UAZipster0305

I am about as big of a soccer fan as there is, and my enthusiasm for the World Cup is modest, at best. I initially intended to go to several games in at least two different cities; now, I won't be attending any. Politics have ruined it for most people already. I think the residual enthusiasm for the program from the Elite 8 is more significant.

I am a tad disappointed that there are no Little Ten teams on there to beat up on.

I said over twenty years ago that there should be an exchange of programs such that Akron has mostly STEM and Kent has the liberal arts. Also, it is a crime that NEOMED is in the middle of nowhere.

There is a show on Fox promoting this summer's World Cup. Each episode focuses on a specific host city and its culture, especially related to soccer. Each city has a liaison who is interviewed by the commentator throughout the show. UA's Steve Zakuani is the liaison for Seattle. I thought this was really cool to see and wonderful to hear why he chose to live in Seattle after his career. It is always good to see fellow Zips thriving in other parts of the country and throughout the world. https://tubitv.com/series/300019445/fifa-world-cup-26-stories-from-the-cities

This will undoubtedly be challenged in court and fail. There is no justice for an open market for all labor associated with college sports (coaches, administrators, etc.) except for the athletes. The current system definitely needs fixed, but reciprocity is the way to go about it.

More like still can't win a championship with one player. Get at least five of those players, and watch what happens. Buying wins is happening. That's why the past two years there have been no mid-majors to the Sweet Sixteen, and the SEC and Big Ten have dominated the NCAAT. Even the formerly mighty ACC is looking paltry.

And this is exactly the sunk cost fallacy. We've already invested so much, so let's continue risking and losing more in the future. Even with the stadium, continuation of the football program is difficult to justify right now, and as you said, competing even amongst our peers is looking increasingly bleak. It's time for administration to seriously consider making the very difficult decision, even if it compromises us staying in the MAC. Besides, I think if one MAC school abandons football, a handful of others could follow.

I thought the same thing of Embick for men's soccer. I thought they should've hired UA alum and highly successful Coastal Carolina coach, Shaun Docking. In any case, it played out the way it did, and Embick has done an amazing job. I hope Dustin Ford is the right assistant in the same way Embick was.

See my comments a few pages back.

See my comment a few pages back.

You are indicating that you are confused by my initial response. Men's soccer, swimming and diving, T&F, and rifle all have performance records that exceed men's basketball in terms of success within their sports. Now, if you want to say that men's basketball has the most value because of the combination of its visibility and success, that's debatable but also reasonable.

Men's basketball is very successful, and I enjoy its entertainment value and the community here at ZNO that it contributes to. However, objectively, men's basketball is definitely not the most successful athletics program at UA.

Notably though, he won his only NCAAT game there too. That's where we all want to be but with the conference track record of Groce.

Lebron cares more about associating his brand with OSU than ours. He is a fan of OSU as an institution, but he has supported individuals who were with UA. Huge difference. Is there any evidence that Lebron has supported DJ3 via the Duquesne NIL?

If so, that's a perfectly reasonable and respectable scenario from both sides. If it played out that way, so be it.

Now I am really curious as to what UA may have tried to do to counter Groce's CoC offer or upgrade the program, even if only marginally.

I am all in on Dustin Ford. I was generally against Embick's hire as Porter's legacy coach, but I was wrong. We'll be fortunate if Groce-Ford plays out equally well, but I think it could.

I don't think so. Both won many MACC and had great players and teams. Groce was a bit more consistent, especially in the past several years. For that to be true, Groce would have needed to win at least one NCAAT game, likely more. Let's see if the next guy can get us there. Lolla had us undefeated and a #1 national ranking and took us to the Elite 8. Porter won us a Natty and had several more College Cup appearances and multiple Hermann Trophy winners. There is definitely not an analogy between Dambrot-Groce and Lolla-Porter.

It's sad that our coaches leave for destinations like Duquesne and College of Charleston. That says everything there is to need to know about the difficulties of taking the next step(s).

I am hoping this turns out to be a Ken Lolla to Caleb Porter type situation for us.

What are the chances that Kent, Ohio, Toledo, and Miami fans have been donating to the CoC NIL fund over the past 48 hours? 😄

I wasn't going to go too deep into personal politics with my post, but what you say is definitely true. It is astounding and sad to me. Thanks for being a voice of reason.

This is an absolutely stupid political position solely because of the fact that the UA, Kent, and CSU alumni bases are large enough to swing the election on the basis of this issue alone. It proves that VR is not a savy or suitable political candidate. But yes, as GP1 indicates, every last one of you who is currently registered to vote in Ohio should vote against this garbage. Aligning programs on one campus (such as STEM at UA) is one thing, but recklessly destroying programs and entire institutions is unaccepted, especially when done unilaterally.

Not since Brad Stevens left, and the days of high majors running to the Final Four or NCAA Championship are long gone and not coming back.

Again, if he had won an NCAAT game or two at Akron, yes. As it is now, I do not see it happening, and it's not a knock on Groce. We are lucky to have him. That's just the likely perspective of any P4 AD.