ZipCat

And the taxpayer support should be going to supporting students and the next generation of our economy, not to football programs. As a taxpaying citizen, I want better paid educators ... better resources ... less debt for college students than a BS football program that just drains money.

And, with all due respect, that time has sailed. That time to be a "benefit to athletes, students, alumni fans and general communities" was 20-years ago. The market is too oversaturated at this point, and anyone worth their salt will immediately move onto greener BIG-10 pastures like the RooWards people (if you remember RooWards that was a smshing success). But If you want to know what the rational for Thursday night games was, it was $$$$. ESPN handed the MAC money, that the MAC wouldn't otherwise be getting, for that Weeknight slate of games. It was negotiated in 2014 as a 13-year deal that will expire at the end of 2027. It amounted to like $10-million a year for the MAC, which is like $830,000/year per team. I think it's pretty obvious why the MAC made that decision. They aren't getting that in gameday ticket sales, regardless if it's on a Saturday. Like Akron pulled 11,000 in reported attendance, which is more like 6,000 in reality? How much of that is actually paid customers and not free student tickets? Half? It's pretty obvious why the decision was made. They'll make more money to cover the outrageous costs of D-1 Football doing ESPN+ Weeknight games than they ever will doing Saturday afternoon games. I agree with you, it's dumb and destroys culture ... but the best attended game in the past 15-years was a Thursday Night Akron vs. BGSU game in the rain. And that's because they had a tuition giveaway, so the house was packed with students, and the Zips were actually contenders in the MAC that year.

I'd add, what Mid-Major team has elevated itself significantly to "compete" with the big boys, and sustained that, over the past 25-years? None. Zero. Nobody. A few teams have had scattered success to be interesting...to get a Top-25 ranking, and then inevitably melt into irrelevance. WMU? TCU? Marshall once? It all exists as a 6-figure stepping stone for an entire industry that frankly wouldn't exist if it weren't heavily subsidized by the debt of students and institutions. And it's time to call BULLSHIT on all the "brand exposure" folks, because how has that been working out for 99% of Colleges and Universities with declining enrollment? Yeah, OF COURSE coach Moorehead can't compete here. NOBODY can. There was a narrow Window maybe the program could have become something, in the 2000s after they built the stadium. That time is no basically 20 years ago, and it was ruined by iCoach and further ruined by firing Terry Bowden for a no-name loser from John Carroll.

Same. Basically the Bowden years was the last time I got excited for Zips football. Now I always try to psyche myself up for the new season and then immediately remember why watching Zips Football is rough.

We did. Under Terry Bowden. We had an 8-5 and 7-6 seasons with him, and then fired him the year he pulled off the first BIG-10 victory in Akron's history, for a no-nothing loser from John Carroll.

And yet you're still here defending that Akron should be playing football, and spending tens-of-millions to do it.

True...but we made sure to better distribute those economic gains.

Of course they're not. They have every reason to let students go into debt to support these programs that will never be competitive, while administrators pad their resumes, collecting 6, 7-figure salaries on the backs of student debt.

You are defending BS. Playing D-1 football serves nobody but 6, 7-figure administrators who use these universities as stepping stones to other more lucrative endeavors; ala Matthew Wilson.

It brings in the most money, while also costing the most. It's a net positive if you get rid of the Football program; because the money brought in by the football program doesn't even cover the expense of the football program. Some people just live in denial.

Dude, we have to stop defending this BS. It's absolutely unacceptable that the University of Akron is cutting education, cutting tenured professors, cutting services for students (that students have every right to have because they're the one paying the bills), just so that a bunch of administrators can pad their resumes using Akron as a stepping stone, and so a bunch of barely-existent alumni can pretend in a reality that doesn't exist. At some point it has to stop. We're not talking about how it happens, we're talking about that it needs to happen. I'm sorry, you're not a serious person of you're still defending this crap.

Then there should be no MAC sports should there? It's time to stop mortgaging the future, so the greediest generation in history can sit in the stands of empty stadiums. But more specifically: you don't have to eliminate all sports that don't make a profit, just the ones that cost you the most with no potential to ever be competitive...like football.

Yup. 100% of the MAC programs lose money on Football, and there's a bunch of perennial losers (CMU, Ball St., Kent St., EMU) that cannot make sense to continue this farce. Even the programs that have "success" how strained are they financially to continue this farce?

Call the MAC's bluff. Soccer is already not in the MAC, and you think the MAC is going to turn away their premium Basketball program? But the teams are incharge of the MAC, so all the universities need to pull together and decide football is not a winning proposition for any of them anymore.

You misunderstand my point. That game was an awful bore to watch. As for the Top of the MAC competing with the Bottom of the Big Ten ... so what? It's not good football. The bottom of the Big Ten is awful, which means the top of the MAC is awful. It's not good football, and it's not particularly interesting or fun to watch. And pretending Akron is going to become that is just being silly. It's not, and it's time to STOP WASTING THE MONEY ON IT, all while the University is underpaying professors, cutting programs and shortchanging students. Akron CANNOT compete, and it's time to stop this farce.

Dear god the ESPN+ experience was awful. Reghi needs to retire, and the ESPN+ crew couldn't even put the proper down and distance. It would just sit there blank. And why are there so many commercial breaks for ESPN+? It makes no freaking sense, and the game was so boring anyways so it's all just insane. Dear god watching the grainy GoZips.com feed of the games back in the 2010s was better than this crap.

Agreed. Akron Football is NEVER GOING TO BE COMPETITIVE and we need to stop living the fantasy. I watched the first hour of the OU vs Rutgers game too, which was remarkably boring, and both teams sucked balls. There needs to be a reckoning in college athletics, and this crap has to end.

Well, no. Students actually pay for this crap product. Those "free" tickets are paid for by their student-fees. I've done breakdowns of this in the past for people, but the majority of the "student fee" supports athletics, and THAT is actually why students "get in for free", because they've already paid for it... If you ever look up financials on the Athletics budget, the Atheltics department is mostly funded by a "subsidy" which is...student fees.

Unfortunately, this is not true. We've definitely watched waaaaaaay worse than this.

I like #13

It's Zips Gameday, GO ZIPS

I wouldn't be bragging about being in Atlanta Georgia, but you do you.

The Too-Cowardly-To-Admit-When-He's-Wrong award? You are correct.

Reading comprehension is a thing ... I was using the example given by GP1 where he said "Does anyone really believe someone making $200,000 in 1954 was only taking home $18,000"; I was demonstrating that his derisive comment demonstrates he has no idea what he's talking about. But to answer your question, I personally define "wealthy" as top-20% of the percentile income of an area/country. So if you're in the top-20% you are, indeed, wealthy. It's the most logical way for analysis; five categories of 20% of the distributions of income that can be compared to each other.

You should probably admit that you were demonstrated to be wrong on your point, instead of pontificating some boilerplate, generic nonsense. Have the integrity to admit when someone demonstrates something you said is wrong. It's the first level of intellectual integrity and courage. You also must be living under a rock if you think most people share in your opinion that this is "the greatest day in American history" and that Tomorrow will be better. Just about nobody believes that, because all we're doing is goosestepping backwards, erasing all the gains made over the past 70-years in just about everything. Goodness, you're the first one to complain about the current state of college athletics, and you're going to make that statement with a straight face? LoL