akzipper

Interesting enough, my cousin actually played for SFU. He had a decent amount of offers to FCS schools and some preferred walk on options for FBS schools. Eventually ended up at a smaller BigTen school before transferring to SFU for more playing time. He and his family visited Akron a few times and I joined them. We listened to Rob Ianello talk and man was it something. If I were a high school athlete in that room, there would be nothing to motivate me to come to Akron. Everyone was blown away by the stadium and field house. But it was such a dull and uninspiring speech nobody really seemed excited to be there.

Foolish thinking. The Zips and Suckeyes both play at 3:30 on October 1st. We could win those games and the crowd would still be disappointing. People in Northeast Ohio would rather sit on their couch at home and watch a stupid team from Columbus beat Rutgers by 50.

Kent easily has the worst facilities in the conference and it's not even close.

I hate to say it, but Kent has a nice new locker room. What's interesting is how they made it look like some Ikea lockers are placed right in the middle of an empty Walmart. I actually think that flooring is the same thing my middle school cafeteria had. Can't help but be impressed.

People vastly undervalue how important locker rooms are nowadays. So many are over the top with colored lights, TVs in every locker, lounges, uniform displays, etc. But that's exactly something that shows recruits that a program is legit and willing to go above and beyond to create a cool experience for it's players. Having a state of the art lockerroom that overlooks the stadium would be awesome.

New logo looks good at the top of the scoreboard. Wish they could get some $$ to update that screen. Just fill up the whole thing with a video board like they did at Progressive Field. Those ads and old school scoreboard at the bottom aren't needed anymore. Just program stuff like that into the video graphics.

Very cool. I love making sports themed cars in Forza on Xbox. In the past it's been practically impossible to recreate the Zips vinyls because the logo was so complicated and everything needs to be created using groups of shapes merged together. The new logo should be a lot easier to bring into the game.

This is how I felt about Zeke Marshall. We went to UA at the same time and he was an all around good dude and great student. I wish LCJ and him could have played together. They are my favorite two all-time favorite Zips basketball players and feel like that combo would have crushed it on the court.

This is the cost of going through a rebrand. People aren't going to be interested in outdated merchandise with the old logo. Most teams only sell it as massively discounted prices. My guess is that the UA bookstore is trying to sell everything at normal prices? The Guardians went with a complete name change and rebranding and somehow managed to get gear ready for this season.

Has anyone stopped by the Student Union store lately? I was in Akron last week and thought about running in quick, but didn't make it. Online they've added another hoodie, hat, a few shirts, golf balls and that's about it. Really want a nice Nike hoodie, hat and a new decal for my vehicle. My high school just went through a similar rebrand this summer and their store is absolutely packed with new apparel. By now UA should have a decent amount of gear available. Especially with students returning to campus. It shouldn't take this long...

I think the Zips football account is trying to break the record for most emojis ever used by one account in the history of Twitter. 😂 Love the video updates though!

Most times the court is designed to look best during basketball games, since the volleyball lines are just temporary. My guess is that mockup was created to present the new logo system and UA wanted something much simpler for the court. Usually designs are simplified to cut down on costs, but they already needed to paint gold for the wordmarks. I don't think a few extra gold stripes would break the bank.

New JAR floor is officially done. Could use some gold like the original renderings, but still looks nice. Also looks like Akron Children's Hospital replaced FirstEnergy as the sponsor.

Looks like the design is tweaked a bit from the rendering. I liked the two tone wood, but this still looks nice. Wonder what's still covered up above and below the A logo? FirstEnergy logos?

When I think about improving the JAR, my mind automatically thinks of new seats, paint, removing the track, renovating entrances, etc. I just don't see UA doing what it takes to make it a legitimate D1/big-time arena. In my opinion the only way to make the JAR legit would involve removing the track, demolishing everything behind the baskets on the north and south sides and corners to create a 360 seating bowl, blowing out then creating concourses behind the seats and adding suites above the top level. Something like that would be in the $40-50 million range for sure, but could be done in phases. Naming rights could probably take care of $10 million. Still not ideal for a school that's not in a great place financially. Especially since that pricetag might be on par with some new 5-8k seat arenas being built.

The AAC is spread out over half the country, while 75% of the MAC is in Ohio and Michigan. It's a glorified D2 conference and most schools don't generate much excitement with casual fans. I doubt we'll ever leave, but I definitely think more people care about Memphis, Navy, USF, Tulsa, ECU, Wichita State, Temple, etc.

Agree completely. I also love the consistently between the new turf and new court design. Both have the same blue A, blue endzones/baselines with gold type and name of facility on the sidelines.

The wood outside the 3pt line will be a bit darker, but still nice. Some schools try too hard to get noticed and do crazy stuff with their floors and fields. NIU's dark floor with the weird eyes, Kent State's giant lighting bolts and Eastern Michigan's gray field are all terrible. I really wasn't really even a fan of our most recent court with the kangaroo heads in the key. Follow the KISS theory. Keep It Simple Stupid. We have a nice new logo. Let it shine.

I bought that same Zips shirt and a Swensons one from Homage. Easily my two favorite shirts. There was a "jumping" Zippy logo from the 80s so it would have to be before that. I've seen it on other old school apparel from different companies so my guess was used pre-70s too.

We finally have a legit coaching staff and lots of talent coming in. If the Zips show signs of improvement, there's no more excuses to not show up.

Very true. It's much more difficult to build a cinderella football team than a basketball team. A school like Akron would need sustained success over multiple seasons to even get to the same talent level as even the mediocre BigTen schools. But at the same time how many teams from the MAC/AAC/MW beat the Mizzou, Syracuse, Kentucky, Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, Rutgers, Maryland, Minnesotas of the world? Seems like it happens every season. Those schools have one decent season every 10 years and still manage to stay in the SEC or BigTen. Part of me feels like the big guys like Alabama, Georgia and OSU like to have those easy games sprinkled throughout their season. Would they want a super league where every games is basically against a Top 25 team?

Just about every season there's a school from a smaller conference that has a great record. Cincy, UCF, Coastal Carolina, NIU, Boise, etc. There's always a debate over if they should be allowed in the CFP. As I stands right now, with 4 teams, probably not. It's probably not fair to let them jump a BigTen runner-up or two loss SEC team. But I think they should at least get a chance to prove it. They beat a WC team and they absolutely deserve a shot at the big dogs. That's part of what makes the college basketball tournament so exciting. Small schools make a run every season and technically everyone has a shot, even if it's a very slim chance. People love an underdog story and I doubt many fans of the "big" schools would be against playing a MAC school if it meant they had an extra shot at the CFP.

I've always felt like every conference deserves at least an automatic bid and then throw in a few Wild Cards. 14 teams would work out just fine. Top two seeds get a bye and while it would be a tough road for a MAC school to make a run at least they would have a chance. It would add some higher stakes to some of the bowl games too if some of the bigger ones got to host each playoff game.

This is exactly how I feel and you nailed it perfectly. Of course I want to see the us win games. But more importantly I want people to care about Akron football. I'm so sick of seeing empty bleachers and people acting like Zips football is a joke. We have a Division 1 FBS program, with a legit head coach, stacked staff and an AD that's committed to winning. Even if we don't see a .500 season, we will most likely see a team headed in the right direction and some fun football.

It's definitely frustrating, but understandable. There are still supply chain issues and manufacturing delays. It took the Guardians a LONG time to get gear out, same with the Cavs new rebrand. When major sports franchises are slow to roll out gear, I fully expect a MAC school to have the same issues if not more. I'm sure they'll have everything ready before football season.