Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com

There's was a Trump meeting today about the college sports crisis regarding NIL, huge universities losses, unregulated eligibility, canceled programs, and possible effects on Olympic sports, etc.

And they didnt invite any athletes.

Kevin Sorbo is going to run it I think.

Meanwhile CBS Sports has a feature today on our friends in Oxford stating they've committed $8-10 million in NIL fundraising for their 2026 football roster.

I just read the article. It looks like they're investing in facilities and athletics to raise their national profile to position themselves for conference realignment.

If BG won't invest in the sport, they might as well not pretend to want to compete at this level. Because without matching that level of commitment and resources, we will never field a team that can compete.

BG better not commit to that level, it's insane. OSU apparently is spending $15m on its assistant coaches this year. BG has no business trying to compete on these levels.

Walked Forrest Creason last night while my son had soccer practice at the field house. Every time I venture over there I get more and more pissed at our football program killing that place.

hammb wrote: ↑Wed Mar 11, 2026 7:53 am BG better not commit to that level, it's insane. OSU apparently is spending $15m on its assistant coaches this year. BG has no business trying to compete on these levels.

Walked Forrest Creason last night while my son had soccer practice at the field house. Every time I venture over there I get more and more pissed at our football program killing that place.

Fill me in: how did the football program kill Forest Creason?

BleedOrange wrote: ↑Thu Mar 12, 2026 11:46 am

hammb wrote: ↑Wed Mar 11, 2026 7:53 am BG better not commit to that level, it's insane. OSU apparently is spending $15m on its assistant coaches this year. BG has no business trying to compete on these levels.

Walked Forrest Creason last night while my son had soccer practice at the field house. Every time I venture over there I get more and more pissed at our football program killing that place.

Fill me in: how did the football program kill Forest Creason?

Perhaps its unfair to saddle it on the football program specifically, but any time we're talking about athletic budgets at BG I enter with the premise of believing every cutback/reappropriation is to continue ballooning an already absurd football budget to higher heights.

If you reject that premise, then obviously the football program had nothing to do with the golf course.

But what is reality is that when I was in school 25 years ago the course was PACKED. Leagues every weeknight, completely booked tee times every weekend. We'd lock in weekend morning tee times before playing every Sat/Sun because 7days was the furthest they booked out and if you waited you wouldn't get on the course.

Around that time Stone Ridge opened, and clearly was a better layout, higher end course. Creason had plenty of places they could have revamped to keep up with the "modern equipment", but instead the university golf teams bailed on Creason and made Stone Ridge their home course. I'm curious what they pay Stone Ridge to play out there, but whatever. Either way, with the university teams leaving Creason the budgets got trimmed. Trees fell victim of Emerald Ash borer and were never replaced. Bunkers would never get sand replenished, instead they'd fill in with sod and remove bunkers...every change there removed teeth from a course that couldn't afford to be neutered. The clubhouse was left to rot until it was deemed a safety hazard that had to be torn down. At the same time the solution to making up for lost players was to raise rates until it was too close in price with Stone Ridge, and less like the courses it had become. In the final years they couldn't even get authorization to hire enough seasonal help to keep it in playable condition. Speaking with the Superintendent out there the course still managed to mostly operate in the black, but any revenue was funneled into the overall Athletics Budget while their budget numbers went lower and lower.

In the end the University just said running golf courses is expensive (no s**t), and playership declined. The sport definitely took a hit overall in the 2010s, and I don't doubt it struggled to stay in the black. My point has always remained it was a tremendous service to any students interested in the game, and could have easily been subsidized by the university during the lean times simply as a service for students. I made some of my best friendships on that course, and spent more time there while in school than I did in the classroom most likely. Golf remains a place where business is conducted and networking happens in the professional world, Creason was a tremendous place to affordably learn the game. I am sure Creason struggled to maintain profitability during that era that saw NW Ohio lose a LOT of courses. Then COVID happens and golf is booming again with far less courses around, even less in the affordable public course category. Good luck finding a tee time on a nice weekend; again you need to be booked days/week out. I don't doubt for a second if the dept hadn't been so short sighted, maintained the course (and heaven forbid improved it), then it would be swamped again every weekend. And from what I've heard they cannot even build on the land because gifted/sold to them on the explicit condition that it became a University golf course.

Buddy, Stone Ridge 100% took out both FC and Tanglewood. If it wasn’t for banquets and what not, BGCC would’ve died off as well. Speaking of that I heard they fired that @$$hole golf pro, probably the rudest person I’ve ever met in my life. Haha he was a total pariah for the city.

