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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.

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

There is a silver lining: Akron has the best facilities in the MAC, a great FBS opportunity for players to showcase their talent, and a competent president/ athletic director. Under Nemer and Goodrich, those advantages will pay dividends sooner rather than later and the only direction to go is up!!

Omitted is Groce's "putrid defense" explanation - opponents aren't "feeling" the Zips defense. We are undersized, soft, and disorganized. It's easy to shoot three's when you have zero fear of getting one swatted back in your face...when your opponent is sagging off and not respecting your range, when defenders are unnecessarily double-teaming and leaving great shooters wide open for corner three's. The Zips can phone-it-in on defense and out-shoot a lot of mediocre-to-bad teams. If that's our defensive MO I still think we're 16-2, or better, in the MAC. But we can't beat a high mid-major or decent P4 program with the pedestrian defensive efforts we've seen so far. That's a recipe for an NCAA Tournament 13-seed, and a 21 point round 1 loss. It was a gift to get Yale and Murray State on a neutral court, free from biased referees and raucous opposing crowds. And we didn't take advantage of it.

Washington is a very deserving national Champion. They are the best team that I have watched this year. 6 wins.......none of them at home win at Oregon State in round of 64 win at #5 SMU win at #12 Stanford win at #4 Maryland win over #16 Furman in college cup semis win over #15 NC State in finals has any team defeated 5 seeds and won all of their matches on the road on the way to the title?

I understand defense is going to be a point of conversation, but it's really hard to get mad when our only 2 mid major losses have statistically ridiculous box scores. Yale and Murray State could run simulated games in practice with zero defenders, take the same shots they did vs us, and not shoot nearly as well as they ended up shooting vs us. 56% from 3 on 32 attempts is unbelievably absurd. That's 54 pts from 3P alone. If Murray State shoots an above-average 40%, that's 13 3P which is 15 less points; Murray State won by 15, and they're a 36.1% 3P shooting team on the season. Murray State committed 18 turnovers; I know some of those are probably self-inflicted, but Akron was doing something right on defense as well. Yet again, a team needed to have a historic night to beat Akron and they did. Akron wasn't nearly as efficient offensively as they were vs. Yale, hence the 15 pt deficit, but they still put up 100 pts. If we start seeing MAC teams shoot ~50%+ from 3P vs us, then I'll be concerned. Until then, hats off to Murray State for an incredible shooting performance. Regroup and beat the feathers off EMU.

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.

Neither Shammah, nor either of the Mahaffey brothers had strong games vs. Murray St. Yeah, we still put up 100 points but our defense is concerning. And Murray St. looked very good.

Reminds me of the old Jerry Tarkanian line: "The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they'll probably put Cleveland State on probation for an additional two years."

And maybe directing some looks toward the north east…

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

It is sad that so many negative articles around college football - we are named. Worst head coaching positions, game day atmosphere, academics, worst teams.

Offense wins. Houston is the one of the top defensive teams in the country and has been for several years. They have zero national championships in that span because in their final game of the season, they couldn't score more than their opponent. Akron isn't ignoring defense. Every single post game interview this season has included Groce harping that the defense needs to get better. However, if our opponent isn't shooting nearly 60%, we're winning by 20+. Akron has 3 losses, one of them to easily one of the best teams in the country. The other 2 losses, our opponent had to nearly set shooting records to outscore us; in fact, I'm not so sure they didn't. Those other 2 losses have been to some of the top mid majors in the country on neutral courts as well. I'm not so sure we lose to Yale if Barre is up to speed and playing significant minutes in that game, either. Defense is one of those things that takes longer to pull together with so many new pieces every single year in today's landscape. Shot making doesn't require chemistry and communication with rotations, help defense, etc. Maybe that's why we're seeing a shift at Akron and Kent. That being said, there aren't going to be many teams that will beat us this year without historic offensive performances because Akron's offense is legitimately that good. We've all seen Akron teams struggle to shoot 30% from 3. Didn't matter how good their defense was, they fell short plenty of times against competition that they shouldn't have because they couldn't put the ball in the hoop. The offense never came with those teams because teams can either score or they can't. Give me a team that can score at will with a coach who keeps defense a priority over a team that keeps defense a priority but struggles to score. I'm quite confident the defense will get better, but the blessing with this team is we don't have to pray for the offense to get better because history has proven that's not something that truly improves.

Josh Hardin was a starter in 2024 and he transferred out. I highly suspcet that was due to Pittsburgh poaching him with huge NIL dollars.

