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Your vibe is not correct. I am not blaming you. The problem was here way before you got here. As for the student body...you are correct. However, UA is a commuter school, so student body and community go hand in hand. They were raised to not care about UA all while strolling through campus with a nut on their shirt. I used to be that guy, so I know.

So here is the question. I am now reading sniping regarding the amount of coverage for the Zips. I honestly want to know: WHERE on the list of priorities do the Zips belong? Because this week alone I count 8-10 blog posts, a story in the paper, another running Saturday and another blog post to preview the game online. An effort will be made to provide more video as well. If some of you think the Zips will ever merit the coverage the Browns get, that's a mistake. With LeBron James back in town, the Cavs will even take more priority. Now I ask, what is supposed to be done? The reality is we're in a different news environment. You'll find Zips coverage, but I am elsewhere a couple of times during the week also. And, oh, I'm supposed to take two days off a week. Ask me how many times that happens from August to April. That is the way it is for EVERY ABJ sportswriter. That's the new reality. We work hard because we feel an obligation to do so. If you want late-breaking Zips news, check the blog. The more in-depth stuff will be in the paper. As to the snarky statement and question that insulted the paper and asked whether I was reading? Until today, THIS the first time I've logged in in well over six months. There is one specific reason that for that: while people here - with the exception of a couple of individuals whom I've met in person - criticize and insult under the veil of anonymity, if I read it, I am not allowed to respond in any negative manner. It's easier to just not deal with it. I've always tried to keep and open mind and an open line of communication via email and Twitter. Some - not all - make that extremely difficult to want to do. Somewhere along the way, civility got lost for some. The coverage on the blog will be there. There are three videos with three of the Zips top players that posted today. There will be more videos. There will be more posts and every effort will be made to cover the Zips fully. And FYI: I won't be attending the Penn State game because I am on vacation. With the Zips' bye week is was the best time to schedule it so that I would miss only one game instead of two. For those who take the time to read this, thank you.

If you are a program that wants to take "the next step," then go play somebody that can make you better. Go play somebody away from Akron. Not a true comparison, but the point is valid, when Bobby Bowden spoke of this very thing at the family breakfast. "When I started at FSU, nobody wanted to come to Tallahassee and play us. We had to go to other schools and play. Nebraska, four away, no return, LSU, five away, no return, two in Michigan, no return, Arizona State, no return." If I have the choice of Bryant, Bluffton, and Coppin St at home versus playing a real team on the road, I would rather see them on the road. Please don't respond by telling me about 20+ wins in todays weak Mac. 20+ wins means little when you have to win the conference to get to the dance in today's Mac. I'll take 17 wins, play some good programs on the road and raise the competition level so when you do play in the big dance you have your team READY. Whomever holds a position that uses the excuse to the fanbase of "nobody wants to come to Akron" needs to move on. We need someone to think bigger.

Series tied at 2-2. Both of their wins knocked us out of the NCAA tourney. Scouting info: http://www.gousfbulls.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=36619&SPID=2914&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=7700&ATCLID=209632966 https://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf9/2777986.pdf?ATCLID=209632966&SPSID=36619&SPID=2914&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=7700 Corbett soccer stadium: http://www.gousfbulls.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=7700&ATCLID=205356020

I'll get flamed for saying this but I watch the Zips because it's entertaining. Driving an hour to watch us humiliate these cupcakes isn't entertaining. Call me selfish, but it doesn't make it more entertaining when I'm sitting there telling myself "at least we beat Pine Bluff and Coppin State so we can keep our twenty win streak alive." I realize getting quality teams at the JAR is tough. I'd rather watch us on the road at OSU than at home against Coppin State. I'm positive there are mid majors in our boat, such as MTSU, that would love to have a home and home.

The internet has given newspapers a much better handle on what people want to read than they could ever get out of newsprint. Every click on ohio.com is recorded, and the metrics can be analyzed in excruciating detail. What GT is giving us is not his personal opinion on what Browns coverage vs. Zips coverage should be in the ABJ. What he's telling us is that the business side of the ABJ analyzes the metrics, and Browns stories get clicked on and read by way more people than Zips stories. Sports is an emotional subject, and most folks posting here are emotional about the Zips. Emotions can cloud logic. Business success is built on logical decisions. The ABJ is making logical decisions on the balance of Zips coverage vs. Browns coverage based on readers registering their votes by what stories they choose to read. In order to understand and appreciate this, Zips fans need to try to temporarily suspend their emotions and try to look at it from the business side. GT is doing his best to try to help us understand this.

