GP1

Thanks for the link Hilltopper. I've read a lot of what Ohlmeyer has written in the past and this has to be the most scathing piece ever. There is now no difference between ESPN and the NBA. The one guy I feel is really a pathetic figure in this whole disaster is Michael Wilbon. Wilbon is a good writer and journalist. I can't believe he allowed himself to be sucked into this whole thing and made a fool of himself along side of Lebron and the other clowns on the LeDecision. Maybe the job at ESPN is worth selling your integrity over.

Well said. Southern Cal is still layered in slime. The untainted players for USC have not yet been born. Do you mean USC or the NCAA? I think it is the NCAA that is layered in slime.

Paying the players is soemthing that gets thrown out there all the time as a solution to some perceived problem. But what problem does it address? Players being too greedy? If they're greedy, they'll still take money illegaly, get their rent payed for by boosters, and all that stuff. Paying them won't change that. They'll take all the illicit stuff and pocket the school's paycheck. Another argument I hear is that the schools make all sorts of money from athletics, so they should pay the players who bring in that money. There are 1080 schools in the NCAA. 18 of them actually make any money from athletics. At any given time, the top 25 in football has at least 10 schools in it that are losing money. And you think they can pay? $1k a month... every month of the year? Only during the season? If so, what about spring practice? What happens with Title IX? Do you have to pay 82 women athletes the same amount, too? Or extend it to all sports, so the men's rowing team and the women's golf team and all the other sports that don't bring in a dime of revenue get $1k per athlete per month as well, costing the school many millions? Somebody will sue for inequality if you don't. The $1,000 per month could be for those who don't sign agent contracts. If a player isn't worth a crap, $1,000 is what you get. If you are any good, an agent would be willing to pay you for future earnings. Let the free market decide who is good and who isn't. If schools can't afford their athletic programs, they need to look into cutting some of them. The gravey train is over. It's 2010 and our society has learned there is no free ride over the past 3 years. People will understand now more than every if cuts need to be made. If we instituted the Great GP1's Super Duper Division in college football, we could only pay those players. Those 40 schools would make plenty of money to spread it around to the players. 85 Scholarships x $12,000/year/player = $1,020,000. Around a 7% increase in funding for UofA (who wouldn't make the top 40 schools) and a drop in the bucket for BCS schools. Schools flush more than that down the drain each year in salaries for coaches and bloated athletic departments. Outlawing paying college players is like outlawing marijuana. Nobody is really hurt by paying players. Nobody is really hurt by people smoking pot in private as long as they don't drive while under the influence. In reality, we are taking up large amounts of space in our jails for pot smokers and dealers costing states millions. In reality, universities have to spend millions trying to police kids between the ages of 18-24 who are already taking money and nobody is really being hurt by them taking money. Who was really hurt by Reggie Bush taking money? Nobody. Reggie Bush won the freaking Heisman Trophy and he was taking money. He wasn't hurt by taking money and he didn't give less than 100% while taking money. The fans enjoyed his play so fans benefited while he was taking money. He's making millions in the NFL. USC benefited from his athletic ability so they weren't hurt by him taking money. The guys who came up short in the Heisman weren't hurt, they werent' as good as him so they didn't deserve the trophy. Does anyone really think the finalists for the Heisman Trophy from that year weren't getting some under the table money? The teams they beat had players on their team taking money and they just weren't caught so I don't see how they were hurt. They weren't as good as USC. The only people who believe they are hurt by Bush taking money are bitter jackasses who live in a fantasy world of how they think college football should be, yet never has been. In reality, these people aren't hurt because they love being bitter jackasses and Bush taking money actually makes them happy because they have something to be bitter about. Pay the freaking players for crying out loud.

Why not institute two reforms that would eliminate this type of situation instead of making the regulatory arm of college athletics even bigger? Keep the costs of college sports down. Reform 1: Pay the freaking players. It is already professional in everything except players getting paid. $1,000 per month isn't going to break the bank. Reform 2: Allow players to sign signing non refundable bonuses with agents while still in college without losing the ability to play in college? A player only gets to sign one of these contracts. Put the risk on the agents.

