Akron is dropping baseball

[BGSU33]

Wow......

[BGFalconfromCincy]

Anyone know how this may effect their membership in the conference? I ask because I thought to be a full sports member of the conference you were required to have football, men's and women's basketball, volleyball, softball, and baseball.

[transfer2BGSU]

Anyone know how this may effect their membership in the conference? I ask because I thought to be a full sports member of the conference you were required to have football, men's and women's basketball, volleyball, softball, and baseball.

I thought Akron was seeking membership in the AAC (not that they had a snowballs chance in getting in, but some people were pushing it).

Not sure what the requirements are for members of the Horizon or Summit leagues.

[mscarn]

Their new president is wreaking havoc on that campus.

[BGFalconfromCincy]

Their new president is wreaking havoc on that campus.

Hopefully they have wreaked havoc enough that we can finally beat them in men's basketball

[BGSU33]

Their new president is wreaking havoc on that campus.

Hopefully they have wreaked havoc enough that we can finally beat them in men's basketball

LOL! Exactly. We can add men's soccer to that too. Akron has OWNED us in both for about two decades now.

[BGSU33]

Anyone know how this may effect their membership in the conference? I ask because I thought to be a full sports member of the conference you were required to have football, men's and women's basketball, volleyball, softball, and baseball.

Good question. My guess is it won't affect them at all, but who knows. I'm pretty sure baseball is considered one the MAC's "core sports" with the list of sports you mentioned. As for the MAC baseball schedule, I don't expect this to matter much in conference play since you don't play every MAC team in a three-game series anyway. But this news comes to me as a surprise.

[Falconfreak90]

Their new president is wreaking havoc on that campus.

He came from tsun....says it all. All of the UA alumni I know cannot stand this guy.

Sad to see them dropping baseball.

[Falconfreak90]

Their new president is wreaking havoc on that campus.

Hopefully they have wreaked havoc enough that we can finally beat them in men's basketball

LOL! Exactly. We can add men's soccer to that too. Akron has OWNED us in both for about two decades now.

But they cannot beat us in football and we TOTALLY own them in women's hoops...something like 51-5.

[transfer2BGSU]

A $60 Million financial problem…..

http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/upd ... s-1.607079" target="_blank


Not everybody merges with a Medical College and is able to transfer the money from college A to college B

[Class of 61]

Interesting in that they expect an ADDITIONAL 10 Mill.$ from increasing tuition and fees with an INCREASE in enrollment... Does this make sense?

My son's mother in law used to work for AU, told me a few yrs ago that she left because they were in financial trouble. Looks like she was pretty much accurate.

[Flipper]

Sure...we'll increase fees AND grow enrollment, no problem. Looks great on paper....almost completely unrealistic in practice. Just kicking the can down the road a bit...hoping the problem will just go away.

[Schadenfreude]

Their new president is wreaking havoc on that campus.

It will be interesting to see more news coverage about this situation and the extent to which this guy is cleaning up the previous administration's mess. This story in the Akron Beacon Journal hints that some of what this administration is facing was years in the making.

http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/uni ... n-1.607079" target="_blank

As far as MAC membership: My memory is that, at one time, the MAC required baseball and softball as core sports. This no longer appears to be the case, at least according to what @Hustlebelt is saying on the Twitter machine.

https://twitter.com/HustleBelt/status/6 ... 3629808640" target="_blank

[mscarn]

$60 million is definitely a mess but throwing baseball overboard is nothing more than a symbolic gesture to appease the other constituencies on campus with the perception that athletics is taking it on the chin just as much as they are. According to the article they cost $700,000 grand a year, a pittance in the grand scheme of things. They were a cheap, easy target and low-hanging fruit for the president to use as a pawn in managing the PR fallout.

It sounds like the guy was hired to do precisely what he's doing, but his lack of tact and smoke and mirror-type gestures (renaming the school, calling tuition increases "fees", etc.) are not helping his cause.

[FalconTurf]

Is this the future of the mid-major? Non-revenue sports continuing to be eliminated until only revenue (yes they don't make money either) sports remain for males at least. At some point debt, new facilities, scholarships and cost of attendance will all meet disaster. Or is this a move to get alums to step up to save programs?