I am just curious to know how you determine the correct coverage amount for zips athletics. Do people write to the ABJ and complain of excess zips coverage and a lack of OSU and or Browns coverage? I may be incorrect, but I typically am of the mindset that people for the most part let the media tell them what is newsworthy and in demand. The lack of zips coverage in their hometown market gives the public a perception that it isn't newsworthy or worth paying attention to. You may say "their record stinks so nobody cares" and I will follow that up by saying that the program probably wouldn't be in that situation if they had the backing of their alumni and community.

For an Akron based publication? No. 1. Perhaps No. 2 to what local HSs are doing. I like the sound of it, sounds like effort is being made...and I greatly appreciate it...but there is really no excuse as to why a newspaper in Pennsylvania is publishing a story about the Zips senior running back (who's been in Akron for 5-years) that has never been reported on before. Correct me if I'm wrong of course. LeBron coverage, completely agree with. Akron grown talent. Does not merit as much coverage as the Browns? Ridiculous. I'm a Browns fan and there's way too much coverage on the Browns. We are over saturated with Browns coverage. Between ESPN (free) ABJ (not free) The Plane Dealer (not free), TV news (kinda free...but not) and millions of other sources (just about ever paper, news and other source in NE Ohio)...If you go to one, you've been to them all. There's hardly anything original to ABJ Browns coverage that you can't find in every other source covering the Browns. Example: I was gone for a month over the summer. I asked a friend to collect my papers. By the time I came home, I was really interested to look at what was going on in NE Ohio sports. Almost every single above the fold story in the sports section was Browns...the narrative changing almost none from day-to-day. I was embarrassed as a Browns fan, and as a subscriber. I'm literally reading the same over-reported nonsense from day-to-day. The amount of OSU coverage on the other hand...ABJ is an NEO based newspaper. Why it's committing such valuable space, energy, time and resources to a team that isn't in the area, that is already overly saturated as well with reporting, is beyond me. If there's actual numbers and data to support those decisions that I am ignorant to, then please prove me wrong. Until then the downsizing of mainstream media outlets and newspapers, to me, is a red flag to me. I'm not trying to attack George, but I'm the consumer. I like the ABJ. I want to read the ABJ. I buy the ABJ. But I continue to get signals that I shouldn't be. If it's just going to be the same stuff I can read anywhere, why should I even bother. I'm saying that as a daily reader, not a Zips fan. I want to read about NEO things more than not NEO things. I want to read about Akron and surrounding communities, more than NEO in general things. I want something real, not the same non-sense. I can't speak for anyone else here, but my criticism largely comes from frustration. Frustrated that I am constantly bombarded with the same non-sense over, and over, and over again., Day after day after day, While not being able to get the information that I want. I know the standard caveat is "21st century technology" changing media...which is absolutely true...but it seems that media sources are far too busy trying to play catchup with the joneses (reporting about OSU, the Browns etc...having blogs...etc.) than really becoming an "only" or "exclusive" source of information on one thing. A jack-of-all-trades, yet a master of none.

So does it have to be either Kansas, Uconn, Duke OR Bryant, Coppin State, UAPB, Bluffton? Isn't there anything in between? Can't we get A10, MVC, Horizon teams to play a home and home with us? Like DIG pointed out, the MTSU series is a great one. Why don't we have a few of these with similar teams? I also appreciate the fact that kids want to win, but they also want to be in the spotlight and want to play in full arenas. So we may need to think about what these schedules are doing to our already dwindling fan base.

Agreed. In terms of the Zips scheduling top teams, or at least teams from top conferences to come to the JAR, it might even be next to impossible. Why? 1. The University is swimming in red ink. The amount of money it would take to get a team from a top conference to come to the JAR to play and forego a game at their own arena would probably be pretty expensive. The kind of expense the University can't afford right now. 2. The teams that would provide a big name and a chance for a win are at schools where their basketball team is probably losing money for their school in a game where there is a risk of a road loss. Because of that, it is impossible for them to give up a home game for a loss of money at the JAR. Other teams can't afford to come to the JAR and play. There is a difference between "needs" and "wants". We live in a country now where it is hard for people to understand the difference, or maybe they can't tell the difference because we tend to always get what we want. I want the basketball team to play better teams at home. I also know the University is well into the red ink and this isn't what it needs right now. They spent a lot of years in the "building process" giving themselves what they wanted framed in the idea that it was what the University "needed" to move forward. Now they need to pay for it. Since the need to pay for it outweighs the want to do something different, the need wins. Enjoy this schedule. It's what the University needs right now.

Thoughtful article in USA Today about the offseason tragedies that struck Akron football and the Bowden family, and now the triumph the Zips seek this season. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/mac/2014/09/03/college-football-akron-zips-terry-bowden-jeff-bowden/15028799/

Just saw a piece on Blake Bortles where he showed all of the D-1A offer letters he got out of high school: UCF, WKU, Purdue, Tulane and Colorado State. That was it for the eventual third pick in the draft.