FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[MUC57]

Craft Beermeister

Thanks for setting the record straight on the Mount JV score. Wow! Those guys are good. But Hocking is just a Jr College. I still like the score! ☠🏈

[Pat Coleman]

As far as Wimington and Earlham go - I am not sure the student enrollment would take that much of hit without football. How many of the 46 on the roster went there to play football, as opposed to how many decided to go there and then to play football? Maybe enrollment drops by what 15?

Earlham, sure. But Wilmington has 125 on the football roster, which is 11.7% of the last listed full-time undergraduate student body and one of every four men.

[bleedpurple]

Craft Beermeister

Thanks for setting the record straight on the Mount JV score. Wow! Those guys are good. But Hocking is just a Jr College. I still like the score! ☠🏈

Yes, Craft, it's good to know the boys didn't get lazy up 60-8. Combined score of Mount's two games was 121-8. Do they have any other teams or just the two?  Another riveting week of football for the Moint Union football faithful.

[Desertraider]

As far as Wimington and Earlham go - I am not sure the student enrollment would take that much of hit without football. How many of the 46 on the roster went there to play football, as opposed to how many decided to go there and then to play football? Maybe enrollment drops by what 15?

Earlham, sure. But Wilmington has 125 on the football roster, which is 11.7% of the last listed full-time undergraduate student body and one of every four men.

I get that. My point is that of the 125 how many went there for football? I went to Hiram in the mid to late 90's. I knew a lot of football players that went to Hiram and played football - but I only knew a hand full that chose Hiram for football. I just don't see Wilmington hurting if football "ceased to be" (to quote John Cleese). BTW - I see 109 on the roster.

[formerd3db]

I saw this on Wilmington website: https://www.wilmington.edu/vision/

School is running a deficit of $2M+ and is cutting faculty and staff positions and pulling from endowment to essentially break even.  The Vision 2020 does not paint a nice picture for Wilmington. So my question to them would be "If you are currently living beyond your means, as is stated, why are programs being funded that provide no return on the investment?". They say every expense was reviewed and it was not possible to reduce their operational budget - did this include athletics? Sorry but gotta feel for the faculty and staff getting the axe because of budget cuts while looking at the state of the athletic programs.

You might want to ask former administrators at the now defunct DII St. Joseph's College in Indiana, a 126 year old school that went "into history" last year in May 2017.  In reality, there are a lot of old, established and good colleges/small universities that are in the same difficult position and doing the same as Wilmington College is doing i.e. draining their endowment to stay in business.  With the cost of education rising as it has over the past two decades, I am fearful that quite a few of these great prestigious, old colleges (DIII) will be going defunct in the next decade or so.

However, all that said, let's be honest.  There are absolutely ways for the problem to be solved and still retain faculty and sustain a football program.  Olivet (MI) and Adrian both did it (so did Northwestern, IA back in the 1990s when it was virtually on the brink of going out of existence) and they had small enrollments.  But you have to have an administration that is willing to do that i.e. be in support of athletics and football in particular. Let's hope that Wilmington and Earlham can find a way to do so.  Just my thoughts.

[Pat Coleman]

As far as Wimington and Earlham go - I am not sure the student enrollment would take that much of hit without football. How many of the 46 on the roster went there to play football, as opposed to how many decided to go there and then to play football? Maybe enrollment drops by what 15?

Earlham, sure. But Wilmington has 125 on the football roster, which is 11.7% of the last listed full-time undergraduate student body and one of every four men.

I get that. My point is that of the 125 how many went there for football? I went to Hiram in the mid to late 90's. I knew a lot of football players that went to Hiram and played football - but I only knew a hand full that chose Hiram for football. I just don't see Wilmington hurting if football "ceased to be" (to quote John Cleese). BTW - I see 109 on the roster.

I only looked at the number they reported to us for Kickoff for the start of camp, rather than counting what's listed on the roster.

I think when you are talking about full-size football programs -- which Wilmington is and Earlham is not -- then you generally have kids who went there for football. I'd guess that they lose 50 or 60 of those guys if they drop the program, especially because the team is made up of younger players who can transfer more realistically. I don't think that things are the same as when we went to school.

