutely no paying fans. Great use of funds there Larry.

Student Fees are there - it's called institutional support. Athletics Donors give 1.87m (5%) annually Ticket Sales are 1.38m (4%) annually Student Fees provide $24.29m (70%) annually Yeah, Student Fees are 7x the amount of total donors and tickets sold. Perhaps the U of A should be more concerned with keeping students in a period of declining enrollment, and not loading the students down with fees to fund the athletics department. Move to D2 and be the best at it in the nation.

Perhaps you can learn mouse math, understand how budgets work, and how NCAA rules apply. I give you facts and you do not like them, so you attack the reality. Budget is $34,900,000 You need to cut $6.98 million per the President's directive. You are already dealing with an $8 million reduction in subsidies from the university under the previous “Action Plan", which has not been transparent and no one knows what all has been cut. To Brother Lee Adams' post, there is no fat on the bone, and the current athletics management personnel have run in the red every year they have been in charge. In fact, the last balanced budget at Akron Athletics was in 1999-00 so it's closing in on 20 years of running in the red. Reality is D1 Athletics is not working at Akron, fiscally speaking. Counter that with facts...

Akron actually has 20 sports by the NCAA Count. Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field are counted separately as they each of separate championships. Men's (1) Baseball Men's (2) Basketball Men's (3) Football Men's (4) Golf Men's (5) Soccer Men's (6) Outdoor Track & Field Men's (7) Indoor Track & Field Men's (8) Cross Country Women's (9) Basketball Women's (10) Softball Women's (11) Golf Women's (12) Soccer Women's (13) Lacrosse Women's (14) Swimming & Diving Women's (15) Tennis Women's (16) Volleyball Women's (17) Outdoor Track & Field Women's (18) Indoor Track & Field Women's (19) Cross Country Co-Ed (20) Rifle Have to have minimum of 6 mens. Have to balance the male/female headcount to campus numbers which is 50/50. Have to cut 20% from the operating budget. These changes, ultimatley unavoidable, are due in part to Akron as an university in general suffering from debt and overexpansion even before the pandemic hit. As of 2015, the university was looking at $487 million of debt, due in part to massive undertakings by the previous president to update and expand the campus via construction. With a reported operating budget of $319 million in 2019 and expenses at approximately $295 million, such expansion has become fairly unsustainable, especially in the light of a significant decrease in student enrollments and increased tuition and fees costs. (Tuition increased 1.5 percent from 2018 levels in 2019, while enrollments dropped six percent in 2019 from the previous year.) The university has been formulating cuts since at least 2018 under the prior administrative leadership, with the atheletic department already dealing with an $8 million reduction in subsidies from the university under the previous “Action Plan.” Akron, in particular, has been in a rather unsteady place in terms of their budget in recent years, famously cutting its beloved baseball team back in 2015 before resurrecting it this past season.Akron spent $34.9 million on athletics, with 70 percent of that budget supported via a $24.3 million subsidy, per Cleveland.com’s Data Center, placing it amongst the top of the state’s public universities. Akron actually topped the state in expenses in fiscal year 2017, even without baseball as a sponsored sport. Some of the athletic buget budget goes towards making payments and repairs to Akron’s InfoCision Stadium, which hosts multiple sports. As of fiscal year 2015, loan payments on the stadium totalled $4.4 million, with 94 percent of the stadium debt apportioned to the athletics budget. It’s safe to assume the budget is still around that amount, so a 20 percent cut from $34.9 million would put the new mark at around $27.92 million. If you assume only the university subsidy is affected, the mark is even less, coming in at $19.44 million. https://www.hustlebelt.com/2020/4/24/21233631/university-of-akron-president-recommends-20-percent-budget-cut-for-athletics-in-new-master-plan

It's not going to happen until schools get serious about cuts. Again, Akron Athletics adding a non revenue men's sport (baseball) that was just cut in 2018 made no sense fiscally as the bigger issue of the athletics department as a whole is drowning in red ink having presented a balanced end of year budget in over a decade. Something big is going to have to be cut, or slimmed down across the board by 20% in such a way that there is no competitive level possible. I am told that President Gary Miller is not impressed with the athletics leadership and is looking to clean house as soon as Williams' contract is up. The move to NCAA Division II is a real option that is being discussed per two BoT members that I speak with.

If you play football you have to sponsor 16 sports, minimum. 6 must be men's sports. Athletics Head count / Gender needs to be within 1% of campus full time enrollees, which was 50.6 male / 49.4 female for 2019. Stupid addition of Baseball makes cutting $$$ harder. No one is adding non-revenue sports but Akron did. Dumb move then, ever more so now. 407 total athletes for Akron 2018-19. https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/institution/details Nothing makes sense to cut other than FOOTBALL (110) or TRACK & FIELD / CROSS COUNTRY as both are HUGE head count sports that can impact the financial side directly through scholarships and support staff salaries/benefits. Not going to cut football as you have the stadium and revenues that come in. Cutting golf solves nothing. No funding and low head count. Cut Track & Field / Cross Country and you can make up $$$. Would have to add in a cheap men's sport like Tennis as that would get you back up to 6 men's sports. Still not going to make up 6-7 million bucks. Smart play is dropping football as it really has no value back for the school. The debt service on Infocision Stadium is the ONLY reason football will survive.

Petition was denied. https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/2020/04/ncaa-denies-request-to-drop-division-i-sport-minimum.html

Well see, they'll just look up the ol' Charles Atlas Training Tips found in the funny pages see, and then they will commence with 50 knee bends. 100 sit-ups. 300 push-ups. Daily run on the beach. Easy teezy lemon squeeze Mr. Boomer man, like the way you fellas used to do it back when the Zipperoos were packing them in on dollar ticket night back at the Rubba Bowl, you know, the good ol days.

I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you. Easy Boomer. Back to your canasta game, hot tea and your comfy plaid blanket in the isolation ward. Arts and crafts are coming up later this morning.