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Meanwhile, every Cinderella that has made a run in football or basketball has seen interest, engagement, and enrollment increases in the years following their run(s). Here's the life lesson being learned: strong athletics athletics are good marketing tools for universities.

The University isn't spending ~30 million a year just to provide life lessons to ~400 student athletes (if you even want to call them that anymore). That would be absurd. That might have been its intended purpose 100 years ago, but we've long moved past that. Now it's about enhancing the college experience, keeping alumni engaged, getting your name out there, and building good will in the community.

Thanks to some favorable results from Akron opponents earlier tonight, the Zips moved up from #14 to #12 in the RPI. Closing out the regular season with two wins should get us a top 16 seed (and first round bye).

Cleveland State 2-1 win over IU Indy Ohio State got a very rare win this year…1-0 over the Nittany’s Milwaukee 2-1 over Northern Kentucky in a game not listed above, Western Michigan got a 2-1 win over Drake.

Yep

West Virginia stepped up tonight and got a very impressive 3-0 win over Marshall. Vermont won 2-0 over Albany. Vermont might move up to number 1 in the country. Stanford was number 1. Stanford played Cal today. Cal had a 1-5-1 ACC record. 5-7-2 overall record. Cal earned a 1-0 win over the Cardinal.

The good news is that Chad Welker will be the announcer. Chad is very knowledgeable about the players and is very passionate about the Zips. Chad always does a good job.

The primary purpose of athletics is to provide life lessons to young people. The value shouldn't be measured in money or students, but if it is benefiting the athletes students alumni fans and general community around Akron. Enrollment just went up. I doubt athletics is driving a lot of that increase.

I don’t know the names of too many refs, but I did know his and sure enough it was him. RIP

A B10 and MAC basketball offical died last week. A regular at the JAR. He lived north of Findley OH. I liked him. https://bigten.org/mbb/article/58685/?fbclid=IwdGRjcANx8KJjbGNrA3HwXWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEeD39ryPkYucdfh1BceY-a_1j6ziZG2rF2ZJ6px59UY6KzMDJs6PHsXbgcYLQ_aem_UCW-b9mkdO1KGJ-JAmIvnA

This is interesting... MAC team picked as potential 30-game winner this season!!!! https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/46775032/mens-ncaa-basketball-predicting-teams-win-30-games-2025-26

Note from the game preview: this match will air on gozips.com not espn+ (I assume due to the volleyball match on espn+ right beforehand)

The comment was more the market it out of wack due to delusions of grandeur. Athletics is a marketing arm for Universities. It doesn't have to necessarily turn a profit to provide value. It exists to bring in new and retain existing customers, which at Akron its not doing. We're not getting the value out of it given the money we're pouring into it. The same is true for 75%+ of the other G5. Changes need to happen across college athletics as a whole.

Several games tonight featuring Zips' opponents, including a big one. Cleveland State (127) at IU Indy (170) - 7 pm Albany (110) at Vermont (2) - 6 pm NKU (182) at Milwaukee (173) - 6 pm Penn State (102) at Ohio State (91) - 7 pm Marshall (19) at West Virginia (21) - 7 pm

If anyone goes to the Trading Card game and doesn't want their cards, let me know. I am a big time card collector and will ironically be unable to attend due to my weekend shifts at the local card shop.

Simple answer. It's not a business. It's college athletics at a public university. I have the same reaction when someone says government should turn like a business, it isn't. In a world where Joe is underpaid compared his peers and could use about 4-5 more assistants and a bunch of other crap, it's the market.

Trading card night + autograph night sounds like I need to get a card binder!

Isaiah Johnson Night on 2/14 - assuming we are putting his number up?

Tuesday night always brings out the best in college football players!

I agree that college athletics has gotten out of hand. Even at a school like Akron the head coach is getting a multi-million dollar guaranteed contract before even coaching a game here. Not to mention he can't even field a product good enough to get 10k+ fans to consistently show up. I saw an interview from our former assistant AD and he said ticket revenue a crossed all Akron sports was something like $1.3-$1.4 million. Let's say football football generates $800k-900K of that. How does it make sense to pay a head coach $650k and each of his half dozen or so assistant coaches ~$150k. If this was a private business it would have long been bankrupt. I'm not necessarily picking on Akron here. Just pointing out the flaws in the system and Akron is who I'm most familiar with. Something needs to be done to better align what we're spending with the value said coaches bring in. Perhaps pay these coaches like a salesmen. Give them a lower base pay then give them bonuses for each win, making a bowl, etc. I wouldn't even be opposed to giving them a percentage of gate receipts. Success should be rewarded. Right now it doesn't matter if you succeed or not, you're walking away with a bag.

As Zips fans I think we might want to start worrying a bit more about that game on 11-11. A team that gets a positive jolt like that can be really dangerous.

There is precedent for a MAC member being expelled by the MAC for major NCAA violations (Marshall).

We'll pay them back in the Final Four.

It will be interesting to watch this team grow over the course of the year and see the rotations develop. You're replacing about 37 PPG from last year's rotation (Nate, Gray, Seth, Okonkwo) that is going to have to come from some internal growth from returning players and/or the combo of the Mahaffeys, Head, Stankovic, and Barre. Eric Mahaffey was apparently going to start as a true freshman last year, so that certainly suggests Groce viewing him very highly. I think Evan probably gives you modest offensive production along with elite defense. I know very little of Cody, but @clarkwgriswold mentioned the coaches really like him. He may be an important scorer off the bench. I've heard enough good things about Barre to believe he can be an energy big who chips in a few points around the rim. Stankovic is kind of the wild card to me. His size and skill suggests he could be an offensive mismatch against many teams. I'm excited to see it all unfold. The journey of the season is the most enjoyable part of being a fan, seeing where we start vs where we finish.

Ohio.com article on Tavari- https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/college/zips/2025/10/31/tavari-johnson-returns-akron-zips-mens-basketball-ncaa-transfer-portal/86983272007/