GP1

Ludwig von Mises 3 Elements of Change. In order for someone to make a change, three elements are required. The second cannot take place without getting past the first and so on. First, the person is uncomfortable with the current state. If you think the current state of G5 sports is good, you don't go to question 2. Second, there is a vision of a better state. I don't like the current state of G5 sports and I would like one where we compete well against one another while giving communities, fans and alumni something enjoyable. Third, a belief that the vision of a better state is achievable. This is the hard one. I believe it is achievable but I don't know how to get there. I do believe things have gotten so bad compared to the P5 conferences it is going to take a lot of really smart people to figure out. See my previous comments in this topic on this subject. We are so far past deciding how much to charge for a ticket is isn't even funny. I am not sure the first questions they should ask are even about money. We and schools like ours have a lot to offer fans, alumni and communities. I don't believe it is what the P5 conferences offer but that's not necessarily a bad thing either. We just need to put our best foot forward, whatever that may be. If we go about this right, our better days are in front of us. Now is the time for optimism, not fear (unless UofA is planning another unilateral decision).

It's why schools and conferences like ours need to collectively and look at the options. One school cannot do it alone. I don't even like to look at them as cuts. As much as I hate it, I'm about to use a corporate Americaism....."right sizing". If everyone agreed to right size together, it is easier to take to the public. A school can claim to make decisions for the "greater good" or whatever sounds good at the time.

Interesting. The PR hit is not ideal for Welty or UofA, but things like this happen on state construction projects all of the time. It's just happening to us this time and why construction lawyer exist. $1 million is a lot to ask for. I'm sure they will settle out of court for a number lower than $1 million and the problems will get fixed.

Over a 10 year period, Mother Nature will be more harsh on any NE Ohio stadium's concrete than if there were weekly sold out crowds. Most new construction roofs are not expected to last very long because of the wear and tear during construction so The Big Dialer may be in need of a roof replacement in the next 4-5 years.

It helped. What really inflated salaries was the rapid influx of money into conferences, specifically P5, that allowed salaries to be driven up. This trend followed in to the P5 coordinator ranks which used to be the nursery for MAC level schools head coaches. Those coordinators are hard to dislodge from their schools at this point so we have to take risks on P5 assistants or lower level head coaches which are significantly less proven. In any event, we and schools like ours are wildly overpaying for what we are getting. This would be a question for the Matt Kauligs of the committee I propose. How do you build a great management team at a small to mid size business when you don't have the financial resources of your larger competitors to attract and maintain human talent?

Thanks for bringing the bad roll out of this to the forefront. Seriously, nobody knows and that is the problem.

For now. South Carolina opens back up tomorrow. I'm going to Charleston and interacting with others in an effort to regain my humanity.

The Toledo AD can put an actual great idea on his resume.

That's OK. The idea goes past most people because most people think of reasons why things can't be done. So, why don't we play Toledo every year?

OK. I understand. I'm still confused though. Please help me. Why don't we play Toledo every year?

Commenting to both of your comments. First one, you would think the they could develop a rivalry. I have an idea. Let's first crawl. Just declare it a rivalry. Years ago, the mayor of Atlanta inserted the word "international" into the name of their airport and they didn't have a single international flight at the time. Today, I believe it is the busiest airport in the world with it's own international terminal. It's all so simple. The one I quoted. Why not give YSU the boot and play Toledo every year? Playing YSU is Mickey Mouse. I know this because it is the kind of idea Terry Pluto would think was a good idea. Akron would, at that point, play every Ohio MAC school every year. Not to be a jerk, but your last paragraph over complicates the issue. It isn't that hard. The AD of Toledo and the AD of Akron get together and contract an annual game against one another. Does this sound impossible? If anyone would like, I can provide an example of a case where it worked perfectly, last season. Schools like ours never think outside of the box in a realistic manner.

I'm still waiting. Some help please.

The post from Pluto above has really rubbed my rear end the wrong way. I'm trying to keep my comments isolated to the athletic department as the football team just drives me insane, but I'll try to post about the football team anyhow without going insane. Why do people like Pluto look at a situation and always compare what goes on at Akron to OSU? Extreme thinking is not what we need. Extreme thinking is frequently magical thinking. There are better comparisons to many other schools. Crawl-walk-run. Why can't we start with being like Northwestern in comparison? They were a horrible program until 2000 and are respectable now. They have been through two coaches and have remained good. Their fans aren't even that picky. Committed coaching, a few solid players committed to the program, some confidence and the inevitable choking of your opponent if you can keep from shooting yourself in the foot is just about all it takes to get to 6-8 wins as a MAC team and be a favorite to win your division. Friends, family, the community and alumni are happy....what's not to like? There has not been a Clemson of the MAC for a long time now. At least since Roethlisberger was at Miami. The league is there for the taking if you can just do those four extremely basic things. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” - Sun Tzu. I ask you my fellow Zips/G5 fans, do we know who our enemies are? Do we know ourselves? Are we relying on magical thinking too much and if we just stopped could we win where and at what we want to do? I'd love a discussion where we define our enemies because I think the first on those lists should be the athletic directors at our schools. They are without a doubt the biggest problem we have. Future big picture decisions of our leagues should not include ADs. Their only job should be to push the paper. G5 ADs are blithering morons who only have their sights set on their next job and will make one bad decision after another for the schools they work at to get their next job.

