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Most people on the board are very negative about the zips chances to be one of 25 at large selections for the NCAA tourney. As of this morning, the zips are currently number 24 in Gaucho Dan’s RPI calculations. I want to say that Gaucho Dan is a college soccer rock star. He keeps that site updated constantly. College soccer fans owe him a debt that can not be repaid. 23 conferences send their automatic qualifiers to the NCAA tourney. The Ivy League, PAC 12 and the West Coast Conference do not have conference tournaments. By my count, 12 of the 23 conferences have expected winners…that are ranked higher than the zips in RPI. Let’s go …conference by conference to look at the expected winners. PAC-12 1. Washington is currently ranked #1 in RPI I looked at other teams in the current top 40 RPI for each league 2. Oregon State 27. UCLA has a record of 9-6-1 They did just beat Oregon State yesterday 3-2 36. Stanford has a record of 6-6-5 Stanford has a record of 2-4-3 in the PAC 12 Stanford has one league game remaining against an awful California team If Stanford were to lose that game, they could not make the NCAA due to a losing record. Washington and Oregon State each have 1 league loss and 1 league tie. They each have 1 game left ….against each other Winner gets NCAA automatic bid Loser obviously claims one of the 25 at large spots Big East 3. Georgetown Other teams in top 40 19. Providence 9-3-4 23. Creighton has a record of 8-7-2 Their regular season is over after losing to Villanova in tournament quarterfinals Creighton is ranked ahead of Akron in RPI. Will NCAA selectors choose a team with a 8-7-2 record? 26. Villanova 11-6-1 30. St. Johns 10-5-3 37. Butler 7-8-3 Their season is over after losing in tournament quarterfinals. Despite being 37 in RPI. They can not make NCAA due to losing record. Atlantic Coast Conference 4. Pittsburgh (Pitt has lost this year to Akron and West Virginia) Other teams in top 40 5. Clemson 6. Duke 14. Notre Dame 10-5-2 will play this week in semis 20. North Carolina 11-6-1 Regular season over after losing to Clemson in conf. QF 22. Va. Tech 10-5-3 (one of 2 teams to beat Marshall this year) Regular season over after losing to Pitt in conf. QF 34. Wake Forest 11-6-1 Regular season over after losing to Duke in conf. QF 38. Louisville 10-6-1 Regular season over after losing to Notre Dame in conference QF IF NCAA decides to put Wake Forest and Louisville in tournament, that would mean that there are 8 ACC teams in tourney and that they would have received 7 of the 25 at large bids. I don’t feel that Louisville deserves a bid. Wake Forest should be a bubble team. American East Conference 7. New Hampshire This is a conference where Akron really needs to root for New Hampshire to win conference tourney. Next highest rated RPI team is Vermont at 53 with an 11-4-2 record. New Hampshire will obviously get an at large bid if they do not win conference tourney. American Athletic Conference Tulsa is currently #8 in RPI SMU is the next highest rated RPI team at 48 with an 8-4-3 record. Root for Tulsa to win conference tourney. Colonial Athletic Hofstra is currently #9 in RPI Other teams in top 40 35. Northeastern has a record of 11-5-2 Conference USA 10. Marshall has the highest RPI in the league Other teams in the top 40 12. Kentucky – they have not lost this year…have 3 or 4 ties 18. FIU - last week, they beat Marshall 4-1 Early in the year , Bowling Green defeated FIU 2-0 31. Charlotte has record of 10-5-0 Marshall, Kentucky and FIU will obviously all get into the tourney even if they don’t win the league. Charlotte is a bubble team if they don’t win the league. Atlantic 10 conference 11. St. Louis ….has had a phenomenal year Other teams in the mix 32. Rhode Island 10-4-2 42. VCU 9-7-2 Mid American Conference 13. West Virginia is the highest ranked MAC team Other teams in the mix 24. Akron 39. Northern Illinois - regular season conference winner 42. Bowling Green 51. Georgia State In my view, the NCAA will definitely not take more than 3 teams from the MAC. As an Akron fan, I want Bowling Green and Georgia State to lose in the conference semis on Wednesday. If Bowling Green or Georgia State wins the conference tourney, Akron has no chance of getting an at large bid. West Virginia will get an at large bid. I would think that NIU …with a 4-0-2 record in the league and the regular season winner …will get an at large bid…despite a low RPI Big Ten conference Indiana is surprisingly the highest ranked team with a 16 RPI In the Big Ten semis , 3 seed Indiana faces 7 seed Northwestern and 1 seed Penn State plays 4 seed Michigan Other teams in top 40 21. Maryland – regular season is over after losing in conference QF to 6-8-3 Northwestern Maryland has record of 12-3-2 25. Penn State 11-6-1 record Lost in regular season to Akron and West Virginia 33. Michigan – current record of 8-6-3 Missouri Valley Conference 15. Missouri State Highest ranked other team in conference is Loyola Chicago with an RPI of 83. Root for Missouri State to win Conference tourney Western Athletic Conference Grand Canyon currently has an RPI of 17 Seattle has a 12-7-0 record with a current RPI of 43 West Coast Conference Santa Clara currently has an RPI of 57….but they will receive the automatic bid with a current 5-0-1 league record There is no conference tourney. They have 1 league match left against Loyola Marymount. In the coaches poll this past week, coaches had Santa Clara at #21 Other teams in the mix 29. Portland has an overall record of 9-6-1 Currently tied for 4th in league with 3-2-1 record Loyola Marymount is currently 41 in RPI and has overall record of 12-4-1 and is 4-2-0 in league Let’s say that the conference tourneys go as expected for the conferences above….we know that there will be upsets !!!! 13 teams with automatic bids Washington , Georgetown , Pitt, New Hampshire, Tulsa, Hofstra , Marshall, St. Louis, West Virginia, Indiana, Missouri State, Grand Canyon and Santa Clara Who will get the other 10 conference automatic bids? Ivy League – no conference tourney. Princeton has 1 league match left but they have locked up automatic bid with 6-0-0 league record Princeton RPI is currently 69 Other team in the mix Cornell is currently #28 in RPI. They have an overall record of 11-3-1 and are currently 4-2 in the league. 2 league losses are to Princeton and #68 Yale. (Akron beat Yale in regular season). Yale has a 4-0-2 record in league and can’t win the league but they could help Akron by beating 6-0-0 Princeton in final league match. Big South Conference – Campbell is highest ranked team at 54 Big West conference - Cal Santa Barbara - at 88 Horizon Leage – highest ranked teams are Oakland at 92 and Cleveland State at 111 MAAC - Marist is highest ranked team at 66 (former zip Henrique Cruz had been a good player for them) NEC league _ LIU at 93 Patriot League – Loyola Maryland at 86 Southern League - UNC Greensboro is the highest rated RPI team at #45. In last week’s coaches poll, UNC – G was rated #25. Former zip Marco Milanese has been a big part of their team Summit League – Denver has an RPI of 76 Atlantic Sun - #40 Central Arkansas will face #52 Lipscomb in conf. final If there are no upsets, and the 13 teams from the major conferences win as expected, what are the RPIS of the teams fighting for one of the 25 at large selections? Oregon State at #2 Clemson at #5 Duke at #6 Kentucky at #12 Notre Dame at #14 Fla. International at #18 Providence at #19 North Carolina at #20 Maryland at #21 Virginia Tech at #22 Creighton at #23 - again, their record is 8-7-2 Akron at #24 In this scenario, there are 11 at large teams with higher RPIs than Akron. Would the NCAA select 14 teams with lower RPI’s than Akron? Penn State at #25 -if they beat Michigan and Indiana, they would jump over Akron in RPI. Indiana would get an at large bid Villanova at #26 UCLA at #27 Cornell at #28 Portland at #29 St. Johns at #30 Charlotte at #31 Rhode Island at #32 Michigan at #33 Wake Forest at #34 Northeastern at #35 Stanford at #36 (has to win last game to finish above .500) Butler at #37 (not eligible for NCAA) Louisville at #38 Northern Illinois at #39 Loyola Marymount at #41 VCU at #42 Seattle at #43 Lots of soccer to be played in last week. Zips fans need to root for Pitt to win the ACC and for Penn State to win the Big Ten. Zips have regular season wins over both and those 2 teams winning…would greatly help the zips RPI and tournament chances. Also, zips fans want to root for Hofstra, Tulsa, New Hampshire, Missouri State and Grand Canyon to win their conference tournaments.

