[Zipgrad01]

I was speaking to may dad about this very subject over the weekend. He has 2 season tickets right beside mine. He didn't go to UA and the only reason he roots for them is because I went there. He, like many other fathers in their late 50's is an OSU fan as well. In his 2 years of having season tickets he has gone to about 2 or 3 games. I asked him why he rarely goes and if he will go a lot more now that we have the new stadium. Mind u...he lives about 50 miles from Akron. His response was....."sure, I will go to more games this season, but then the new stadium fun will wear off. I just never went to the games before because they never played anyone I wanted to go watch. I would rather stay at home and watch OSU play a team that is more interesting."

I agreed with him about the schedule. The one game I know he went to was Cincinnati last year because he wanted to go see them play. I guess my point is.....if we want more than the diehards to show up (and with our schedule even that is tough), we have to schedule the Michigan State's, Cincinnati's, Indiana's, Pittsburgh's and Purdue's of the world. We can't be playing Cal Poly, North Texas and Middle Tennessee State as our non conference home games. He and I were both extremely upset that the university chose to open the stadium with Morgan State. I told him they switched it from the Indiana game and he just shook his head and walked away.

[Quickzips]

I'm actually a pretty big fan of how our OOC is set up this year. I think it is about the perfect blend. We've got 2 home games and 2 road games. We've got the big, national championship contender in PSU that is more or less a money game but if we could figure out a way to beat them it would give us some huge press. We've got the I-AA pushover that we should be able to beat in our sleep that will pad the bowl chances. We've got two midling BCS teams in Indiana and Syracuse that are both very beatable and would show up as decent wins. This really is the season that the foundation will have to be laid on. Interest in this team is going to be higher simply as a result of the new stadium. A crapper of a season and we run the risk of turning into EMU basketball with a nice new stadium that we can't get fans too. A nice solid 7-5, 8-4 season with a good home record and a bowl game win and we can start to build something.

As far as future schedules go, I don't concern myself too much with them. We have all seen it over the last couple of years that teams back out at the last minute and leave you scrambling. We could be scheduled to play Ohio State, Michigan State, Syracuse and Indiana today and by the time that official schedule is released we could be playing Ohio State, Indiana, Marshall and Rice.

[Class of 82]

I told him they switched it from the Indiana game and he just shook his head and walked away.

Just for the record, they didn't switch anything. The Indiana game has been scheduled for the 19th for several years. Morgan State was a late addition to an open date on the schedule.

What you told your dad is not true.

[ZachTheZip]

We simply can't play "interesting" teams every year, if by interesting people mean local BCS teams. If your dad thinks that craptastic Minnesota is more interesting than Central Michigan, it's his own fault for not paying attention. This is what we're dealing with: the perception that the absolute worst of the BCS teams are still more entertaining than the top of the MAC.

Akron can't do anything about playing 8 MAC teams a year. It's suicide to go out and play 4 ranked teams to make up for it. So we're playing Morgan State. It's not about the opponent for that game. It's about opening a new era of college football in NE Ohio. We're playing Syracuse on the road, are they more "interesting" to watch than OSU beating up on Toledo? Besides, if somebody prefers to watch OSU beat up on Toledo on TV instead of watching Akron beat up on Toledo in person, we can't win them over as a fan. What about Indiana? These teams are the epitome of suck, but there are people convinced that they're still better than watching teams that would beat them 9 times out of ten. Big Ten country has the worst mentality I've seen. Nothing exists beyond the Big Ten and a few top-10 teams that show up every year like USC. If we were to play TCU or BYU, teams that would kill most Big Ten teams, there wouldn't be the least bit of interest from the fans around here.

[Class of 82]

A crapper of a season and we run the risk of turning into EMU basketball with a nice new stadium that we can't get fans to.

That sentence sent a chill down my spine. Seriously.

Lol... don't do that, man!

[Zipgrad01]

We simply can't play "interesting" teams every year, if by interesting people mean local BCS teams. If your dad thinks that craptastic Minnesota is more interesting than Central Michigan, it's his own fault for not paying attention. This is what we're dealing with: the perception that the absolute worst of the BCS teams are still more entertaining than the top of the MAC.

Akron can't do anything about playing 8 MAC teams a year. It's suicide to go out and play 4 ranked teams to make up for it. So we're playing Morgan State. It's not about the opponent for that game. It's about opening a new era of college football in NE Ohio. We're playing Syracuse on the road, are they more "interesting" to watch than OSU beating up on Toledo? Besides, if somebody prefers to watch OSU beat up on Toledo on TV instead of watching Akron beat up on Toledo in person, we can't win them over as a fan. What about Indiana? These teams are the epitome of suck, but there are people convinced that they're still better than watching teams that would beat them 9 times out of ten. Big Ten country has the worst mentality I've seen. Nothing exists beyond the Big Ten and a few top-10 teams that show up every year like USC. If we were to play TCU or BYU, teams that would kill most Big Ten teams, there wouldn't be the least bit of interest from the fans around here.

some of you just crack me up. pretty much anybody would rather watch us play a garbage big name school over a no namer like Central Michigan. Lets see....you are in the heart of Big Ten country,,,,,,,I am pretty sure "craptastic Minnesota" is 4 times the draw as Central Michigan. Besides, nobody said anything about playing 4 ranked teams...just a team or 2 at home that people CARE to watch (aka...they have heard of and know they are D1).