I did like playing FC but the combination of cheap twilight rates at SR and the top notch level of that facility was just too much

Bgsu2016 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 13, 2026 7:34 pm Buddy, Stone Ridge 100% took out both FC and Tanglewood. If it wasn’t for banquets and what not, BGCC would’ve died off as well. Speaking of that I heard they fired that @$$hole golf pro, probably the rudest person I’ve ever met in my life. Haha he was a total pariah for the city.

I did like playing FC but the combination of cheap twilight rates at SR and the top notch level of that facility was just too much

Since they're a university athletics sponsor I'll use Clouse House an example.

Around the same time as FC started cutting budgets for improvement and staffing Clouse was buying up degrading courses like Louden, Briar Hill, and later Hillcrest. They invested in the courses heavily making them fun tracks, but kept them affordable, I think they're all about $42 w/ cart on weekends.

Had the university taken the exact same path with FC it would be here today. It would be near fully booked every weekend. I too enjoy stone ridge but I mostly play weekends these days and SR was I think $59 last yr.

Further if they didn't sap every dollar from it, and expect it to be a profit maker (a standard no other athletics facility/program is held to), it could've weathered lean periods and continued to be a great perk for students.

hammb wrote: ↑Sat Mar 14, 2026 9:05 am
Since they're a university athletics sponsor I'll use Clouse House an example.

Around the same time as FC started cutting budgets for improvement and staffing Clouse was buying up degrading courses like Louden, Briar Hill, and later Hillcrest. They invested in the courses heavily making them fun tracks, but kept them affordable, I think they're all about $42 w/ cart on weekends.

Had the university taken the exact same path with FC it would be here today. It would be near fully booked every weekend. I too enjoy stone ridge but I mostly play weekends these days and SR was I think $59 last yr.

Further if they didn't sap every dollar from it, and expect it to be a profit maker (a standard no other athletics facility/program is held to), it could've weathered lean periods and continued to be a great perk for students.

Clouse House does a good job. They also have relatively low competition in Fostoria and North Baltimore which helps a ton for those 3 courses. Hillcrest was only able to make a comeback because Red Hawk Run went under.

I’m disappointed about FC no longer existing either but I can’t fault the University too much here. I don’t think could’ve ever won against Stone Ridge, it would’ve sunken them in no matter what. Don’t forget Riverby is just north of Haskins as well and gets quite a few players. I think there’s only enough oxygen for those two in this area

Bgsu2016 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 14, 2026 2:22 pm

hammb wrote: ↑Sat Mar 14, 2026 9:05 am
Since they're a university athletics sponsor I'll use Clouse House an example.

Around the same time as FC started cutting budgets for improvement and staffing Clouse was buying up degrading courses like Louden, Briar Hill, and later Hillcrest. They invested in the courses heavily making them fun tracks, but kept them affordable, I think they're all about $42 w/ cart on weekends.

Had the university taken the exact same path with FC it would be here today. It would be near fully booked every weekend. I too enjoy stone ridge but I mostly play weekends these days and SR was I think $59 last yr.

Further if they didn't sap every dollar from it, and expect it to be a profit maker (a standard no other athletics facility/program is held to), it could've weathered lean periods and continued to be a great perk for students.

Clouse House does a good job. They also have relatively low competition in Fostoria and North Baltimore which helps a ton for those 3 courses. Hillcrest was only able to make a comeback because Red Hawk Run went under.

I’m disappointed about FC no longer existing either but I can’t fault the University too much here. I don’t think could’ve ever won against Stone Ridge, it would’ve sunken them in no matter what. Don’t forget Riverby is just north of Haskins as well and gets quite a few players. I think there’s only enough oxygen for those two in this area

I guess I have a couple thoughts, not the least of which is why did it have to "win" against Stone Ridge or Riverby? Why couldn't it merely be a University run course that in most years costs money, maybe a small profit on good years, but is an "amenity" for students/staff/community? I'm sure the BG rec center doesn't "make a profit" or "win" against local gyms; it's there for Students to have a place on campus to get recreation. Forrest Creason was another.

