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The bad news is the men's game isn't on ESPN+. The good news is that the women's game at #6 Michigan isn't either.

I feel the talks of this being Groce's best Akron team was premature. We've been able to run up the score on the bad teams we've faced, but haven't been able to beat the good teams on our schedule. Our best win is against #161 Iona. Hopefully Groce can use this as a teaching moment as this is the worst Akron half-court defense we've seen in maybe 5 years. I think we have the bodies and athletes to improve, but we need to play smarter defense and be more disciplined.

Just jumping in to say that this season was a pleasant surprise and the post season run was incredible. You could see the on- field chemistry. So gutted for the guys. If the ending was hard to see as a fan, quadruple that feeling for the players. And I don't blame Stefan one bit for continuing what was working for him - how many PKs did he successfully convert prior to this one? No player has a 100% conversion rate even at the pro level. Eventually, an attempt will be saved or will go wide or high. As for the SLU game ...sheesh...as long as I've been watching soccer (a long time) and playing (maybe too long) I can't recall that many unfortunate occurrences in a single match over such a short time period and to such detrimental effect. Lady luck must have been on a cruise. These are the types of games that can propel a group forward. I'm happy to hear that the incoming class is talented. That taken with the now experienced returners should produce another good year. Congrats to the players and coaching staff for getting Akron soccer back on the map. Onward and upward!

That's because you're hearing what you want to hear. You keep just saying move on from JoeMo and it will make us magically better. Others are saying we need additional resources regardless of coach. Just because someone points out that the program is underfunded doesn't mean they're saying the program can never succeed in the MAC. They're saying that if we want to have success in the future we need to find ways of increasing resources. Whether that falls on getting more donations, playing more buy games, or whatever else. Replacing a coach is just a bandaid. I'm not even opposed moving on from JoeMo. I just want there to be a plan in place for how we're going to be financially competitive with the other MAC schools. Without it you will be here in 2-3 years demanding we fire another coach.

Embick deserves everything for his loyalty and commitment to Akron for all these years. Incredibly thankful for him.

This loss is the bitterest pill of all to swallow. Everything had aligned to set up a once in a lifetime run for the Zips to our second star. We have talent. We play a beautiful brand of soccer that attracts that talent. We had an opponent whom we respected, yet we knew we could beat. The coaches had, over the season, developed a scheme that worked considering we lost 23 goals in Emil last season and 8 starters. What an incredible job they did! The crowds were responding to this team. Then comes the game and we beat ourselves. SLU played hard for 90 minutes, but what they did was insignificant compared to what we did to ourselves. I feel so bad for the players. They like each other and play for each other. They are proud to be Zips. They are excellent students. They are what we want in D1 athletes representing our school no matter what the sport. Next year can't come soon enough!

Thought Barre had an excellent game for the minutes he was in.

Kent had, in some cases, multiple degrees for the same subject area. Most of the subject areas are still available but without multiple degree designations (i. e. B.A vs B.S.). They are not eliminating nine study areas. They are, however, still Kant State and offering many degrees without viable career paths and without the intern, coop, research, club groups that create opportuntunies that have become a signature feature of many of Akron's options. Note the last edition of Zip Insider where Allen, the pole vaulter with a degree in Biomedical Engineering and now pursuing a Master's in statistics mentioned the importance of internships even with the stem degrees she is getting. The importance of having degrees in job-oriented fields with good experience opportunities was also cited in this week's Board meeting by the Provost as being a factor in the increased number of 2027 applications even with a smaller student pool. She mentioned that Akron is doing a better job of telling that story to prospective students and finding more who are listening to that set of factors in their decision making. I hope that is true because students need to consider these items. Students too often pick colleges for insane reasons. Akron needs to continue down this road of making their degrees produce job-ready graduates in as high a percentage as possible. GO ZIPS!

Okay, we need 20 guys to all kick in a buck and we're going to @kreed5120's to watch the stream. He's providing the grub.

Back with Minnesota

I'm missing your point. Every one of those calls involved video review. The only call I question was the straight red against Matt Dreas. Was it reckless for him to go high with his foot?...yes. However, it could have been a yellow card caution and not red. It was borderline in my opinion, and I thought refs tended to not want to tip the balance with "big" calls. Unfortunately, in the exuberance of the game, Matt made a decision to go high with his foot and put himself in a position for the ref to make a judgement call. NCAA Tournament games go the way of the team that weathers the storm. SLU had a bad first half and benefitted from a series of unfortunate events by our Zips. I'm devastated by the loss, more so for our players, especially the seniors who have no next season for the Zips. In solace, it was a great season thanks to a group of outstanding student-athletes and coaches. I can't thank them enough for this season. There's so much of which to be proud. I try to focus on positives and will remember this season for qualifying for an exclusive 4-team BE Tournament by winning a tough final regular season road game and getting to the NCAAT Elite 8, playing all of our NCAAT games at home. The win at Xavier in the regular season was a personal highlight as a special friend attended that game with me and then he left for his drive/move to Salt Lake City that evening. These Zips made that "goodbye" special for both of us. We have a great memory and picture with the team and other Zips fans as we celebrated the program's 800th win. Toujours de premiere classe! (Always First Class) Thanks 2025 Zips Men's Soccer!!!