Most of you already know I find most of the people involved in running college athletics lazy and sort of less than reputable. At the top, you have the NCAA followed closely by Athletic Directors. Let's see what USC did to regain the moral high ground for getting caught doing what everyone else is doing at the high BCS level. Let's see.....they give back Bush's Heisman trophy. Oh, how daring and brave....if you believe they are actually daring and brave, I have some property that has appreciated in value the past two years. If they want to take the high road, they should do the following. 1. Give back all money made from Reggie Bush merchandising. 2. Give back all money made from marketing Bush's Heisman. 3. Give back all money made from marketing Bush's Heisman with the other Heismans men have won at USC. 4. Give Reggie Bush back all money he may have donated to USC since leaving school. The point is this. Giving back the Heisman is an empty action lacking in any REAL meaning. It doesn't cost them a penny to give back the trophy. Kind of shows how lazy people in college athletics can be. Sure, it probably makes some bitter people happy on some level, but they will be bitter again soon enough. These same people are probably happy they took away their wins for that season. I'm sure taking away those wins sure makes those guys who got their asses kicked by USC that year feel better. If they wanted to make a real statement, give back the money they made with him. Sounds simple to me. Absent of that, spare us the empty actions. USC went undefeated in 2004 regardless of what they say now. Reggie Bush won the Heisman in 2004. USC was National Champion in 2004. There is video to prove all of this. BTW, there is a great HBO Real Sports story on this. Had Reggie Bush just paid the guy who was buying the houses, etc. the $750K he owed him, none of this would have come out. It goes on every day at big schools, USC just got caught.

Akron isn't a BCS school. We are a MAC school. We have enough talent to win in the MAC. A good defensive line and LBs are a good start. A good QB is an even better start. A WRs performance can improve with an accurate QB because the ball is easier to catch. UofA has as good of a chance of making a bowl game next year as anyone else in the MAC. They just have to get the job done.

I agree. I've seen enough building and rebuilding over the past 20+ years. It's time to start winning. Think of the logic. We are always focused on "building" so we get what is supposed to be building and no winning. Maybe if we focus on "winning" we will get winning. Let's try focusing on some W's.

I love your line of though here. We did need a stadium, and it was more of a need in lieu of a want. With that said......There is a commitment at UofA, but it is a commitment to build buildings without a clue as to what they should do after the building is built. Universities are just part of our ever growing government. Who is paying for all of this building? They build more and more buildings and nobody ever asks what is wrong with the exising buildings. This is a common theme in government supported entities. Build the inventors hall of fame, everyone will come downtown...Didn't it close recently? That's just one example. Everyone buys the idea that "if you build it, they will come". That is a load of crap. It's one thing to build it, it is completely another thing to support it. Intent is different. They intend to do the right thing, but they don't know what the right thing to do is so they flounder. I'm too lazy to look, but is there anyone on the Board of Directors who has attended a class as an undergraduate at a BCS level sports school? I don't mean graduate school, I mean undergraduate where one would make sports more available to themselves. There is one other person, who at this point needs mentioning. Dr. Proenza. I've lost a little faith in him after our last AD hiring. The reality is we are right were we belong. Almost every other MAC school shares the same problems we do. Enjoy it for what it is. I do.

