Spin

It’s probably for the better that football was spared. What would they have to whine about then? Every. Single. Day.

Well if you can make an annual nine figure donation to the football program, we could eventually compete with the Alabama’s and Ohio States and the Clemsons. Nobody here would be mad that you did. Until then, we’re just happy to still have a program. Well, some of us. ?

Many forget football still gets more butts in the seats even in a bad year. And more TV and advertising money. Those jealous of its budget don’t consider that.

I am all for the MAC cutting scholarships. Maintain your FBS status, take your payday whooping (or two), go to the Podunk Bowl when you have a good year, take the TV money, and have a self-sustaining program. IF the whole conference does same.

Dropping to FCS adds travel expenses to conference games. 14 programs flying to the Dakotas every year runs up a heck of a bill.

Oh boy. Nothing like taking a squirt gun to a shootout.

Question. Is losing the MAC tournament a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand we can go to the NCAA with fresh legs. On the other, we could always have a bad regular season game or two and need that automatic bid from the tourney...

It’ll be used. Plus we have a club tennis team. Anything to keep people from getting fat I’m all for.

I’ll take 1 win with a roster of underclass men (8 fresh) in a first year program with a reported one full scholarship over what football game us. We were only blown out once or twice.

Baseball is using a new self-sustaining model. The team does not award university-funded scholarships. The ballpark was/is being refurbished with contributions and corporate sponsorships are covering other costs. And they're not flying south for early season games like before. I have heard that it is designed to be self sustaining right off the bat, or that it will be self sustaining within five years. But either way, that is the model. More college sports should work that way... As far as entertaining the students, that's actually not the main reason for college athletics. We're not talking about a very active student body when it comes to attending any of the sports that I have seen. Besides that, not all students like bowling , shooting pool or darts, going to movies, going to the gym, competing in intramurals, or any of the other activities.

I'm leaning that way too. I hate to see anything cut, but those make the most sense. Men's track might be in a better situation if there wasn't so much damage to the outdoor track.

Strange, they haven’t updated the gozips schedule yet.

You may be right. I remember way back when the chap went to this bowl, the runner up to that bowl, next best record to another...

The top three are. Check out the chart.

Not the most recent...

That just one example of NEOhio supporting a half-decent football team. Are you going to nitpick the rest? Jeez, the simple fact that the Browns are still in business should tell you something. LOL

They absolutely do. The MAC has six contracts with bowl games A teams record in the MAC determines which bowl game you go to. Or in our case, which MAC teams we watch in them.

complains about football attendance vehemently defends college soccer

I'm starting to come around on playing those games. From all the comments here they do appear to make football at least a break-even sport. I said earlier I didn't like them because they can screw up our bowl eligibility, but that's not true since the bowl games are contracted by the conference, and are based on conference record, not overall record. The program, properly run, can be competitive, we saw that in 2015 and 2017. Just a few years ago. You need the right people in place, and consistently put together winning seasons. Like I said in an earlier post, I've seen 50,000+ at a Zips home game before. This region will support a decent program. And help the entire athletic dept break even.

They gave up ticket sales chasing a few ESPN2 dollars. it's not worth it, especially when you're trying to build a brand.

I'm a soccer fan too, from the days of the Cleveland Cobras of the old ASL, to the Cleveland Force, Canton Invaders, and Cleveland Crunch from indoor pinball, the Cleveland Caps (I know the team owner), the Columbus Crew and CLE SC. I'm not abdicating shutting down the soccer program. I have no idea where you got that idea. This isn't us vs. them.

Ticket sales count when you're bean counting. This is a financial crisis, not a head count of visitors to campus.

One week everyone wants football to play 2 or 3 "payday" slaughters to bankroll the athletic department. This week we should cut football altogether because of attendance (even though more people STILL go to football games than any other sport). I'm glad the forum doesn't make the decisions in the Athletic Dept. (or anywhere else).

A couple years ago, I argued the other side. But since then the bottom has fallen out. Performance wise and money wise. Yes it's possible for the Zips to rebuild, but with the budget cuts we know are coming? Accelereated by the Cononavirus? When you have these Zips fans calling for its end? I want football to win as much as anybody here. And a hell of a lot more than the "fans" who want football gone to protect the budget of their favorite programs. If it's a realist MAC with programs playing within their means, that's great. If it means playing Division 1 FCS with other regional rivals, I'm in. TBH, I went to a lot more Canton Charge games this season than Cleveland Cavaliers. I had equal access to be paid the same to go to both, it wasn't because of cheap tickets. I get to a point where watching a team lose 3/4 of their games just isn't fun anymore.

If Akron cuts football over soccer I’m done with the university. And I’m not the only one. Even last year going 0-fer, I’d put football’s attendance average up against any other program in the school. I’ll go a step further. I would put attendance of the Acme Zip games (43,171 in 1971) against any home games in the FBS era. Winning football sells here in football country. It doesn’t matter what level it is. Cathedral Latin hosted Massillon at Municiple Stadium and drew 51,000 fans. Two High school teams drew more fans than the Bengals averaged. Put the program on a level they can compete, and watch attendance climb. We have high schools with more butts in the seats than many Zips games. And it’ll be a lot more fun. More fun than watching this crap, and listening to fans with delusions of grandeur complaining.