GP1

I'd rather the Conference leadership go exploring for Sasquatch. They would do less damage to the rest of the conference. Whenever you hear someone at the G5 level is exploring something, translate that into they have made a horrible decision and are sitting around trying to justify their bad decision until they can find a better job.

Everyone ignored him because time spent talking to a track ref is time wasted by a D1 college football coach. There isn't a fan base in the United States that doesn't think that recruiting more local talent will turn their program around. I hear the same thing here in South Carolina. Frequently it's the dying wish of a dying program. I present to everyone the Wake Forest Roster. On the entire team, there are only three kids from Winston-Salem. Very few are from what people call the Triad (W-S/High Point/Greensboro). If they tried to load their team up with a ton of kids from the Triad, they would be firmly located in last place of the Atlantic division instead of first place and ranked below 100 instead of 13th. I'm still not entirely sold on this team because of the putrid defense, but so far so good. I'll see tomorrow at 4 if they they lay an egg or not against Duke. The point is even a historically pathetic program like Wake can win with the right vision and players recruited to fit into the vision/culture. Dave Clawson would fail at almost every school in the country. An AD saw he had the perfect background for Wake, hired him and let him fulfill what was his vision. Clawson is an example of a leader who knew how to hire into a specific culture. It took a lot of balls to give Grobe the boot, but it worked out for the best. We need that kind of vision in an AD. Someone specifically suited for Akron is the key to success.

His idealism isn't the problem. I've never met Tom but I bet he's a pretty good guy. He is a fit for a lot of places in some capacity, but not Akron. Who knows, maybe he would make a great assistant in the NFL. The problem is he was a bad hire by an idealist. We have to be more practical about who we hire. Hunter Yurachek and Mack R. were both practical guys and have had a lot of success since Akron. That's what we need. Guys like our previous AD want things to be one way. It's usually the other way.

The real problem is hiring coaches who aren't capable of keeping at risk kids in check. The problem is Akron wants to believe it can run the football program like ND, a suburban league team or FSU. It's shocking we have had two coaches that worked at Notre Dame and a third hired by someone from ND. I think the importance of the private schools in and around Akron weight too heavily on the minds of decision makers. We need to hire a coach who sees the kids and school differently. This will allow that coach to bring in the kind of player who can be successful at Akron. JD was the closest Akron had to understanding kids suitable for a school like Akron because of his time at Pitt but he came from the wrong background to really connect. Later I'll elaborate on the kind of coach we need and why. The answer isn't another Catholic school coach.

Well, it is a building process.

It could be a good learning lesson for kids. Superintendents of these schools with six or less wins should sit down with the kids and explain to them the costs associated with a team traveling to a game. Then the lesson could focus on the consequences of failure. Then the lesson could focus on the need for adults to act responsibility. Finally, for all of those reasons, those superintendents should forfeit those games.

It's far worse. Better words to describe are: dangerous, irresponsible and reckless. Every adult involved in this decision should lose their job.

Other than two games a year, we are doing this. We have yet to hire a coach who is a cultural fit for Akron.

Link There is no good reason for a 16 year old to play 16 games in one season. This is nuts.

Akron has hired "competent" coaches several times. One can argue Arth is a competent coach. Where Akron keeps missing is too many times it doesn't hire the right coach for Akron. We keep hiring coaches based upon what people want Akron to be and not what it is/can be. Heck, the MAC keeps making decisions on what it wants to be and not what it is. Leads to one disaster after another.

I wouldn't feel too bad for most of them. Arth has recruited a solid D2/D3 roster. These guys would have never had a full scholarships at any other school and if they did they would have washed out long ago. Those with D1 talent have the option to stay or enter the transfer portal. The hardest part for the players now has to be not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It's three years for some and the team is still terrible. They are not stupid. When they play other schools they know how outmatched they are. Post game film sessions have to be a horror show. They know they are a long way away from a 5 win season. They have to know the coaches who recruited them aren't long for Akron. They have to know if Akron uncharacteristically hires a competent coach, that person will bring in some better players and they will be sent straight to the bench or not have their scholarships renewed. I wouldn't call it suffering. It's more discouraging. For some there will be an empowering aspect to it. Reality can be that way.

