GP1

I wouldn't keep him from leaving.

This is really a shady thing for this coach and ODU to do. If an employee doesn't want to be around, don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.

Imagine the money they have flushed down the toilet maintaining this albatross over the past couple of decades. I say good riddance. I've never understood why so many were so emotionally tied to this old factory.

I'm unconcerned if someone was a back up player last year and a starter this year. We can't play against last year's team. Players can improve over the off season. If a starter goes down, there's a big problem to deal with at the G5 level and most of P5. Depth in college football is horrible and compound that with the lack of continuity because of the transfer portal, injuries kill. The question then becomes how does Akron exploit this bad hand WY has been dealt? Attack the backup players in the run game?... That's what they do in the NFL. Prepare for more WY run and pass blitz packages?....I would because backups can't get as much pressure as starters and blitzing helps support them. If a backup is a weak link, how do the Zips block him with one lineman while double teaming Wyoming's better players?....makes sense to me.

Good information. Much needed news for the Zips who have a lot of questions to answer on the O line. This is not insignificant. Injuries are killers in football. Depth is important as players can't play every play. At G5 schools, it's hard to find really good starters and even more difficult to coach your way out of injuries. Coaches are only as good as their players.

Nice find.

These three paragraphs stand out to me. I agree, college football for me is becoming less interesting by the week. I don't care that there is money in it now for the players. I do care that the conversations around it are so tedious and boring. It's all so gross anymore and I even mean other sports as well. There are lots of other things I can do with my time. I'm going to start doing those and wait for pro football to come on the television on Sundays. Being broke is bad. Being the poorest of the poor is catastrophic. It's something that can't be hidden from the competition. Heck, they talk about it publicly. I don't know how any coach wins under these conditions. Akron will have a losing record again this season. They will part ways with Joe. Then they will hire another victim. Years ago I drove everyone nuts when I called Akron The Graveyard of Coaches. Please prove me wrong. Would I care if Akron got rid of football? Yes I would but I'm at the age where I wouldn't be overly upset. Football is the national sport now and they need to find a way to have one at whatever level works for them. I don't want to be a Wright State or Cleveland State. This could be said for a lot of programs around the country. Maybe schools like Dayton have figured it out. Become part of a non-scholarship conference while having high level basketball, etc. Maybe a huge weight would be lifted off of MAC schools if they all went this direction.

It's too bad they don't hold public events and fans could go ask questions to quench their thirst. Oh, wait.....

Television networks haven't decided.

Oh well. I'm not a degenerate gambler so I don't care.

P4 won't trim the fat as in cutting weak programs. It would be a smart for the Big 10 and SEC to have their own football conference. I don't know how many schools they have between them, but the number has to be around the same as the NFL. It's become pretty obvious that the Big 22 and ACC cannot keep up with them.

How embarrassing for Memphis. They won 11 games last year. Let me be the first to welcome them to the new G5 division. I will say, it's been nice to have an off season without all of the conference jumping. That part of college football may have run it's course.

This was quite the ramble. I'm jealous.

Looks like one game starting 3:30 or earlier on Saturday. Miami game start time not set but on a Saturday. Could the start times get any worse?

Bankruptcy is bad. Dissolution is worse. Anything further you would like to share?

I wouldn't attend this if I still lived in Akron, but I think it's a good idea. Annually, they would have things like golf outings to bring people together. I didn't play in those either because I absolutely suck at golf to the point I'm made miserable playing, and I'm not blowing a round of golf level money to be made miserable. I prefer to throw money at the University from a distance. I'm so lazy about it I don't even write checks anymore. I let them automatically take money from my account every month. A small $20 event at a coffee shop is a good idea to bring some people in who don't want to spend golf level money but want to learn more about what's going on. It is also pretty low cost, which is important right now. I hope people attend.

