GP1

Showing up for practice is too much work. Just give some guys scholarships to get good grades. This really isn't hard.

I want 5-10 guys with extremely high GPAs, SAT scores and no illusions that they could actually play given the chance which could lead to a transfer. The other 75-80 players can contribute on the field. Let's not make this extremely easy solution something that will one day blow up in our faces. No room for failure.

It seems to me that meeting the NCAA standard shouldn't be very difficult. So, how could the stats be manipulated. First, I don't believe it requires 85 players for a good college football team. If NFL teams can get by with 48 dressed for a game, so should everyone else. In reality, 65 players is enough yet we are allowed 85. Second, we are only a few students away from getting over this extremely low bar. It's only a matter of numerical manipulation. Akron should save 5-10 scholarships for what we could call "ringers". The ringers could have full football scholarships and be on the team. These ringers would also be very smart students well on their way to graduation. These ringers would all unfortunately have season ending injuries on the first day of training camp every year. It would be as if they never came to camp at all. Get well soon guys. See you next fall. The ringers could also help their teammates who are in need of some academic support. Give them all varsity jackets. Heck, if they kept the program out of probation, it would be a well earned varsity jacket. The athletic department could pick up what is covered through scholarships. They could use whatever academic scholarships they probably have for general living expenses, fun or whatever. This really isn't very difficult.

I like what I think you are thinking. If it's just about reaching a data point, then manipulate the data that creates the point. How would a school go about doing that?

I'm going to try and care about this for a minute. Does this rule apply to scholarship and non-scholarship players?

You have to admit, it is nice to know Akron can do the impossible. In the NIL era, the NCAA wants academics to take, not just a back seat, but a seat in the U-Haul trailer being towed behind the bus. Somebody at the NCAA once though about how they could make the metrics so easy to achieve, it would be impossible for anyone to fall below the lowest standard. Akron said, "Hold my beer".

What must happen before going to a bowl game? If you guessed winning at least six games, you would be correct. He was brought here to win games. If we wanted a choirboy loser, we could have stuck with Arth. The central problem is, he isn't winning enough games. If Akron wins eight games and the MAC, I'm not concerned that we can't go to a bowl game we really can't afford to go to. Akron could take that success and run with it. If at this time next year, this nonsensical probation is gone and we are winning, all is good.

Or they move on to something else. The majority of players in the TP never play sports again. Maybe they drop out of college all together or they continue without sports. I don't know and I don't care. I don't think this one year ineligibility is the catastrophe some are making it out to be. It may be a blessing because if we can't afford enough academic advisors, how do we afford to send a team to a bowl game? It's a fixable problem and one not worth firing the coach over. If Akron plays like @$$ again next year, then fire the coach. I won't be watching games worrying about whether any of the players attended a single class the week before. I'm still confused as to why players have to take classes in minor league professional sports. My employer can't force me to perform community service. They can encourage it, but not require. Players should be encouraged to take classes, but it shouldn't be a requirement in the NIL era. Pre-NIL, yes. Today, no.

Who's blaming NIL? I don't blame NIL. I blame the people who want it to be 1970.

What if your boss had an expectation you didn't want to comply with and you could string them along until just before they fired you, you went to work somewhere else? That's what's going on in college athletics.

What if you boss told you you couldn't fart for 8 hours then required you to eat ten bowls of Raisin Bran?

I'm not that interested in talking to the problem.

Maybe some.

Many don't. Life is full of choices. They are adults.

Ok, why do they need a college degree to become a professional in something else? Why aren't we all professionals at whatever job we do. I expect the manager at an Arby's to be a professional even though that person may not have a college degree.

They are getting paid to play. That makes them professionals.

In the NIL era, many have already gone pro.

What if they aren't dummies at all? What if they simply don't care because if they start to flunk out they can just go to another school?

How easy would it be to pass classes and get an online college degree in the NIL era? My understanding is OSU has a WR making $4 million per year. It would only take about one to two percent of that money for a player to hire an "academic advisor". Does anyone want to write a job description for this academic advisor? My interests in college athletics in recent years don't really lie in what happens during games, but the entire perversion of the American university system. It's part of our general societal decay and has been fascinating to watch. It's so gross I can't look away.

In the NIL era, a winning team is all I care about. If there is embarrassment , it's the decades long failure on the field. I think anyone who feels bad about this story is internalizing it. Very few people give a crap about this nonsense. I don't feel one bit bad about this story. In fact, I think academic standards in minor league professional sports are stupid. The players aren't here to go to school. They are here to participate in football games and make some money so ESPN has weeknight programming in the late fall. The classroom stuff should be optional. Within ten years, high level college football will be teams that are merely sponsored by universities. They could use names like, The Buckeyes brought to you by The Ohio State University. If you don't think it's going this way, you are fooling yourself.

Do you really think that the catastrophe will all be on him?

It will be a Kent level disaster.

What if they could be 38-10 over the next four years?

I was hoping they would try to use the football program to benefit the athletes students alumni fans and general community around Akron. I don't think this is unrealistic.

No