Around the MAC

[NWAkron]

Just now, clarkwgriswold said:

With Boals influence, maybe Simmons can step into the shoes of Clayton and go from pre-season All-MAC to All-MAC third team.

Boals has multiple "Pre-Season favorite" awards on his CV much like Whitford had multiple "2nd place in MAC West" on his.  Simmons and now he's added a big from Greensboro.  Legit and Loaded!

[Zippy87]

2 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Please tell me this is satire.

 

It's the joke that will never die, apparently. 

[Zippy87]

 

A lot of interesting stuff in this article.

[kreed5120]

37 minutes ago, Zippy87 said:

 

A lot of interesting stuff in this article.

Their basketball team was just gutted. One of their best players just went to conference rival Ohio. If they have all this money, where is it getting spent?

[Hilltopper]

2 hours ago, Zippy87 said:

 

A lot of interesting stuff in this article.

The judge in the House case just kicked the can down the road again today. There are so many moving parts to this case I'm not sure it will ever be resolved. She suggested a partial settlement to which both sides responded all or nothing. Even if a settlement is reached, the lawsuits and injunctions that will follow are going to render it useless.

[Let'sGoZips94]

 

Miami is making moves. 

[Zippy87]

3 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

Their basketball team was just gutted. One of their best players just went to conference rival Ohio. If they have all this money, where is it getting spent?

 

I think you'll see mid-majors put most of their eggs into one basket, and for Toledo I'd guess that'd be football. 

[kreed5120]

7 hours ago, Zippy87 said:

 

I think you'll see mid-majors put most of their eggs into one basket, and for Toledo I'd guess that'd be football. 

 

That's a likely take. It's surprising the AD said in the article stated he thinks it will help Toledo basketball if that's the case.

 

Other places online I've seen online are projecting when revenue sharing is fully implemented, FBS football will get ~60%, mens basketball 25-30%, and all other sports would split the remaining 10-15%. If a schools punts on football to focus on basketball and other sports, that gives them a fairly decent advantage in those sports.

[Zippy87]

5 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

 

That's a likely take. It's surprising the AD said in the article stated he thinks it will help Toledo basketball if that's the case.

 

Other places online I've seen online are projecting when revenue sharing is fully implemented, FBS football will get ~60%, mens basketball 25-30%, and all other sports would split the remaining 10-15%. If a schools punts on football to focus on basketball and other sports, that gives them a fairly decent advantage in those sports.

 

I certainly hope we focus on basketball. Much higher ceiling than football. 

[akzipper]

13 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Miami is making moves. 

 

Just another MAC school building a new arena while UA does nothing.

 

Maybe the JAR will get a fresh coat of paint or some new lights in the next few decades to make us proud. 

[tpsjugglerdude]

1 hour ago, akzipper said:

 

Just another MAC school building a new arena while UA does nothing.

 

We keep redecorating ours with new championship banners. 

[RoyalBlu]

4 hours ago, tpsjugglerdude said:

We keep redecorating ours with new championship banners. 

Frankly ... I'd rather see the money got to NIL over a new arena. Not sure I would have said this even 5 years ago. But Rhodes Arena has not kept Groce from landing some pretty good recruits. Until Rhodes consistently has 5,000 attendance ... even 3,500 consistently, Rhodes is just fine.

 

Rhodes isn't keeping that extra 2,000 fans/students from consistently buying a ticket.

Edited Tuesday at 10:57 PM by RoyalBlu

[kreed5120]

2 hours ago, RoyalBlu said:

Frankly ... I'd rather see the money got to NIL over a new arena. Not sure I would have said this even 5 years ago. But Rhodes Arena has not kept Groce from landing some pretty good recruits. Until Rhodes consistently has 5,000 attendance ... even 3,500 consistently, Rhodes is just fine.

 

Rhodes isn't keeping that extra 2,000 fans/students from consistently buying a ticket.

 

Exactly, revenue sharing is about to start and it's not like the University has deep pockets. Akron revenue sharing $1 million to pay players goes much further to building a competitive roster than a flashy arena would and costs a fraction of the price.

 

The JAR is like a 12 year old Toyota. It's not flashy, maybe even has a few rust spots, but it's still dependable to get you from point A to point B. When it starts to become dilapidated then it becomes a different conversation.

Edited Wednesday at 01:01 AM by kreed5120

[kreed5120]

An article was done regarding MAC basketball to see how much players are getting paid and what teams are spending the most NIL. They label Akron and UMass as 1(A) and 1(B) in spending. One MAC coach polled believes Akron is spending $1 million, or more, on this year's roster.

 

They also said that guards are much cheaper to get in the portal compared to bigs due to how they're in short supply. That seems to be true as every MAC board I've viewed I've seen posters complain about big depth, including this one.

 

https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/college/2025/04/09/briggs-wonder-what-mac-basketball-players-are-getting-paid-we-found-out/stories/20250409124

Edited Wednesday at 10:01 PM by kreed5120

[clarkwgriswold]

I think people may be placing a little too much emphasis on the revenue sharing money.  If every team in the conference gets the same amount in revenue sharing, the teams that were already ahead in revenue sharing without the revenue sharing will maintain that same advantage if the outside donations remained the same.  Example- School A had $1M in NIL money and the conference kicks in another $1M.  School B had $500K in NIL money and the conference kicks in $1M.  School A maintains a $500K advantage.  Also, the extra money in the pot across the board results in inflation in the player prices.  The real advantage comes in generous outside donors and a school's commitment to a program.

[kreed5120]

8 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

I think people may be placing a little too much emphasis on the revenue sharing money.  If every team in the conference gets the same amount in revenue sharing, the teams that were already ahead in revenue sharing without the revenue sharing will maintain that same advantage if the outside donations remained the same.  Example- School A had $1M in NIL money and the conference kicks in another $1M.  School B had $500K in NIL money and the conference kicks in $1M.  School A maintains a $500K advantage.  Also, the extra money in the pot across the board results in inflation in the player prices.  The real advantage comes in generous outside donors and a school's commitment to a program.

