GP1

I don't know if they are dumber. I think the leadership of G5 schools simply had bigger fish to fry, were not paying close enough attention, didn't really know what to do and sort of enabled the growing problem. The results are in and the disaster is clear. The past problem has metastisized to the point they have all but given up. The weeknight games are simply what the leadership does when they don't know what else to do.

It's easy money when you have no other ideas and don't plan to stick around long enough to live your mistakes.

How are they smarter? I would argue they act solely to hoard money at the expense of their schools, alumni, fans and greater communities. My evidence is the upcoming football playoff expansion. It will galvanize the top schools at the top and everyone else will flounder. I don't think it takes a particularly smart person to hoard money at the expense of their employers.

I'm here to help Clark. Sentence 1: Out of curiosity because I have no clue what the answers to these questions are: Who was the commissioner? How much longer was this person commissioner after this decision? How many commissioners have there been since? How many athletic directors from that era are still employed by their university? Sentence 2: I don't think for a second the athletic directors didn't consider any of this. I think they knew exactly what would happen. Anyone with half a brain could see what was going to happen. They did it to pad their resumes. Sentence 3: They don't believe this. Most tend to have advanced degrees, but that is dubious because an advanced degree can be obtained in the 21st Century by applying for a Masters program on line and paying the tuition. The next thing you know you have a diploma hanging on the wall. Let's assume for a second they are smart people. The evidence is overwhelming that the weeknight games are horrible for the schools. They have to understand this. They simply don't care. Their "dream jobs" are not working as a MAC level athletic director and if moving beyond that involves destroying the schools they work at, they will gladly do it and laugh their way to their next job.

Yes. I blame the entire conference as they agreed to it. It's almost as if at some point, behind closed doors, the athletic directors asked the following question: What can we do to drive people away from attending games while at the same time make ourselves look pathetic on national television? In reality, it is probably the only answer the conference has gotten right over the years.

Or, they can put a good team on the field competing against teams that will draw interest while offering great tailgating, a clean stadium/parking and good concessions at a time AND DAY OF THE FREAKING WEEK that is convenient for students, alumni, fans and the greater community to attend. None of this matters if games continue to be played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. This entire strategy has been an abject failure for the MAC. There can't be a single, sane person out there who believes this strategy is working.

Or, "I intend to make that stadium and the team that plays in it the center of social activity in the fall for the students, alumni, fans and the greater Akron community."

A meaningful game would result in worse outcomes for the G5 team. I'd love a G5 division and real playoff. It would be meaningful progress in a way most people don't see as progress.

Respectfully, there are almost no years in which this is the case. The following teams finished #5 in the final AP rankings going back to 2014 (leaving 2020 out for obvious reasons): 2019 - Oregon 2018 - Notre Dame 2017 - Ohio State 2016 - Oklahoma 2015 - Oklahoma 2014 - Florida State It would be fair to say that some years the gap between a mid level Big Ten, ACC, SEC, Big 12 or PAC12 (maybe) is not so large, but in the "playoff" scenario, we are not talking about a mid level P5 school. We are talking about a P5 team that probably at least made it's conference championship game. There is also a 50/50 chance that team was beaten badly in their conference championship and is going to look to take out some frustrations on a lesser team. G5 schools getting destroyed in games like this becomes exactly the kind of "exposure" G5 schools have gotten out of Tuesday and Wednesday night games, only a lot more people will be watching. It is in fact terrible for the G5 schools. So I ask the question to everyone. How is it good for G5 schools when their best team gets destroyed annually in the college football "playoff"? Exactly how does a Colorado State/UAB/Akron/Ball State/FIU benefit from this? Please don't respond if your only answer is money. Chasing after money has put us in a horrible position where we believe more of the same bad thinking in the pursuit of money will somehow result indifferent outcomes.