I wouldn't buy season tickets because I wouldn't go to the weeknight games or any game that starts after 3:30. There is no reason for a family of four with the oldest child being 11 to go to a game starting later or on a weeknight, which isn't me, I'm just saying. By itself, Akron can't solve this problem. It's a problem throughout the G5 world. The causes are many. The solutions will be simple but hard to achieve because of the enemy within, athletic directors.

Well, if the G5 schools pulled their heads out of their backsides, they could structure their league in a way that finances were less of a burden. I don't think a high level P4 win does much for a G5 school long term. App State was already a good program. It won national championships the two years prior to beating Michigan and were a I-AA powerhouse for years prior. Win or lose against Michigan that day, App State would be good. I think that the incoming freshman class wasn't born when they beat Michigan. It's a strange historical fact for them in the same way that Akron beating OSU in the late 1800s is a strange historical fact now. Our problem is even when something good happens, it's never enough and an excuse for why we can't be any good. Wins against Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Northwestern (I think they played in the Big 10 championship this season)?..... That's not good enough, they didn't beat Michigan that one time so nobody cares. The reason nobody cares is because even if they were good, they play their games on days of the week and at times that make it almost impossible for people to either attend and/or care. They play their arch rival on weekday night games in front of a basically empty stadium. The money problem can be mitigated, but the stupidity can't.

Millions of people live in NE Ohio. Surely someone could figure out a way to get 15,000 of them to show up for a football game six times a year.

I hate to hear this. I believe universities should maintain at least some old buildings. It's been over 30 years, but at one time the restaurant in the basement served the best grilled chicken sandwiches in Akron.

I'm of the opinion that if G5 schools snap out of it and begin to use their athletic departments to benefit the athletes students alumni fans and general community around their schools, their greatest days could be ahead of them. Further, I believe there is room for only one professional football league dominating the attention of Americans in the fall and winter. That league is the NFL. I believe over time Americans will grow weary with the pro football of the P4 schools when they realize only 3-4 schools are capable of winning the league. It won't happen overnight, but interest will erode. When that happens, people will look for other ways to spend time with their family and friends. OSUlike games are out of reach for most families. Why can't G5 schools provide games at a time and day of the week when families can attend? Get people to the games and everything else the school offers is on display for the taxpayers. Make it a great day for them and then you have something.

There were several seasons prior to 8 years ago we were guilty of it. Scheduling is way more than who you play. It's also about what time you play and what day of the week you play. Both of these can be out of a schools control and can only be solved if G5 programs come together to solve their problems. Our problem is when we get to pick the day and time, we fall flat on our face.

Maybe every decision at a public university shouldn't be driven by money.

This is worthwhile read. Thanks for posting. I would have some questions then comment. First, why would the Big Ten and SEC share their revenue? They could create a super conference on steroids. At this point they don't need the ACC or Big 12. Second, wouldn't it be better if schools outside of the P4 engage in problem solving that doesn't focus on money as the primary driver of the problem? NonP4 schools have been chasing money for decades. It isn't working. I know we need money, but the pursuit of it while excluding everything else has been a fools errand. I've been saying it for years. NonP4 schools need to focus on making their athletic departments benefit the athletes students alumni fans and the general community around their schools. If they can do this, they could garner more public support for the athletic departments the taxpayers are basically supporting. Do we really need Tuesday night football so bad that we forego any benefit to the greater society that should benefit from public universities? If we do, the failure is truly complete. There were a couple of paragraphs in the article where the man from Texas Tech looks back on his time in college. Those paragraphs really stood out to me. His experience was one that many experience and I think is badly missing today. College athletics used to be a means to an end. It was where young adults went to college to matriculate through a university, meet some lifelong friends, create a book of memories to share at reunions, maybe meet a spouse, get a degree and move into young adulthood as a productive citizen. Now, it's the end and a job. It's all so gross now.

How about those less than manly modeling photos Dr. Jellyfingers took of him? Another very disturbing part of the documentary was the doctor was telling the athletes he was giving them vitamin B12 shots and mixing in anabolic steroids into the injection without the athletes knowing. Around that time, the sports he oversaw had massive increases in team performance.