 

The article hinted at that already. It said solid MAC players had been going for 20k-100k before. Now with revenue sharing those players making 80k-100k before will be making 150k or more.

 

Revenue sharing will be done at the school level as the MAC right now doesn't have any requirements or stipulations. Also, schools can allocate to the different sports as they wish. If let's say school A commits 1 million with 50% going to men's basketball, that's $500k they didn't have before. If school B commits $800k to revenue sharing, but only allocates 15% of that to men's basketball, as they're going all in on football instead, that's 120k. That means school A has an additional $380k now to spend on men's basketball compared to school B. I think you will see more G5 specialize in 1 sport as trying to out spend your peers in both will be too costly.

[clarkwgriswold]

33 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

The article hinted at that already. It said solid MAC players had been going for 20k-100k before. Now with revenue sharing those players making 80k-100k before will be making 150k or more.

 

Revenue sharing will be done at the school level as the MAC right now doesn't have any requirements or stipulations. Also, schools can allocate to the different sports as they wish. If let's say school A commits 1 million with 50% going to men's basketball, that's $500k they didn't have before. If school B commits $800k to revenue sharing, but only allocates 15% of that to men's basketball, as they're going all in on football instead, that's 120k. That means school A has an additional $380k now to spend on men's basketball compared to school B. I think you will see more G5 specialize in 1 sport as trying to out spend your peers in both will be too costly.

 

I've often thought with the changes in recent years to college athletics that focusing on a sport might be the best way to go.  Gonzaga, Butler, Xavier, Georgetown...and the like.   Unfortunately, it keeps you out of many conferences like the MAC.

[LZIp]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

 

The article hinted at that already. It said solid MAC players had been going for 20k-100k before. Now with revenue sharing those players making 80k-100k before will be making 150k or more.

 

Revenue sharing will be done at the school level as the MAC right now doesn't have any requirements or stipulations. Also, schools can allocate to the different sports as they wish. If let's say school A commits 1 million with 50% going to men's basketball, that's $500k they didn't have before. If school B commits $800k to revenue sharing, but only allocates 15% of that to men's basketball, as they're going all in on football instead, that's 120k. That means school A has an additional $380k now to spend on men's basketball compared to school B. I think you will see more G5 specialize in 1 sport as trying to out spend your peers in both will be too costly.

It would be so Akron to spread revenue sharing out evenly among athletes instead of focusing on sports that generate revenue.

[ZippyRulz]

Bud has got men's basketball taken care of for the time being... thanks again, Bud!  Clearly, we need the rev-share money to flow to football and the other sports.

 

 

[kreed5120]

16 minutes ago, ZippyRulz said:

Clearly, we need the rev-share money to flow to footbal...

Why keep throwing more good money after bad? We've seen little to no improvement on the money we've already spent on football (stadium, field house, multiple coach buyouts, etc) The amount of money it will take to compete in football, even at the G5 level, is going to be absurd as that's what 90% of the FBS schools will be chasing.

 

Dollars will go much further in basketball.

[RoyalBlu]

3 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

Why keep throwing more good money after bad? We've seen little to no improvement on the money we've already spent on football (stadium, field house, multiple coach buyouts, etc) The amount of money it will take to compete in football, even at the G5 level, is going to be absurd as that's what 90% of the FBS schools will be chasing.

 

Dollars will go much further in basketball.

 

DITTO!!!!!

[clarkwgriswold]

4 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

Why keep throwing more good money after bad? We've seen little to no improvement on the money we've already spent on football (stadium, field house, multiple coach buyouts, etc) The amount of money it will take to compete in football, even at the G5 level, is going to be absurd as that's what 90% of the FBS schools will be chasing.

 

Dollars will go much further in basketball.

 

Agreed.  Too many schools seem to think they have to offer all things to all people and then Title IX adds to the number of sports that must be supported.  I'm more of a fan, especially in today's climate, of focusing on the programs in which you're successful rather than throwing good money after bad.    I realize that may make it more difficult for your struggling programs to improve but I'd rather be competitive in a few sports than mediocre in a bunch.

[LZIp]

Not a knock on basketball one bit, but $ has been thrown at basketball and for the most part status quo has been maintained (I’d argue up about half a notch from KD’s peak). Meanwhile, football has been required to whore themselves out to championship contenders, has no NIL support, had training table taken away, and has boosters volunteering so the players can have a nutritious breakfast once a week…and seems to be on a slow but steady rise. An argument could be made that Moorhead is actually doing more with less at the moment. 

[kreed5120]

I'd say $ has just recently started going to basketball and it's already paying dividends. We didn't even have a practice facility for basketball until this past year. Football has had theirs for 20 years. Football also plays in one of the nicest stadiums in all of the G5. Meanwhile, basketball has a bottom 2-3 arena in the MAC.

 

Basketball has capitalized on the additional funding (largely donor given) by making 3 NCAA tournament appearances in 4 years. We're only the 2nd team in MAC history to do that. Buffalo being the other. Meanwhile, in 30 years all football has achieved is 1 MAC championship and 3 bowl appearances. Money had been flowing to football for decades and still is. It wouldn't surprise me if the University spends more on Infocision alone than it does funding the entire basketball program.

 

Football had it's time to shine, but failed. Our long-term struggles can't be blamed on lack of NIL and scheduling. NIL has only existed for 3-4 years and it was maybe 10 years ago that we started scheduling multiple buy games. We're not going to have Groce and Bud forever. Let's make the most of it. When basketballs window of opportunity closes we can reevaluate.