There is nothing wrong with the way teams are currently ranked and sorted out for the "playoffs". In reality, one doesn't have to watch too many college football games to see that there are only about 2-3 teams with any shot at winning a national championship. Heck, anyone who watched the coin toss for the national championship games and saw the disparity in size between OSU and Alabama knew that game was over before it started. Anyone else who gets in will just be receiving punishment in the form of extra practices and an unwinnable game for having a good season...some prize. The evidence is right in front of us. Half of conference championship games are not very competitive so expanding that into a "playoff" is not going to create much more quality football regardless of how big they make the "playoff". The biggest concern should be the above becoming the norm. It has in the lower divisions as the same teams appear in the "playoffs" every year so normalizing what happens above is what probably will happen. The top 2-3 teams become great programs because the best of the best players want to play for a national championship. The recruiting advantage these teams hold over the rest of college football will become greater, not lessened by an expanded "playoff". Recruiting is the lifeblood of college athletics. With great plays, you win. Without them, you are in an almost insurmountable position. What does this mean for G5 schools? MORE of the same pile of poop they have to eat already because their athletic directors, conference administrators and university administrators are too narrow sighted, and probably too stupid, to think of another way to improve their horrible position in the world of college football. G5 schools are constantly fighting a losing battle against the P5 schools. In "The Art of War", Sun Tzu has three famous statements about fighting (Keep in mind that his greatest goal was to not fight unnecessarily or preferably at all): "The one who knows when he can fight, and when he cannot fight, will be victorious." We cannot win the fight against P5 schools and this "playoff" is only going to make our position weaker. "The one who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements." I'm afraid G5 schools don't really understand themselves and are in a constant state of endangerment/self-destruction because of it. "Subjugating the enemy’s army without fighting is the true pinnacle of excellence." G5 schools do not actually have to fight the P5 schools to be successful and reach some level of excellence. There are plenty of college football conferences that play below the FBS level that have reached a level of excellence in their own way without firing a shot against P5 schools. It can be done.

It isn't a playoff. There are no playoffs in college sports. They are invitational tournaments.

For whom? Alabama or the G5 school? What about the rest of them?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/college-football-playoff-officially-recommends-expanding-to-12-teams-192316854.html Iowa State, Northwestern, BYU and Indiana were ranked 9-12 in the AP final Top 20 for 2020. Want to make college football less meaningful? Force Americans to watch Indiana get destroyed by Alabama. More of something that is bad for something is not the answer. This is a joke.

A real punishment would have been to force him to eat 10 pounds of gefilte fish.

A social media coach is an even dumber idea than the always popular "clock management coach" NFL fans think an NFL coach should have on the team. Truly stupid stuff.

Don't give up so easily. It can go well. The Athletic Department is not in a bad way. A major program needs fixing, but in general we are in a good position.

If I had more time today, I'd explain to everyone how a guy like Williams hires a guy like Arth. It isn't complicated, but obvious. More to do with personal preference than professional preference.

Maybe in some cases, but not in this one. Finding the new AD could have been as inexpensive as placing three ads in local papers and the President calling his buddy. Akron is a better job than UWGB. Making the move for then new AD was obvious.

If this is all we expect out of our AD, we need to fold up the Athletic Department. In closing, I'm pray to the good Lord that the University did not spend a dime on an executive recruiting firm.

As far as G5 schools go, this is more of the same. Neither bad nor the brave jump forward I would like to see. The good old boy network is difficult to break. Since it is more of the same, expect the same.

Not a bad move. I mean...seriously, what could go wrong?...... Edit: I hate to give ideas to the competition, but I think MAC athletic directors are so stupid they wouldn't know a good idea if it fell on their heads. Why in the world wouldn't you take a deep breath and think about it for a few seconds? I mean, after a few minutes, the name Doc Holliday came to mind. He is a proven winner at the G5 level, out of work and may find it appealing to go to an established program and win some games next year then ride off into the sunset (no pun intended). It would give UB a year to see how things shake out.

Every time I think about, I fall asleep before I can decide.

Sorry they are upside down. Don't know how to turn them. The only piece I am missing from my memory is how much time was remaining in the game when Akron got the ball back.

It's not about rivalries. It's not even a rivalry. It's just a good idea. It's working for Wake and UNC. We can beat Toledo. We have in the past. We will beat them again at some point. They need to do something interesting. Getting destroyed by Auburn and OSU isn't interesting. We've seen that far too much already. The idea of playing the likes of Troy, ULM, UNCC, New Mexico, Temple, Howard, etc makes me want to fall asleep. If I still lived in Ohio, I think it would be awesome to go to Toledo every other year to watch the Zips play a late summer game at the Glass Bowl. If any of you haven't been there, it's the Wrigley Field of the MAC.

It was 1992. Gary Pinkel's first season at UT. It wasn't just the last second kick. Toledo made a great comeback and scored with little time remaining in the game to tie it. Back then there was no overtime. Akron was able to get just close enough to kick the FG with no time remaining. https://utrockets.com/sports/football/schedule/1992 If there are any journalists who read this and have a copy of an ABJ article or a news video, that would be awesome. It really was a great college football game. I would love to know how Toledo scored late. My memory says it was 20-17 and they kicked a late FG to tie it but were really close to scoring a TD, but my memory ain't what it used to be.