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Under the Big East Update, someone asked if the Zips could still get a top 16 seed if they lose to Georgetown on Thursday. I thought it would be good ....to look at where the zips currently stand. The zips were 29 in RPI at the start of the day. Western Michigan losing in their conference quarterfinals to Evansville ...badly hurt the zips in RPI Cleveland State lost in their conference QF's to Green Bay. The zips are currently 32 in RPI. ...as of 11:45 pm on Sunday night Don't get me wrong.....Based on the last 11 games, the zips deserve to be a top 16 seed. Sadly, IU-Indy and Temple are dragging them down now. If the zips beat Georgetown and Providence to win the big east tourney, they definitely deserve to be a top 16 seed. But , it will be tough to jump from 32 into the top 16. Let's look at the non-league schedule of the zips ....and current records and current RPI I think that Ohio State and St. Francis are the only teams that are still playing in their conference tourneys Ohio State is 1 in current RPI....will play Michigan for conference tourney title Western Michigan is currently 30 Notre Dame is currently #47 and will not make the NCAA tourney When the Zips played VCU, VCU was #13 in the country VCU ended the year 4-6-7 and is currently #59 in RPI Cleveland State finished their year 7-7-3 and is currently #89 in RPI Temple ended their year 5-7-3 and currently #108 St. Francis is still playing ...they are 7-6-2 and are at #114 Wright State ended the year 7-9-2 and are #141 IU Indy finished with a record of 5-9-3 and are currently #156 The 48 team tournament field is comprised of 22 automatic conference bids and 26 at large bids. I used Gaucho Dan's conference RPI rank.......to look at the 22 automatic conference bids https://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/Conference RPI Rank he ranks the conferences 1 to 22 I will list the conferences from 22 to 1........ I think that there are 10 conferences that will almost certainly have only 1 bid Metro Atlantic is ranked 22 4 teams left in the semis Rider 85 ; Iona 99 ; Siena 139 Marist 158 Ohio Valley Conference is ranked 21 4 teams left in the semis SIUE 76 ; Lindenwood 128 ; HCU 164 ; UIW 174 Northeast is ranked 20 4 teams left in the semis...including a zips opponent Mercyhurst 111 ; St. Francis 114 ; LIU 130 ; Fairleigh Dickinson 138 Atlantic Sun is ranked 19 4 teams play in Semis Monday night Central Arkansas 137 ; N. FLA 152 ; Stetson 157 ; Fla Gulf Coast 185 Patriot League -is 18....4 teams left Colgate 116 ; Bucknell 123 ; American 125 ; Boston U 165 Big South is ranked 17 High Point at 39 will play Gardner Webb (66) for the conference title WAC is ranked 16 San Diego State 46 ; Seattle 58 ; San Jose State 166 ; Utah Tech 172 Horizon League is number 15 Oakland 101 ; Milwaukee 103 ; Green Bay 106 ; Robert Morris 122 Southern Conference is ranked number 14.....they are a long shot to get 2 teams into the tourney Furman is 69 in RPI and they will play ETSU (#105) for the league's automatic bid North Carolina Greensboro lost on PK's to Furman.......Greensboro is currently #36... I would think that they would drop during the week......and not get an at large bid Big West is ranked 13 #35 Cal Santa Barbara will play #65 UC Davis for league's automatic bid if Santa Barbara does not win, will they get an at large? Ivy League is ranked #12....they will definitely get 2 teams... if one of the 2 underdogs wins, they could get 3 teams in semis = #5 Penn vs. #77 Brown #19 Cornell vs. #41 Princeton West Coast Conference is ranked #11 they do not do a conference tournament...but 2 teams will likely get in San Diego is the favorite to win the league...they are 6-1-0 and play #124 Loyola Marymount in last regular season league game San Diego is currently #21 in RPI Oregon State is currently 5-1-1 ...they play #86 Portland in league game Oregon State is currently #20 in RPI American Athletic is ranked #10 semis - #34 Charlotte vs. #97 S. Florida #67 FIU vs. #98 Memphis Charlotte probably needs to win the tournament to get in American East is ranked #9 If Vermont does not win the league, will they get in semis - Vermont #28 vs. #84 UMBC #43 New Hampshire vs. #62 Bryant Atlantic 10 is ranked #8...they will get at least 2 teams in...possibly more semis - #11 Dayton vs. #29 Fordham #38 George Mason vs. #49 St. Louis UMass is currently #22 in RPI their season has ended as they lost on PKs to St. Louis in conference quarters Missouri Valley is ranked #7 If Missouri State does not win the tourney, that will really hurt teams on the bubble semis - #7 Missouri State vs. #82 Evansville #40 Drake vs. #60 Bowling Green Western Michigan is currently #30....their season ended 2-1 in double OT to Evansville Coastal Athletic is ranked #6 again, bubble teams...desperately want Hofstra to win Tourney final - #4 Hofstra vs. #73 UNCW Big East is ranked #5....bubble teams are rooting against St. John's semis - #16 Providence vs #71 St. Johns #10 Georgetown vs. # 32 Akron Sun Belt is #4....bubble teams want either Marshall or West Virginia to win the league semis - #13 Marshall vs #64 James Madison #15 West Virginia vs. #63 Kentucky Surprisingly, the Summit League is ranked #3 for conferences the final will be played on the 16th #2 Denver will play #37 Kansas City if Kansas City were to upset Denver, I would guess that they would move into the 20's for RPI Denver is obviously a lock for the NCAA The big Ten is #2 rated as a conference league final - #1 Ohio State vs #27 Michigan Indiana is currently #18...they lost to Michigan in conference QF Maryland is currently #24 in RPI.....they supposedly have a lot of players injured...they lost 6-0 to UCLA in conference quarters Washington is currently #25 in RPI...lost to Ohio State in league semis UCLA is definitely a bubble team...they are currently #33 in RPI....lost on PK's in semis to Michigan as you would expect, the ACC is ranked #1...... they probably expect to have 10 teams in the tournament lots of upsets in their conference tournament #9 conference seed Virginia and #11 seed California are in the semis semis - Virginia finishes 9th in league...they are currently #6 in RPI and will play #23 Wake Forest #14 Clemson will face #26 Cal in other semi Pitt is currently #3 in RPI...they won regular season but lost in quarters today to Virginia Duke is currently #8 in RPI...they were 3 seed in conference tourney...but lost in quarters today to California SMU is currently #12 in RPI...they lost on PK's today to Wake Forest North Carolina is #17...they lost in tourney round of 16 to California Stanford is currently #9 in RPI.....they lost in quarters to Clemson I don't think that NC State deserves to be in tourney...but their RPI is currently higher than Akron NC State is 31....they lost in round of 16 to Virginia I will post this now....will try to do a 2nd post ...before I call it a night

