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K-Roo and Dr. Z get it. This is the time when strong leadership is required. Scarborough...Van Horne...whomever...needs to come out guns-a-blazin' and say: "How the F#*k does some wing nut faculty member's uneducated, self-serving opinions get any media traction whatsoever? We are D-1A, we'll always be D1-A, we have a great team this season that will contend for a MAC title. We have a great coach and great kids whom we support 100%. The last 6 years are ancient history. It is time to move forward and get the football program back on a Championship track. Our team this season will be great. Get your tickets now and come down and have some fun." "Furthermore, to address the issue of revenue - our last AD made a horrific football HC hire. We've been politically correct in ignoring this fact for some time....but in light of the shadow he cast over our program, it is time to call a spade a spade. At a time where it was critical to put our collective foot on the gas pedal he single-handedly set our program back 10 years. The hole he put us in was unprecedented, but we are finally out of it and moving forward. It is short-sighted and ignorant to look at the past 5 or 6 seasons of Akron football and InfoCision and say that is our fate. Instead, the football program and this 30,000 seat stadium are our way OUT of our financial bind. That stadium is a way to galvanize the local community, generate revenue, get alumni and prospective students on our campus...it is a sleeping giant that we are committed to awakening in 2015." "There is one reason to drop to 1-AA. That's to save 22 scholarships. But why would we do that? You can't tell me with the facilities you see on campus, the coaching staff, the student athletes...that Akron football can't compete with Bowling Green, K.e.n.t. State, Toledo, Ball State, etc? That's insane. We can compete at the 1-A level. We can, and should compete for a MAC Championship every season. And after enduring and overcoming what Tom Wistercill and Rob Ianello did to the football program, the winning starts now. If you want to discuss dropping to 1-AA, have an educated discussion with me after the 2015 season. Until then, discuss Cate Jenner or deflated footballs or Johnny Manziel or whatever other "sports" topics you "sports" guys discuss for 12 hours every day. Leave Akron Football alone, because, to be quite honest, you know nothing about it."

Man, how fun is it going to be to watch Robotham, Jackson, Williams, and Ivey?

Just sick and tired of acting 2nd class and being a laughing stock. We have met the enemy. And he is us.

I'm really surprised to see that jupitertoo, our resident UA faculty member on this forum who never fails to remind us how superior Ohio University is to UA, hasn't had anything to say about Academic Partnerships. It turns out that OU beat UA to the punch and signed a deal with Academic Partnerships way back in 2008. I would have expected jupitertoo to jump in here and tell us how partnering with Academic Partnerships was yet another area in which OU is superior to UA. I can't really find out a lot about how well the deal is going as I haven't been able to find much recent news about it or even if the deal is still in place. But the original deal was with the OU School of Nursing, and it was supposed to run through the year 2028. So if jupitertoo or anyone else has any information on how OU benefited from the deal and whether it's ongoing, that would be helpful in evaluating what we might expect to happen at UA. For those who might be interested, a copy of OU's contract with Academic Partnerships is available online. It's part of a 2012 story in The Texas Observer entitled Randy Best Is Going to Save Texas’ Public Universities, Or Get Rich Trying. At the end of the story is a world map with markings for all the sites of Academic Partnership's deals at the time the article was written (map link here). On each of the map's site marks you can click on it for specific information about each deal. Clicking on the OU site brings up the Academic Partnership contract (contract link here). Also I just discovered that you can now read The Chronicle of Higher Education story on UA that ZippyRulz linked to by going through Google search's cache feature. It turns out that the UA deal is also going to be for the School of Nursing ("he hopes to generate income by ballooning a popular undergraduate nursing program from a few dozen students to a few thousand"), so that would be similar to OU's deal and make the OU contract worth reading for those interested in fine details. It's a long story that can't be reproduced here without copyright violation. I've now copied and saved a text file for myself in case the cache gets shut down. Anyone else without a subscription who's interested should grab it fast (Google cache link here).

CK for AD??

This would take a "W" out of the win column at the risk of making the team better.

I am not making any assumption of their 'effort' level, but to say teams won't play us is a cop out. You honestly believe high mid majors are 'scared' to play us, yet they will play other teams? Why? On the national scope, what has Akron done to instill any 'fear' into other programs? We are a very solid program, definitely a very competitive mid major. But again, when you are getting ran off the floor by the top tier teams, you cannot tell me that makes other teams scared to play the Zips. I won't say the discussions haven't happened, but I am sure that Akron could get teams to come to Akron but the program also does not want to bring teams in for a loss, even if it would boost attendance, IN MY OPINION. I find it HARD to believe, you could not convince a team to do a home and home with Akron, at a significantly lower cost, then they spend on buying a straight home win against a lesser team. I understand there are other factors as to why a MSU would go to BGSU, North Carolina to CSU, etc..etc.. but in all of the times I have brought this up, I am going from the point of view that you want to try to get people to come to the games. It would be a lot easier for people to want to see more games like they had vs Princeton, even the Penn States, Boston Colleges, Northwesterns, Miami of Florida, etc. Mid-level BCS teams that are at least a NAME, which gets people to believe they actually accomplished something and have the name to get people to come. Much like the USC win last year, which we all know was not a very good team. But hey....if I am a pessimist and you are an optimist, enjoy watching the game with the 100 other people to show up to play a team nobody knew existed prior to the schedule being released because all the other teams were too 'scared' to play Akron.

No thanks. "I'm not focused on dropping anywhere. I'm focused on staying where we are, and being competitive, and having a good team on the field," Mortimer says. Mortimer says getting more people in InfoCision Stadium - for both athletic and other events - is a focus. The University needs to take advantage of the public's new found interest in the program, and market the positives. Information about the program is actually reaching Joe Akron that we always speak of. Now give them the hard sell on the program instead of the BS.

I can't give the faculty douche bag any more exposure in the football forum, so the thread was moved. If people want to try and bring the football program down, they can do it here in the Jokes Forum.

First player I would to profile is the Little Bull. "Bull" as he desires to known by has made a huge jump in his skill set over the Summer. Antino "Ant" Jackson has grown from a twig like stick man into a solid, muscular young man. If you have not seen "Bull" since last season, you will not recognize him. Bull has done the work. His development is stunning. Bull looks like the BEST assist man in many a year. He sees the playing floor and makes excellent ball distribution decisions. Further more, Bull has extended his range to include NBA threes consistently. Bull also is working on driving to the basket. He is fearless often banging against the six-six and taller forwards. Conversely, Bull has improved his already excellent defensive skills. Overall confidence on either side of the ball is more like a senior than a true sophomore. Bull can comfortably play either guard and the wing forward. His best position is at the "two" guard. Playing the point is certainly within his range and may see considerable time on the point. Bull has three excellent seasons before him. Enjoy his performance.