Back when cutting sports seemed like the abyss...

[GP1]

50 minutes ago, 72 Roo said:

The Captain is right on. When the product on the field or on the court is competitive and plays well the team(s) will be supported in the stands. The problem is that we have had presidents and boards of trustees who know nothing of athletics and could care less.

Yes and yes. It's a bit more than that though. You have to make the fan experience a good one and I don't mean bouncy houses. Who you play and when you play is critical to fan interest. They need to play good teams when people want to go to a game. They haven't been doing that. 

 

Your other point isn't the real problem. No presidents or BOT members know anything about sports at almost every school. I'd rather them take a risk on a visionary with minimal AD experience than the safe paper pushers they hire. We need a young PJ Fleck type as AD.

[Blue & Gold]

 

[GP1]

2 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

 

This is one of those times the University has to delicately tell a high profile alum, "no".

[LZIp]

The runners still literally have indoor and outdoor track seasons, along with all women's running sports still there. Why do they need not 1, not 2, but 3 different seasons? I'd like to see what all is being including in the operating expense figure - maybe bus rides and hotel and thats it? Actually I don't even see how that could be under that figure. Maybe its legitimate, but clearly a misleading figure that is really splitting hairs considering it clearly doesn't even include coaches salary.

Edited May 21, 2020 by LZIp

[kreed5120]

Yeah, Akron wouldn't have cut cross country if it only saved them 8k. 

 

 

[jupitertoo]

 

11 hours ago, GP1 said:

We need a young PJ Fleck type as AD.

 

There are times when you row the boat and others when you bale out the water.  This period calls for the latter.

 

 

 

 

[clarkwgriswold]

19 minutes ago, jupitertoo said:

 

 

There are times when you row the boat and others when you bale out the water.  This period calls for the latter.

 

 

 

 

 

Those types of "rowers" are pretty damn rare too.  Guys like Fleck come along rarely.  

Edited May 21, 2020 by clarkwgriswold

[clarkwgriswold]

12 hours ago, GP1 said:

We need a young PJ Fleck type as AD.

 

Agreed that we need some enthusiasm and creativity in the AD position, but PJ Fleck himself wouldn't make a difference if everyone isn't in the boat.  This is much bigger than a one person issue.

[GP1]

1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

 

Agreed that we need some enthusiasm and creativity in the AD position, but PJ Fleck himself wouldn't make a difference if everyone isn't in the boat.  This is much bigger than a one person issue.

People like Pj get the right people in the boat. 

[zippy5]

I wanted to post this here being the likely most active topic 

 

 

[GP1]

1 hour ago, jupitertoo said:

 

 

There are times when you row the boat and others when you bale out the water.  This period calls for the latter.

 

 

 

 

Some boats have drain plugs that drain water while the boat is moving. It's possible to do two things at once. 

[JZIP]

This administration is so incompetent it isn't even funny. The planning and logical thought process just is not there. What we need to demand as fans is a roadmap to success. We need a list of things we need to accomplish (one of which is a balanced budged), and a plan to accomplish those said things. Let's get uncomfortable, talk about things that are working, things that are not. Let's build on what is working for us, and come up with a plan to either fix or eliminate what is not working for us. Enough closed door meetings. Admin needs to put their thoughts on paper and be held accountable.

[Zip-Grad '13]

On 5/19/2020 at 4:14 PM, Captain Kangaroo said:

He took over a program with 3 D1-A wins the previous season, and who lost 9 of its 11 defensive starters. He began recruiting at a point in time when most programs had their full class committed.

 

How many games should he have won? 1...2...?

 

I hope he can turn it around. Like any HC, he gets 4 years to show what he can do. 

 

Defending mediocrity!  (I think that's the attack that was levied but in the opposite direction).  Sorry.  You can book it.  Arth ain't rescuing the football program.

[Blue & Gold]

Keeping fingers crossed.  I'm beginning to hunger for football.

 

 

[Blue & Gold]

 

[clarkwgriswold]

Sounds like the Faculty Senate is unhappy about the President's plan.  I guess it all comes down to whose ox is being gored.

Edited May 24, 2020 by clarkwgriswold

[NWAkron]

51 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Sounds like the Faculty Senate is unhappy about the President's plan.  I guess it all comes down to whose ox is being gored.

Do they ever like anything?  They are routinely negative.

[Cykron]

On 5/20/2020 at 4:52 PM, zippy5 said:

Do you think we could have gotten Arth to come for less money?

 

 

If there an FBS program that set out to "save money" in their hiring of a coach and proceeded to have success with that coach?  None come to my mind.

[kreed5120]

On 5/17/2020 at 7:35 PM, DannyHoke said:

 

Here's the unique difference.  AKRON is the only school in America to cut a sport, and then bring it back within 4 years. We lead the nation in STUPID.