Since covid how many established players have we had transfer out? I can honestly think of only one, Gyuwon Chong. I know there have been a few freshmen transfer before getting playing time but that is normal. Ashton, Mitch, Stefan, Daragh, Malik, WKWK, Dyson, Shookalook, Diogo, truly a huge group of guys to come to Akron and not transfer out. Hard to imagine any other sport retain talent like that in this era

That is about the most AI statement ever. I think I heard Frank Caliendo say something similar when he was impersonating John Madden.

To summarize: Bad defense + good team shooting lights out = 115 points On to EMU.

Ignoring the problems isn't going to make them magically go away. Even in our wins we've consistently seen breakdowns defensively with many wide open looks. The competition just wasn't good enough to capitalize off of them. Murray State and Yale were good enough to carve us up. As will any 4 or 5 seed we encounter if the tournament if we make it that far. Giving up offensive rebounds because you're not boxing out and leaving 3-pt shooters wide open because you're slow in rotation isn't a winning formula against quality teams. We should constantly be evaluating ourselves and looking for ways to improve. Other teams will be doing the same.

Darlington Nagbe is joining Ohio Premier Soccer Club as a Staff Coach. https://www.instagram.com/p/DSOLS9HEWz8/?igsh=b2R6Zm12a2M4cTl3 I’m certain Darlington will be excellent at helping develop soccer talent. 👏👏👏

115 in regulation is embarrassing

Halligan came in and spurred the Zips rally with some really good defense. He was fighting through the screens and would not let his man drive to the basket. Groce was switching him in for defense. With Barre and him on the floor at the same time you could see the difference in defense. I would like to see them get more playing time in the 2nd half.

Washington vs. NC State for the Championship. Two power conference schools. Feel like the Zips would have matched up well with either. Darn it. To make myself feel better I went back and looked at the National Championship program, surprised to see that Akron had about 10000 more students than either Louisville or North Carolina back then.

Chemistry, Life Science, Math, Physics. That is wild to eliminate majors that have been around since basically whenever higher education started

Hope the Zips don't get caught looking forward to Eastern Michigan. Potential trap game.

Watching Xavier host Missouri State on TNT right now. Akron would run Xavier out of the gym.

She did commit as a high school junior. She played high school soccer this year and was selected to the 2025 All American team. I will do some research on the club question. Edit- looks like she plays for Nanchoff team in Cleveland internationals SC https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-player-profile/hattie-yugovich/pid-159356

Agreed @Let'sGoZips94. I've been critical in the recent past, but the college landscape has changed significantly, and Jared and staff continue to adapt. We are extremely fortunate for their commitment. Hopefully, UA continues to reward him as best they can within their means, and that fans, friends, and alumni continue to do our best to show our support within our means. I recently added to my contributions to the Akron Competitive Excellence fund for Zips men's soccer. Just a gentle reminder here if others want to contribute... I know any amount is greatly appreciated. If others are interested, I think this is the direct link for Men's Soccer: https://fundraise.givesmart.com/vf/CompExFundNIL/team/MSocc GO ZIPS!!!

Great to see the progress. I knew it was BS related to the Arth exodus.

2nd highest APR score in program history. Not officially out of APR bullshit, but Dr. Goodrich feels confident he can get it waived for next season due to significant progress.

If big time college football has taught us anything in recent years, getting fired under the right circumstances creates life changing wealth. Moore blew tens of millions of dollars just because he couldn't control himself. He could have the pick of hundreds of women who don't work at the school. Freaking unbelievable. What an idiot. Rumor has it the coach at OU was banging a nursing student.

A good coach can be made great by a supportive program. A good coach can be destroyed by a program that doesn't really support their football program in a meaningful way. Anyone want to guess which is Akron and which is Toledo? This guy will do well at Toledo because he is at a premium MAC program. He will be made better than he is now because the people around him will help him get to where he needs to be.

Best thing that could've happened to Michigan football.

What do The Skipper and Miami have in common? They both beat the crap out of Milligan.

8-0 Miami plays UNC Ashville tonight which will be their very first quad 3 game of the year. With only 2 Q3 games in their OOC, they may be the first MAC team who's strength of schedule actually increases when MAC play begins.

Congratulations Jason Shokalook!!!

You can't expect much more than that from Ohio's #2 CBB team (14 spots behind Akron in the latest NET) and the undisputed worst fan base in the country.

At the moment anyway, 2026 looks like one of the best recruiting classes to ever come to Akron.

Coincides with the chart using the Z-logo.😀