(07-15-2015 10:07 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  

(07-15-2015 09:37 PM)Sultan of Euphonistan Wrote:  Akron should not be adding to their financial woes right now. No sport is going to fix Akron's p[problems and right now could only hurt them.

Cleveland State dropped Wrestling and Baseball (Wrestling was later saved) in order to start a Lacrosse program. Why? Because Lacrosse is rapidly becoming the sport of choice for rich suburban kids, who bring the support of their rich suburban parents.

Not saying it's going to happen at Akron. But it makes more sense if you're struggling financially and looking for donors or a self-supporting program compared to keeping a sport that's nothing but a relic of decades past like Baseball.

What spend money in the hopes you might have a sport that breaks even? When you are 60 million in debt (and probably more Akron has had a history of hiding its debts until surprise look we need money)? No that is fool hardy. No sport is going to fix the problems at Akron. Akron needs to fix its actual problems before considering adding anything.

Also if you look around there was a lot of finger pointing at the Cleveland State where the president or AD (I would need to find the articles to remember) brought on lacrosse more for personal reasons which is one of the reasons why they were so mad that they were going to drop wrestling for it.

Let me put it a different way. Soccer is another sport like lacrosse that people have been saying is up and coming and will bring money..eventually. Akron won the NC in that sport. Did that turn around the athletic dept monetarily to the point that it could be considered a panacea? It did not. I am sure it helped bring attention and some donations but clearly with the debt now at 60 million after that event it could do nothing to prevent Akron from laying off many people, giving cost increases to students, and dropping sports.

If the best situation of lacrosse does not even help this situation it is a bad bet to start when your school is having this many problems. After Akron gets their house in order maybe then they could think about adding a sport.

I don't know what Akron's Title IX situation is like, but they may need to add a sport at some point. Certainly, dropping Baseball puts them in a situation where slight demographic shifts in enrollment would force their hand.

(07-15-2015 11:23 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  I don't know what Akron's Title IX situation is like, but they may need to add a sport at some point. Certainly, dropping Baseball puts them in a situation where slight demographic shifts in enrollment would force their hand.

The fact that they dropped baseball rather than both baseball and softball suggests that they have adequate flexibility in that direction in their current set-up.

And if Akron was to be put out of Title IX balance in the direction of men's scholarship opportunities being substantially underrepresented, they could simply drop softball as well to resolve the balance, since they play four women's team sports, and surely northern softball would have higher travel expenses than women's volleyball or soccer, given that (like northern baseball), it has an unseasonably early start which requires the team to travel to southern locations for an extended period at the start of the season.

(07-15-2015 10:16 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(07-15-2015 09:01 PM)NoDak Wrote:  A couple of years ago, there was a rumor that Akron wanted to start hockey. Then thought was that hockey would only be possible if baseball or another men's sport was dropped. Perhaps this is the first of many announcements.

The possible forming of a new hockey conference is out there. Could Akron want to be part of it?

New CCHA

BGSU
Akron* - new team
Buffalo* - new team
Mercyhurst
ROBERT Morris
Niagara
Canisius
RIT

That isn't the new CCHA, that's Atlantic Hockey plus BG and some startups. I can't see a real, new CCHA (with Miami, WMU, BG, and ND as base members) ever happening because Miami and WMU will not move down from the NCHC for a conference full of startups and unspectacular programs (even if it does mean better geography). The only way anything like that could've happened is if OU and Kent State maintained DI programs, became successful, and came together again with the help of some new programs. But in that case the CCHA probably wouldn't have fallen apart.

I have heard our AD state that he would push to add BG and Notre Dame to the National conference, while the western schools are pushing for Arizona State.