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18,000 is the new number. Up 97% you can bet your ass the ABJ won't be talking about that! http://www.hustlebelt.com/2015/12/18/10615302/mid-american-conference-football-attendance-numbers-down-fbs-group-of-five How about EMU? Sheesh!

I get to watch Zips Men's Basketball and enjoy Las Vegas. With some advanced planning, relatively inexpensive trip with non-stop flights. It's a GOOD thing, not to be questioned. Some very nice scheduling in my opinion. Go Zips!

It is strange. There's no "host/home" team either. Just 3 random mid-majors playing in basketball in Nevada.

TB on with Newy Scruggs if NBC Sports https://audioboom.com/boos/3959990-special-guest-coach-terry-bowden

I saw this morning that the Clemson coach was selected as the national coach of the year. That got me to wonder if Jared Embick had been selected as one of the 8 regional coaches of the year. I found out that he had not been selected as one of the 8 regional coaches of the year I suspected that Akron was considered either Great Lakes or Midwest....but I did not understand how a coach from a school in Elon, NC....could win the midwest coach of the year or how a coach from Georgetown could win the great lakes award NCAA Division I Region Name School East George Kiefer South Florida Far West Jeremy Gunn Stanford Great Lakes Brian Wiese Georgetown Midwest Chris Little Elon Northeast Charlie Inverso Rider South Mike Noonan Clemson Southeast Scott Calabrese Florida International West Peter Fewing Seattle I had to go to the players all region teams to determine that Akron is in the great lakes region ....along with Creighton and Georgetown http://www.nscaa.com/2015-nscaa-ncaa-division-i-men-s-all-great-lakes-region you will see 2 akron players on the first team all region, 4 creighton players and 4 georgetown players ( I also find it implausible that Andrew Souders and Victor Souto did not make the top 33 in the region....but I am getting off track) So, the Georgetown coach was selected over Jared Embick and the Creighton coach as the region coach of the year http://www.nscaa.com/rankings/4159/NCAADivisionI/men/PreseasonPoll I then went to the preseason poll to see how Akron compared to Clemson (national coach of the year) and Georgetown (region coach of the year). Georgetown finished 2014 at #5 in the country. They were preseason #3 this year and they finished #8 this year. The regional awards were announced on Nov. 30 so the voters did not yet know that Akron would defeat Creighton on Dec. 5. Akron was not in the top 25 at the end of last year. Akron was preseason #25 and ended this year at #3. Clemson ended 2014 at #11 and was pre-season #11 this year. Of course, they ended at #2. Obviously, Coach Embick , the Georgetown coach and Creighton coach Elmer Bolowich are all great coaches and someone is going to get overlooked with the 3 of them being in the same region. I was greatly impressed by the great coaching job done by coach Embick and his staff this year. Awards or not, Akron has a great, hard working, innovative coach No disrespect to the clemson coach or the Georgetown coach...but I just wanted to say Great job, Coach Embick.

Travis Clark usually has very good sources. With Richie's speed and skill, it is not surprising that MLS is quite interested. If both Adam and Richie decide to go the pro route, I wish them well and thank them for a combined 5 years of hard work and highlights on the Cub Cadet field. That being said, I would be ecstatic to have 1 or both of them return to the zips sideline. Both players have improved greatly during their time on campus. The improvement of the entire team from August to December was fantastic. Early in the year, none of us could have imagined that a back line of Andrew, Danilo, Brad and Nate would hold Jordan Morris and Stanford scoreless for 110 minutes in the college cup semifinals. Goncalo and Victor were also obviously huge factors in the defensive improvement. The coaches found the right personnel and the excellent strategies. I still think that Akron soccer will be in great shape if either Adam or Richie returns next fall. Coach Embick has two top 40 recruits coming in (a midfielder and a forward) and some of you have spoken highly of the young Canadian recruit from Sigma. Coach Embick and his staff have been tireless over the past few years in finding good international talent so I know that they will deliver some additional talent (hopefully, a speedy outside DB and a quick as a cat goalie...We zip fans can be greedy ). I think that Coach Embick's aggressive style should be very attractive to potential recruits. If I were a talented outside back, midfielder, or forward and saw a tape of the Akron-Rutgers game, Akron would be #1 on my college list. Coach Embick has shown clearly that Akron will be a force to be reckoned with on the national scene and that soccer players will improve their games at Akron. Soccer is a hard game and it is extremely hard to get to the final four....but I firmly believe that the wait will be shorter than we think. I feel very fortunate to be able to follow a top notch college program like Akron soccer.