[Dr. Acula]

As far as Wimington and Earlham go - I am not sure the student enrollment would take that much of hit without football. How many of the 46 on the roster went there to play football, as opposed to how many decided to go there and then to play football? Maybe enrollment drops by what 15?

Earlham, sure. But Wilmington has 125 on the football roster, which is 11.7% of the last listed full-time undergraduate student body and one of every four men.

I get that. My point is that of the 125 how many went there for football? I went to Hiram in the mid to late 90's. I knew a lot of football players that went to Hiram and played football - but I only knew a hand full that chose Hiram for football. I just don't see Wilmington hurting if football "ceased to be" (to quote John Cleese). BTW - I see 109 on the roster.

I only looked at the number they reported to us for Kickoff for the start of camp, rather than counting what's listed on the roster.

I think when you are talking about full-size football programs -- which Wilmington is and Earlham is not -- then you generally have kids who went there for football. I'd guess that they lose 50 or 60 of those guys if they drop the program, especially because the team is made up of younger players who can transfer more realistically. I don't think that things are the same as when we went to school.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was even higher than that.  If you're playing football in D3 and especially at Wilm you really like football.  I'd guess football is by far the main reason most of those kids are at Wilm.  You remove football and all of a sudden they're just students at a very small, expensive college.  I know my parents would have been pushing hard at that point for me to transfer somewhere friendlier to their wallet.  I'd guess there'd be a lot of freshmen and sophomores whose parents would feel the same. 

[Dr. Acula]

Quick thoughts on RHIT:

I was very impressed with O'Hara at LB.  He really flies around.  He and Robinson are not huge guys, but man are they athletic back there.

I'll echo what most have said regarding the offense.  Just not crisp, but it's week 1.  That'll work itself out.  Petro looked good as expected.  McFadden was a nice surprise.  I know some on here are probably very happy to see a 220 lb back getting some touches.

The O line I'll take a wait and see approach for now mainly because they just lost a returning starter for the season.  They were already replacing 3 starters before that so I expect some time to mesh.

I wasn't paying attention on each and every play so I may have missed some, but how did the D line do as far as getting pressure?  It looked like they did a pretty nice job jamming up the LOS in run defense.  The guy I saw pressuring the QB the most was probably O'Hara though.

Overall great job by the OAC taking care of business.  Cap was penciled in for a loss, but everyone who had winnable games did their job.  Nice to see.

[Desertraider]

I would not be surprised to see JEM lose some carries in favor of McFadden. JEM did what JEM does - giving ground to get ground - but McFadden looked better. I swear in the 1st QTR Mount ran JEM left and he had a hole but decided to cut outside and got tripped up for no gain (same play and result as Stagg Bowl). It may have even been a 3rd down play.

The Dline looked good. They really did. Not gonna say they are 2015 or 17 good....yet. But they played with drive and fire. Held the LOS and gave up nothing. RHIT had 80 yds rushing on 38 carries (2.1 per). But they got 32 on 1 play in the 3rd. Take away that one (and we can't I know that) but that's 48 yds on 37 carries (1.29 per). The Dline and LBs did their jobs. With Williams, Ohara and Robinson backing - the D looks really good. I was impressed with Williams. Thought maybe the Stagg was him amped for the moment. He really stuffed the middle and hits with force.

[MUC57]

desertraider

You used to have at the bottom of your posts, "a tradition unimaginable......". I really liked that. Why change? I know Jim Nance didn't say it was too close to his saying on The Masters. Why, professor?

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

desertraider

You used to have at the bottom of your posts, "a tradition unimaginable......". I really liked that. Why change? I know Jim Nance didn't say it was too close to his saying on The Masters. Why, professor?

"A Tradition Unlike any other"

[MUC57]

K and J's Dad

I know Nance's Masters saying. Want to know why desertraider changed. ☠🏈

[Desertraider]

I don't know. Trying to think of a new one. I had thought about "unlike any other" which is very true - but in reality did anyone ever imagine this tradition? Didn't think so.

[MUC57]

desertraider

I really like your old one. "A tradition unimaginable" speaks to the enormity of the accomplishment. That one gets my vote, but, I am old. I get mixed up and I forget things. Go Raiders! ☠🏈

[JCUStreaks70]

Not that I'm not enjoying this thrilling conversation, I am curious about everyone's thoughts on the whole Nike situation?