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Scarborough's next move...


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  • 3.0 HS GPA and 27 ACT, or
  • top 10 percent HS rank and 26 ACT, or
  • 3.5 HS GPA and 24 ACT.

All are very modest... for example to be in the top 10% at a few HS is probably scary low, so essentially you need to just score a 26

Thanks. I would not have qualified.

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ESPN front page story.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13437404/lebron-james-university-akron-fund-4-year-scholarships-promise-students

Finally somebody has figured out how to team up with LeBron at the U and make some positive news. I can't believe it has taken this long.

http://www.uakron.edu/im/news/scarborough-and-lebron-announce-scholarship-program-for-akron-children

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ESPN front page story.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13437404/lebron-james-university-akron-fund-4-year-scholarships-promise-students

Finally somebody has figured out how to team up with LeBron at the U and make some positive news. I can't believe it has taken this long.

http://www.uakron.edu/im/news/scarborough-and-lebron-announce-scholarship-program-for-akron-children

:rock::bow::cheers:

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I like to think a head of a military-like group that instills discipline and leadership in you would have much more of an impact on someone's life and resume than a sociology professor ever would.

You're assuming a military-like organization is the only way (or best way) to instill discipline and leadership. Good professors who give a damn about their universities and their students can do a lot more for a student and their career. Professors whom mentor their students can instill the discipline needed to succeed in their fields.

Corps of Cadets seems more like an agenda than it seems like a program that would have, to be completely frank, any measurable impact on students. We already have a LOT of student leaders at UA's campus that are rarely backed in any meaningful way by administration. Just ask the students who put on Relay For Life...you think they don't have discipline to pull off that event? You don't think they have leadership to pull of that event? C'mon man!

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This is wonderful news!!!

The only thing that I don't like is this sentence in the cleveland.com story:

"The scholarships, paid for by the university, will cover tuition and Akron's general services fee -- currently worth about $9,500 a year."

If the university is paying for all that, then why is Lebron getting the credit?

I am pretty sure I am missing something... :rolleyes:

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I've seen the story posted on ESPN, Yahoo, The Today Show, Sports Illustrated..basically everywhere. I don't care who is "paying" for it. The University couldn't ask for better PR, especially as of late. Forever having the College of Education named after him/his charity and giving us that name recognition makes it all that much better. Partnering with this guy as much as possible is a no lose situation.

Great move UA!

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Yes, if you believe that LeBron James' only value is writing a check then you are definitely missing something.

I do NOT believe that and I understand the value of Lebron James and I think this partnership is a great one. My question was about writing stories entitled: "Lebron James and the U of A funding or paying bla bla bla" while the story clearly states that UA is shelling those $$$. That's all :wave:

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I do NOT believe that and I understand the value of Lebron James and I think this partnership is a great one. My question was about writing stories entitled: "Lebron James and the U of A funding or paying bla bla bla" while the story clearly states that UA is shelling those $$$. That's all :wave:

Got it. Putting it into simplistic terms, as part of the deal LeBron has agreed to provide his huge marketing clout to the University of Akron for at least the next five years. To calculate the exact dollar value one would need to analyze LeBron's other marketing contracts, which annually pay him more than $40 million. From that point of view alone LeBron is providing funding through marketing value that UA will not directly reimburse with cash to him but to the program. Beyond that there are many fine details of the package that have not yet been revealed that will have an effect on how much of the funding comes directly from UA and how much is generated from external sources based on LeBron's marketing efforts.

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I love when you bring politics to the Zips. Proenza mentioned in this piece how a lot of the funding problems in higher education have come from state legislatures.

“I think it is important to recognize that a variety of changing and evolving fiscal challenges have been a part of the higher education landscape for decades. In Ohio, for example, former Governor Rhodes once pledged that no Ohio student should pay for more than about 25 percent of the cost of their public university education. Yet, as surely you know, tuition is now the inverse of that promise and the trend of diminishing state support continues.

I agree with Republican governor James Rhodes. Perhaps Mark Cuban would be a fan of Bernie Sanders. :thumb:

Though I'm glad Mark Cuban made his first point, that colleges are spending way too much money to compete with each other...which results in hiring overpaid administrators. Perhaps he can be more vocal on that issue.

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Proenza response really does not say anything….it was a CYA to protect his legacy, that is all. He got people to build a beautiful campus….I won't disagree. What Cuban talks about is ROI.

