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Ohio Football Topic
Topic: Interesting initiative at Akron - good or bad?
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SBH
2/1/2018 4:01 PM
Akron's president announced yesterday that he is going to insist that his coaches focus on recruiting players from within the state of Ohio. His rationale: out-of-state athletes cost the university too much in terms of lost tuition reimbursement by the state. He explained that ICA is a money-losing proposition for the school and it is incumbent on him and his AD to reduce that loss.

If they implement this policy, it will reduce their competitiveness, IMO. Akron does not have a great reputation within the state, by any measure. They rely big-time on transfers and out-of-state recruits, especially for football.
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L.C.
2/1/2018 4:16 PM
Well, those expensive facilities they built did put them in a difficult financial situation. They have to do something.
Last Edited: 2/1/2018 4:21:09 PM by L.C.
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colobobcat66
2/1/2018 4:21 PM
SBH wrote:expand_more
Akron's president announced yesterday that he is going to insist that his coaches focus on recruiting players from within the state of Ohio. His rationale: out-of-state athletes cost the university too much in terms of lost tuition reimbursement by the state. He explained that ICA is a money-losing proposition for the school and it is incumbent on him and his AD to reduce that loss.

If they implement this policy, it will reduce their competitiveness, IMO. Akron does not have a great reputation within the state, by any measure. They rely big-time on transfers and out-of-state recruits, especially for football.
Got to agree with you. It can’t help their competitiveness in any way that I can think of. It will be interesting to see how this works out in the next few recruiting cycles. It will interesting also to see if the coaching staff feels like it’s the beginning of something bigger re D-1 athletics. I doubt this is what our ex coach signed up for, although it will affect football more severely I would guess.
Last Edited: 2/1/2018 4:23:23 PM by colobobcat66
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OhioCatFan
2/1/2018 4:33 PM
Two thoughts:

1. I bet the prez doesn't enforce this.

2. The only permanent solution for Akron is to merge with KSU and become the "urban" campus of KSU.
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SBH
2/1/2018 4:38 PM
If he doesn't intend to enforce it, why announce it? I don't see any upside. The faculty will surely try to hold his feet to the fire.
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OhioCatFan
2/1/2018 4:40 PM
SBH wrote:expand_more
If he doesn't intend to enforce it, why announce it? I don't see any upside. The faculty will surely try to hold his feet to the fire.
Just watch . . . .
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OhioStunter
2/1/2018 6:31 PM
It is essentially unenforceable and could borderline backfire if it also means that it requires other non-athletic scholarships to be in-state. Good luck, diverse student body.
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BillyTheCat
2/1/2018 8:32 PM
SBH wrote:expand_more
If he doesn't intend to enforce it, why announce it? I don't see any upside. The faculty will surely try to hold his feet to the fire.
Pretty simple, slash the recruit budget of all sports besides football and basketball, allow them to absorb the out of state numbers, force the remaining 250 scholarships to come from within Ohio.
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TWT
2/2/2018 5:30 AM
There is a difference between requesting coaches focus on recruiting the state of Ohio and requiring the coaches recruit only in-state. Solich has an Ohio focus with his recruiting to lock up as much of the in-state talent as what he can. I doubt in practice Akron's recruiting practices will change that much.
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Bobcat1996
2/2/2018 7:04 AM
Coincidentally the Zips are supposed to hire the head football coach of Akron St.V to their staff very soon?
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Alan Swank
2/2/2018 7:52 AM
Nice article on the subject:

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/01/universi...
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L.C.
2/2/2018 8:27 AM
Recruiting more instate athletes will help to balance the budget in another way, as well, though the effect will be small. Friends, cousins, etc of Ohio athletes are more likely to attend games than if the athlete came from Florida. Many will come in on free passes, of course, but some will also buy tickets. Even those that come in on free passes will buy concessions, and a small portion of that will end up coming to the University.
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Ohio69
2/2/2018 8:41 AM
I assume they are going to cherry pick the sports this applies to.

Akron men's soccer has 9 Ohio kids and 20 out-of-state (mostly international) players.

Akron's women's swimming/diving team has 11 Ohio kids and 18 out-of-state kids.

From what I can tell, those are Akron's best/most dominant sports. Do they change where they recruit? Will be interesting to watch.

The coaches will have an interesting decision to make. If your goal is to live in Akron and coach there for your career, then the bar has been greatly lowered and you can probably do that. You are kind of sliding to a Div. III model. If your goal is to win (And possibly move up to bigger program) you will need to think about moving on right now.

Big picture, if basketball, soccer, and football are exempted, will anyone really even notice that the other sports are doing this?
Last Edited: 2/2/2018 8:45:00 AM by Ohio69
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L.C.
2/7/2018 6:51 PM
Six of their thirteen announced recruits for 2018 are from Ohio.
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OUPride
2/8/2018 10:07 AM
OhioCatFan wrote:expand_more
Two thoughts:

1. I bet the prez doesn't enforce this.

2. The only permanent solution for Akron is to merge with KSU and become the "urban" campus of KSU.
1. I'm not sure. He may be sincere or this may be a ploy to put him on the map for bigger jobs. Either way, it's an interesting concept for ADs with massive subsidies.