Murray State is a quality mid major. Akron isn't going to beat anyone worthwhile without effort and intelligence on D. That's just a fact. Giving up 97 to Yale was a red flag. Allowing Murray State to put up 115 in 40 minutes is flat out embarrassing.

I’m getting a good feeling about this game!

Well, the Akron coaches aren’t providing all the same services to JoeMo that she was providing to Sherrone!

Athletics starts around 1:10:00. Footballs APR jumped significantly

Saturday is a very fun slate. Akron v Murray State UMass v Florida State CMU v Stony Brook (old buddy Geno Ford) Toledo v Robert Morris Ohio v St. Bonnie in Cleveland Miami OH and NIU also play but their games don't count in the "very fun" category.

Single-Year APR Scores for Football: 2024-25: 962 (pending an upward adjustment; 2nd highest in program history) 2023-24: 920 2022-23: 908 2021-22: 885 2020-21: 943 2019-20: 953 We would've been bowling this year had we won 6+ games. Guarantee it.

Iona is now 8-3 after beating Bryant.

Tougaloo's total enrollment is 622. All I want to know is how they escaped Miami's OOC schedule?

People still watch the NBA? It's unwatchable.

https://gozips.com/news/2025/12/10/general-akron-athletics-launches-zips-fan-council Don't really know where to put this, but I really like this idea

Congratulations to Mitch Budler. He will participate in the pre draft showcase..... The MLS draft will be held on December 18th.

This should be a high-scoring affair with the Zips averaging 96.2 ppg and Murray State averaging 89ppg. Murray State leads the MCV in 3-point shooting. Will the Zips be able to guard the perimeter? Recently, it seems to be a struggle. Murray also focuses on offensive rebounding to get extra possessions. They've had games with 19 and 16 offensive boards. Can the Zips limit second chance points?

Probably the most talented, definitely the deepest. One area they continue to get beat on defense is on the perimeter. They are dedicated to playing help defense which has the defenders on the off side of the ball sagging into or close in the lane when the ball is on the other side of the floor. When the opponent swings the ball quickly they're caught responding late leaving open threes. They're also getting occasionally beat by cutters to the basket.

Agreed on the red being a debatable decision, but Matt can't put himself and the team in that position as a captain. Everything the Zips did in the second half was dumb, his high boot being no exception. Also, never again to I want to see a stutter step PK. Very unfortunate loss that hurts even more considering we would've been the highest seed remaining with a legit shot at a second star. Gutwrenching to say the least. Saint Louis may just be a team of destiny. I hope they prove me right by winning it all for their 11th star and first in 50 years.

I haven't chimed in but wanted to share the following post from the boogeyman himself Connor Stalions when talking about the MSU hire - It's insightful. "People need to understand coaching is just one piece of the pie. More times than not, it’s a huge factor because talent & resources are usually close. But at Northwestern, it’s not even in the same ballpark as the rest of the conference. The academic standards make recruiting damn near impossible. The administration doesn’t care about winning. It’s basically an Ivy League school in the Big Ten. Pointing to a couple bad seasons (from a record standpoint) is lazy. Speaking from personal experience (yes, at a much different scale): I coached at Mumford HS in Detroit as the DC for a few months. We had 3 coaches & 18 total players in the program with a team-wide average GPA of a 0.9 when we arrived in the summer, and had to play JV & Varsity games with those 18 players (do the math on that). We somehow won a game. But of course we lost to Cass Tech 70-0. Went to Belleville right after the regular season as the OC and won 70-0 first game in the playoffs. Do you think I didn’t know how to coach then all the sudden learned in one week for a 140-point turnaround? No… We won at Belleville because we had Bryce Underwood, Elijah Dotson, etc. We lost at Mumford because we didn’t (and played against CJ Sadler, Don Tabron, etc.). While talent gaps are much greater in high school, I’m explaining the point that coaching only matters when the talent gap is manageable." Akron like Northwestern's issues are largely structural (and financial here), and Moorhead is not to blame there. Without addressing those underlying issues, a coaching change seems cosmetic. Unless they could line up someone like Jason Taylor. They are working to address the underlying issues though.

Perhaps a bad matchup ... but a good test!!!

