I still think we are the #1 job in the conference. This exercise seems a bit circular and these rankings feel a little revisionist to me. For example, Akron may be a top job but only because of the sustained success Dambrot built and Groce continued. If a new coach came in and sucked for 4 years, it would be a very dire situation to take over.

To me, it is about a strong identity and brand, a deeply rooted fan base, a nice campus to recruit to and strong facilities. In modern times I suppose donor money is another factor, but I think most the time that correlates with all the other items mentioned.

What are you thinking? The Bobcats are not even top three in the league in the last six seasons? Kent, Akron, Toledo have all been way better than Ohio and now that Miami has it going where are they? Sure the Bobcats have better attendance than all those teams, but name the the last season Ohio won the conference regular season outright. Some of you people were not born. Larry Hunter is the only coach to win an outright conference title in the last 30 plus seasons. The annual fifth and third seed performances must impress some of you. I think Coach Boals is a solid coach, but other than his fifth seed Covid performance when no league team played the same amount of MAC games, what has Ohio done? Is he deserving of top pay in the conference as of 2024-25 season? UVA didn't participate/practice the week before the NCAA tourney and in the ACC tourney. There are at least three programs right now better than Ohio the last five seasons. You may want to reevaluate that thought. Ohio University has been better in football than basketball the last several years.

Akron's enrollment is up a bit each of the last three years and their retention rate is improving too. We still have not made it back to where we were with undergraduate enrollment in 2016 (the highest number since the 70s). People keep seeing record enrollment but that's record freshman enrollment. We had dropped to the 14,000s in undergraduate enrollment and are on the way back up. Headlines can be deceiving.

https://www.ohio.edu/iea/historical-data/general-historic...

Alan you need a fact check.

U/G Enrollment (2025)
Ohio 17,194 (Up 3.6% from 2024)
Akron 9,445 (Up 2.0% from 2024)

Overall Akron has 14,052 but 1,743 (12.4%) of those students are in HS taking college classes in 2025.

https://www.uakron.edu/ir/student-enrollment

U/G Enrollment (2016)
Ohio 18,209 (All time peak)
Akron 16,214 (Down 29.4% from peak in 2011)

https://www.uakron.edu/ir/docs/Historical%20Enrollment_To...

Ohio is down 1,000 from its all time peak undergraduate enrollment while Akron is down 11,000 from their peak. Akron has settled into a structurally lower enrollment while Ohio is in-line with its historical norms.

I stand by my comment that Akron's undergraduate enrollment is up each of the last three years. You varied that 2025 is up 2.0% from 2024. You compared their decline to ours. I did not.

This is from Akron's data cutting tool on their main campus undergraduate enrollment.

https://www.uakron.edu/ir/student-enrollment

2016 16,214
2017 15,604
2018 14,253
2019 13,266
2020 12,108
2021 10,827
2022 9,780
2023 9,627
2024 9,283
2025 9,445

Akron is only up this year slightly after 15 years of decline. Fair to say Akron's enrollment problems are leveling off. Also only 20% of Akron's students are living in the dorms producing far less room & board revenue.

And on the topic of Akron, this billboard in Columbus on I 71 is getting a lot of attention.

https://www.facebook.com/WSYXABC6/posts/ha-have-you-seen-... /

In my opinion, Akron needs to grow some balls and have their own identity. Weak and lame ad campaign.

A successful marketing plan is multi-faceted. Looking at the comments on the post, it looks like many people view it as a smart idea. Miami went into the heart of Columbus at the airport a few years back with charging stations and work areas with lots of red signage. If you don't see, you might not ever know about it hence the billboard seen by more than a hundred thousand people every day.

OHIO has a very nice billboard veiwable off Rt. 315 not too far from Lane Ave and the OSU campus that advertises our nursing program as the #1 in the nation, based on some criteria or another. It really stands out, and makes a point in big letters easily read while drive 60+ MPH. Seems much more effective than the one posted here from Akron. But, I'm a totally unbiased reviwer! ;-)

Friday’s Boston Globe had a front page article on the Mass 2025 state payroll. Frank Martin is the highest paid state employee at $2.18M
The head football coach made 1.4M and is #3 on the payroll.
The hockey coach, Greg Carval has won a national title makes only $700K.

Can you read? I explained I feel the answer to this question isn't as simple as how good have they been recently, and you respond rambling about how good teams have been recently.

Ohio is in good shape. From 2005-2020 the university had to withstand a strong trend toward urban colleges and Akron, UC, OSU all making their biggest push. OSU has leveled off, UC is driving growth by recruiting HS students and Akron's growth turned out to be an unsustainable bubble. Miami has dropped like a rock in the USNWR this decade and isn't worth the cost. With the state picking up reshoring jobs, continued relative growth of central Ohio and the importance of location on 4 lane highways all is going to help. US 33 is expanding to 4 lanes from Athens to West Virginia by 2028.

The university is planning to finish up the dorm renovations by 2030 which is one of its weaker areas. I'm not sure where the extistential threat to the university is right now but its certainly not the University of Akron where the bubble has popped.

Happy New Year Andrew R. Yes I can read! You suggested that Ohio is the best job in the conference. I happen to disagree! I didn’t insult you, but you and others continue to live in the past. The basketball program has one outright regular season title in the last 30 plus seasons. Larry Hunter was coach and the university dismissed him. This isn’t the premier basketball school that sone fans like to think. Sure the Convo gets a better crowd than Kent or Akron but those schools have been better than Ohio the last several seasons. Miami is unbeaten and is rated in the top 30
of the AP poll currently. One could argue all those jobs are better than Ohio.

The Bobcats do have a deeply rooted fan base in basketball and a great, although older arena. The Convo is second to none in the conference even
though it is almost 60 years old. No other arena can hold 12 k fans. The key ingredient in making a university a great job is the culture. Miami has dominated in softball the last six or seven seasons. Is that facility and fan base better than the rest of the conference? Kent St baseball has won 40 per cent of the baseball titles in
The last 15 years. How does that happen? I would suggest that the culture of those programs allow the schools to be successful and make it a great place to coach. Ohio football has been as good as any MAC program the last ten seasons. The Bobcats football program has been successful because of the culture and the consistency within the program. Building a consistent winning culture will make a university a great place to coach.

Sure I get all that but the very first thing I said was this analysis is a bit circular in that a coach builds a program, but a program can build a coach. You mention culture, that absolutely comes form the coach more than anything else. What I am suggesting is the coaches at Akron, Toledo and debatably others did a better job than the coaches at Ohio. Or said another way, their success belongs largely to them and not the school. But over time, sustained success builds the deep rooted program strengths of fan support, money, facilities, etc. So again, it is a bit of a circular analysis...but I still think Ohio is the best job (certainly not by a wide margin) because of the pride and identity alumni & students have in their university, the OHIO brand, the Convo, the campus and so on.

John Groce without money man Bud Wentz would be a consistent top-four finisher in the MAC but nothing more. Akron has still not won a post-season (non-MAC) game.