GP1

I think you accurately describe what is going on at a lot of private universities with small endowments. For example, Mt Union has over 200 players on the football team and less than 2,000 total students. It's 10% of their student body and 150 of them have no shot at playing. The 150 players with no shot are $3.75 million in revenue for the school. I would bet at least 25% of their students play sports. Birmingham Southern was into the D3 baseball playoffs when their school went belly up. I have a brother who went to Cap University in Columbus and he has no idea how they stay open. This story is going to become more common.

There were some good teams. My point is the overvaluing of not just the teams.

People in and around NE Ohio overvalue catholic school players and experience. I Coach was a near perfect example of it.

Maybe the older fans, but the kids being recruited next year were probably only one or two years old when App State won that game. It's irrelevant to them. Most care more about nil money than a win almost 20 years ago. I know I'm proud of Akron beating OSU in the 1800s. Seriously, I really don't care.

My thought exactly. The MAC has gotten worse in the past 20 years. These games simply aren't making the league better. The same is true for the ESPN weeknight contract. It's all so obvious and I can't understand why the league can't do better.

Play 1. The University shines up the turd that is the financial statement of the athletic department, but the truth is it is tens of millions of dollars in the red. A couple extra million dollars is not worth the damage these games do to the athletes students alumni fans and general community around Akron.

I don't know about his, but my problem is comparing every situation as if it is the same. The majority of the MAC isn't nearly as bad as we are. Miami can go 1-3 and be fine in the long run. Akron can't. Akron's program is in a horrible state and needs to start winning. Picking up OSU after Kentucky dropping Akron missed a chance at getting a win through smart scheduling. It does nothing to build a winning culture. If it isn't a sign the AD values money over winning, I don't know what is.

I guess a good thing to examine would be how often scheduling incompetency happens. In recent history, how many MAC teams have been given the opportunity to replace a P5 school, with two already on the schedule, and have chosen another P5 school? If so, how many were replaced with Top 5 teams?

All true. Still tall tasks even for good mac programs.

I'm talking about the athletic department. They believe scheduling a sure loss is more important than scheduling a winnable game. Game 1 is my evidence.

I agree. I'm not even that interested in much of college football anymore. Maybe if I was their target audience, degenerate gambler, I might have more interest. At least they get two, two minute warnings so they can add another five minutes into the marathon of watching a game now. It's all so gross. I'm not kidding when I say this.... They aren't trying to win, and those who go to games are having their money stolen from them.

The one step further should be calling for a committee of the G5's most successful alumni of any kind to participate in a committee that would chart a course forward for G5 schools athletic interests. This matter cannot be left open to only G5 athletic directors because, if we know anything, we know they rarely act in the interests of their employers. I'm not even sure they should participate at all. Everything else can wait until the findings of this committee are complete and made public. If that involves inviting P5 schools, then they can cross that bridge after the recommendations are published. There is no current roadmap for anything going on in college football, and that's why it is a mess. G5 schools need a thoughtful roadmap to put themselves on course.

My first instinct would be to resign before I did something even more harmful than the current leadership, but I would want to at least try and be helpful. My first move would be a plea for sanity. I would publicly state that the current landscape of college football is not healthy for the athletes students alumni fans and general communities around G5 schools, and request a meeting of G5 commissioners to discuss forming our own division that would extract ourselves from the current insanity. In order to reinforce what a big fat mess college football is, I would probably deliver this statement to the media in the nude while eating a Slymans corned beef sandwich.

You should dream bigger. My dream, and I predict it will come true in the next 10 years, is for G5 schools starting their own division/conference. Then a sane geographical alignment can take place. I'm just spit balling here. Why couldn't they carve out a nice eastern conference that could have the likes of UMass, Buffalo, Temple, UConn, Army, Navy in it for starters? Maybe Marshall? Maybe Akron, Kent and YSU? That could make a nice 10 team conference with one 05 game, one lower division game and one game against a team from another conference in our division. Round robin conference champion determines who makes the playoffs. Make every game count.

Is this extra media coverage going to get us an extra $50,000 from ESPN? Every school will probably blow that in the extra travel costs and then some. MAC leadership is the only leadership that leaves their organization in worse shape after every decision. I don't see UMass as their first successful move. We don't have a TV audience? The MAC is the only thing on ESPN on Tuesday and Wednesday nights for a month. The people at Disney believe there is an audience.....until the P5 goes on their own and they fill Tues and Wed nights with match ups such as Syracuse vs Cal.

Every game is on TV. What does this have to do with anything? The MAC has been chasing "exposure" for decades, and the league is worse today than 20 years ago. God willing, G5 schools will have their own division in the next 5 years. The MAC will continue as a Midwest centered conference and UMass will be part of something else focused on an eastern division. The MAC has given them a lifeline and I can't figure out why.

It's interesting. I'll say it a slightly different way. College football and basketball have become antithetical to what universities are trying to accomplish. Athletes are largely separated from the general student body because of their practice and class load, which is largely individualized so other people can complete the work for them. The university experience should bring young people together in a group learning environment so they can learn as individuals and learn to work in groups. Collaboration is critical to the learning process. Further, there are no other elements of the university system that uses the labor of others to make money in a gross way. In addition, athletics requires non athletes to pay enormous students fees to support athletic departments. Many of these students must increase their student loan dept in order to pay for these fees. These loans dog them for years after they graduate. I'd love it if more kids didn't go to college to take advantage of the NBA D league. I'd also love it if there was a minor league football league run similar to MLB. College athletics are completely overheated and something has to happen to cool it down. It's becoming bad for the athletes students alumni fans and general community around universities.

Ready to pay 60% of a class action law suit? https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2024/05/20/proposed-house-vs-ncaa-power-5-settlement-unfairly-hurts-small-schools-nil-billion-dollars/73760608007/

Imagine how good they would get if they compounded it with the exposure of playing every game on a weeknight, because that's where the networks are going to throw the bad match ups. Over a three year period, a team like Toledo would trade out their high level G5 players for P4 castaways. When the castaways leave, they will struggle to find a team to build a winning culture around. Why can't the G5 schools have their own national championship?

Let's say a Toledo made it up. In three years, they would go from a perennial winner to a laughing stock. The best they could hope for is being Vanderbilt level good. After three years they would have to take their broken, demoted program void of any players because they would all transfer out and then try to win at a lower level. Relegation would be the path of destruction for programs. It would be great for the Alabama's of the world because it would create an even worse lower class than already exists. I would pray for relegation if I was an Alabama fan. Easy wins get easier.

Maybe. What I am certain of is the older you get, the faster you get old. 70 is really old to still be in the workforce. He and his wife appear to be in great health. Another saying is, there are three speeds in retirement: go-go, slow-go, and no-go. There is much more no go than the others. They might just want to enjoy their go-go years. I don't blame them one bit.

I talked to Dr. Miller and his wife two years in a row at an alumni event the city where I live. Both are wonderfully nice people. Best wishes to them in the next phase of their life together. Dr. Miller had a good five years. He marshalled the University through difficult financial times. He also went out of his way to reach all parts of the University community. I loved the Good News With Gary monthly videos. Five years is enough for an executive at that level. Now that the hard cuts are made, bring someone in n with a different perspective to continue to move the University forward.

Relegation is the dumbest idea in college athletics since believing the exposure of weeknight games was good for teams and conferences.

To whom?

Like Dr. Frankenstein, it's dying at the hands of the monster it created.