Akron cutting some sports

awd4cy

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Dec 29, 2010
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Having grown up in a suburb of Akron, with many people I know that get scholarships there, this sucks for them. Also Akron football is barely a moneymaker as is, they average one of the lowest attendance in the country and the big time athletic donors are few and far between. Academics wise, they get $10-15million a year on average.

They also stretched themselves out really thin on academics. They used to focus on hard sciences and engineering (like Iowa State) because of the tire companies in the area while Kent State, a university only 20-30min away, focused on liberal arts, teaching, medicine, and law (like Iowa).

In the last few decades, Akron has tried to expand into other areas to increase enrollment but they didn't do any of those things that great and while they saw an initial surge, it has fallen flat and now they're dropping enrollment like flies.
I don’t doubt that. I think Akron brought 10 fans when they came to Ames. I don’t even think many of the players parents came.
 

SEIOWA CLONE

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Dec 19, 2018
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If you look at the BOR athletic reports from all three state schools, the only sports making money at the 3 universities are football and men's basketball. All the rest lose money and are kept afloat by the TV and tickets sells from those two sports. Iowa loses money on their wrestling team, we do on our woman's bb and VB teams.

I would bet there are not 10 non FB and MBB teams in the country that actually make money or even break even for the university.

Here is a look at UCONN men and woman's teams, both have won championships.

  • Men’s basketball had the second-highest operating revenue at more than $6.8 million, and the second-highest operating expenses at more than $9.8 million.
  • Women’s basketball’s operating revenue was just more than $3.5 million, and operating expenses were $7.9 million.
https://www.courant.com/sports/ucon...dance-revenue-and-expenses20180703-story.html

Here is Iowa's for the last year I could find 2017, the wrestling team lost around $900,000 for the year.

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/iowa-athletics-brought-in-115-million-in-2017-20171011
 

AuH2O

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Sep 7, 2013
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Exactly. Losing non-revenue sports programs will absolutely hurt the college experience and impact the amount of high school athletes that deserve to continue their athletic careers.
Losing many of the non-revenue sports will have no impact on a vast majority of students. You could argue funds could be diverted to things that more students want or use.

Not sure "deserve" is an appropriate term for non-revenue sport athletes. What makes more sense? Paying a scholarship, room and board, insurance and sports operating cost for an average student to play a sport that nobody goes to watch or divert those funds to schollies for students with great academics?
 
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CyJack13

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May 21, 2010
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I don’t doubt that. I think Akron brought 10 fans when they came to Ames. I don’t even think many of the players parents came.

If only we had played them in cross country though, it would have been crazy! A sellout for sure.
 

ljm4cy

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Apr 26, 2014
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The Big 12 requires member institutions to sponsor at least 16 sports - at least 6 mens and at least 8 womens. All institutions must sponsor football, mens & womens basketball, and either womens soccer or volleyball. You cannot drop womens soccer or volleyball if it is currently offered.

To meet the Title IX regulations, you must provide an equitable number of scholarships for both men and women. Football is the driver for the scholarships - to reduce womens sports you would need to reduce the number of football scholarships.

There is a reason most universities offer CC/indoor T&F/outdooor T&F and golf - they offer few scholarships but give you 4 mens and 4 womens sports.
 

IcSyU

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Nov 27, 2007
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Psst....if you think Uncle Sam would turn a blind eye to the 'non-profits' getting rid of non-revenue sports I have news for you.

No sports outside FB and MBB = no more collegiate sports.
 

ISUCyclones2015

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I don’t doubt that. I think Akron brought 10 fans when they came to Ames. I don’t even think many of the players parents came.

We were pretty darn close to out numbering them when we were there and we couldn’t have brought more than a thousand fans
 

ISUCyclones2015

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We were pretty darn close to out numbering them when we were there and we couldn’t have brought more than a thousand fans
I checked ESPN and it says 22k out of 30k capacity and that is a.... lie.

Here’s a pic I snapped a few minutes before kick off

uu0nwQ5.jpg
 

dualthreat

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Oct 8, 2008
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What do we need school for? We can cancel that.

While we're at it, let's cut the entire town of Akron, OH
 

rochclone

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They can. Just do it like they do at Simpson or Central. After college they can all become PE or Art teachers.

Yeah. I can guarantee you that a higher percentage of those non-revenue sport kids are graduating with better degrees and higher gpa’s than non only those kids in the revenue sports but also the average kid at Iowa State.
 

rochclone

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All colleges and universities should trim it down to scholarships for football and basketball only. Everything else goes to the club level. Maybe wrestling and baseball/softball can be regionally based ...IDK. But a lot of people are right. Nobody gives a **** about anything else. They barely give a **** about baseball and wrestling.

Explain to me why a scholarship on the 4th string right guard is more beneficial than a scholarship on an All-American golfer or soccer player. Who brings more to the University in positive press?
 
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