 

And to use the justification of adding the sport back, that you got a $1,000,000 donation, when the field that the team plays on cost $1,500,000 to build makes it ever more ridiculous.

 

Then to top that off, our boy NWA comes on here and lauds the team for going 1-12, stating that it showed promise.

 

Akron = Mediocrity 

 

This comment didn't age well. BG added baseball back after cutting it 2 weeks ago.

 

https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/bgsu/2020/06/02/BGSU-reinstates-baseball-program/stories/20200602125

[Zipmeister]

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/05/30/number-of-eliminated-college-sports-programs-nearing-100/

[Captain Kangaroo]

6 hours ago, Zipmeister said:

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/05/30/number-of-eliminated-college-sports-programs-nearing-100/

After reading that story, I’m a big fan of Idaho President Chuck Staben. 

[clarkwgriswold]

I suspect that the COVID-19 crisis was a convenient opportunity for administrators to make cuts to athletic programs that they had contemplated for some time.  It gave them the cover they needed to get it done without strong opposition.

[kreed5120]

I'm surprised that number isn't higher than 97. I'm sure more sports would have been cut had the NCAA approved dropping the minimum teams required.

Edited June 5, 2020 by kreed5120

[GP1]

1 hour ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

After reading that story, I’m a big fan of Idaho President Chuck Staben. 

“College presidents are just not thinking this through,” former University of Idaho president Chuck Staben said. “I cannot believe they are making all these probably bad financial decisions for their university when what we need them to do in the face of this pandemic and pending budget cuts from tuition shortfalls and state funding shortfalls is to make good financial decisions that benefit students.”  source

 

Seems Dr. Staben understands the purpose of a university is to create societal leaders.

 

There needs to be a connection between universities, their students, alumni and communities with the idea of exposing the existing students to the alumni and broader community in a way that enhances their college experience. All three are important and some of the financial decisions universities are now making need to take that into consideration. Athletics can be a big part of bringing those three elements together.  Athletics is too often looked at as something separate from the "normal" parts of the university and that is wrong. Schools like ours and conferences like ours need to get together and decide how they can do that together.  How do you use athletics to give those three groups a great experience with their universities? Are current athletic directors and conference leaders capable of looking in this direction or are they just paper pushers and opportunists?  You know where I fall here.

 

These universities and conferences badly need to get together and decide exactly how they want to improve the experience of students, alumni and communities or when this is all over, it's going to go straight back to the "building process" and we all know how that ends. Years ago now,  a division leader of a company I was working at asked me what I thought the company did wrong. I already knew the answer and pretended to think about it for a couple of seconds. Since I really didn't like working at the company, I decided the best thing to do would be telling the truth. So I said, "Fred, there are too many action plans and not enough action". He looked at me like I called his mother a bad name. He was perfect athletic director material. The MAC and conferences like ours need to get together and take action and stop being victims of the current landscape of college athletics. It simply isn't giving us what we need.

[kreed5120]

41 minutes ago, GP1 said:

These universities and conferences badly need to get together and decide exactly how they want to improve the experience of students, alumni and communities or when this is all over, it's going to go straight back to the "building process" and we all know how that ends. Years ago now,  a division leader of a company I was working at asked me what I thought the company did wrong. I already knew the answer and pretended to think about it for a couple of seconds. Since I really didn't like working at the company, I decided the best thing to do would be telling the truth. So I said, "Fred, there are too many action plans and not enough action". He looked at me like I called his mother a bad name. He was perfect athletic director material. The MAC and conferences like ours need to get together and take action and stop being victims of the current landscape of college athletics. It simply isn't giving us what we need.

 

I've been hearing the last 3 or so years how the university has in its budget a plan to reduce the athletic deficit by x-number of dollars. Often times built into that figure was some unrealistic boost to ticket revenue. In that time the athletic budget has only increased, not decreased. This year is the first time they actually followed through on making the cuts they said they would. The thing is they should have followed through on their plan 3-4 years ago then they wouldn't have needed to make such drastic changes now.

 

I don't think this is an AD problem as much as a university as a whole problem. Every few years the university releases a new plan. I don't remember all the quirky names. The most memorable one for me is the landscape for learning. They set lofty goals of raising hundreds of millions of dollars. They never come close to hitting all those goals nor do they publish progress reports along the way. They might accomplish 25%-50% of what they wanted to do before they roll out the next one and it's even grander than the previous one. I'm waiting for the day the University sends me an email that says "Thank you for your contribution! We have currently completed our fundraising goal and don't need anymore of your money at this time."  

Edited June 5, 2020 by kreed5120