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The Zips got into the top 16, taking the final spot. They will host the winner of Pittsburgh vs. Cleveland State on Sunday.

Congratulations to zip recruit Jackson Herbert for being named first team All Ohio in Division 1. https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/high-school/soccer/2022/11/14/emma-stransky-copely-ohio-ms-soccer-olivia-sipsock-medina-division-i-player-year/69637918007/ Wadsworth's Jackson Herbert, Copley's Colin Link and Hudson's Tyler Travis were first-team All-Ohio in Division I.

I certainly hope that they are not on future schedules. If they move to the Big East, they will have 11 league games. There is going to be a ton of travel if they move to the big east so Northern Illinois should never be on the schedule. 11 league matches means that they will only have 6 non league games. I would prefer to see the zips maintain their rivalries against Big Ten Teams. I would keep Cleveland State on the schedule as long as zip Alum Sinisa is coaching there. My preference would be Ohio State, Michigan State, Cleveland State, Wright State, Duquesne and Indiana. The zips need a few fairly certain wins in non-league but they also need to have strong RPI matches. If you want to toughen up the schedule, drop either Wright State or Duquesne...and add a Pitt or West Virginia. I know that the zips have a long history with Penn State but that is another tough travel destination. my two cents

I am pleasantly surprised that the Zips got a top 16 seed. The committee looks like they mostly followed......the RPI 2 exceptions in the top 16 seeding.... Indiana was 20 in RPI......they got a 13 seed. Tulsa was 17 in RPI......they got a 15 seed. If I was the Penn coach, I would be furious.... Penn was 13 in RPI....the seeding committee.....put them in the draw as the #30th ranked team Penn has to host big Ten champ Rutgers on Thursday If they win, they will go on the road to play #3 overall seed Syracuse brutal draw for #13 RPI team.... Vermont was just barely ahead of Akron in RPI...at #15 the committee put Vermont in the draw....as the #22 team other differences in seeding Syracuse....is #1 in RPI....they got 3 seed Kentucky is #3 in RPI....they got #1 seed Stanford was #8 in RPI....they got a 5 seed Clemson at 5 RPI...got #6 seed Lipscomb...was 7 in RPI..got a 9 seed Oregon State at 9 RPI....got a 8 seed Committee liked FIU...12 in RPI...got a 10 seed no respect for IVY League...Penn got hosed Cornell was 10 in RPI...they got a 14 seed SMU was 14 in RPI...they got bumped up to an 11 seed Marco Milanese and his UNC-Greensbor teammeates were 11 in RPI....they got a 12 seed As we all know, the Zips have played both Pitt and Cleveland State this year Alas, the zips had Shooky and Dyson Clapier available when they played each team The zips led Cleveland State 4-0 at halftime and played their backups for most of the 2nd half..(4-0 win) The zips played at Pittsburgh and battled to a 3-3 tie. Most zip fans at that game said that the zips were "homered" by several poor calls by the referees. Let's hope that Cleveland State plays their best game of the year....and battles Pitt for 90 minutes and 2 overtimes. Go, Zips !!!!

WVU fired its AD Shane Lyons (father of our former long snapper Cameron Lyons). Neal Brown is probably gone IMO. There's only 2 jobs I could see Joe Mo leaving for, WVU and Pitt as they would be P5 programs that are closer to home. With our season, I don't think he'd be a candidate at WVU, so we can probably cross them off of being an option for the next 5 years.

Corcoran on a leave of absence. Not sure when she’ll return. Zips come back to win it in dominating fashion in the 2nd half! 85-69 the final. They held UD scoreless for about an 8 minute stretch from the third quarter into the fourth. Camp looked excellent running the show. Ball State transfer/Ali Ali girlfriend Sydney Freeman now plays for the Flyers. They were picked 10th of 14 in the preseason A10 poll. After a ton of turnovers in the first quarter, the Zips only had a handful the rest of the entire game. Zips finish with 23 assists on 28 made field goals, shooting 53% from the field. More of this please!

After last year, I think the "sky is falling" card needs to be reserved until we're down by more than 1 possession with 1 second to go in a MAC tournament game. Anybody who has seen the team in practice - thoughts on Ryan Prather getting time as a freshman? He was pretty highly touted with offers from schools like Wichita State.

He played a few minutes at the end of Miss St. Didn't do much, but didn't have much opportunity either. His build kind of reminded me of Garvin Clarke offhand, not that that means much. He may get more opportunity if we continue to struggle to score. Hasn't been in rotation the first 2 games.

