Back when cutting sports seemed like the abyss...

[Cykron]

5 minutes ago, Sergeant Zip said:

 

Will student-athlete scholarships continue to be provided?

 

Unfortunately, the current financial situation does not allow the University to be able to continue to offer and provide athletics scholarships to current student athletes in the sports of men’s cross country, men’s golf and women’s tennis moving forward.  However, the University is required to provide the agreed upon scholarship to the incoming student athletes that had previously signed an offer for the upcoming year should they matriculate to The University of Akron.

 

https://www.uakron.edu/redesigning-ua/athletics-faq-05-14-20

 

 

This is tough news for an upper-class student to get in mid-May!  

 

Proof that scholarships are one-year deals.  

[kreed5120]

I'd figure most would transfer anyways. How many scholarship baseball players stuck around? And that's even when we offered to let them keep their scholarship

[jupitertoo]

22 minutes ago, dre22era said:

Exactly why i hate that shitty conference 

Content with the culture of being mediocre 

 

And what is your proposed alternative to the MAC?

Edited May 14, 2020 by jupitertoo

[clarkwgriswold]

37 minutes ago, jupitertoo said:

 

And what is your proposed alternative to the MAC?

 

We did have a poster who had the Zips getting into the ACC 4 or 5 years ago.  God rest his soul.

[clarkwgriswold]

Just listened to Dustin Fox go on a rant about how much money UA wastes on a bad football program.  That's the environment we're living in.

[Spin]

55 minutes ago, dre22era said:

Exactly why i hate that shitty conference 

Content with the culture of being mediocre 

Well if you can make an annual nine figure donation to the football program, we could eventually compete with the Alabama’s and Ohio States and the Clemsons. Nobody here would be mad that you did.
 

Until then, we’re just happy to still have a program. Well, some of us. ?

[zipsrule]

46 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

I'd figure most would transfer anyways. How many scholarship baseball players stuck around? And that's even when we offered to let them keep their scholarship

The difference this time is that there will likely be a large number of programs being cut across the country.  Some of these students may not be able to find a scholarship somewhere else.

[kreed5120]

16 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Just listened to Dustin Fox go on a rant about how much money UA wastes on a bad football program.  That's the environment we're living in.

 

Outside of Akron, the newest MAC football stadium was built in 1993. I'm pretty sure the only stadium that has seen a meaningful renovation this century is the Glass Bowl. We pour more money into football than our peers, but get worse results. I hate to admit, but maybe Kent was onto something by just punting on the sport to focus on its other sports. 

[dre22era]

15 minutes ago, Spin said:

Well if you can make an annual nine figure donation to the football program, we could eventually compete with the Alabama’s and Ohio States and the Clemsons. Nobody here would be mad that you did.
 

Until then, we’re just happy to still have a program. Well, some of us. ?

At this point if I tossed Akron $5 mil they would find a way to mismanage it 

The problem is not $$$ 

Never has been

Edited May 14, 2020 by dre22era

[dre22era]

1 hour ago, jupitertoo said:

 

And what is your proposed alternative to the MAC?

A conference with a commish that gives a damn 

[LZIp]

22 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Just listened to Dustin Fox go on a rant about how much money UA wastes on a bad football program.  That's the environment we're living in.

Just went back and listened to it. He sounded like an uneducated idiot. Our coach is paid middle of the conference - and the middle of the pack is much closer to the bottom than the top. The stadium and field house were built over a decade ago...not crap anybody can do about it now.

[kreed5120]

23 minutes ago, dre22era said:

At this point if I tossed Akron $5 mil they would find a way to mismanage it 

The problem is not $$$ 

Never has been

 

I hate to admit it, but dre is right here ☝️. Akron has as nice of facilities, if not better, than pretty much every MAC team. The university has kept trying to throw money at football to solve its problems. The problem is we've had a poor string of ADs who have in turn have hired some pretty poor coaches. The blame should be on whoever hires the AD, which I'm guessing would be the BOT.

[clarkwgriswold]

27 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 The university has kept trying to throw money at football to solve its problems. 

 

34 year old habits are hard to break.

[ZipsVoice]

7 hours ago, Spin said:

I’ll take 1 win with a roster of underclass men (8 fresh) in a first year program with a reported one full scholarship over what football game us. We were only blown out once or twice. 

