GP1

In your first paragraph, you might be exactly right. However, the disaster was complete with Ianello. At some point, TW needed to save HIS job and my guess is that move had more to do with it than anything. A home run? Ianello got on base because of catchers interference. The thing we know about the TW/Proenza team is this, and it is the part that scares me....They were smart enough to hire Bowen...They were stupid enough to hire Ianello. IF we move to another conference, I give them a 50/50 shot at making the right decision about which conference to land in. Conferences are making it mighty expensive to leave now so the decision has to be the right one the first time. Lastly, Winters posted on the football alumni forum he turned down the job.

Had I heard a year ago these three people would be working at UofA, it would have foreshadowed the disaster that was Coach I. These three coming to Akron aren't part of a great plan by the University. They are at UofA because of a terrible hiring decision by Dr. P, which resulted in a terrible hiring decision by TW, which resulted in the dismissal of his hand picked apple from the Charlie Weis coaching tree after two forgettable (being kind) seasons, which resulted in a former Zip actually turning down the head coaching position. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad Bowden and Amato are here, but let's not forget how they got here. Let's also not forget there are people in positions above them who have made horrible mistakes the past 3 years and are still in positions to make horrible mistakes again. These are also the same people who will pick the next conference if we make a move. Those are the surprises that worry me.

I don't know how far along it is, but I was told one of the reasons TW was brought to Akron was his connections with other conferences and his experiece working for two other conferences. I was also told there is at least one person on the Board of Trustees (probably someone really old who sees the world through the rear view mirror) who is dead set on trying to get us into Conferrrrr...The Big East and believes TW is the guy to do it...God help us all. UofA badly wants out of the MAC and I can't blame the administration. There are only three real questions: 1. Who would want us? 2. Why would they want us? 3. With the current direction of the Big East, why them? I'm sure it will jump start another 20 year building process, which doesn't seem that bad since we are already 25 years into the current one. We've got all the time in the world.... I'll only be 62 when it is all over. Some on this board may even die of old age before the next building process is completed. BTW, Captain Smith says to move the chairs again...

If the choice is MAC and Sun Belt, then we shouldn't do it. If we could get the other MAClike D-1A schools to follow, we would really have something national. If we can't do it on a national level, we shouldn't do it.

Having football to watch would be compelling enough. Americans love the game and will watch it when it is presented. They will watch football over MLB, which gets terrible ratings. Vacation? Peoople can plan their vacations around the Zips home games and not go when they are being played. The USFL produced football games and people watched them. It was plain old football just like the nfl and people watched. There is a constant demand for football in the US....look at how much espn covers the nfl when it is not in season. We could give America real games in a national super conference. As far as ratings, sell it to a network like Fox. Fox is shameless and would promote the heck out of it and people watch a lot of Fox programing because it is so will promoted. Regional coverage could be provided through local stations. Nothing would have to be reinvented. It is a sport in great demand and people will watch it. Fill the demand.

This is as good of a reason for not doing it as saying UofA firing Jim Dennison is reason people don't go to games. It's a non issue and a bad excuse for not doing something. Every 5'10" kid thinks he is going to play in the NFL. It's outside of the world of reality. If an NFL team thinks a kid can play, they will find a way to get them on their team. A team might see a kid playing in May in a game and say, "We need that guy." I love the idea of a national conference in combination with other MAClike conferences. Further, I like the idea of getting publicity through being the only game in town in the spring and early summer. What are our other options? 1. Big East...Becoming worse by the year and will be no more than a glorified CUSA before too long. 2. CUSA...not a bad choice, but nobody watches the games in the fall because of BCS schools sucking the air out of everything. 3. Make the MAC better..... 1948. 4. Stay where we are. How is this working out for us? MAClike conferences are on the college football version of the Titanic. There is an old joke on this board about rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. Conference realignment at the MAClike level is nothing more than rearranging the chairs. Worse, we are throwing more chairs onto the deck (see UNCC, ODU, etc joining S-1A) while the ship is sinking. The best thing for the chairs is to get them off of the ship. We have met the enemy and we are us.

That's part of what a spring football league does.

