clarkwgriswold

My post acknowledged the fees. By "free" I meant not paying at the door. My point was that they could get more out of those fees by attending games.

It's a strange world where we have to hope for the kind of success that leads a more prominent program to take away the person that brought that success.

All of this roster number talk makes me think back to the broadcast of the 2017 game against Penn State when the UA radio color guy explained that the biggest difference between the teams was not in starting talent but in depth. This was in the 3rd quarter when the Zips were down 42-0 and the reserves had not seen the field. Yikes!

I was in school during prohibition so we didn't have that option.

You are correct that a little creativity could go a long way. Walsh's plan is probably easier for a small private college as opposed to a larger publicly funded school. When my son was looking at schools a decade or so ago, George Washington guaranteed that your tuition would not go up in your 4 years. I think some other schools have followed suit.

Not that it equates to a lot, but the UA students as a whole could get a little more of their money's worth by taking the opportunity to go to the damn games for free. Back in the dark ages the excuse was that it was a commuter school and students weren't on campus to go to the games. That's not the case any more. Those kids are living in or around campus and there can't be that much else to do.

I suspect that the odd distribution of cuts was brought to you by Title IX.

I guess it is all in how you define competitive. From 2007 through 2015, they had one season over .500 for the full schedule (and it was only 1 game over .500) and the best they ever did in conference was 2015 when they went 13-15.

I'm curious as to why you would make such an effort for something that obviously brings you so much misery. I also note that you use the pronoun "we" in referring to the University of Akron. That's telling.

...and yet Scarborough who was the impetus of the cuts that led to the elimination of baseball was the villain who was chased out of town in short order. Don't get me wrong, he did some questionable things (e.g. Ohio's Polytechinic University?), but the major difference in him and what we've seen with Miller is that Miller had an outside crisis to use and is better in the PR aspect of delivering bad news. Make a cut and you're the enemy to many. Undo the cut and you're the enemy to many. At UA, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

That's something we all need to consider when we propose cutting a program, the human element.

Beacon Journal opinion piece by Dr. Miller about the challenges facing the school and it's place in the City- https://www.beaconjournal.com/opinion/20200516/gary-l-miller-itrsquos-all-about-akron

Reading all of this, I have come to one simple conclusion. That conclusion is not that football is too much of a financial drain or is financially unfeasible. Rather, it's that $6.5 to $7 million dollars is a lot of money for awful football. It's the product that needs improved. I heard Urban Meyer on a radio show this week and in discussing assistant coaches stated that college football really all comes down to recruiting. It's all about talent on the field. Get kids that are better than PCCC's, OU's, Toledo's....and you will finally see a return on the investment. It's the administration's job to find the leaders that can accomplish that task

Agree with all of that. My point is that the program is probably not entirely out of the woods, especially if we see an ugly season. Announced as a sell out.

That was supposed to be Arth's strength- connections to area coaches to get those kids. If this team doesn't play some reasonable football this year, all of the Zips Nation and fan support may not be able to save it. This time through was a reprieve, the next look may not result in a stay.

Browns' fans are the only fans in the world who will regularly support sh!++y football. Would crowds automatically reverse and start showing up with a good team? Probably not, but build like they did with basketball and they will eventually come. If they could focus on keeping a decent portion of the non P5 top players in NEO, that would be a start to not only building talent but gaining some local recognition.

He became less frustrating as he evolved as a player. He went from being the out of control crazy athletic layup missing brick laying freshman to a solid team leader. I went up to his dad on senior night and told him how much I had enjoyed watching Jimond grow up in the program and how much I appreciated how he stuck it out through the Dambrot/Groce transition. I also remember how proud Groce was with how he followed though with his plan to graduate.

What's that old saying about putting lipstick on pig?!!

Not that anyone wants to revisit the Bowden argument, but one could argue they prematurely extended Bowden.

Here's the reality for Zips Nation. Most of us have our favorite(s) and will fight to maintain that favorite sport. Mine is admittedly basketball. Every one of the sports has its positives and negatives. Football is an easy target because it has been down for so long and require lots of personnel, scholarships, equipment and facilities. However, it probably reaches more people than any other program. With respect to the constant bickering between the "positive" and "negative" folks on here, I analogize it to having an ugly girlfriend and your buddies constantly telling you she's a bowser. You like her, see her finer points and want to stick it out with her and your buddies continue to tell you repeatedly just how ugly she is. Hell yes, you know she's carnival sideshow quality but she's your's and there's not a hell of a lot you can do about her appearance but they insist on continuing to tell you. At some point, you just get fed up with being told.

If he's half of what Jimond was the Zips would be blessed to have him. I don't know that there's been any other Zip I enjoyed watch grow up more in a program than Jimond.

It does seem that some posters enjoy the Zips and Zips Nation a lot more when there are issues they can complain about. Basketball has a wonderful season and you don't hear a peep. Bad football or financial issues and they are on full blast. I don't begrudge anyone complaining about things, however, I'd prefer a little balance in people enjoying the positive things along the way too.

He retweeted clips from Jimond's rookie season, so there's some connection there.

34 year old habits are hard to break.