Kornheiser's response - "What was he...3-24? That's a pretty easy one to defend."

This is 100% it until someone proves otherwise. Akron is my alma mater and my only college team, and I've been to a grand total of 2 games in the last 3 seasons. I have not once stayed for the full game. It's just not fun to show up and spend $$ when you know your team is going to get blown out of the water and it's a wasted Saturday. Let me set up my stream on the Ocho and then I can turn it off at halftime and get crap done around the house when we're down by 4 scores. Hell, I'd show up even if we consistently kept games close, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Winning is the key to high volume attendance whatever that means. Akron needs to make the campus a center piece of activity in NE Ohio and the football team can be part of it. This is one of many examples I could make. On football Saturdays, organize math, engineering, debate club competitions, etc on campus for (insert grade K-12 here) kids. As part of participation, kids and their families get free GA tickets to the game that will be scheduled at a time close to the end of the kids competition. To me it's more than getting kids to show up for a game. It's about getting community activity at the University and a football game being part of the activity so they want to apply for admission. Professors, grad assistants and students could be judges for these events. There are many great professors, grad assistants and students who could humanize the school for a young kid. Wouldn't it be great if we invited a distinguished alumnus in something like engineering to judge an event? So many possibilities. I'll get off of this by saying we could be doing more than we currently are to not just promote the football team, but the University in conjunction with the team. We can do much better. EDIT:. If we don't do things like I described above, we have abandoned the whole purpose of building a stadium on campus and could have just thrown one up in the grass lot by the Rubber Bowl.