Well, I've tried giving this lady all the room she needs to provide a winner. She keeps giving away -- or throwing out, the resources she needs to win. Was Kyle Baumgartner not MAC Rookie of the Year? Akron would be MAC favorites in 2010-2011, if the team had all the players that she has shoved out the door. I'd can't wait to read the Great GP One's "Get rid of all those troublemakers. Winning is all that matters" reply. The program has, without question, gotten progressively better since JK took over the team at the expense of our long history of miserable WBB teams. I would argue she has performed the best turnaround in school history and there is still a long way to go. I would also argue she is the best coach on campus because of her results....winning, and where the team came from....look at past records. At times, there will be a bump along the road. We'll see if this is a bump or if it is nothing. I wouldn't be too impressed with post season awards in the MAC. We don't really know why these players are leaving. I would like to know. If they are problems, goodbye to them. If they don't like it at UofA, goodbye to a potential malcontent. You can't let the animals run the zoo. Hey, it's a rainy Saturday night in Honolulu, so what else is there to do but reply to my bud GP-1? The number of players who have departed coach Kest's program over the past three years is fast approaching double figures. No, we don't know the exact reasons behind the departures (some of them at least). But regardless of the reasons, in no way can it be other than a black mark on the team and its leader. Who is the one who recruited these players? I believe in nearly all of the cases, it was Kest who brought them to Akron (the W Va guard was a freshman on Kest's first team, maybe one other). Seems that if these players cannot somehow live up to the standards set by Akron Athletics, then Kest has to take the blame for bringing them here in the first place. If the players are departing because they prefer to play for another program and coach, that also reflects on her coaching style. In either case, it is a repetitive problem that is preventing the team from reaching it's potential. Kest has doubtless turned the program around, and deserves credit for that. The program is on a stronger footing than before her arrival. I think, however, that any objective observer would have real concern over the high number of players who have been unable to continue and graduate from UA. I think that according to the NCAA graduation rate formula, the program will end up losing scholarships on account of these departures. I'm not sure the program has been prevented from reaching its potential. They are functioning at a higher level than ever and have gotten progressively better each year. While I don't know NCAA rules completely, my understanding is if these girls go to another school and graduate, it does not count against our graduation rate. My concern about the recent departures is they were good players. Kest ejected a lot of the garbage that was around the program early on, but never good players. What I should say is the garbage was replaced by better players. What has changed in the past year? Well, Coach Kest has a boss as well. Maybe the culture of the Athletic Department has changed and JK is being required to manage her program differently than when Mack was at the helm. We saw how our AD completely overreacted to the Reno incident less than a year ago. Maybe some situations presented themselves in the past year that were reacted to poorly as well with these young ladies. I would be interested in knowing these answers. You worry about the leadership at the top of the WBB program, I'm worried about the leadership of the Athletic Department in general. As long as TW is the AD, I will be worried about the future of the Athletic Department. I just haven't been impressed and quite frankly, I've been mostly disappointed by what I have seen in the past year.

Maybe it isn't an either/or situation. Maybe the word AND would fit better. If they don't want to open it, then fine. Just make the decision work some other way. If they want to open it, open it and make the decision work. Someone make a decision please and execute on a decision. At the end of Huckelberry Finn, Huck leaves Jim for more exploration and his relationship with Jim unfinished in many ways. It was Twain's way of comparing their relationship to the end of the Civil War. At the end of the Civil War, Americans focused to the west and largely ignored the race problem in the south. People have a way of moving on before tasks are completed. We see that here with the football stadium. They are now moving on to other "building" projects and leaving the big one they had somewhat incomplete. It's an old story.

Right conclusion...wrong reasoning. In 2004, launching Heisman campaigns was the trendy thing to in marketing departments. It actually showed how lazy and uncreative so many in college football marketing are. If you follow the trend, you are not very creative. Heisman campaigns do nothing of substance ($). We had some good crowds in 2004, but that was a result of giving out thousands of free tickets more than the Heisman campaign. Temple should be focusing on developing a brand name. One good year doesn't build your brand. Look what happened to us in 2005. Part of building that brand should be the theme of, "Hey! Look at us. We don't suck any more. In fact, we have a pretty good thing going here." It's OK to use players in your marketing, but my advice would be to use several. That tells people you have a lot of good players worth watching, not just one. Use the fact Temple plays in an NFL stadium, which is part of their brand now. Use the fact they have a solid coach who stayed after last year and is now part of the brand.