Isn't conference realignment part of repackaging a part college football? Traditional rivals like Texas and Texas A&M will no longer play as part of realignment...That's not a fantasy, it is reality. The game has changed a lot in the past five years and we need to change with the times. The game wouldn't be reinvented, it would just be played at a different time. I'd go watch a college football game tonight if I wasn't at the beach and one was offered near me. I'd be willing to bet a lot of money a lot of Americans would do the same thing. I'd also be willing to bet a lot of money a lot of Americans would watch the games on television. The USFL was a successful league and if people were open minded enough, we could experience a similar success. With the personality of our coach and his media style, we would be one of the schools people talk about going forward in this league. All of our discussion centers around how MAClike teams survive in the new world of college football. Mainstream solutions believe teams jumping from one conference nobody wants to watch to another conference nobody wants to watch and then trying to compete against BCS and NFL for attention is the solution. Isn't that already what we are doing? Are we not insane if we don't take a drastic step to save our brand of college football by not trying to compete for national attention against the NFL and BCS? When President Kennedy said we would go to the moon and bring the person back in 10 years, it seemed like a far-fetched idea..then we did it.

Great post. It would look especially bright in the spring and early summer. You're a good poster STZ, what do you think about a spring football league in college? I think the market is there.

Kids who play hockey and baseball in college get drafted every year while their sports are still going on. Screw the NFL. We aren't going to play their game any longer. We really shouldn't be worrying about what everyone else does and do the right thing for ourselves. Only 52 kids were drafted out of non-bcs D-1A schools this year (180 for BCS conferences). That would be less than one player per team in my spring conference. Where are these kids going to go play to get the national visibility they could get in my spring football league? They have no other choice. On a positive note, a player could graduate high school, get two summer terms in and the fall term in before he ever has to start to practice for football season. That's a year and a half of school. It's a good way to raise graduation rates and get kids focused on school early. Stop looking for little reasons to not do this. Kids getting drafted is a little reason. All of the big reasons and history, point to it being a success.

I respectfully disagree. The problem isn't with the rules of the game. Football is already a much higher scoring game than in years past. We need to take our product to market at a time when people want to buy the product. Running up against BCS and the NFL isn't the way to do that because they take all of the air out of the room. Playing on Tuesday and Wednesday nights isn't the way to do that. People want football in the spring and they would want it on Friday and Saturday nights. The USFL was successful and the Arena League gets good ratings. People watch spring games on tv for crying out loud. There is a market for a spring football league in the United States. Leagues like the mac, wac, cusa, etc should join together and show their game in the spring when people badly want football. Making one big league with the same marginal teams as before and trying to compete against BCS and NFL is the definition of insanity. We should join together and sell the tv rights to a network like Fox. We could change the league's name to something patriotic...Fox loves marketing that kind of stuff and they are really good at it. Have a red, white and blue ball. Fox is shameless and would promote the heck out of a spring league. The would have sideline reporters that make Erin Andrews look like the wicked witch. It would be the best thing for all of us.

By the time the Big East is done, there will be little difference between it and cusa. I want out of the mac as well. Heck, I want out of the ncaa and to play our games in the spring as part of a 45-60 team conference/division with a national championship game on July 4th, but that is a whole other issue. I have heard that part of the reason why TW was brought to UofA was to get us out of the MAC. His background working in conferences was seen as a plus when he was hired. Further, there are people on the BOT who are dead set on joining the Big East regardless of it's condition by the time we get into it. Short sighted, but that is the view of some in power. I wouldn't let TW make a decision on which fantasy football league a person should switch to.

So basically you are saying it is a never ending building process with no real goal? Aren't we already on that ride? What would the better conference be??

Thanks for the post Dr Z. Safety should always be the #1 priority of any organization. Too bad, for too long, it wasn't a priority in college football. Builing stadiums and "facilities" was the priority and now we are where we are. The NFL is way ahead of the ncaa in terms of safety at this point. The exploitation in college comes from the fact schools are using humans to bankrupt their universities in order to pad the resumes of athletic directors. There is a huge case that most schools lose money with a football team. If that is a given, who benefits?...The ADs and extremely highly paid coaches are the ones benefiting. The players are being exploited to make money for the coaches, ADs and TV networks. They are the only three making money at this point. It's hard to say the universities exploit them when they lose money on football programs.

If his donation is some shoes and a set of uniforms, his donations are zero. He has enough pull with Nike that he could get them to give these products to UofA. I've never been impressed by his showing up and playing some games. The guy is a professional basketball player and plays to stay in shape...Summer is the eve of basketball training camp so he really has to keep himself in shape. While in Akron, UofA provides him the closest place he can go play in a professional setting and against some players who can provide him some challenge. He isn't really giving anything when he does this. In many ways, he is taking our court time from us for little in return.