Penn defeated 14 seed Cornell during the season. Cornell went on the road and defeated Syracuse Cornell was 10 in RPI and beat RPI number 1 Syracuse on the road Cornell went 4-2–1 in a pretty tough Ivy League. Cornell’s only non league loss was to Vermont. In addition to defeating Cornell, Vermont played Syracuse to a 1-1 tie. From my perspective, Cornell, Vermont and Penn look pretty strong. The Ivy League deserved better treatment by the committee. Dropping Penn from 13 to 30 is awful.

I try to reserve my "sky is falling" until about 1/3 into the MAC schedule!

When it comes to assigning seeds, RPI is only one of the factors used by the committee. Do you really think Vermont and Penn are better than a healthy Zips side? That's the problem with RPI, a lower-ranked team upsets a higher-ranked team due to a red card, injury, suspension, bad call, broken-down bus, etc.... and all of the rankings are impacted. Also, travel is another factor. The committee tries to keep travel to a minimum, especially in the first few rounds. Does Vegas have College Cup odds? That would be interesting to see!

Kingsford went off also with an injury against WMU, but he seemed to be okay. He was warming up on the sidelines trying to get back in. Hopefully he can go on Sunday, we'll need him.

A win is a win, but Dayton is dreadful this year.

To provide equality for women, an equal number of athletic scholarships has to be available for both men and women. So, D1 schools that have football have to offer more women's sports teams to make up for the large number of football scholarships. You can't exempt football and provide equality.

Oh, and I don't want to neglect to publicly note how incredibly impressed I was with their style of play and team-ism today. I'll be honest that I was skeptical and prepared for the worst coming off a couple years where Jordan Dawson really seemed to dominate the ball & play of the team. With Dawson being so dominant I wasn't sure what kind of team we really had and what kind of coach Melissa Jackson really was. Today I thought we were playing better team ball than we had been the last couple of Dawson years. Camp really looks more than comfortable and competent running the show & Reagan Bass is great. Layne Ferrell is a 6-2 guard who can hit threes and handle the ball & Faith Stinson is going to be another load down low to complement Bass.

On the bright side I thought she looked confident. She definitely didn't look out of place, or sheepish at all. After Christmas break I'll bet she starts to contribute even more.

Looking at Gaucho Dan's latest RPI rankings as of this post and the Conference AQs (only WAC has yet to be decided), RPI rank for 48 teams falls out below. I can't see the committee not seeding a B1G or Big East team in the top 16. Indiana will likely seed ahead of Akron based on our head-to-head loss. Not sure how the committee will justify moving Georgetown up but probably will. Do we play WAC winner or Cleveland State on Thursday? I honestly have no clue but thought it would be interesting to look at this.

I wonder what the reaction would be if Irons and Arselanian or Castaneda and Freeman got kicked out of a MAC Championship game after Coach Mo or Groce spent the entire game yelling at the refs.

As Clark mentioned, the guys we definitely need to step up the most right now are Hankerson and Hunter. They were brought in to score, no doubt. Hopefully the issue is that its just taking time to gel. I think that's a safe assumption for Hankerson as he's a proven MAC player. Hunter is a little more up in the air as he was well regarded out of high school, but didn't do much at Ole Miss. The reports of him tearing it up at practice are encouraging as a stretch 4 with his size would be tough for a lot of the MAC to deal with. At the end of the day, we stand with a great mid-major win, and a disappointing loss to a team we were an underdog against, one we clearly didn't play our best game. We will likely have more disappointing losses as the season goes on, it's the nature of college basketball. Lets just hope we start to gel so we can win a lot more than we lose!

For the most part, walk ons who are deciding to hang it up after this year. They likely all have their degrees due to the extra year of Covid eligibility.

Okay, I must admit I turned the sound on and I am enjoying the commentary. It was great hearing Groce give commentary during the game and it was not coach speak. I feel like I am watching the game with 3 compulsive gamblers. When Akron missed the open layup that would have won them the over bet their reaction was hilarious. I am really disappointed with Clark. After making his first 3 I think he missed his next 4. He also gave up an offensive rebound. Of course all of the team is struggling from the field.

"We are officially into rock fight territory." Can we get these guys to call our games? Enjoying this on barstool.tv!

I created a new thread for the awesome new Mens Soccer conference news.

Ryan Kopay officially signed.