The ROI is for students as well as the schools. Lets put the elephant in the room on the table - INFOCISION. That is the main ROI Dr. S has to deal with it right now and I am quite sure he understands he needs to make it work. The answer is simple…..NEO needs to go to games. Take one section from a FUCKEYS nosebleed section (10K people?) and go front row to a Zips game. Problem solved.

The ROI students have to deal with is getting a degree. At the end of the day, if they get their degree 100% on premise, 70/30 on premise/online…50/50 it doesn't matter as much anymore. There are CEOs that have degrees from the University of Phoenix for god sake.

I have heard all the excuses in the world for not going to a UA game. When I played for the Zips ON WEEKENDS…. the excuse was that we played on the same day as the FUCKEYES and people planned their day around watching them….and that was why our attendance was not good.

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That's not an answer; it's a wish. The world is full of wishes because wishes are simple. Creating and executing plans that make wishes come true are answers, and they're nowhere near as simple as wishes.

Yes Dave it would be the answer….PERIOD. If you are saying it is a wish that NEO would come to games, then you are saying it is was an irresponsible decision to build "that stadium". You know what is simple? To sit on a computer and bitch and make excuses on a blog.

Plans WERE created and executed - The main one was Building Infocision because people's excuse was about how nasty the Rubber Bowl was (Capt K, save me another iCoach/TW rant because our basketball team proves winning doesn't seem to matter either). We now have Terry Bowden (plan B - pretty f*&ing lucky in my book). There was a guy name Jim Tressel involved who knows a thing or two about football in Ohio.

If NEO showed interest, The INFO would not be such a financial drain, faculty would not be giving us such bad press during bad times, we would not be embarrassed for having the WORST attendance in NCAA, we would have a new AD by now, the existing team would be more inspired, we would have won more games, and we would be getting better recruits. Maybe, just maybe it would justify building an equally nice arena for our winning basketball team. IF PEOPLE WENT TO GAMES. PERIOD.

BTW - you talked about your not wanting AD candidates that didn't want to take on challenge. Did you think about the AD candidates laying out their plans and discovering they were not realistic based on the schools financial situation? Not sure I would move my family to Akron to jump on a potential sinking ship when there are many other opportunities.

This all goes back to Mark Cuban's philosophy on school WASTING money. I applaud Dr. S for dealing with a shit sandwich and making tough decisions.

BLAST AWAY at a-zip

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We dump on the JAR for being a dump, and then use basketball as an attendance benchmark(?) Our good soccer in a good facility would be a better yardstick, except that soccer is not one of the 2 major college sports. Until we see winning football in the fine stadium with some true marketing talent applied to the total gameday experience, we won't know the true UA attendance potential.

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I will keep asking the question when you all bring up UA attendance potential. How many times in the last 100 years has NEO shown support for UA? Win/lose/weekday/weekend/bad weather/good weather/good opponent/bad opponent/nice stadium/bad stadium/good marketing/bad marketing..... Where does this belief (wish) come from?

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When was there ever good marketing? Acme/Zip maybe.

I've seen 18,000+ at off-the-wall (pun intended) sports in Summit County and Cleveland. I've seen the Aeros set attendance records.

Marketing is the first step. And given the current climate at UA, will probably never be addressed. We were among the thousands of fans who drove to the Little House on the Prairie in a snowstorm to watch soccer on a hockey rink. Or as Pete Franklin called it "Human Pinball". And to watch football on a hockey rink.

Using good basketball in a lousy arena vs. lousy football in a good arena doesn't change that fact.

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Hard to believe anyone still brings up the 75-year-old, structurally deficient Rubber Bowl as a viable option. The cost estimate for bringing it up to reasonable standards was almost as much as building a new on-campus stadium, and it would have still been miles from campus. This horse has been beaten into pure glue. Does anyone have anything new to say on the subject?

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Spin...lets not give too much credit to the old Acme/Zip games as "brilliant marketing". It wasn't great creative work that drove fans to want to get on board with Zips Football. It was a one-time, city-wide effort to use a grocery chain to give away tickets for practically nothing. It was not a revenue stream for Akron Athletics, and likely trained the local target market to come to one game a year to hang out with friends for a night because it was practically Free.

The short term buzz was great. The excitement at the start of games was great (before everyone exited at halftime). But, in my professional opinion, there really wasn't much to the marketing itself beyond announcing that you could get tickets for a few dollars at the grocery store. Selling $25 seats today, which makes money for Athletics, is a far more challenging task that takes "real' marketing.....meaning, more than a billboard on I-77 that says "tickets on sale now".

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