UNIVERSITY IF AKRON CUTS XC PROGRAM! Other D1 programs soon to follow?!?!

They were aware of the football problem as long ago as 2015.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/07/20/faculty-members-urge-u-akron-decrease-football-spending

They score most of their points in sprints and jumps. No real change with loss of distance

watch out wrote:

Sadly they should cut football but they ironically can't afford to. The MAC has a requirement to sponsor football to be a member of the conference. The exit fee to leave the conference is 4 million bucks. They also have to sponsor a certain number of sports to remain division 1. That actually help keep men's track which counts as two spots (indoor & outdoor) from being cut. Couple that with men's Cross not being sponsored by almost half the conference and there you go. I just can't bridge they were spending 4 million on those three sports.

This is where the NCAA should step in and mandate a requirement for D1 football: Institutions must have an average home game attendance of 4,000 paid fans to keep D1 status. If a program fails to meet that requirement for two consecutive years, then it must drop the program or the school moves to D2.

The AD better sell football and get people to buy tickets or it is goodbye D1. Schools like Akron clearly do not deserve to field a D1 football team or belong to a big conference if they cannot generate a minimum interest from local fans.

Seen a lot of social media complaints that having a medalist like Clayton Murphy should justify keeping the program but unfortunately the same could've been said for Dave Wottle and the Bowling Green men's track program. The balance of MAC sports never ceases to confuse me

fghty wrote:

Seen a lot of social media complaints that having a medalist like Clayton Murphy should justify keeping the program but unfortunately the same could've been said for Dave Wottle and the Bowling Green men's track program. The balance of MAC sports never ceases to confuse me

The AD's are just trying to get to a Power 5 job the same as many of the coaches. In Bowling Green's case, the football coach Urban Meyer convinced the AD that they were just $ away from being on par with Ohio State and Michigan. The AD bought it, cut sports to free $ for football, and Urban left for Utah. The Ohio University AD threw money at Frank Solich and the football program and cut men's track and other sports to secure the $. The AD landed a big SEC job from his move and never looked back. MAC athletic administrations seem to think they are just an eye blink from a national stage or at least a more lucrative job for themselves.

I am an Akron alumnus reading this, and I just don't know who to contact. Anyone?

ohio guy wrote:

Tuesday night TV or not, Akron football LOSES over $1 million per year. According to the article linked earlier in this thread they had a paid attendance for one game last year of 54, about the number of a poorly attended middle school track meet.

That may well be, about losing $1mil per year, but a football team is an advertising expense for a school. Irregardless of how bad a MAC football game is, highlights will still be shown on Tuesday night SportsCenter = priceless. 54 people attend a frigid night game in November. All other conferences play DAY games in November. Akron's $1mil loss comes out of school's marketing...indirectly.

?????? wrote:

joedirt wrote:

At least it will keep everybody safe. There is nothing more important than keeping old and sick people safe.

Because old and sick people deserve to live less than you? What does this even mean?

This kid's scholarship was cut, this program was cut, 10% of state and federal employees will be left unemployed, athletic events and leagues will be shuttered, hospital workers, food service workers, movie theater workers, etc. will all lose their jobs, tens of millions will lose health insurance and die, there will be increasing levels of alcoholism, drug abuse, spousal abuse and child abuse and increasing numbers of suicide. This will all arise out of efforts to protect the 0.2% of the population (primarily old and fat people) that stand to die from this virus. But because it will save a percentage of that 0.2%, it is the compassionate and reasonable course of action to take.

There is a ncaa rule about attendance. But the rule is not that strict and is somewhat loosely interpreted.

mahmood wrote:

highlights will still be shown on Tuesday night SportsCenter = priceless.

Yes, if by "priceless" you mean continued dwindling enrollment and financial troubles to the point of 6 of their 11 colleges needing to be absorbed by the other 5 just to stay afloat this year. Good thing that football exposure was there to attract a large vibrant student body! That is the argument the AD's make and facts prove otherwise. The MAC is FAR from the power 5's in football in all ways, espceially in attracting students and boosters.

When Ohio University cut track a few years ago there were articles that indicated that they gave tickets to schools and others and counted them as attending even though they were free and no one used the tickets. Like you said, there are many ways around the rule and very loosely enforced anyway.

The ironic thing is that even with crappy on-line instruction, enrollment in colleges and universities across the country will likely go up due to the rise in unemployment. So they are cutting sports even though enrollment is likely to go up (based upon data from the Great Recession) and if they spit out an on-line education, their costs will likely go down.

Competitive runners don't need an NCAA to represent them. My assessment. Unlike with football, basketball, distance runners don't really need access to exclusive facilities that only the university can provide.

More up and coming running stars would probably benefit from a different model than the NCAA as it currently stands anyway.

Was there not a women's xc team?

https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/university-of-akron-cutting-cross-country-golf-and-tennis-to-save-money-during-coronavirus-pandemic/95-3e515ec3-2b48-4b2c-b98d-2cad15962983

joedirt wrote:

The ironic thing is that even with crappy on-line instruction, enrollment in colleges and universities across the country will likely go up due to the rise in unemployment. So they are cutting sports even though enrollment is likely to go up (based upon data from the Great Recession) and if they spit out an on-line education, their costs will likely go down.

How is enrollment going to go up when the ability to pay tuition will go down due to the economic crisis? This is worse than the Great Recession in that we didn't have so many people being laid off in such a short period of time.

Online-only college may work for a select few majors that don't require any labs, but it's not going to work for the most lucrative majors in STEM...And universities still require competent researchers acting as professors to get large grants and contracts...They're not going to take a huge paycut and still work in academia. They'll go to the private sector if they're any good and make a lot more.

Kvothe wrote:

If it were just a money thing, I'd think you'd want to cut track, not xc. Wasn't it said the other day that with these cuts, akron would have the minimum number of sports they can get away with as a d1 team?

What will happen now is that they'll have the worst distance runners in the conference and will score no points in track above 400. This will cause them to slide down the conference standings in track, until eventually their track team is at or near the bottom (unless they have real good sprint and field coaches). Track is so much more expensive than xc that this decision makes no sense to me. Is track an essential part of their football program or something...

Well that's how USC has been doing it for decades, there must be something to it.

Wow saw the thread yesterday about the rumors and remembered this is the school Chase Easterling goes to. Can't believe they actually cut XC...

Mr. JT Olson: where were you yesterday?

Jeljo wrote:

Mr. JT Olson: where were you yesterday?

Apparently I missed the thread.

Any Akron men's cross country alumnus who is reading this, please email me at

.

I am an alumnus of the program and am compiling as much contact information as I can in an attempt to formulate a coherent message to the President of the university.

Thank you.

JT Olson