GP1

Our goal is to stick it up the @$$es of the rest of the league and the NCAA. Come up with a bad guy. Frame yourself as a victim.

The NCAA loses a lot anymore. My guess is we could make it an initiative for the law school.

The one thing we have learned during the NIL era is the NCAA is easily defeatable in courts. Hire Thomas Mars to file a case against the NCAA. The case could argue the punishment prohibits a player from displaying their talents in a way that limits their freedom to promote themselves. It could come from a player who was meeting academic standards.

Wrong, they can complete for a league title. That's the goal.

Eliminate that handful and replace them with a handful of ringers.

Showing up for practice is too much work. Just give some guys scholarships to get good grades. This really isn't hard.

I want 5-10 guys with extremely high GPAs, SAT scores and no illusions that they could actually play given the chance which could lead to a transfer. The other 75-80 players can contribute on the field. Let's not make this extremely easy solution something that will one day blow up in our faces. No room for failure.

It seems to me that meeting the NCAA standard shouldn't be very difficult. So, how could the stats be manipulated. First, I don't believe it requires 85 players for a good college football team. If NFL teams can get by with 48 dressed for a game, so should everyone else. In reality, 65 players is enough yet we are allowed 85. Second, we are only a few students away from getting over this extremely low bar. It's only a matter of numerical manipulation. Akron should save 5-10 scholarships for what we could call "ringers". The ringers could have full football scholarships and be on the team. These ringers would also be very smart students well on their way to graduation. These ringers would all unfortunately have season ending injuries on the first day of training camp every year. It would be as if they never came to camp at all. Get well soon guys. See you next fall. The ringers could also help their teammates who are in need of some academic support. Give them all varsity jackets. Heck, if they kept the program out of probation, it would be a well earned varsity jacket. The athletic department could pick up what is covered through scholarships. They could use whatever academic scholarships they probably have for general living expenses, fun or whatever. This really isn't very difficult.

I like what I think you are thinking. If it's just about reaching a data point, then manipulate the data that creates the point. How would a school go about doing that?

I'm going to try and care about this for a minute. Does this rule apply to scholarship and non-scholarship players?

You have to admit, it is nice to know Akron can do the impossible. In the NIL era, the NCAA wants academics to take, not just a back seat, but a seat in the U-Haul trailer being towed behind the bus. Somebody at the NCAA once though about how they could make the metrics so easy to achieve, it would be impossible for anyone to fall below the lowest standard. Akron said, "Hold my beer".

What must happen before going to a bowl game? If you guessed winning at least six games, you would be correct. He was brought here to win games. If we wanted a choirboy loser, we could have stuck with Arth. The central problem is, he isn't winning enough games. If Akron wins eight games and the MAC, I'm not concerned that we can't go to a bowl game we really can't afford to go to. Akron could take that success and run with it. If at this time next year, this nonsensical probation is gone and we are winning, all is good.

Or they move on to something else. The majority of players in the TP never play sports again. Maybe they drop out of college all together or they continue without sports. I don't know and I don't care. I don't think this one year ineligibility is the catastrophe some are making it out to be. It may be a blessing because if we can't afford enough academic advisors, how do we afford to send a team to a bowl game? It's a fixable problem and one not worth firing the coach over. If Akron plays like @$$ again next year, then fire the coach. I won't be watching games worrying about whether any of the players attended a single class the week before. I'm still confused as to why players have to take classes in minor league professional sports. My employer can't force me to perform community service. They can encourage it, but not require. Players should be encouraged to take classes, but it shouldn't be a requirement in the NIL era. Pre-NIL, yes. Today, no.

Who's blaming NIL? I don't blame NIL. I blame the people who want it to be 1970.

What if your boss had an expectation you didn't want to comply with and you could string them along until just before they fired you, you went to work somewhere else? That's what's going on in college athletics.