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Nice crowd yesterday, I overheard a couple guys who never considered going to a ballgame until the SpringFest. I see the advantages of being on-campus, and really think even a small upgrade would help get people out. Get rid of the stands that look like they salvaged them from South High School when it closed, put in some decent bleachers behind the plate and where the current ones are. Maybe some chair-backs in the top row of the stands behind the plate. Leave the hill along the 3rd base line for folding chairs and picnic blankets. Adding the concession stand and real restrooms with the new soccer stadium really helps. It sure beats the old port-a-jon on a hot day. It wouldn't be D1 standards, but it would be nice. it's just tough to sit there getting splinters in your bottom, looking at what the U has done for the softball program.

When is the spring game?

Why are they playing less games at Canal Park? That's the perfect solution to a lot of the problems, the only bad thing about it is students can't catch a few innings between classes (does anyone do that since I graduated in 2012?). But I guess we're lucky to even have a baseball program. Ask Cleveland State.

Great idea. THIS is how you work around Proposition Title IX and all paying athletes of non revenue producing sports. And they're not employees.

The fact that Mount Union plays football tells me that if there are only a couple dozen FBS programs that aren't hemorrhaging money, the budgets are completely out of control. Mount Union recruits. Within its means. Mount Union travels. Within its means. Mount Union doesn't require 80,000 people to buy highly expensive tickets to sustain. Mount Union doesn't have to whore itself out to a Big Ten team to sustain. The money problems in college football programs are within. Trying to keep up with the Jones'. If this video doesn't make you sick... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/video/nca...rtsillustrated/

Holy crap that would tarnish his image more than tatgate. Outside of trailer parks and small cities along the river, of course.

Exactly. The Canton-Akron Indians are the perfect local example.

People like Steve French, Joe Dunn, and Tom Linder? I look forward to hearing your call to them next time Steve is on.

Agreed, SOS is pure BS. Not only is it not fair to anyone outside the darling conferences, it also brings in every chance for favoritism and politics that have made D1A football a joke (in my mind) since the bowls and then the BCS systems meant dollar signs. Look no further than when TCU and Boise had their golden season, there was no way in hell the powers-that-be were going to let them even sniff the championship game. SOS, legacy conference, all that other bullshit was shoveled at us. I'm not saying that either could have won, but I knew right then what I suspected all along. We need an 8 team playoff. Conference champions from the boy's club conferences, and two at-large spots for the other conferences, and Notre Dame if they happen to win 11 or 12 games. Make it a REAL championship. Not a popularity contest, And don't give me no crap about the poor student athletes. The boys on D3 do just fine with their playoffs and their grades, and they're working toward real degrees. If TCU or Boise or Akron had a strong national fanbase and "travelled well" they/we would be in the boy's club too. If you're not in the boy's club errrr "legacy programs", you're crap.

That was a joke but think about it. All of the events he wants to hold are arena events. He has a much better chance of having an arena football team (and having it survive) than a minor league real football team (if there was a viable league). If it were professionally done, would the U put the basketball games there instead of the gym? Think about it. The university and the city get a new arena without years of whining about who's going to pay for it. The downtown site fans can't whine that it's on campus. The campus site fans can't whine that it's downtown. And he gets a solid anchor for the place. Purely a joke. But it makes a hell of a lot more sense than rebuilding the Bowl.

Maybe he'll tear it down and build an arena there.

Well, they are trying to attract the young demographic. This is probably what Banner thinks that means...

According to 1350's Big Show, Tress is interviewing with the Browns this weekend. IDK how he would relate to NFL players, or how his system would work in the NFL. He would move the needle with the lost fanbase though. But that is a very bad job if you want security. A prez and owner with an itchy trigger finger, and a roster with no QB or RB. I don't think Tress makes that move, depending on how his future looks at the U and how bad he really wants to coach and rebuild his rep. I don't think that's a good fit for either. So obviously, it'll happen.

I wish I had come across these geniuses before they blew their wad on the Rubber Bowl. Icould have come up with an equally viable scheme. If the USFL was going to work out (no way it could, even before the legal trouble) it would have been the anchor for the whole project. Now there is none. They were looking for other leagues, but minor league football has pretty much dried up. Unless you're talking about arena football, and even that is not what it once was. Unless they find events to anchor this project, I don't see it working out.

IMO Terry has "been there, done that". And still has the high blood pressure from working at a big school. He looks more comfortable in this setting, where he can build from the ground up his way, without the constant pressure from all sides. I don't think he wants back in the pressure cooker. And why (other than money) would a Wake Forest be such an upgrade over Bowling Green? There's no legacy there, when you think of college football hot spots the Demon Deacons never come to mind. Do you see TB making a lateral move like that? For what, to take on big school-type pressure to build a similar program to compete against the top ACC teams? I wouldn't. Especially if I were Terry's age.

A lot better article than the one that told us the Zips need better attendance in order to need a new arena. That fallacy was never even brought up by the people in this article. A lot of it read like our old threads, we're not as out-of-touch as some claimed.

One of the President's biggest jobs (according to Dr. Proenze) is raising funds. That's a big part of Tress' current position. Any news on how that's been going?

Gotta love Terry

Hell yeah. Bu bowl season next year I'll be getting my vaca time, and will have the funds to travel. I got the first round.

So, we're not getting roller derby?

You heard the boss man. We're not allowed to talk about that anymore.

We're adding roller derby, and they're going to play on the track at the Rec. "You do NOT want to go over the rail in Akron..."

I don'think we cut sports, we just learn to live within our means. You know, like the university teaches us in those classes we need to get our degrees. And then doesn't follow that edict in the athletic dept. College sports are sustainable at many different levels. The secret is finding the level you can sustain. If you depend on hand-outs from the legacy schools and big-time bowls, that is a warning sign to me that we are in over our heads. Not just Akron but the whole conference, probably anybody in D1 who is not in a BCS conference. IMO the "outer" conferences should be looking at ways to cut the cost of participating in them, instead of scheming ways to get a fat payday from the big schools. And then realign the lesser bowl games to spotlight themselves, have division and conference champions play each other instead of, say, the 8th best SEC team. Not a demotion to Division III like some fear, just rationalization.

Not all of it, of course. But this is the perfect illustration of how mid-major college football is not sustainable. When you NEED to go to a big school to play for a seven figure payout, when you NEED to put your top teams up against the conference cupcakes to get them into a higher bowl, something is wrong. It is not sustainable. You can't keep up with the 80 scholarships and million dollar coaches and big recruiting budgets without prostituting yourself out. We are not Texas. One reason is what happens if that gravy train derails? The Doylestown Chipps won a playoff game this year. That was the most excited I have been at a football game in a very long time. They weren't playing out of their league, they can't play with the big Catholic schools and the Mentors. Who cares. It was a great time. There's a lesson in there somewhere for anyone who will listen. GP1 would understand.

So you're claiming the MAC plays a balanced schedule. That's why our strength-of-schedule was one of the toughest in the country. I gotta a car I'll sell you. Cheap. A real cream puff, driven to church by a little old lady. You'll love it.