https://omny.fm/shows/the-dan-dakich-show/033117-keithdam...

The Akron situation to me just epitomizes the futility of the MAC. Akron misguidedly massively over spends on a football palace thinking that somehow will lead them to some promise land. They did so at the expense of upgrading/replacing a -hithole of a basketball arena which housed a very successful bball program led by a respected,loyal head coach.

What are they left with today? A nationally insignificant heavily in debt perinnerally losing football program with NO end in sight football palace be damned. They also -issed away their bball program and coach that will now have to be rebuilt with no guarantee it will attain the results they accomplished over the past decade still stuck with a -hithole arena.

What it all says to me. MAC football will NEVER be anything but insignificant on the National football stage. IF Akron which seemingly has it all to propell themselves nationally: magnificent stadium, IPF, bigger Metro area to draw fans, accessible by major interstates, close proximity to major city and airport and also a Mall! In spite of all this Akron too finds themselves relegated to playing on November Tues/Weds evenings in front of throngs of "hundreds" and TV audiences that are dwarfed by Golden Girl reruns.

Don't read into this that I'm a football hater, I'm not. I have been a longtime season ticket holder of both football and basketball. I think I'm just a realist. Football is expensive and NO MAC school will EVER buy their way to National prominence. Our football glory year was 1968 where we and THE finished with undefeated regular seasons. THE got the Rose Bowl we got Tangerines. Now nearly FIFTY(50) years later what have we got? Frank, who has raised the program from pathetic to as recently chronicled "consistently mediocre". Not meant to be a jab at Solich, I think he really has done a yeomans job.

Long story short IF national prominence is what you are trying to attain I think pouring massive amounts of money into football programs at MAC type conferences is a fools errand.

For Ohio the game is to be as nationally competitive as possible. Saul and Solich were brought in because they won on the national stage. I do think the athletic department assesses to what extent they are nationally competitive because you are correct it is a question. Competing in the MAC isn't a question no more than is the sky blue. National competitiveness drives recruiting. There is no desire however to build the athletic department up to $100 million and move to the ACC like Louisville. The athletic department is happy I think with consistency and an big year once in a while (29 win and near elite 8). They've moved prices up just enough to price the fans into season tickets but no further. Keeping attendance high is more important because it makes for atmosphere which is a big recruiting draw since most D1 schools don't have an atmosphere. The whole notion that Ohio if it scrapped football would start paying its basketball coach $5 million per year redirecting resources as at fault because Ohio will never go beyond a minimal nationally competitive wage. Thus it has nothing to do with resources. It has everything to do with mission. Ohio isn't a little school run by a priest. Its a major public school with accountability.

I agree with Borna's comments about Gonzaga. There is an example of a team staying in a far away placed 1 bid league and making it happen. Further, when you look at the numbers, it is not necessarily the finances that separates Gonzaga and Ohio. Our current athletic budget is in the neighborhood of $28.7MM while Gonzaga's is approximately $19.7MM. True, they do not play football but their budget is also about $9MM less than our budget. Do to Gonzaga's location in Spokane, Washington they have to fly their teams to away games. They will pay Mark Few $1,629,030 this year which is way more than what we are paying Saul. However in the grand scheme of things, that is not a lot of $$$ for a MBB HC who has his team playing for the National Championship. Further, Few has been the HC since the late '90s and as recently as 2011 his salary was $922,854.

As for facilities, Gonzaga plays in the McCarthey Athletic Center (MAC) which seats 6,000. It was opened in 2004 at a cost of approximately $25MM and would cost approximately $31.7MM today to build. Compare that to the Stroh Center at BGSU which seats 4,387 for basketball and was opened in 2011 with a price tag of $30MM or a cost of $31.9MM to build today. My point is that they have not spent anything near $100MM for a facility or paid their HC $5MM per year.

So what makes Gonzaga what it is? Basically they have built a team over a number of years with the same HC and a very aggressive non-conference schedule. Do they lose? You bet! But they are not playing a continual list of stiffs and also runs for their OOC. They had the guts to get off the porch and run with the big dogs, that is why you can watch them tonight playing for the National Championship. It has taken them a number of years, but it can be done. Even in the MAC!

I agree with you to an extent. I just don't see value in going to places like Kansas, Kentucky, or Duke. What are your thoughts on the upcoming season's schedule that we know of so far?

As for scheduling, Dambrodt at Akron seldom if ever had an OOC with teams that were not on life support or who you really had to be a basketball junkie to know who they were. As a consequence, his teams in either the Big Dance or the NIT were pathetic at best. That I believe is a problem with the MAC in general. We may beat each other's brains in, but seldom do anything in the Big Dance, OUr Sweet 16 run and Kent's Elite 8 run being the exceptions. Therefore, forget the rest of the league, we should step it up. No, we do not have to schedule Duke every year. But you start building an OOC which progressively gets tougher each year. And, having the right HC stick around helps a lot also.

Great reads Borna, thanks for posting!