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True. It gets more embarrassing by the day. This is becoming front page newspaper news, and headline story news on the networks. You only have to wonder how this is all playing out in the minds of students and athletes being recruited. Wow.

40,000 of them showed up to watch Akron last year. I'd say that at least 5,000 of them will make a 2 hour trip for the same matchup. And we'll need every one of them if there's any hope of reaching 20k.

They didn't just fail to "finish" against us. They barely even got started.

Dave, I wish I could post a link. I just got a Record Publishing article to pop up that says the Canal Park game was cancelled, and it was moved to Noon the next day at Ken+, due to weather. I knew there had to be some reason why it wasn't played at Canal Park.

Good find, Dave. Looks like the rainout caused it to be played at one of the team's own fields as a make-up, before the already scheduled game the next day. That explains the almost nonexistent attendance. I just didn't want you to confuse that with the fact that the Diamond Classic will often show Can't and Akron as the home teams in alternating years, even though the game is at Canal Park.

Dave, I go to the Diamond Classic every year, and I have to admit that this year's game at Canal Park "appeared" to be very sparsely attended compared to most in the past. That 127 crowd for a Diamond Classic "At Ken+" has to be a mistake. You might not know that the game is always played at Canal Park, but they alternate by giving the Zips and the Flushes alternating "home" status every other year.

Bengal...Some good points. It appears that although future cost savings would happen, cancelling this year's season in July doesn't help much at all since we're still paying scholarships and salaries. Maybe some travel expenses will be saved? The timing appears to be awful. And besides the money, the July announcement really does put the upper classmen in a pickle. I feel badly for them, and it reflects badly on the U.

I wish I could find the article about the soccer scholarships, and post it. Maybe I completely misunderstood it. It was a few years ago.

Morris....you might want to check on the Soccer Scholarships. Or, maybe someone else can enlighten us. As far as I know, there's been plenty of guys in the past who had to qualify with an Academic Scholarship because we don't have enough Athletics to hand out on the men's side due to Title IX. Would the baseball elimination at least allow us to correct that injustice?

LZip...down in the "Baseball" thread, I commented on this exact curiosity. My guess would be that Title IX probably prevented a loss of a women's sport, rather than Baseball's cut opening the door for a Women's sport to be cut. It's hard enough to keep the numbers where they should be. The Baseball cut merely relieves that burden a bit for now. The better question for me might be........Does this possibly allow us to finally start putting some of our All-American, world-class men's Soccer players on an Athletic Scholarship?

Ok, I must admit that on the surface, losing baseball doesn't appear to be a big loss. Although I'll miss my annual trek with my wife to Canal Park to see the Zips and Ken+ play for charity. But it's embarrassing when every other large school, and even some of the smallest, still have baseball. It also helps to create major news stories that give the impression that my alma mater is "failing" in some way to support a very common collegiate sport. And if Title IX didn't exist, would we be cutting Softball too?

Balsy, I think this concept might be more palatable to me too. But if it's still two independent Universities sharing programs, I have to wonder how much cost savings would happen in this model, since that unfortunately seems to be the motivation for changes right now. If it allows one of the schools in the partnership to cut a program because the other schools has a better program, this might have some merit.

Good thoughts guys. Even the money doesn't ensure their pride and enthusiastic involvement. I'll skeptically wait for the day I see them all soaking up their free money while sitting on their hands at a football game, and hope that I am wrong.

And they certainly don't constitute a group of "excellent mid majors"

I think she hits on the bottom line for me, as I have mentioned before.......No matter what label you try to put on it, it all comes down to the quality of the education, and the graduates that it produces. That's where the investment needs to be, and that's what raises your profile as an academic institution.

If it produces a large group of dedicated students who exhibit pride in their University, especially at athletic events, I'm all for it. I'm just doubting if a large group of those types of people even exists here these days. Although, I have a little bit more faith in this idea, as opposed to the Dedicated Section "Cheerleaders" idea for basketball next season.

I realize this is a summer league, but Nick shows about as much defensive effort in this video as he displayed during his career at Akron.

I think the situation is interesting already, since the Interim came from outside of the department. Plus, I think we already know that a financial belt-tightening will be at the top of the list of priorities for the incoming guy. That's never good to hear, as any fan who wants to see growth.

Well, I guess it's easy for Dr. S. to look back and say that a new stadium didn't solve our problem. I often wonder where all of those people started spending their Saturdays, who insisted that all they wanted was something on the campus and a heated bathroom for throngs of people to start flooding to Akron football games. But as a financial issue, we HAD to build a new stadium. We had no other option. ZippyRulz question above is a legitimate one. As for the comments about Season Ticket sales increasing, I have to assume that everyone does not know that the season tickets from the die-hards make up a very small portion of total game attendance. Those single game tickets purchased at the gate are the difference-makers in the end.

And.....a baseball player doesn't even have to hit it well. He may be rewarded simply by making any kind of contact whatsoever with the ball. Yes Zippy5, certainly getting off topic.

I hate penalty kicks most of all because it cost us winning back-to-back National titles. It's just very nervous for me watching them, when my team is involved too. I wonder if this Stat is available: How many PK's are MISSED simply because they missed the goal area completely with the shot? And not because the Goalie stopped it? For me, hitting a baseball pitch ranks behind hitting a precision golf shot. You have to be nearly perfect when hitting a golf ball to have any kind of success. In baseball, you can succeed with almost any contact with bat and ball. Just my thought.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, LZip

I have an observation on this season regarding the fans. And I am not a Cavs fan or non-fan, but was pulling for LeBron to win this title. I find it rather comical that many of the same people (certainly) who burned his jersey, drove by his home shouting obscenities, and paid thousands of dollars for a ticket to a Miami Heat game just to heckle him have now suddenly become diehard supporters. And now that they didn't win the title, social media shows that at least some fans appear ready to return to being cynics all over again....he took too many shots, it's "all about him", etc., when he is one of the most multi-dimensional, team-oriented guys who's ever played the game. So, I'm anxious to see next season if the tide has really turned again? Will the fans badger him for what they perceive as "selfishness", especially with Love and Irving's return? Or, will the idolization of LeBron from former haters resume until the next playoff series loss? I was talking to an old friend of mine a couple of weeks ago who's a lifetime Cavs fan. He told me that he wanted LeBron to lose, has hated him since he left Cleveland, and wasn't going to watch the Finals. And he knows I'm a LeBron supporter. He was stunned at my response when I told him, "I applaud you for at least being consistent".

I guess this means we won't see his Bus parked at the games this year? He'll have more important things to do.

Captain, I don't know if anyone seriously thought otherwise, but just in case they did, thanks for the post. Right on.