Attendance at Akron games could be significantly increased if a ticket not only got the holder into the game but also entered the holder into a cash lottery. The standard prize could be some nominal amount - say $5,000. But if the Zips win a game as an underdog the standard amount would be increased by a factor positively related to the point spread. (e.g., win as a 3 point dog - prize goes to $15,000; win as a 6 point dog - prize goes to $30,000). Of course, to win the ticket holder must be in attendance. Some of our most highly attended games could be when we are huge underdogs. And don't tell me this is illegal; haven't we given away scholarships to students in attendance in the past?

I love Cam Reece's reaction as he heads back down the floor. As I recall that was one of two big slams by Tribble in that one.

I'm sure Kent will bring a lot of fans on the 20th.

Zips fans have walked out of InfoCision stadium a loser against every D1-A (FBS) opponent we've played for the past 4 calendar years (sadly, no fans attended the epic 2020 BG win). And, we've played some lousy opponents. If Ohio State lost every single game they played at the Horseshoe, how many fans would be lining up for year #5 season tickets? We've been outscored 1,351-640 the past 4 seasons. Our fans get giddy if we play a competitive half of football against bottom-dweller opponents. The Zips aren't just losing...they have been an embarrassment for several years. Until they sustain some level of football respectability, who in their right mind would forfeit a beautiful Saturday afternoon and pay $100 (family of four) to watch them?

You certainly don't want to bring in a kid whose history demonstrates will be a problem. However, if you bring in altar boys and stress character in the program aren't you essentially preaching to the choir? Don't bring on obvious headcases and criminals but they shouldn't hesitate to give a kid a chance who doesn't fit into their ideal character profile and who might most benefit from the character lessons the program can bring.

ULM used it and went from 0-10 to four wins in year one of a rebuild. It can be done. No known discipline issues have followed, FYI. By the standards I have seen floated around here, we would not have had Jojo Natson, arguably one of the most exciting Zips to watch in recent history, and a guy who now wears a SB ring. I absolutely believe in second chances.

If I were AD, at this point I would want players who can put the football team on the map. You do that by winning games, winning conference games, winning records in the MAC, and eventually winning games against famous P5 programs. That is the only thing that will put Akron on the map in Ohio State's shadow. If (and that's a big IF) that were established, butts in the stands, football fans flipping over to Zips football on the tube, THEN we can aspire to Notre Dame GPA numbers. But nobody is tuning in to CWRU football to see who the brightest football player is.

Not only will I be rooting for the Zips to get the W, but will be very happy for Coach Rodriguez with a win. He's a come a long way both personally and professionally, so a W as a head coach would be a great addition to his story.

It's also a win for society to take an at risk kid, bring him along and have him graduate. This is partly why we should expect out of taxpayer funded universities. MAC football programs should benefit the athletes, students, alumni, fans and general communities where they are.

I go to Moneywise for all of my important sports analysis. I get all of my financial advice from the Sporting News.

💯 Just Win, Baby 💪💪

It doesn't. The posting isn't to help. It's to irritate. Also, I read through it and it's just click bait garbage. The only criticism of the stadium was that the football team was bad.

So Tom Arth goes to a JUCO and provides Dollard with an FBS college scholarship and the kid earns a starting role. When he gets arrested the first time, does Arth kick him off the team? No, he lets him remain on the team while he works his way back through the University’s disciplinary protocols. All the while Arth praises Dollard for doing the right things so he can return and petitions the disciplinary board for his return. After 8 months in limbo and a semester plus summer session work in the classroom, Dollard returns for one day of practice and goes down to Kent and fucks up again. Finally, Arth kicks him off the team right? Wrong, most likely he would have kept him but GUTHRIE dismissed him. And this is Arth’s failure to guide him down the right path? I am in favor of removing Arth or any coach based on his won-loss record but his only failure with Dollard was not his “interaction” with the kid (re: support at every turn), but not having the balls to kick him off the team instead of the AD! IMO, the next hire will be a minority, I just hope it’s based on the individual’s coaching success ie. a David Shaw or Mel Tucker and not the belief that only a black coach can guide at risk kids down the right path.

Keith’s father Sid passed away yesterday. It was always a cool to see him around and to see their father/son relationship and the influence it had on Keith as a coach. Check out this cool photo of them that was posted on social media

We don't have much room to talk. We thought a new football stadium would elevate our football program...

They would have stormed Polsky's

1-0 Broncos on a PK