Maybe. Maybe not. What we know for sure is the TV revenue and paydays do not cover the bills. There could still be a smaller amount of P5 money and some TV revenue. Much can be done without become D2 with some imagination.

For whatever reason, some here think Marshall is a good idea. As far as Marshall, they look like a pack of idiots for jumping conference every few years. Ever notice no conference really searches them out? They are always reacting at this point. It amazes me anyone would want them back in the MAC knowing they will always have one foot out the door. It amazes me any conference would want to partner with such a group of opportunists. Screw them.

Remove Canada, WKU, NIU and MTSU. Every team plays each other with three ooc games. At the end of the season the two best records, with some tie breakers figured in, play each other for the championship. BG, Toledo and EMU are all easy drives from NE Ohio. It's part of making MAC schools benefit the players, students, alumni, fans and general communities where they are. The MAC needs to be smaller, not bigger. G5 conferences need to pull their heads out of their rear ends and figure out the future. I have zero interest in MTSU and WKU. Throw in Canada and NIU.

Fox is in the game but on a smaller scale. They show Big Ten at noon every Saturday. It just seems like they aren't doing anything because they only have FS1 and not a bunch of networks like ABC/ESPN.

Hall of Fame post.

See where this is going? Link

Doing the bidding of ESPN is what has gotten G5 schools into the mess they are in. One school making the playoffs per hand winning one game every 10 years is not a good reason to expand. There is no good reason for the MAC to expand.

I have no interest in what those schools do. Never been to a UNCC game and it's 25 miles from my house. Saw Wake Forest play Rice once and almost passed out from the boredom......or was it the 12 beers?....I can't remember. Anyhow, good luck to them. We are fine where we are at.

The MAC isn't the Big Ten. It will never have the ability make money grabs like P5 conferences. What has gotten G5 schools into the problems they have now is pretending they are P5 schools. Worse, the G5 athletic directors who will do anything detrimental to their schools in order to get a P5 job. It needs to stop. Any G5 AD who jumps conferences right now is harming their school in favor of their career and the president of whatever school they work for should fire them on the spot if they bring up the idea. You brought a different twist on the "exposure" argument. You assume more markets will be become more money and the money leads to more exposure. Normally the logic thread starts with exposure. In reality, the exposure has resulted in more money for ESPN and not enough for us to cover our overhead making G5 schools public works programs. The ESPN exposure has resulted in all the excitement empty stadiums bring to a nationally televised audience while at the same time making degenerate gamblers happy on Tuesday nights. Better competition? The MAC is the worst it has been in my lifetime.

G5 schools need to get away from P5 schools. Agreed, we shouldn't be doing anything ourselves. We should do something with every other G5 school. Something bigger than schools jumping conference. Jumping conferences at this point is Mickey Mouse. Spring football may be the only way to save G5 schools from the athletic directors who work for them.

I agree, but expanding the league isn't being proactive. It would make more sense to eliminate a team or two which would make the league more competitive. Better competition would make it more compelling. Making it more compelling would drive up interest. Driving up interest would lead to more people at games. More people at games is using MAC schools in a way that benefits the players, students, alumni, fans and general communities around those schools. That should be the goal. I saw ODU play at Wake Forest this year. The only reason I went is because I thought it would be one of the three games Wake won this year, but that's another topic. Bottom line, Akron vs Toledo is far more compelling than Akron vs ODU. ODU is less interesting than Temple and I can't believe I just typed that, but it's true. G5 schools don't need to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. They need to get off the sinking ship. Lots of people survived the sinking of the titanic. G5 schools can survive the changing landscape of college football, but not through hysterical conference jumping. Let's get off the ship.

Cincinnati, Houston, BYU and UCF heading to the Big 12 slams the door shut on meaningful conference realignment. Now the discussion needs to be about college football realignment. The foundation for the separation of P5 and G5 is complete. This is a great thing for both. Let sanity prevail.

I hope you meant this to be funny because it was. The bar for successfully ordering pizza and wings is pretty low. If the Zips can't achieve this level of skill, it must have been really bad.

I'm laying down in my hotel room and actually started to laugh when I saw this. Playing QB for 10 years for Akron and a prison sentence are very similar.