Dave in Green

Akron AD Larry Williams says grid attendance No. 1 issue

One PPV game per season is an Oklahoma standard, as noted in this 2013 article: Oklahoma football: Pay-per-view broadcast is part of Sooner Sports TV agreement

Yep, and unnamed sources add some explanation: Justin Moss removed from UB basketball team as result of on-campus theft

Think Bigger.

Those who talk the most often know the least and those who know the most often talk the least.

Skip, I think everyone is for an Akron arena, or at least not dead set against one, as long as someone else pays for it.

Both Democrats running for mayor are in favor of a downtown Akron arena. Not sure where Republican and Independent candidates stand on this issue.

Might as well get more use out of this investment.

Unfortunately I don't believe there are any official ranking systems that compare all university basketball programs in the country to determine where UA ranks in terms of players who've had varying degrees of "incidents." Obviously many problems exist in other programs that we never hear about to anywhere near our level of awareness of our home team.

We probably wouldn't all agree on which ZipsNation forum members are troublemakers, and we certainly don't know how often various forum members have been picked up by the police, let alone what they've gotten away with without getting caught by the police.

This was a misunderstanding of why Moss was released by the team as a freshman at Toledo. A medical checkup found that he had a dangerous heart condition, but even though he wouldn't be able to play UT told him they'd honor his scholarship if he wanted to stay at UT. Moss received a defibrillator implant, but UT still wouldn't allow him to play because a Toledo player with a similar condition had died during practice in 2006. So Moss transferred to a community college where he played one season and then to UB. The unsubstantiated rumor is that Moss was involved in a minor theft at UB prior to this one and was undergoing counseling at the time of the latest incident, which was classified by campus police as a second-degree burglary.

I can't find anything about Moss being thrown off of another team for stealing. The only thing I can find is an unsubstantiated rumor that Moss was involved in another theft incident at UB prior to the most recent one. If true, two instances of theft should be enough to get any player kicked off of any team at any school.

I think someone previously posted that the $700k saved by eliminating baseball was going to be reallocated within the athletics department. This may be that reallocation. If UA had kept baseball the athletics budget would have been going up at a time when other areas were being cut.

The stores are losing money, adding to UA's debt. Universities shouldn't be distracted by trying to be successful in the fickle retail business. If there's a good business case for stores like that in downtown Akron, other retailers will move in to fill the void.

I see two pluses with Larry Williams right off the bat. First he has a strong marketing background. For everyone who's been critical of past UA marketing efforts, this is a critical strength to have in a new AD. Now we'll have to see how that marketing background translates to a lesser known school in one of the lesser conferences in a mid-range marketing area. Can he make some magic out of the Z? Second his strong record on academics is sure to score points with UA faculty who may believe that athletics and academics don't mix well. At the very least faculty won't have the same level of animosity with this AD that they would with a pure jock who tries to cheat the system to protect athletes who are under-performing in academics.

I'm disappointed that George Van Horne didn't get the job, as I think he could have done well. All the pressure is now on Larry Williams. I wish him well as UA and Zips Athletics need all the help they can get right now. George's experience and expertise could provide huge assistance to Larry assuming George doesn't get a better offer elsewhere.

Skip, players don't "list" themselves. Their height is listed by their schools. Some of the heights you find in internet searches are from previous seasons, and HS kids are still growing. In Jordan's case, the last time I searched the most recent height I found listed for him was 6-7 in MaxPreps. I just searched again and a new one popped up -- his AAU team now lists him at 6-8. At 250 pounds he's in that sweet spot between the 200-pound bean poles who get pushed around and the 300-pound football lineman prototypes who labor to run the court. If Jordan is really 6-8, 250 going into his senior HS season, he only has to grow another inch or two to be a legit size D-I center.

This is a really interesting technicality. It appears that a player can be considered a redshirt without actually getting a scholarship. Craig obviously can't be getting a scholarship this season because there are already 13 scholarship players on the roster. Yet he can still be considered a redshirt and practice with the team. So he will have played two seasons of juco and spent a season practicing with the Zips before using his final two years of eligibility in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. It's unusual for a juco player to have a redshirt season before using his final two seasons of eligibility in D-I college basketball. But the timing may be just right for the Zips. Craig is a wing, and the Zips are losing two veteran wings after this season when Jake and Reggie graduate. Having a mature, experienced wing like Craig to step right in next season after a year of practicing with the team could ease the transition from losing Jake and Reggie.

Hilltopper was the one who told me Eubanks was redshirting, so I'll let Hilltopper splain how the scholly thing works out. Here's what VerbalCommits.com shows.

Hard to believe anyone still brings up the 75-year-old, structurally deficient Rubber Bowl as a viable option. The cost estimate for bringing it up to reasonable standards was almost as much as building a new on-campus stadium, and it would have still been miles from campus. This horse has been beaten into pure glue. Does anyone have anything new to say on the subject?

That's not an answer; it's a wish. The world is full of wishes because wishes are simple. Creating and executing plans that make wishes come true are answers, and they're nowhere near as simple as wishes.

Got it. Putting it into simplistic terms, as part of the deal LeBron has agreed to provide his huge marketing clout to the University of Akron for at least the next five years. To calculate the exact dollar value one would need to analyze LeBron's other marketing contracts, which annually pay him more than $40 million. From that point of view alone LeBron is providing funding through marketing value that UA will not directly reimburse with cash to him but to the program. Beyond that there are many fine details of the package that have not yet been revealed that will have an effect on how much of the funding comes directly from UA and how much is generated from external sources based on LeBron's marketing efforts.

Yes, if you believe that LeBron James' only value is writing a check then you are definitely missing something.

I get part of this. I pointed out in my original post on LW that all of his experience was at private Catholic schools without football programs, which is a legitimate concern. It's also a concern that he's unfamiliar with the Akron marketplace. But then you'd have to automatically disqualify anyone without an Akron connection, which is extremely limiting.

Over many years the Zips have dug themselves into a deep attendance hole that's not easy to climb out of. Winning a few games in a row isn't enough to get people excited. Putting together a couple of winning seasons would offer a fairer assessment of just how many fans would come out to see a consistent winning Zips football team. In football no one can use the old JAR excuse that the inferior facility is keeping fans away.