The Akron Zips FB program

[DoubleE]

exactly, the football world cup that is canton this and next week should have been in akron instead

on side note looking forward to the USA vs Japan game sunday night

[Penguin Nation]

 A humble and dispirited fan base:

http://zipsnation.org/forums/topic/33680-where-does-the-axe-fall-next/

Dropping a division is even suggested....and IMO is a good idea for Akron.

[The YO Show]

Well well well, seems likely they drop to the fcs! Bring back the steel tire!
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/faculty-senate-chair-recommends-university-of-akron-drop-level-in-football-1.608039

[go guins]

Well well well, seems likely they drop to the fcs! Bring back the steel tire!
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/faculty-senate-chair-recommends-university-of-akron-drop-level-in-football-1.608039

They'll have a ton of brused egos in the administration, but this is/was always the right way to go.  Same for Kent.  Truth is what is needed is another division in football.  The "power 5 conferences + ND and BYU"  "everybody else in 1-A now" then "1-AA" and div 2 & 3.   

[Penguin Nation]

Akron FB joining the FCS is the only sensible decision.  The G5 is much closer in terms of $$ and talent to the FCS than the P5.  Joing the MVFC would actually be an upgrade in SOS and conference strength.  I'm not sure they wouldn't be wiser to join the OVC where they would immediately be a top 3 team and likely be selected for the post-season.  If they joined the 2015 MVFC they'd likely finish ~4-4 in league play.

Staying in the MAC is lunacy.  The 2014 MAC champ couldn't even crack the FBS top 25 at the end of the season.  Marshall, the C-USA champ, only lost one game and barely cracked the top 25.  Akron could (and should) have a strong OOC schedule if joining the FCS.  With all of the savings, they could host Oregon at the Info and still save $$.  With all of the $$ saved, they could reinstate baseball.  I suspect  after the August NCAA D1 meetings, the distance between P5 and G5 will grow and the distance between G5 and FCS will diminish.  Akron may be the first of many lower tier G5 schools to make the prudent choice to join the FCS.

I think they'll make decisions after this season, which they are expecting to be a winning season.  If not, I think they'll let Terry Bowden go (he'll prolly just leave) and move to FCS.  I think the negative publicity lately will only hurt attendance further, and even more wins won't save them.  Last season they beat Pitt and were 4-2 halfway through the season....had free-tuition gimmicks....and still couldn't draw fans to their new stadium. 

I think the inevitable will be announced this December....and may possibly even include a complete divorce from the MAC.

[ysufan0505]

It only makes sense. Stinks because Akron actually has a very good basketball and soccer program. Even won a national championship in soccer and have been to the NCAA Tournament multiple times in the last 10 years. Football is just dragging that school down.... Shame.

[IAA Fan]

They better bring back baseball if they want the Horizon. We do not need another Cleveland State. I do not approve of accepting schools that do not fit our sports base. I also think the MVC would baulk at them, as we all know that Kent will soon follow. The MVC will announce the acceptance of Kent two seconds after they announce they are leaving the MAC.

[go guins]

1-AA "The MVC will announce the acceptance of Kent two seconds after they announce they are leaving the MAC."

Truer words were never spoken (posted).  Akron and Kent would set MVC for "East" and "West" divisions and cut down some Dakota travel at least every other year.  Pluse add a couple "drive to" away games.  Would be great to see!
Hope you are right 1-AA!

[Wick250]

Folks, keep in mind that you are reacting to the opinions of an Akron faculty member.  Administrations and trustees typically ignore faculty on every topic not directly related to course work.  Akron will continue to muddle on in the MAC and will continue to waste tons of money.  There is no time limit on being perpetually stupid.

[ysufan0505]

I highly doubt this happens, if it does I don't see it happening for awhile. Would be intriguing though.

[Penguin Nation]

Akron has a new President who has said he wouldn't have built the InfoCision Stadium, and has raised student fees, fired faculty, and just cut baseball.  It is certainly true that anything could happen, but it seems almost implausible that they'd raise student fees $50/credit hour but still bonfire $8M/year to simply remain in the FBS.  It would be epic insanity.  I wonder if the statement from the faculty member was a planned trial balloon to gauge public/fan reaction.

[OleYSUfan]

It would be great to see a renewed rivalry between YSU and Akron in FB, but this probably will not happen.

Akron will continue in the MAC in the foreseeable future. They will try new attempts to bring fans to the new stadium. Most likely they will continue to throw money into the FB program and thus more heads will laid off in the future.

If Kent and Akron would schedule home games every other year with YSU, it would probably guarantee a crowd over 14,000. That would be double their average fan attendance. 

[Penguin Nation]

If you want to see what a meltdown looks like, look here:


http://zipsnation.org/forums/topic/33696-faculty-recommends-i-aa/page-2


Amongst the angst and delusions of FBS viability, one fan offers a nugget of sanity:



"Let's be honest here about revenues, in the MAC there is no big television contract that pays big bucks, far from it.  There are also no big bowl game payouts, as back in 2005 Akron lost money on the bowl game as has every MAC team save for Northern Illinois' bowl trips over the past 3 years.  The MAC television package with ESPN is a giant trade deal where the MAC plays a lot of mid week games in exchange for bowl slots that no other conference wants.  The schools rarely sell their tickets to the bowl games and end up on the hook for travel, hotels, meals, etc...   No one in the MAC will ever play in the College Football Playoff, so the only real source of revenue for Akron or any other MAC team is from playing the Oklahoma type games.  Even the home and home series with Pitt will not yield what it should as no tickets are being sold for this game other than to Pitt fans who will outnumber Akron fans 3:1 at that game.  Akron ticket sales are not going to make some mad jump and when the team starts 0-2 to begin the 2015 season people are not going to jump on board.  Akron has only SIX WINNING SEASONS since 1987: which were Faust 1992, Owens 1999, 2000, 2003, Brookhart 2004, 2005.  It's been a decade since Akron Football had a winning season.  The largest crowds in Akron Football history came when the program played winning football at the 1AA or FCS level.  These are all facts along with the reality that Akron spends 8m of a 25m total athletics budget on football, which sells so few tickets on an annual basis (season and single game) that the total gross sales cannot cover the salary of the head football coach.  That's just not good business."

[Penguin Nation]

If Kent and Akron would schedule home games every other year with YSU, it would probably guarantee a crowd over 14,000. That would be double their average fan attendance.

I completely agree.  100%.  But.....the fiscal hole for Akron has grown too deep for these half measures. 

As ridiculous as it may sound...only beating OK and shocking the FBS world prolly could save them now.

[Double ET]

Folks, keep in mind that you are reacting to the opinions of an Akron faculty member.  Administrations and trustees typically ignore faculty on every topic not directly related to course work.  Akron will continue to muddle on in the MAC and will continue to waste tons of money.  There is no time limit on being perpetually stupid.

If Akron's academic senate and YSU's academic senate are similar, it has virtually little or no impact on the administration decisions.

As a member of the YSU's academic senate, the university administration paid very little weight on the recommendations/resolutions from the academic senate on academic matters, let alone athletic issues.

IMO, if Akron decides to move down to IAA, it will be the administration's decision to save money and not because of the recommendations of their academic senate. In this case, the opinion was only expressed by the Chairperson of the academic senate. That was not even a recommendations from their academic senate. Therefore, it does not carry any weight at all.

Personally, unless NCAA combines G5 and FCS, I do not see Akron dropping down to join FCS.