Uh, no. Pluto is ignorant of the landscape of college athletics and should not be posting such ignorance. He is now, always has been and always will be the guy who misreads every situation. The guy has been a plague on the sports fans of NE Ohio for decades now. The answer is not "what's the best way to give up?". The question is, "how do schools like us to maximize our potential?". I don't believe that is dropping down a division. It might be creating our own division/conference/whatever, but it isn't dropping down. If the benchmark for whether or not schools make money with their athletic departments determines their level of football, there would only be around 20 high level football teams. If it all narrowed down to money, there should be no college athletics at all, which is never going to happen because so many traditions in the USA revolve around it. College athletics would become club sports. Besides, if we made a unilateral move, who would want us? Is the commissioner of the powerhouse Pioneer League putting on his best 1970s era polyester suit, getting in his Honda Fit, driving to Akron and begging us to join over a lunch at Rockne's? Some people really need to put some thought in to this and it can't be people like Terry Pluto or worse, the athletic directors who got us in this mess. Ask the right questions, you get the right answers.

"You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out." - Warren Buffett

Nice schedule. I have one question. How come Toledo isn't on the schedule every year?

I wrote a great post about this and lost it. In summary: OSU could afford to pay out $5 million. P5 schools not as flush as OSU are getting more creative and it doesn't include G5. Wake and UNC play football in ooc games and fans love it. This was the best part. It's about creating a great experience for fans and alumni of both schools so the contract between them makes sense. The game last year was freaking awesome. We should figure out ways to create a great experience for our fans and another school's fans similar to Wake vs. UNC. Hint: Toledo is two hours away. Why are we not scheduling them in years we are not scheduled to play them in the MAC on a nice late summer afternoon or evening? Fans need to stop counting ticket revenue. It's never going to add up. YSU is not a good replacement for Toledo in my scenario. Such a good post lost to the internet.....

He could have quietly requested the AD to do this then discussed the findings once he had more information. There are employees who make their living at UofA who are more uncertain about their futures and have no idea what's going on. Also, imagine how other schools can use this to recruit against us.

Only OSU isn't selling out their stadium for these games. Norte Dame isn't selling out games. Wake Forest doesn't sell out games. South Carolina doesn't sell out these G5 games. The face value of my Wake Forest vs. Clemson/Notre Dame/UNC tickets are much higher than for Utah State. They can charge more for ooc games against other P5 teams. The tickets are chump change anyhow. The real money is in television rights. Selling television is the key.

Scott Scarborough came from Texas A&M and he flamed out spectacularly during a period of prosperity in the USA. Miller's ham handed approach to this issue was bad form. My guess is a lot more university presidents are going to be in the same position in the near future.

My brother has two very close friends at schools you would know and one of the guys is a well known coach so I won't say where or who they are. Both at different schools, different conferences. Neither believes there will be a college football season next year and if there is there will be no non-conference games with a shortened season. Physical conditioning requires football to be a year around sport. One month of weight lifting followed by one month of practice is simply not going to be enough.

Your gut is increasingly looking to be correct. These games are not selling out. If nobody would buy a ticket to one, why would they watch it on TV? Speaking for myself, I have little interest in college football in September because the games are so lopsided. If I don't have tickets to Wake Forest, I go to the beach in September and October as they are the best months to go. OSU and Notre Dame are not selling out these games so TV becomes even more important as a revenue stream and if you can sell out, even better. The real money is in television, not ticket sales. By going on their own, they can play each other, sell out stadiums and charge more for TV as the potential TV draw is better. They win no matter what. That's their game though. How do we win with what we have is what I am interested in examining. Is it with them? Is it without them? Is there a combination where a separation takes place with contractual agreements to come together at certain points? Do we need the dead weigh of IAA, D2 and D3? I don't know these answers. If we don't look at this now, we are doing ourselves a disservice.

Agree, but we had better be read when it happens. I would also like a committee to explore what G5 schools do if it does NOT happen.

Thanks. I mean it in a good way. The My Pillow guy is a huge success story. The Title IX issue can be worked around with some challenges mostly having to do with politics. All we would have to do is be government compliant. There are over 60 G5 schools with most being state schools which would give us some legislative political support as well so we have some strength. We could put together a Title IX compliance plan and take it to the government, get their input, negotiate a resolution and proceed with the agreement. Part of the committee I propose could have a sub committee to deal with this issue and we could have a lawyer who specializes in civil rights head it up.

http://www.ncaa.org/about/who-we-are/membership/divisional-differences-and-history-multidivision-classification No, it's really the other way. Whatever took place before that was something schools did on their own, which shows how schools can get together without the NCAA and organize themselves.