GP1

I've been to a game at uncc. Today, it's not even close to The Big Dialer. Maybe in the future, but not today. If you look closely, it's designed to have a second level at some point.

The University has done a good job of acquiring buildings for renovation, demolishing existing buildings and building on the lot, and expansion with new buildings. It's been a thoughtful balance. My brother knows a guy in Columbus who was recently hired by tosu to head up a much needed renovation program. With all of their expansion they have allowed their core buildings around the center of the campus to fall into a state of disrepair. It's going to be an expensive fix. It appears as if Akron has better managed their facilities program with better thought out solutions.

It's Hasenstab, not Hasenstad..... Does anyone fact check at the ABJ? In any event, Hasenstab has a really good reputation in the architectural world. They should do a good job.

If Akron goes 6-2 in conference, the City should paint the town blue and gold regardless of a conference championship or not. At worst they would have a seven win season and at best an eight win season. It is OU's for the taking if they choose to do so. If not, it will make the day after Thanksgiving game very interesting.

If Akron starts the season 6-3 and tanks the last 3 games, it would be disappointing. There is a good chance they would be in first place going into the final three, which would make a collapse even more disappointing. If they start 6-3, the expectation would be to win at least one of the final 3 games. I agree Temple is a huge game. Akron has a returning starting QB with one season and two spring practice seasons under his belt. It's now or never for him. Temple is a terrible program the Zips have beaten in the past. It's all there for the taking and the Zips need to step up this game. It indeed will set the tone for 2023.

"If we put a dome over it, at the cost of $40 million, those 50 people who show up for weeknight games in November will be dry and I can move on to destroy a bigger school using taxpayer money."

Not filling vacant positions and eliminating programs with little to no demand seems like a smart move.

Looks like he sat down an thought up 15 random names that popped into his head and made an article out of them. Sometimes in life the best thing to do is nothing, and that's what the AD should do. Wait it out one season and let things play out. If he absolutely must make a decision right now, I would try and find a turn around artist. Former Kansas State and South Carolina and now UMASS coach Frank Martin is good at this. It takes him a couple of years, but he finds a high level of success after 3-4 years, but fizzles out quickly after that. The trick is to not do what South Carolina did and hold on to him too long. Martin is a tough disciplinarian and WVU has always had players who respond well to tough coaching. He would be a good fit.

At this point in his life he has horrible judgement and a lack of perspective about himself. With the millions of dollars he makes a year, he can afford to hire a daily limo to drive him from Morgantown to Pittsburgh to blow some money at the slots. NFL players are now showing better judgement. Not that long ago during football season Tuesday morning was called Mug Shot Tuesday. Since the NFL has a mandatory day off on Tuesdays, players used to go out on Monday night and get hammered then arrested on the way home, or hammered and end up in physical altercations with other drunks. This rarely happens anymore because all a player has to do is notify the team he is going out for the night in public and will need a ride and security. The NFL pays for an off duty police officer to pick up the player at his house and escort him around. WVU should have done this with Huggins.

Colleges Closing For lack of anywhere else to put this.... In the near future, we aren't just going to see fewer D1 sports programs, we are going to see fewer colleges. Public universities will benefit from this trend as college eligible students will go to college somewhere. I doubt this trend will make MAC sports any better as we are not in the D3 talent market. The Zips gave up on this market when Arth departed.

WVU has become a mediocre program under Huggins. They can afford another mediocre season with an interim coach and take next off season to hire a new one. The evidence Huggins left behind in terms of the condition of the vehicle and empty booze bottles at least hints to a larger personal problem. The last thing WVU needs is a drunk trying to right that program. He has more money than he can ever spend and should quietly move to his retirement home and get himself together.

When I was 25 I had a Masters Degree, a full time job and was one year away from being married. Eventually you have to put down childish things. I just hope he isn't the next guy clogging up traffic riding a bicycle down a crowded street.

The only thing you can do is let your mind go blank when the topic comes up.