Spin, not arguing the fact, but just thought NW was a little optimistic about "doing well"....I was at the home games, I enjoyed them, I liked the kids, and I said so in my post...read the whole thing please.

[ZipsVoice]

7 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

I don't recall seeing one article ever posted about cross country,

Kreed, I've posted regarding Cross country several times in the Other Sports Topic in the last three years, including us hosting the All-Ohio Intercollegiate in 2019.  ZipRulz has as well...just sayin'

[94zipgrad]

3 hours ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Just listened to Dustin Fox go on a rant about how much money UA wastes on a bad football program.  That's the environment we're living in.

His nephew just committed to Rutgers, probably an even worse program

[infofan]

dustin fox has done color on several zips football broadcasts on espn3/+ the last couple years.  Lets hope his ignorance is rewarded with no more games ever again. I believe  UA must approve broadcast personnell . 

[ZipsVoice]

The thing about men's cross country....these are all distance runners who also run on the track team, both indoors and outdoors.  There isn't a XC runner who isn't on the Track roster.  So it's not like they're going to leave, nor not have a team.  A lot of MAC schools and even Big10 schools have no school XC team, but still run in meets as Club teams, just don't compete in conference tourneys or meets.  Penn State has both a varsity team and a club squad, so does WVU, and Pitt.  I assume they pay their own expenses or get donations to cover costs.

[dre22era]

When your biggest cash burner is Football with all the custom jerseys, gold helmets and we do this BS

Quote

The school also owes former football coach Terry Bowden, who was fired with two years left on his contract, about $630,000. And it's giving the new coach, Arth, a five-year deal that the Beacon Journal said is worth about $500,000 per year.

Thus, in the next two years, Arth will be paid at least $1 million, Bowden will make $630,000 and Akron will be paying Arth's former school about $370,000. That's $2 million for a university that in August said it was projecting a $16 million budget deficit for its next fiscal year.
Source: https://www.crainscleveland.com/kevin-kleps-blog/hiring-new-football-coach-tom-arth-costly-short-term-akron-banking-future-gains

 

And the end result is 

 

Akron Football deserves all the smoke they are getting especially from those and supporters of the cut programs. 

The Leadership has been an utter disgrace. 

 

Our interim president back then look like he was in his own Pandemic in 2018

Edited May 15, 2020 by dre22era

[zippypitt]

Let's look at the positive: the payment to Chattanooga was a one-off, Bowden will soon be off the books, and Arth will take a pay cut ?

 

If we follow the lead of some posters, we cancel all home non-conference games and replace with paid mercenary games at P5 schools. We should be good to go ?

[ZippyRulz]

Some posters should find a different school to follow rather than make themselves miserable here.

[NWAkron]

1 hour ago, dre22era said:

When your biggest cash burner is Football with all the custom jerseys, gold helmets and we do this BS

 

And the end result is 

 

Akron Football deserves all the smoke they are getting especially from those and supporters of the cut programs. 

The Leadership has been an utter disgrace. 

 

Our interim president back then look like he was in his own Pandemic in 2018

I would bet those uniforms like the basketball uniforms are part of a clothing contract.

 

Putting that aside, SERIOUSLY, WTF IS YOUR PROBLEM?  move on, get a life,  and let it go already.  

[clarkwgriswold]

51 minutes ago, ZippyRulz said:

Some posters should find a different school to follow rather than make themselves miserable here.

 

It does seem that some posters enjoy the Zips and Zips Nation a lot more when there are issues they can complain about.  Basketball has a wonderful season and you don't hear a peep.  Bad football or financial issues and they are on full blast.

 

I don't begrudge anyone complaining about things, however, I'd prefer a little balance in people enjoying the positive things along the way too.  

Edited May 15, 2020 by clarkwgriswold

[Zip_ME87]

9 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

Putting that aside, SERIOUSLY, WTF IS YOUR PROBLEM?  move on, get a life,  and let it go already.  

 

This is exactly the PROBLEM. For 34 years people have said let it go, but it doesn't go because stupid leaders continue to make stupid decisions with no repercussions. Why do the Athletic Director and his associate cohort still have their jobs after wasting so much money? 

 

[Spin]

It’s probably for the better that football was spared. What would they have to whine about then? 
Every.
Single.

Day.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Spin