Akron is dropping baseball

[Schadenfreude]

I do not think Akron will be the last MAC school to drop baseball. Cleveland State dropped it. With Title IX, tight budgets, the Middle American climate, and everything else, it's an obvious place to look.

[Flipper]

At some point...the NCAA should address the dispariy in scholarship limits. Football gets 85...baseball gets 11.7. I understand that at some univeristies football funds everything, but in the MAC and other small conferences it seems that everything funds football.

[mscarn]

Non-revenue sports continuing to be eliminated until only revenue (yes they don't make money either) sports remain for males at least.

Yes, and the cost of attendance burdens will only speed things along. A bunch of Big 12 AD's were on C-Span recently and all predicted Olympic sports would be gone in 5-7 years, or at least off their books and paid for exclusively by private donors. The scholarship disparities already render them second class citizens and it's still not meager enough for the "reformers" in their quest to remake (aka destroy) college athletics.

[Schadenfreude]

Just because a Faculty Senate muckety muck is calling for it doesn't mean it is a serious possibility. With that said, the chair of the University of Akron Faculty Senate is calling for Akron to drop out of FBS:

http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/fac ... qc.twitter" target="_blank

[Critical Thinker]

At some point...the NCAA should address the dispariy in scholarship limits. Football gets 85...baseball gets 11.7. I understand that at some univeristies football funds everything, but in the MAC and other small conferences it seems that everything funds football.

I propose a scholarship limit of 75% of each sports' dressed roster, For example:

Hockey: 20 dressed players= 15 scholarships
Baseball: 25 dressed players= 18.75 scholarships
Basketball: 15 dressed players= 11.25 scholarships

Football currently doesn't have a limit of players allowed to dress, so one would have to be set, say, 70-75 players or so. Track & Field might have to be given an arbitrary number, but I think this would work fine for most sports. Of course, the P5 would never accept a limit of 45-50 scholarships for football (or limits of any sort, really), but this is what I'd like to see.

[Falcon137]

Just because a Faculty Senate muckety muck is calling for it doesn't mean it is a serious possibility. With that said, the chair of the University of Akron Faculty Senate is calling for Akron to drop out of FBS:

http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/fac ... qc.twitter" target="_blank

UMass' faculty chair did the same thing last year. This happened at BG several years ago also, yes? It means nothing.

I'll be in the minority opinion here. Baseball makes 0 sense as a spring sport for northern schools. Nothing like a baseball game @ Dayton in the middle of February or a game in Bowling Green in early March!

Flipper is spot on, everything needs addressed in intercollegiate athletics. In the coming years, I wouldn't be surprised to see non Power 5 leagues drop sport requirements. How many sports bring in $0 in revenue to the revenue? My guess is, 12. With all of them bringing next to 0 in marketing / exposure for the university. The entire model needs blown up.

2 things I hope happen in my lifetime. College athletics get reeled in and cities, counties, and states stop paying for stadiums. Nothing like cities cutting school, fire, and police budgets, while paying hundreds of millions so a billionaire can turn bigger profits!

[FalconTurf]

The interesting thing here is the that DIII schools are adding athletic programs while DI schools are dropping them. The III's are using it to get more students to attend while the I's are watching attendance drop and the cost of programs rise. I think, as many others, the programs at many schools are in danger as currently structured. Sad but the economic realities are hitting home for many.

[Flipper]

For work purposes, I've been researching the budget issues at UA a little more deeply. I feel badly for President Scarborough. It seems like his predecessor got to play Santa Claus and now Scarborough has to manage the aftermath. Moody's issued positive comments on the most recent steps taken, but that was before Scarborough was forced to roll back the $50 per credit hour surcharge they planned to levy on Juniors and seniors. Be interesting to see what they come up with to address the loss of projected revenue.

Well...that logo redesign featuring the letter Z instead of A will surely pop merchandise sales. They could easily see an extra $50 to $75 off of that...

[transfer2BGSU]

The interesting thing here is the that DIII schools are adding athletic programs while DI schools are dropping them. The III's are using it to get more students to attend while the I's are watching attendance drop and the cost of programs rise.

I worked for a small DIII program in North Carolina that added a football program in the late 80's as a way of boosting male enrollment. First coach struggled to recruit and was fired. Second coach came in, given a number of 50 players to recruit and he brought in 125 players. He continued that recruiting number of 100+ each year. Many did not survive academically and many of those who did, returned to school but did not play their junior or senior years. It's amazing the number of kids that will pay thousands of $$$$ to play football. College President said if a player could make it through training camp, they would have a jersey and helmet. We had more triplicate numbers on the sideline for home games than you could imagine.

That same college President fired the five-time conference coach of the year for not bringing enough students in for tennis.