Spin

Since you never bring it up, do you believe that an aggressive professional marketing campaign would not/could not raise attendance figures to respectable numbers? All I hear is "we don't" and "we can't". While slobbering over every word the "forward thinking" SS says. What class did you take at the University of Akron that taught you "we can't" is forward thinking? This "Lets Cut Football" defeatist attitude makes me sick. And if you dislike college athletics so much, and they're such a waste, why do you chose to discuss them with college sports fans?

I have two opinions on this subject which haven't changed since I joined this board. First we cannot calculate who much the Info actually cost the University with out knowing #1 how muc a renovation of the Rubber Bowl would have cost, and #2 how much funding came with the Infocision and Summa naming rights, and the other advertisers who came on board once we had a habitable stadium. Second we will never know how many people could become Zips fans until we have some semblance of a professional marketing program. If nobody knows Akron has a FBS football team and they're playing a game on September 12, 2015, they're probably not going to come. This region is full of potential. The AA minor league baseball team broke attendance records and ranked 5th among AAA clubs in attendance. The Cleveland Force was the only profitable indoor soccer franchise and packed 18,000 into the Richfield Coliseum despite never winning a championship. Imagine the potential of main stream sports like college football and college basketball. If done right. We need to look no further than tOSU to see what a football program can do for a school. Who here really believes it would be as big and famous if not for athletics?

That's what those semipro football guys said when they bought the Rubber Bowl instead.

How so?

Keep up with JT with these links http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?P=jt-brubaker http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=brubak000jt-

So, if we cut athletics, which only a relatively few students take part in, do we also close the bowling alley? The work out facility? Intramurals? The theater? These are ll for paid by all students through fees that a small percentage actually use. Personally I had a lot more fun relaxing at the "ballpark" between classes than I would have shooting pool or sipping coffee on a patio. To each his own.

It's a sad pathetic time when we look at collegiate sports only as a way to draw attention to the college. This is the kind of bs that is slowly turning me off college sports. We can pretend the Big Three sports hemorrhage money by the truck load in order to bring notoriety to the school, while complaining that (in reality) they're ridiculously under-marketed and do get few eyes on the school. It works for tOSU, not so much here. So let's hatchet the crap out of intercollegiate sports that the students pay for that we don't think serve our vision of what the programs are suppose to do. What other student activities should we take away from them without asking? Who are we (or the AD) to tell those hundreds of student athletes they can't play here anymore? Because we have delusions of grandeur of other student athletes?

So he sees the value of the big three sports as a marketing tool, but you can bet the cuts will include marketing for those programs. So he's happy with status quo, a football program barely meeting NCAA BCS requirements and struggling to contend in the MAC, the basketball program that seems satisfied to contend in the MAC tourney, and the highly successful and popular soccer program that no doubt brings some attention among higher demographics. Not what I wanted to hear. You know my thoughts, "go hard or go home". If you're not going to put a serious effort into BCS football, back out. I'd rather contend at a lower level than strive to be a mediocre MAC team. This past week it was announced Wadsworth was dropping from Division I to Division II in football, and the response has been almost completely positive. We can't compete against the heavy recruiter$. We barely met the requirements for D1 and it was impossible to build with our size and budget. We're going to have a L O T of fun in D2!!! So what does get cut? Sadly, following CSU's lead, baseball is the first to go. It's TItle IX friendly, and our facilities are shitty anyway. It has a heavy travel budget in March. And there's little hope for growth with zero marketing and pulling all but one game out of Canal Park. And it's not a sport a cold weather program has any hope of sniffing a long tournament run. What else? Men's golf, cross country, rifle, track. Women's cross country, golf, rifle, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track, volleyball. On a side note, Cleveland State defunded wrestling to add lacrosse, but then changed their mind by funding it though higher student fees. Anyway it's all moot here as the only sports taken seriously by the majority of posters are the big three. They won't get funding cut, but don't look for funding increases (growth) or any type of serious marketing under Scarborough Fair.

Downsized???

SP JT Brubaker was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 6th round of the MLB Draft and OF Joey Havrilak was drafted in the 18th round by Detroit. JT will be playing for Pitt's short A team in Morgantown WV and Joey will probably see time with Connecticut of the NYPenn League (home of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers).

A simple look at attendance, or noting the size of the student section would work.

They've been messing with the helmets, uniforms, colors, phasing in the new Zoro logo, all in hopes of attracting the younger sports fan/student. Wake me up if/when any of this crap moves the needle.

Hell of a run. We'll be back

Ohio Polytech 8 Ball St 5 in the bottom of the 7th. The game is on ESPN3 for anyone who wants to join the party.

Tied in the bottom of the 9th, the Zips Rembielak scorea on a wild throw by the Toledo pitcher to send the Rockets home. The 1, 2, and 4 seeds are now gone. I may have to take vacation next year and go watch this tournament!!!

Another back-and-forth game, but this time the Zips lose 9-6 to David Letterman U. Now we play Toledo in the loser's bracket for a chance to play Ball St. again Saturday.

POLL: Do you like the University of Akron's rebranding strategy? http://www.ohio.com/blogs/digital-desk/the-digital-desk-1.481514/poll-do-you-like-the-university-of-akron-s-rebranding-strategy-1.592193 More news http://www.ohio.com/news/local/university-of-akron-refuses-to-release-marketing-studies-on-rebranding-1.593568

It only took 16 innings, but the second seeded Golden Flushes finally got on the scoreboard. It wasn't enough as Bowling Green eliminated them from the tournament 6-3 in the "losers bracket".

This forum and social media are perfect examples that most people (general public, prospective students, prospective benefactors, prospective sponsors, not to mention $$ALUMNI$$) do not understand the complete definition of "polytechnic". That is why the rebranding is a very bad idea. And a PR nightmare. Not to mention the constantly backpedalling Scarborough, or his son making an ass out of both of them.

I thought they would be insulted. I was right. On your next message, all just more backpedaling. I'm almost done. I owe the U nothing. I'm an active alum because I liked being a part of it. I had pride in it. That can change.

Ohio Polytechnic 5 Eastern Michigan 4 That was exciting, back and forth all evening. Next up Toledo or Ball St. tomorrow night at 8:00.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/05/university_presidents_say_university_of_akron_president_was_wrong_to_question_the_future_of_their_schools.html#incart_m-rpt-1 This is embarrassing.

Western Michigan smoked the Flushes, Ohio beats BG. The winner of our game gets Toledo or Ball St (tonight's game).

Zips play Eastern Michigan tomorrow at 4:30. Tickets are $15.00 at All Pro Freight Stadium in Avon. And all the games will be on MAC-Sports.com. The bracket: http://www.mac-sports.com/documents/2015/4/21/2015MACBaseballBracket.pdf Tough slate playing the 8 seed. Hopefully they play like they did the first half of the conference season.,