We're a middle of the road team talent wise based on recruiting rankings, and we finished middle of the road. The fact that JoeMo can even put together middle of the road talent levels with the restrictions he faces is an achievement. Then finishing even where he should based on talent level, given the practice restrictions, is still a notch in his belt. I get he's not out pounding the pavement for donors and maybe that's part of the gig these days, but the guy has done okay with what he has available to him imo

Radio broadcast for me! Huge Game! Let’s go get it.

I am sure many of you are much smarter than I am and i openly admit it. This is a pretty good article it is long but to me interesting and I think some of you may find it interesting. Walgren suggested the football team cut three players for poor academics and they didn't and then a fourth who had a gpa of .74 and they did not. It goes into depth for the reasoning and i'm not pointing fingers in agreement or disagreement just saying the article is well written and explains a lot. It also says at the end the ban "could continue into next year" but that is just a possibility. I am relying some of you brainiacs to translate a lot of this for me. I do think Mr Brown did a good job though.

So you think the multiple year bowl ban (even after six wins), lack of academic / training resources, and a small to non existent NIL pot is all coaching and doesn't limit talent coming to UA?

Here's the number for Victim Assistance- (330) 376-0040.

Beals could be a program changer, for a year at least lol. https://www.pennlive.com/highschoolsports/2025/12/i-wasnt-going-to-sleep-without-this-dub-semaj-beals-shines-in-5a-title-game-victory.html?utm_campaign=preps_sf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwQ0xDSwOi-k5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEej56kWkRHPbEESDKzRtR_nFiAoxWrJZEKSnuX5fePaqjmElKlGcCZIhvsr0w_aem_QhSmWH0amJ41rcRBRRLMqw

Soccer rules governing possession of the ball, and the fouling of the player who possesses the ball, are analogous to the Basketball rules. Not exactly the same, but pretty close. A foul called in Basketball will probably be a foul in Soccer. Hand to hands, without overt shoving, is often permitted in Soccer. Any foul in Soccer will most definitely be a foul in Basketball. Without question.

I don’t see referees’ calls in basketball and American football for example as being less subjective.

I think about that IU game and the one at Michigan all the time. Those could have been defining moments for the program. Winning programs or programs that are turning the corner from winning to losing win those games, especially when all it requires is something as simple as a 20-ish yard field goal.

I agree. I think the talent distribution in the NIL era comes at the expense of my fan experience. I want my experience to be more than watching my team win. I want to get to know the program. Programs aren't things. Programs are people. I'm less interested in who is transferring in and more interested in how programs are developing people. I think the best thing for someone like me is to not increase scholarships, but decrease them. Players will value them more is they know there are not an unlimited number of spots for them to transfer. Players might actually compete harder and not leave because the path to getting on the field is easier somewhere else.

💯 It’s as good as the Cheese, Banks, Casteneda, Williams, LCJ line up, but deeper. And Barre could be the wild card that allows us to make some noise against the big boys. After the Purdue game Groce said “Purdue’s one of the best teams in the nation, but we’re one of the best teams in the nation too.” He knows this is a special group. It isn’t a taped-together group of 1-year mercenaries. It’s a seasoned group of talented guys who’ve been together for a while. Sprinkled with a nice mix of new ballers who’ve more than filled the 2024-25 departure gaps. Worst case this Zips edition should go 16-2 in the MAC. BG, EMU, Kent, Miami, Buffalo…they have nice teams. But they aren’t at our level.

Most talented offensively for sure. I feel there is still a lot to be worked on defensively. We don't seem to be great defensively in the half-court when we face teams that don't turn the ball over. Tulane started something like 1-11 from 3, but at least 5-6 of those misses there wasn't a Zips defender within 8 feet. Those are shots a better team will knock down. We need to work better on being quicker on our defensive rotations and not being out of position. I'm not saying this to be nitpicky. The 3-point line is the great equalizer and if we don't correct it someone will capitalize.

After the Tulane game, I think that Akron's 2 losses to Purdue and Yale were probably 2 of our better played games. I thought we played OK against Tulane but we played much better against Purdue and Yale. In other words, this team can play ok basketball and win on the road against a decent team. It is very early in the season but this might be one of Groce's most talented teams. Time will tell.

Coaching matters. Cignetti is incredible.

It wasn’t a pretty game at times, but I would say our guys passed the test. Groce is sure challenging them with different styles of play this year.

Huge game. Murray State was 87 NET coming into today's game. Another top 100 opportunity and potential Q2 matchup.

It's big to Akron IMO. This is the type of game we typically drop inexplicably. Being on the road, this might end up being a Q2 win come season's end, too. Very solid performance. Akron shot above 40% again from 3; Akron has one of the best offenses in the country.

So the Big East had two chances to get to the College Cup and got neither. The College Cup will be a 15 seed, a 16 seed, and two unseeded teams. St Louis last won in 1973, and none of the other three have ever won a national championship.

Absurd start to the season for Tavari.