Does the girl on the far left glow in the dark?

It is only going to get better. Now that LBJ is away from Akron, he won't be protected by the Akron/Cleveland media any longer. This is going to be fun. One thing LBJ should do asap is fire his entire staff and allow Nike to recommend some real agents. These guys need to get real jobs. BTW, one thing a poster wrote below the story was this Carter guy is 28 and still lives with his mommy. Pathetic. Run LBJ...Run.

Absolutely fantastic string of words. Isn't one question, If Panderfest 2010 didn't work, aren't the organizers of the event to blame for LBJ leaving and isn't LBJ just a victim of an inane and ill-conceived event?

It just means that some of the students read the parts of the Bible that are scary as well. My wife is a Methodist. They are really good at being happy and pretending there is never any danger. It comes from what they read in church. At Christmas, they always read the story of Abraham being told to take his son up to the mountain and kill him, but they never read the parts where God is telling Abraham to kill his son...only the parts about a lamb being provided for them. God telling Abraham to kill his son would be too much for them to take. In the movie A River Runs Through It, the father of the two boys is a minister and describes Methodists as "Baptists who can read".

This is an interesting article about how schools can slip up. There are many ways to slip up; however, many frequently slip up on a banana peel of self righteousness. I would be absolutely insane if I was an SMU fan. The team finally gets good and you decline a couple of guys because they don't pass some faculty board who is making a guess as to whether or not they can graduate. Even worse yet, this may drive off a good coach. Nice work SMU.

I still don't understand this savior mentality. What on God's green Earth could rub off of LBJ, onto Akron, that would make Akron a better place?

Maybe I'm just being an ugly American, but I agree. I just don't get soccer and I like a lot of sports that some might consider to be strange...ie: rugby and Australian football. Curling is frankly more exciting. I get that the players are talented at what they do, which seems to me to be flopping around on the ground, running long distances, bouncing the ball off of their heads and kicking the ball really far without any reason for doing it or care for where it is going. I tried to watch the World Cup and the play was terrible. Did anyone see Bill Buckner playing in goal for England in the US game? 1-0, 0-0...pick a boring three hours. The game is also played by a bunch of choke artists. I don't know how many times I saw what would be considered wide open nets and they missed the goal. In hockey, wide open nets end up goals. The players don't choke. Watching video of the oil spill is more exciting than watching the World Cup. The world and suburban parents whose kids aren't good at baseball, football, basketball or hockey can have soccer.

Well, I've tried giving this lady all the room she needs to provide a winner. She keeps giving away -- or throwing out, the resources she needs to win. Was Kyle Baumgartner not MAC Rookie of the Year? Akron would be MAC favorites in 2010-2011, if the team had all the players that she has shoved out the door. I'd can't wait to read the Great GP One's "Get rid of all those troublemakers. Winning is all that matters" reply. The program has, without question, gotten progressively better since JK took over the team at the expense of our long history of miserable WBB teams. I would argue she has performed the best turnaround in school history and there is still a long way to go. I would also argue she is the best coach on campus because of her results....winning, and where the team came from....look at past records. At times, there will be a bump along the road. We'll see if this is a bump or if it is nothing. I wouldn't be too impressed with post season awards in the MAC. We don't really know why these players are leaving. I would like to know. If they are problems, goodbye to them. If they don't like it at UofA, goodbye to a potential malcontent. You can't let the animals run the zoo.

Jesse Jackson has become part of the background noise in this country and it has to be killing him. If Jackson is a media whore, we need to look at what type he is. He isn't the high price call girl media whore any longer. Those days have passed him by. He isn't a crack whore media whore. People still take him somewhat seriously. He is somewhere in the middle sort of like a street walker with good pimp whore. That's how I see it.