I hope everyone is smiling because it was a great weekend to be a Zip fan!!! The Zips won their first home basketball game and I thought Ohio Wesleyan played well and made it an enjoyable game to watch. The next night I went to the Zips soccer game and saw them win their first tourney soccer game in 6 years. I then checked the Pacers box score and Freeman is getting into the game for the Pacers. And the football team did not play this week so no fumbles on that front. Be happy Zip fans!!!!

I'll disagree. I don't think anyone connected the "pouch + kangaroo = female" dots until many years into Zippy's existence. I never heard of it until maybe a decade ago. And I'm old. I hate that our mascot wears a pink tutu at Halloween weekend football games and dresses overtly feminine at others (tiaras, etc.). It is a bad look. If people within the University are militant about promoting that Zippy is a female, just having a pouch is good enough. Mascots should not be marsupial Barbie dolls. Not a popular opinion in 2024, but what can you do.

Ok.....you have read all that.... like me...you probably wonder where the cutoff point is.... let's find out together I am not a predictor.... for this purpose, I am going to say the highest RPI team(still playing) wins the conference tourney (yes, I know that means that I list Georgetown rather than Akron)...... but I need to be consistent I am going to use San Diego as winning their last game and getting bid....they have lower RPI than Oregon State but they should beat LMU 22 conference automatics 22. Metro Rider 85 21. OVC SIUE 76 20. Northeast Mercyhurst 111 19. Atlantic Sun Central Arkansas 137 18. Patriot Colgate 116 17. Big South High Point 39 16. WAC San Diego State 46 15. Horizon Oakland 101 14. Southern Furman 69 13. Big West Cal Santa Barbara 35 12. Ivy League Penn 5 11. West Coast San Diego 21 10. American Ath Charlotte 34 9. American East Vermont 28 8. Atlantic 10 Dayton 11 7. MVC Missouri St 7 6. Coastal Athl Hofstra 4 5. Big East Georgetown 10 4. Sun Belt Marshall 13 3. Summit Denver 2 2. Big Ten Ohio State 1 1. ACC Virginia 6 Ok.....I am wearing down....but let me try to list the 26 at large in ascending order please let me know if you spot any logic errors 1. Pitt #3 2. Duke #8 3. Stanford #9 4. SmU #12 5. Clemson #14 6. West Virginia #15..........WVU is the first non ACC team listed 7. Providence #16 8. North Carolina #17 9. Indiana #18 10. Cornell #19 11. Oregon State #20 12. UMass #22 13. Wake Forest #23 14. Maryland #24 15. Washington #25 16. Cal #26 17. Michigan #27 18. Fordham #29 19. Western Michigan #30 20. NC State #31 21. Akron #32 22. UCLA #33 23. UNC-Greensboro #36 24. Kansas City #37 25. George Mason #38 26. Drake #40 last 5 out Princeton #41 Wisconsin #42 New Hampshire #43 VA Tech #44 Northwestern #45 Princeton and New Hampshire would probably move up if they won in the semis and lost in the finals

Somebody should suggest this to the AD. Oh wait...

