Hilltopper

Everything you say is true except for one fact that you omitted. The $5 million a year in debt service for the stadium. That money is considered part of the Athletic Department budget. There is currently a $45 million balance still due on the original $60 million price rag for the stadium. It's going to take another 20 years to pay off that debt. No other MAC Athletic department has that kind of debt hanging over them. You can thank those previous AD's who got the thing built for this situation. They have all moved on to bigger and better paydays while the current administration has to deal with the consequences.

Lurch was a really good football player in his day. Him on the right. My dad on rhe left. 1947

This is the scoreboard at CMU. Ours will be similar.

Today's progress.

OSU and Cincinnati lowered their enrollment standards in order to make up for lost revenue due to covid. Most of their losses were due to drops in out of state and overseas students. Between the 2 schools they have gobbled up 30,000 instate students who would have normally gone to the MAC schools and smaller private institutions. This probably cost UA at least 1000 freshman enrollments. What really needs to happen is for the state to insist that OSU increases their standards to a level even higher than before. This is how many other states are set up. Go to a school like Akron or Toledo for undergrad and then maybe OSU for an advanced degree. But what we have is pure greed by OSU. Hopefully this will change after students find out the horrible conditions they are subjected to in Columbus. Overcrowded dormitories, 500 person class sizes taught by grad assistants etc..

The LED nodes are being installed this week. Testing will commence shortly after. The board should be operational for the home opener.

I dare you to spend even 1 day in Guthrie's shoes. There is huge pressure on Athletics to reduce expenses or increase revenue. Most of these money games have been scheduled years in advance. The OSU game represented an opportunity to make some cash. With the realignment going on, these games are going to disappear. A more sane schedule starts next year.

The scoreboard will absolutely be functional for the home opener. Whether the video board is working has nothing to do with the actual game. Be thankful that UA figured out a way to find the money to replace the old one. 1st world problem here.

By rule, scoreboards have to use analog for timing and scoring.

Politicians always go for the low hanging fruit.

Close to that. Also some difficult travel situations.

Schedule should be released tomorrow. As usual, the MAC will be doing us no favors in the conference schedule.

He ditched playing for his dad to join the Zips! Another good pickup by Embick.

This is why the roster was not released until today. He is a direct replacement for Shooky(maybe better). A gamechanger for the team. Big get for Embick.

Nope

We had a couple of opponents back out at the last minute. The schedule should be released soon.

There is still a good possibility that he could end up on the roster. By signing this contract he can now participate in all team events and training.

Right now all the new players are going through the compliance process. If they can not get eligible, they will move on.

Parking passes are now included for all season ticket holders. This is for every sport.

https://www.si.com/nba/pacers/roster/indiana-pacers-second-round-selection-enrique-freeman-one-of-last-unsigned-2024-draft-picks

The football budget dwarfs any other sport at Akron. The only thing lacking in football is winning games.

There were several panel discussions at the reunion dinner tonight. One of them featured Len Paul, Steve McNeese, Eric McLaughlin and Bob Huggins. There was another group that included Jim Tressel, Bud Wentz and Charles Guthrie. The final group was John Groce and Enrique Freeman. Joe Dunn was the moderator and interviewed the panelists. There will be another reunion on July 26, 2025. Mark your calendars now.