2. YES!
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OUPride
2/8/2018 10:12 AM
OhioStunter wrote:expand_more
It is essentially unenforceable and could borderline backfire if it also means that it requires other non-athletic scholarships to be in-state. Good luck, diverse student body.
How is it unenforceable? The coaches work for the university, and if they want to blatantly defy university policy, they can hit the road. If the coaches recruit an extra ten oos students that aren't accounted for in the budget, where is the extra money for their scholarships going to come from? They're more than welcome to pay for it themselves, but the gravy train of milking the academic side and the regular students needs to be reigned in.
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OhioStunter
2/8/2018 8:11 PM
OUPride wrote:expand_more
It is essentially unenforceable and could borderline backfire if it also means that it requires other non-athletic scholarships to be in-state. Good luck, diverse student body.
How is it unenforceable? The coaches work for the university, and if they want to blatantly defy university policy, they can hit the road. If the coaches recruit an extra ten oos students that aren't accounted for in the budget, where is the extra money for their scholarships going to come from? They're more than welcome to pay for it themselves, but the gravy train of milking the academic side and the regular students needs to be reigned in.
An Akron president firing a coach because he gave scholarships to students outside of the state could be worse than Akron's president buying a $500 olive jar with university money.
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OUPride
2/9/2018 9:20 AM
Why? Because it might actually show some spine on the part of a university administration and send a message that the tail doesn't wag the dog. It might hurt the football program, but who cares? Do you honestly think anyone chooses to or work at Akron because of the football team. If a state employee wants to defy his superiors and spend taxpayer money that he's been forbidden to spend, I hope he'd get tossed out on his ass.
Last Edited: 2/9/2018 9:21:51 AM by OUPride
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L.C.
2/9/2018 9:31 AM
It will certainly make it harder for Bowden to do things they way he's been doing them. They have typically taken only 10-15 Freshmen a year, and then filled the team with Jucos and transfers. The JUCO/Transfer market is thin, anyway, and if they are limited to only JUCOs and transfers who are Ohio natives, they are going to have a hard time filling the team.
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OhioStunter
2/9/2018 9:48 AM
OUPride wrote:expand_more
Why? Because it might actually show some spine on the part of a university administration and send a message that the tail doesn't wag the dog. It might hurt the football program, but who cares? Do you honestly think anyone chooses to or work at Akron because of the football team. If a state employee wants to defy his superiors and spend taxpayer money that he's been forbidden to spend, I hope he'd get tossed out on his ass.
Do you think the same edict should be applied to Akron's other academic schools? Limiting scholarships from out of state students?
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BillyTheCat
2/9/2018 10:09 AM
OUPride wrote:expand_more
It is essentially unenforceable and could borderline backfire if it also means that it requires other non-athletic scholarships to be in-state. Good luck, diverse student body.
How is it unenforceable? The coaches work for the university, and if they want to blatantly defy university policy, they can hit the road. If the coaches recruit an extra ten oos students that aren't accounted for in the budget, where is the extra money for their scholarships going to come from? They're more than welcome to pay for it themselves, but the gravy train of milking the academic side and the regular students needs to be reigned in.
This would be easily enforceable, especially in the equivalency sports, as you just limit any scholarship to in-state tuition rates.
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IceCat76
2/9/2018 12:25 PM
Re KSU:
The new KSU coach brought in a class of 20 recruits and only 3 are from Ohio and one of those is a PK. Obviously he didn’t get a similar suggestion.
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OUPride
2/9/2018 12:59 PM
Most academic scholarships are privately funded through a school's endowment, so that's really a false equivalency.

On a related subject, is there room for debate as to how high a public university's oos enrollment should go? Sure, and I'm thinking specifically about a school that seemed to have long ago abandoned its mission to serve Ohioans in favor of trolling the Chicago suburbs looking for kids who were rejected by the Big Ten schools.
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MedinaCat
2/19/2018 10:42 AM
Perhaps this deserves its own thread…Akron investing in eSports…

http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20171218/news/1461...

Akron changing up their class schedules opening up Fridays for…work, internships, co-ops…Also opens up Thursday night for partying. Jump to 19:15 in to hear their president talk about eSports:

http://www.ideastream.org/programs/sound-of-ideas/five-st...

Kent jumping into eSports:

http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20180207/blogs06/1...

I give their president credit for thinking outside the box. Anyone in the know if this is on the radar or gaining traction in Athens?
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The Pessimist
2/19/2018 10:10 PM
Varsity esports??? Does the computer nerd whose parents have enough money to buy a $5000 gaming computer really need a scholarship?

And if they receive their internet access for free, does that constitute an impermissible benefit by NCAA rules?

Can we limit their organized practice time to make sure they have enough energy to devote to classes?

If only Patton were alive today.... ... .. .
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