Yeah, I'll always die on the hill. (Bill's hill, I guess). Having that course on campus was one of my favorite parts of being a student at BG. I didn't take up golf until my last year in HS, but my friends and I got into it while at BGSU. If the course wasn't there, I probably never would've learned to play the game. A game I now get to share with friends, co-workers, and my kid. I'm quite certain I'm not alone in tracing my adoption of the game to having a playable, affordable course on campus. To me (and a good chunk of my friends group), that's a far better use of our student fees than firing a football coach.

hammb wrote: ↑Sat Mar 14, 2026 3:42 pm I guess I have a couple thoughts, not the least of which is why did it have to "win" against Stone Ridge or Riverby? Why couldn't it merely be a University run course that in most years costs money, maybe a small profit on good years, but is an "amenity" for students/staff/community? I'm sure the BG rec center doesn't "make a profit" or "win" against local gyms; it's there for Students to have a place on campus to get recreation. Forrest Creason was another.

Yeah, I'll always die on the hill. (Bill's hill, I guess). Having that course on campus was one of my favorite parts of being a student at BG. I didn't take up golf until my last year in HS, but my friends and I got into it while at BGSU. If the course wasn't there, I probably never would've learned to play the game. A game I now get to share with friends, co-workers, and my kid. I'm quite certain I'm not alone in tracing my adoption of the game to having a playable, affordable course on campus. To me (and a good chunk of my friends group), that's a far better use of our student fees than firing a football coach.

I don’t think you remember how much money it was losing a year. They were losing over $100K a season and their rounds played had declined by 50% in the 10 years prior to closing. Thats why they had to win against SR and Riverby, those two courses stole all the customers. Significant CapEx could no longer be deferred and the course was too much of a money drain so they closed it.

Stone Ridge is run pretty well, their rates are super reasonable for the level of course it is and then they use that to subsidize competitive twilight rates.

Bgsu2016 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 14, 2026 5:21 pm

hammb wrote: ↑Sat Mar 14, 2026 3:42 pm I guess I have a couple thoughts, not the least of which is why did it have to "win" against Stone Ridge or Riverby? Why couldn't it merely be a University run course that in most years costs money, maybe a small profit on good years, but is an "amenity" for students/staff/community? I'm sure the BG rec center doesn't "make a profit" or "win" against local gyms; it's there for Students to have a place on campus to get recreation. Forrest Creason was another.

Yeah, I'll always die on the hill. (Bill's hill, I guess). Having that course on campus was one of my favorite parts of being a student at BG. I didn't take up golf until my last year in HS, but my friends and I got into it while at BGSU. If the course wasn't there, I probably never would've learned to play the game. A game I now get to share with friends, co-workers, and my kid. I'm quite certain I'm not alone in tracing my adoption of the game to having a playable, affordable course on campus. To me (and a good chunk of my friends group), that's a far better use of our student fees than firing a football coach.

I don’t think you remember how much money it was losing a year. They were losing over $100K a season and their rounds played had declined by 50% in the 10 years prior to closing. Thats why they had to win against SR and Riverby, those two courses stole all the customers. Significant CapEx could no longer be deferred and the course was too much of a money drain so they closed it.

Stone Ridge is run pretty well, their rates are super reasonable for the level of course it is and then they use that to subsidize competitive twilight rates.

Again, I remember exactly what it was "losing" according to the claims the AD made. Which I don't believe anyhow.

And if I DO believe the $120k figure they claimed, I don't care. It was not LOSING $120k. It was costing $120k to have as part of campus life. As a BG student (which I was), as an alum and donor (which I am) I think the $120k was far better spent there than on countless other endeavors, especially within the athletic department.

I will also say I steadfastly believe with what I have heard talking with people who would know that even if the course was "losing" that much money when golf took a downturn it wouldn't have bad to close had they reinvested the money in the course when it was making money, which for a long time it did do.

That's the crux of it. When the course was profitable cash didn't get invested it got put into other sports/venues. When times got leaner they just closed a course that had served the campus for 40+ yrs.

By this standard the rec center loses money. The field house probably loses money. The library loses money. I bet the union loses money. None of that is true...they cost money but not everything needs to be a damned profit center. And if you're worried about "losing money" in the athletic department cutting the golf course was akin to balancing the federal budget by eliminating the postal service.

The rec center operates in student fees. It is required to be a break even at minimum.

I loved that course. I, too, had started golfing towards the end of HS and I really enjoyed that I could orlyrchase a student summer membership for $90 and play every day for the summer! Unfortunately, they kept raising rates and it made no sense to hold there when I could pay the same price for a better course. I’m sure there’s politics behind that, as you all have alluded to. I just miss the course.