Also...TCU would be a great draw. Anyone with a brain knows they are a hell of a team.

[Zipgrad01]

I told him they switched it from the Indiana game and he just shook his head and walked away.

Just for the record, they didn't switch anything. The Indiana game has been scheduled for the 19th for several years. Morgan State was a late addition to an open date on the schedule.

What you told your dad is not true.

Actually, the Kentucky game was scheduled for years, not Indiana. Then it was switched to Indiana, which sucked but was still ok. Also, was the opener for the last 8 months or so not hyped as the Indiana game? Did the home opener get "switched" to Morgan State just recently? Yeah...I think I told him the truth.

[Quickzips]

A crapper of a season and we run the risk of turning into EMU basketball with a nice new stadium that we can't get fans to.

That sentence sent a chill down my spine. Seriously.

Lol... don't do that, man!

It's true though. Maybe not quite to the level of EMU basketball, but you can't expect the community to come out year after year and fill up the Info to watch 3-9, 4-8, 5-7 teams. People support winners. The newness of the stadium will add a certain amount of fans this year, but you have to have a good product on the field to keep them coming back. If the product on the field sucks, in a couple of years we will be right back to the general apathy that Akron historically has had for Zips football.

[Captain Kangaroo]

A crapper of a season and we run the risk of turning into EMU basketball with a nice new stadium that we can't get fans to.

That sentence sent a chill down my spine. Seriously.

Lol... don't do that, man!

It's true though. Maybe not quite to the level of EMU basketball, but you can't expect the community to come out year after year and fill up the Info to watch 3-9, 4-8, 5-7 teams. People support winners. The newness of the stadium will add a certain amount of fans this year, but you have to have a good product on the field to keep them coming back. If the product on the field sucks, in a couple of years we will be right back to the general apathy that Akron historically has had for Zips football.

Akron has the best training facility in the MAC...it is not even close. Akron will have the best stadium in the MAC. Hands down.

If any coaching staff has a losing record in the freaking MAC...in the MAC EAST...their tenure will be short-lived. You don't invest the money UA has towards football if you don't intend to dominate year-in-year-out. Any season with less than 7 wins should be considered a HUGE disappointment.

3-9...4-8...those records are a thing of the past.

[Class of 82]

I told him they switched it from the Indiana game and he just shook his head and walked away.

Just for the record, they didn't switch anything. The Indiana game has been scheduled for the 19th for several years. Morgan State was a late addition to an open date on the schedule.

What you told your dad is not true.

Actually, the Kentucky game was scheduled for years, not Indiana. Then it was switched to Indiana, which sucked but was still ok. Also, was the opener for the last 8 months or so not hyped as the Indiana game? Did the home opener get "switched" to Morgan State just recently? Yeah...I think I told him the truth.

The two games at IU for one in Akron has been on the schedule since well before we went there in 2007, and the Sept. 19th date has not changed in the ensuing years, so far as I know. The Indiana game was hyped as the home opener because... well, because it WAS the home opener until just a few weeks ago. And adding Morgan State to an open date does not contitute a switch under any definition. So I'll stand by the comment that what you told your dad was not true. No offense meant. It's just that the way you protrayed things in your post spun things a bit unfairly, IMO.

The Kentucky game was cancelled before last season even started, and not because Akron wanted to cancel it but because when Temple joined MAC football we apparently learned we couldn't reciprocate on the date we had promised to go there this year. (We are going there next year, though, so hopefully we can get UK back on the schedule at some future date.)

I wish we could have gotten a better draw than Morgan State, too. But on short notice, I guess that's the best they could do.

Peace, brother Zipper. And GO ZIPS!

[ZachTheZip]

We're definitely NOT playing Michigan State next year. Their schedule is Notre Dame, WMU, FAU, and Northern Colorado.

[Zipmeister]

We are definitely NOT playing Nebraska next year. Their schedule is Western Kentucky, Idaho, Washington and South Dakota State.

[ZachTheZip]

We are definitely NOT playing Nebraska next year. Their schedule is Western Kentucky, Idaho, Washington and South Dakota State.

I only mentioned MSU because the rumor that we're playing them kept coming up. I didn't see anything about Nebraska here.

[Zipmeister]

We are definitely NOT playing Nebraska next year. Their schedule is Western Kentucky, Idaho, Washington and South Dakota State.

I only mentioned MSU because the rumor that we're playing them kept coming up. I didn't see anything about Nebraska here.

You are going to have to start reading these threads more closely. The 7th post from the bottom of the first page of this thread clearly mentions Nebraska which qualifies their 2010 non conference schedule for posting here.

[ZachTheZip]

Looks like it's time I invested in some reading glasses.

It does look like the Kentucky game is a go, at Kentucky in week 3.

That leaves only one spot left, hopefully a home game. Also, we were originally scheduled to play @ Tennessee, but that game has been moved to a later year.