How many here remember when we had our last NCAA tourney run and the U had a couple of nice watch parties at the JAR, with cash bar and all? How nice would it be to do again for semi-final match Thursday night? Great for students, fans, casual fans.

Then why are we slashing our budgets so severely if he was so good at bringing in donors? Why does football have $0 NIL? Kaulig and Wenz were around long before Guthrie, and will be around long after. I don't see giving Charles any credit for not offending them over the past three years.

Let’s just steamroll Georgetown and then we won’t have to worry about it

One of the top priorities of an AD in this day and age is fundraising. So, Guthrie may have his faults, but bringing in/maintaining donors seemed to be a strength of his and our next AD needs to excel there as well

Agreed. I think: 1) this may be our strongest opponent of the season; and 2) he may be the key to the season.

I love our new A logo. I wasn't happy about switching from the Z as I had been wanting the U to use a Z logo for about 20 years. However, I loved the new A logo the instant I saw it. As far as letter logos go I think it's perfect. Having said that I think we should use the Z as a secondary logo on occasion. My favorite Akron logo (if it ever was an official logo?) was the old 1980-90's cartoon Zippy

We'll need a healthy Harris to hang with St. Mary's.

I would even pay $5 to go if it keeps me from buying flosports

I know it's kind of a tired topic with the logo, but this one is indeed my favorite. I also liked the A-roo but it wasn't really instantly recognizable as a kangaroo. Looked a bit too much like a donkey. But the Z is so unique, there are only two colleges in the country that start with a Z and I don't think anybody would confuse us with Zane(sville) community college nor Zaytuna college. There are over 100 institutions of higher learning that begin with A, and more than a dozen Division 1 football teams. For a logo you want something that is instantly identifiable, connected and has some uniqueness to it. I thought the Z was fantastic. I hate the rationale of going back to an A to be more connected with the community. I think that was a load of crap. Long live the Z!

Unless we ditch football completely, I don't envision any further cuts in that program. More likely elimination of a few other programs. I'd name them but I'm not interested in getting pelted with tomatoes from the fans of those teams on this forum.

I do wonder how much of the "progress" was a result of Guthrie and how much was a result of donors. Without guys like Kaulig and Wentz, where would our programs be? Who was the driving force behind the basketball practice facility? Who is making sure Groce gets paid? It makes complete sense that Guthrie would leave. He and Miller were attached at the hip. Miller brought him over from Green Bay. Once Miller stepped aside, this was just a matter of time. I do give him credit for finally ditching Adidas for Nike. At least we have that...

Cutting is the easiest thing to do. I'd be interested in knowing what the plans for revenue growth are besides destroying the football program. We seem to have destroying the football program down as it is the only successful thing we do with the football program. Looking for new ideas.

I'll see you Jim Tressel and raise you a Jim Grobe. Seriously, Tressel is 71 years old. Luke has a few more million dollar paydays in his future. Akron ain't one of those places.

Apparently there isn't a board in charge anymore. For the last couple of years the board has been terrible as most of the people "in charge" couldn't even attend as fans because they were working the events. When I was a student no one really went to games because they were members of the rowdies. It was more just a student section and not anything organized. I said it at the start of the year, if we beat OSU students will show up as they see the team is good. But as we have seen the last few seasons, we lose or draw early big games, people just stop showing up. I think basketball would be a better way to see if students actually care about being part of the "rowdies" or just a student section

A cartoon kangaroo should absolutely be part of the marketing efforts with a direct appeal to children.

That's the bigger annoyance to me - insisting on Zippy being female rather than androgynous.

For sure! Otherwise, our season is over. 🤣

PCCC is the only team in the nation to not lead a game this season.

His 👆(yes, his, Idc) sweater should be blue though (couldn't find that one)

I thought for sure...that you were going to mention...that we no longer had a narcissist as our Athletic Director.

Can we go 2 weeks in a row? Tuesday - MBB Wednesday - FB and WBB Thursday - Big East Semifinal

Six minutes of first half time for the Pacers tonight

Riq doesn't need any seasoning of how to act like a pro. Most NBA picks are just kids with no idea how to act.

I think Gray will be okay. He didn't turn the ball over a lot at Cornell. I suspect he's just been pressing. I predict he'll be a fan favorite by the end of the year.

I suspect Joe may want to stay more now.

Is it possible that Joe wants to stay. Either Joe or Guthrie.

At the end of the day, I judge Guthrie on where the athletic program is compared to where it was when he came in. I see no progress.

I witnessed all those teams you are speaking of. The game has changed at a remarkable pace. All the way from youth football to the pros. UA should have never entered the arms race of major college football. We were never going to be able to compete, nor did we have the willpower. Even in those bygone eras we were always a basketball school. If you want to place blame, put it on Bill Muse. That started this pipedream.