The first sentence of this piece has me wondering. "It has been nearly nine months since Tri-Valley's Clay Cameron capped a superb high football school career." I’m not sure whether to be happy the kid went to a football school or upset that apparently he was always high. I did learn something new. Had no idea walk-ons cannot start practicing at the same time scholarship players do. Also it sounds like the kid isn't sold on being a linebacker. Preferred walk-ons always go to camp with the team and are usually treated just like scholarship players with opportunities to compete for spots. Try-out walk-ons are added after tryouts the first week of the season, and are brought in as scout team fodder. Well that just doesn't seem right. Who are teams going to use to fill out their scout team for their first game if they can't even have walk-on tryouts until the first week of the season? And doesn't this put teams whose season starts later in the year at a disadvantage? Oh most preferred walk-ons will still end up on scout team once the season starts, as will all scholarship players getting redshirted or transfers sitting out (I hear Luke Getsy was one heluva scout team QB in '04). Preferred are just given an opportunity to compete and work in during camp, whereas the tryout guys, they'll be lucky if a coach or GA ever even learns their name.... they're scout team from the start. Being on scout team for the first game sucks because those guys never get a blow in practice, but once the try-out guys come in you have more bodies to throw in there and keep guys fresh. This was a wonderful explanation, but you completely ignored the inter-squad inequity issue. I believe the only way to correct this problem is to require all teams to start their seasons on the same week. Teams can have walk-on tryouts whenever they want, most teams just wait until school starts so they don't have to pay to house, transport, and feed a bunch of guys during camp who have no chance to play. I believe the NCAA cap for guys in camp is 105, but most teams won't carry that many to camp. I'm not really sure where the inequity is? Now hold on a sec there partner. You told me before that tryouts were not held until the first week of the season. Now you say they can be held anytime they want. That means that they could hold them the week before practice starts, but the guy who wrote the article which started me wondering in the first place says that regular walk-ons cannot start practicing at the same time as scholarship players. So just what's goin on here? Were you streachen the truth before, or now? Is this a fan board or are we testifying in front of Congress?

Finally, some good news. Was it me, or am I the only one who noticed Z could touch the rim without jumping, yet had every other shot blocked. Z is a bum.

It ranges from barely measurable to barely measurable to barely measureable to we dont want a kid who thinks about LBJ and not winning.

The way to make a city into a "destination" for out-of-towners is to first make it a fun place to go for the locals in that city and the surrounding suburbs. If the people in that city don't have anything good to recommend, why would any tourist want to go there? In the 1950s, Cleveland was the sixth largest city in the US. They had the Browns, Indians, Playhouse Square (the second largest theater district in the US even today), Severance Hall (if you have never seen the Cle Orch here, shame on you), a convention center (my wife's cousin saw the Beatles there) and Lake Erie. Everything that I just listed can still be found in Cleveland. It wasn't a destination city then and it isn't ever going to be a destination city. Las Vegas, Orlando, Miami, Atlanta, LA, New York, Boston, etc are destination cities, not Cleveland. Want to have a trade show and convention where nobody shows up?.......Have it in Cleveland. The people of NE Ohio are well educated and hard working. Make a city that is friendly to business and those educated and hard working people will take advantage of the already exising things to do, which were all in Cleveland in the 50s. Make it a great place to live again with low crime and good schools and the town will be packed every night. Make it a city where you don't pay taxes through the nose for everything and people will move back. The answer is not another convention center or some sort of hall of fame.

What the Plain Dealer and ABJ have done is even worse than you describe. They buy, hook/line/sinker, everything the powers that be in Akron and Cleveland feed to them. If they want to build a white elephant, they agree with the Cities. Nobody ever says that Cleveland is becoming full of whitel elephants (Gund...there was nothing wrong with Richfield, Browns Stadium...taxpayers had to pay for a stadium for that nonsense?......Jacobs Field...OK, maybe they did need a baseball field, Rock & Roll hof...loses money, wait until they build the new Convention Center....disaster). The next thing you know Akron will want to build a Hall of Fame for Hall of Fames. I hope everyone stops buying the idea that stadiums and destination places will make cities that were NEVER destination cities a destination.