Let's just hope we don't destroy a QB every two years like the Browns do.

I'm counting and my count says there are too many D-1A football programs.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer in college football as well. This is why we need to stop playing the BCS game and have a spring league of our own.

Bissinger Good article, but his conclusions are all wrong. I guess he addresses it some in the article in relation to the situation at Maryland, but the problem isn't college football itself. It's the Athletic Directors who spent the last 10-15 years spending money like drunken sailors who have bankrupted the sport in college. Maybe the book exists, but I would like to see a book analyzing the past twenty years of spending on facilities in college athletics and what the returns have been. My guess is the biggest returns come in the form of athletic directors building something, putting it on their resume and then running to the next job before they have to actually pay for what they have built. There was a housing bubble and I think in the near future, we are going to see a facilities bubble. Athletic Directors are as bad as bankers.

James has been in the NBA a lot longer than two years so I don't see the connection. I do see the connection between our winning and better players though. The talent pool has become better with time during KD's coaching period. What ncaa rules are being broken by having a James sponsored basketball tournament on campus?

The quality of our football team isn't the problem. I'll say it again. Spring football and screw everyone else. Start in April and the weather gets progressively better as the season progresses. Start in September and the weather gets progressively worse as the season progresses. I just looked at the Weather Channel. Many of you could be sitting in Lot 9 right now on a beautiful 74 degree spring day in Akron eating some dogs/burgers and throwing back some beers before a real college football game. UofA could be the place to be in the fall for soccer games, basketball games in the winter and football games in the spring and early summer. I may write an article about how I would do this and submit it to Deadspin to see if they publish it.

So do I. Results have to measureable in a way that has to be statistically relevant. I see James connection to the basketball program as nothing but an interesting sideshow that has no negative impact on the program. Fans like a good sideshow, but they do little to further the cause. I believe we get good players here because they want to be involved with a winning program primarily. Playing a pick-up game or two with James over a four year period can't possibly by their primary motivation and I don't even want that kind of player on the team. We need winners, not stargazers. I don't know why I always have to be the one to bring these things up, but here it goes. Nobody will say these national references of James/Dambrot do more for Dambrot than the basketball program. This article will do almost nothing to bring in a top level recruit or even have enough impact on the memory of someone to cause them to buy one ticket next season. Who is sitting around and saying, "I want to go watch the guy coach who told LBJ he has to do a better job of rebounding"? I don't think this person exists. After eight years and this same article getting republished in some for or another 1,000 times, he would have bought the tickets already. It doesn't hurt the program, but it doesn't help either.

Thanks. The coaches are as stupid as the players. They are former players. I didn't like Goodell when he started as commissioner, but I understand why he is doing what he is doing and why it is needed. He needs to get bums like Harrison and Vilma out of the league before someone gets killed by their stupidity. The players are mostly morons who happen to be really good at playing football. Ray Lewis is one of those morons and we celebrate his silly, phony, pre-game rants for some reason. There is a good career in pro wrestling waiting for him when his NFL career is over (He's mostly a hanger on now anyhow). The ncaa needs to stop worrying about tv contracts and builing ADs resumes and get around to protecting the players from themselves.

I agree. There are too many D-1A teams and most of them aren't capable of competing at the hightst level. It's more about delusional ADs and not about creating competition. True story.... A few months back, I had the AD at uncc come and speak to a professional organization I belong to. She is a wonderful person who is at the end of her career and is trying to leave her legacy with the football program and a new stadium. I think it is leading her to making bad decisions about the football program and the move to cusa is one of them. I asked her about my idea of a separate division for BCS level schools and she said something like, "We don't want to be looked at as different or less than them." In real life, I have trouble hiding my facial reactions when someone says something that makes no sense, but in a professional setting, I try to not say something that might offend. I could feel my face start to get a confused look on it and all I said back was, "Interesting" (this very thing happened to me in a conversation with TW as well, but that is another story). At that moment, her architect walked up and started talking to us and saved me from expanding beyond "interesting". Perfect timing or missed opportunity to save a uncc from doing something really stupid? This is why creating a separate division is so important for college football. It will create a structure that will save schools like uncc from their own athletic directors and their legacy/resume building. It will also restore competitive integrity to the game.

It's already a year around game. Heck, ESPNU shows spring practices, which are horrible to watch. Why not show real games?