GP1

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.

Contracting is a form of legalized gambling. They gamble on a series of events going right in order to make money. In this case, they lost the bet.

Things like this are being said every day in NBA locker rooms and on the court during games by future Hall of Famers. These guys aren't stupid enough to say it on radio. For stupidity alone, Huggins should be fired.

If you ignore the outrage machine for a couple of days, they find something else to be outraged about.

Probably because of the distance I don't see everything UofA does in terms of advertising and community outreach, but what I do see I really like since Dr. Miller has taken over. I have to believe the opinion of people around NE Ohio about UofA has to have trended upwards since Dr. Miller started.

It's because fans want to apply professional sports to college. They don't understand the mission and consume too much of the idiocy ESPN pumps through TV and radio. Let's review. College athletics should benefit the athletes, students, alumni, fans and greater communities around their school. During KD's time at Akron he checked all five boxes. I'd provide evidence, but I don't think any intellectually honest person needs it.

In recent years, the Los Angeles Chargers played in the 22,000 seat soccer stadium in LA while their stadium was being completed. It isn't about the seating capacity. It would be about everything else. Akron would have to prove it could significantly increase the ability for the Browns and NFL to advertise and present a great game day experience. Switching out fields alone on a weekly basis would be a huge effort. For a year or two though, I think the NFL would like nothing more than one of it's long time franchises playing in Canton with the backdrop of the the HoF. It makes the most sense. Heck, the NFL spends a lot of money there already. My as well use it.

I don't know about forever. What I do know is the freedom of movement of labor is a contributing factor in economic market dynamics. It creates an energy around markets and industries. It makes them more competitive, interesting and energetic. The transfer portal will prove to be one of the greatest things to happen to college athletics because it is a form of freedom of labor. It is a good thing for college athletics that it is April 19th and fans of CBB are still talking about their teams, and will continue to talk about their teams throughout the year because of the TP. Full disclosure, I won't be talking much about the TP because I don't care about the TP or recruiting in the same way others do....I don't want to see the sausage being made if you know what I mean.....but for a lot of people like you it is a great thing and that's good enough for me.

A great thing about my career is I have seen almost all of the country. WCU is a total dump....Imagine Columbiana County. He'll wash out by this time next year.

The caption should be "Scout team, here I come. LET'S GO!"

Remember, the Transfer Portal is actually the Washout Portal. Over half of all players in it never play in college again. Most guys who transfer, and actually play another year, are mostly destined for another year of scout team, followed by another trip to the Transfer Portal which will end their career. College football is a game of routine mostly consisting of tedious practice, even more tedious exercise and worst of all meetings. There are very few days a player is actually playing in a game. Many guys are so accustomed to this routine they cannot see their lives without it. Moreover, they are under a lot of pressure to live the lives others want them to live. I would advise any Zip who doesn't want to play anymore, and only has walk-on offers, to evaluate whether or not they want to really attend college. If they do, stay at Akron, do whatever you have to do to pay tuition and graduate. Do something like the Army Reserves or ROTC because the physical fitness requirements can easily be achieved. It's a great school. There are tons of things to do other than play football. Reality can be difficult, but face it.

I think it would be awesome if Akron recruited a kid named Joe Sh'mow.

I know the MAC schools could build better followings because I'm old enough to remember when they had bigger followings and stadiums were much full, and I'm not that old. I think we all know the old saying about what to do when you find yourself in a hole....stop digging. MAC schools have actively driven away the audiences, especially in football, for the "exposure" of ESPN. What has happened has not been an accident. It happened on purpose. Want to get a good fan base back, focus on benefitting five groups: the players, students, alumni, fans and greater communities around MAC schools. The mac has so much to offer these five groups but they are too misguided to take advantage of their real opportunities. It's a crying shame what the mac has done to itself.

Six years out of highschool I had a Masters Degree. You'd had to have zero job offers in order to continue down what is a pointless path at this juncture in life. It's just very childish at some point. Imagine having almost zero in common with your teammates because of the age difference.