Illinois is the NC State of the Big Ten. There isn't a good reason for them to be average to below average for a long time, but they are. Maybe it's just what they are and will never be anything else. NC State has a series of Bielemas and have done nothing with them. Lou Holtz's best finish was 9-3 in 1973 and that was long before he really became a Hall of Fame coach. Other Bielemas were: Chuck Amoto who was the big name DC from FSU, NC State graduate and never finished above 4th place in the ACC. Next was Tom O'Brien who was also a pretty big name and never finished above 2nd place. Next, Dave Doeren who was a lesser name and has been there for too long for a guy who has had only 2 second place finishes. The Zips have been bad for a long time and if someone told you the University had a secret plan for failure around a football program, it would almost be believable. In the world of the MAC, Akron has a better chance of being a top level team than NC State does of being a top level team in the ACC or Illinois in the Big Ten. NC State has made some, what appeared at the time to be good decisions around their football program (way better than Illinois), but they are still really average. Until JoMo, Akron has as a whole made catastrophic decisions around the football program. Heck, the first mistake was probably was moving to D1 even after the NCAA basically begged them to not do it and then hired a guy who had no idea what to do to build a D1 program from nothing and his support system was the fired, former coach who had no idea how to build a D1 program. Owens was a high school coach and better suited for D2 where he underperformed for years. Brookhart had the background at time and was a "good" coach, won the MAC, had one player make horrible personal decisions that torpedoed any potential success. Bowden was washed up and lazy. I Coach and the last guy are sort of like when your favorite team loses the Super Bowl and someone asks you what you thought of the Super Bowl and you respond with, "What Super Bowl?". I seriously can't even remember the last guy's name as I type this. It's almost what in the legal world is called a "crime in progress" and we have all been accomplices in the crime. In my opinion, for the first time in the program since the winter of 1986, Akron has made good decisions around the football program. I don't consider JoMo to be a "good" hire. I consider him to be a GREAT hire. For the life of me, I know his reasons, but I don't understand why he came to Akron. I sure am glad he is here though. The program is now in a position to be the success it should have been since the opening of The Big Dialer.

Exposure?

Enough P5 markets? Yes. This isn't about TV money. If it was, Alabama and the two Mississippi schools would get the boot from the SEC because of how small their TV markets are. It's about the appearance of greatness. The AAC is not the solution for the remaining Pac10 schools because that's an appearance of averageness. It has to be a alliance with the remaining Big12, which it teetering on averageness. It has to be all or nothing though. A fracture will leave the likes of Washington State, Stanford, Cal, Colorado, Oregon State, etc in the trash bin of the AAC. A few years ago the ACC schools signed a roughly two decade deal in 2016 which contained something called a Grant of Rights. This thing is iron clad. Basically, it's too expensive for anyone to leave. Here is a good explanation. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/article263209048.html I don't think college athletics is a mess. It's just becoming different. If played correctly, many schools could realign their athletic programs in a manner that is more suitable to their capabilities. This is desperately needed after a couple of decades of athletic directors bankrupting their employers with "the building process".

Each ACC school brings in $30-$35 million per year off the ACC Network. Roughly one half of the Big Ten.

TV money is interesting, but at what level is it irrelevant? The ACC has an awful TV deal, but they continue to complete well against the other conferences across sports and classroom measureables. It makes me wonder if you don't have to have the most money, but if your conference falls into a certain range of money per school you can remain competitive. Athletic Directors, in their pursuit to destroy their employers, get publicly upset about TV deals. Makes me wonder if it's just another ploy to get taxpayers to pay to pad their resumes.

It can't hurt. What I like is Dec 30 is a Saturday this year. Students on break, alumni, fans and the greater ne Ohio community will get to go to a game and see the Zips play. Maybe make a day/night of it. College sports aren't that difficult. Not sure why it gets screwed up so badly. No wait.... I do. It's the athletic directors.

It's better than the Arkansas States they normally play this time of year. To repeat, the Athletic Department should benefit the athletes, students, alumni, fans and greater communities around Akron. This game would check all of the boxes.

Smart. Big event in the middle of the holidays and close to home.

Ok https://www.uakron.edu/president/news-and-messages/2022-reunion

https://www.uakron.edu/president/news-and-messages/2022-reunion You are correct and I can't argue with your statement. Doesn't make it right and I'm not saying you are saying it's OK either. I'd rather see numbers like what is in the link above. 97% of graduates in 2021 were able to find some sort of placement after graduation. Let's start with getting kids enrolled who can do the work, graduate and contribute to the communities in which they live. Any university that has a business model of bringing in students just to collect money knowing they can never graduate is morally bankrupt. It's just obnoxious and wrong. Top universities do not behave this way. Directing criticism towards Dr. Miller is fair because he is a high paid leader of a public institution and criticism is the price of leadership. It's important the criticism is directed at something meaningful though or it's just meaningless noise.

I've never subscribed to the idea that more is better. I prefer quality over quantity. Ohio is maintaining it's population, but what is supporting it is Franklin and the surrounding counties. The real problem is it is rapidly aging. Old people typically don't go to college and don't want to spend money on education. If the school's population increases and high quality students are enrolling, that's awesome. If the population increases and quality is reduced, that's bad and we've been down that road already. It's a losing strategy.

I met him for the first time recently at one of the alumni events they put together around the country. He was awesome and the event the University was great. What I think he understands is events like alumni gatherings in major cities should be a normal course of business for a major University like Akron.