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I've been lurking for the past few years, not posting at all and just an occasional visit to the site when I want to learn the real story of what's happening in U of A Sports, since there is no legacy media reporting unless you want to pay for the ridiculous Beacon, although when they do write, Brad Bourneval and Mike Bevin do a nice job. I can always count on @TennZip, @Hilltopper, @clarkwgriswold, @72Roo @Spinand @Blue & Gold to give great insights to the Zips programs. Any-hoo, I wanted to take a moment to recognize both Softball and baseball. I went over to Firestone Stadium this past week and joined the "dozens" of Zip fans and a teeny sliver of administration folk to watch the women play. They made Akron proud, in my opinion. They battled back after a lethargic start and was competitive going forward. Great coaching by Coach Nicholson, and, although not on the level with Miami or Ohio, still a wash with the other three teams. Way to go Zips! And baseball...it may look like it's the same ol' - same ol', but I watched a lot of their games and they too have improved, and Coach Faulds has done a nice job with what he has to work with. The major difference, once again in my opinion, is they need at least another power hitter, and as always, pitching hurt. If they could get two strong starters, and one more closer, they could be in the hunt for a tournament slot in the next two seasons. Anyway, just wanted to post something about the men and women who go pretty much un-noticed on campus and in then news. Go Zips!

Win 6 to become bowl eligible which will create a national “Free Akron” campaign that will shine the light on the ridiculous irony in the NCAA rules.

I watched Goodrich's presser and was underwhelmed. That does not mean I think he is not up to the task. He just didn't say anything. No one in the room was inspired. That was reflected in the fact that only one question was asked from the crowd and that was from Dave Skozen (sp?) our play by play voice. I did like that he emphasized performance. Still there was no motivational vision, no claiming Akron is a sleeping giant or a dream job for anyone on the way up. Of course it isn't, but the faithful love to hear we can have a glorious future. He did offer lots of praise for RJ Nemer. No mention of our high achieving programs like MBB, MSoccer, WLax. But he also didn't mention the problematic ones either. No mention of football, facilities, budget or debt. That's probably a good thing if he doesn't have a clear plan this early in his tenure. I expected more because, like most Zip fans, I am holding out hope for a better future in all sports, but especially football.

Six wins & hypothetical bowl eligibility. Beat KSUcks & Ohio. Hate to say it but maybe the players are individually motivated to play well enough to go earn NIL somewhere else? This sucks.

It's similar to Dambrot's, "All that matters is winning the MAC attitude." It's precisely why he never won an NCAAT game here. The standards were too low. If you are consistently competing for the MACC and half the time winning it, the standards have to be higher, and that entails winning a game or two in the NCAAT.

What about the idea that if a player enters the portal in december or april, the team that picks him up will take on the academic stats of that player from the fall semester. that way if a kid knows they are leaving, they still have to maintain academic quality to get picked up by another team.

I was about to renew my long held season tix. After reading all this I have to ponder. First, I am not in any way defending the so called 'rating system' the NCAA uses. It has never really worked before and as many here have pointed out it is probably even more antiquated now. How do you keep track of the movement from program to program. Schools have different academic standards. On and on. I also see here that some are again mentioning dropping down in level of competition. I assume there are rating systems that apply at all levels of scholarship sports? I have no idea what the new administration's attitude is about the football situation other than it doesn't want this situation hanging around its neck for long. Do they fire Moorehead now. Not likely given the calendar. Do they wait to see how the season goes into October/November? Do they seriously consider overhauling a football program that can't seem to gain traction at the end of this year? Can Moorehead et. al remediate the academics enough this year to buy some time. Or, does Moorehead bow out and move on. OR, does the adminsitration seriously consider a drop down to a lower level of competition in football? Now about those season tix?!

as far as I know, Jen Simonetti is still being investigated??? Top Drawer soccer is reporting this morning that Akron's women's soccer has signed a 3 star rated forward for the class of 2026 https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-player-profile/emma-ogdahl/pid-172642

Can't think of a worse PR strategy - call more attention to the program's academic ineptitude. Great for the program image and U image.

Shammah also received his degree Saturday.

Not trying to 'hype' any team. Just saying take a look at what other programs are bringing in, and how these new rosters look. Yes, most of these teams lost a lot through defection, ejection or graduation. Just saying players these teams are bringing in seem to be interesting pieces. Doubtful any of these teams turn out like the Zips of last season - putting it all together to run through the conference - but, based on in-coming talent (?), the bottom of the league should be higher, the middle of the league thicker, and the top of the league about the same.

I think next year is BG's year

Craig is an interesting guy. He is from Canada and was a hockey player. He is a lot of fun and the players really like him.

One way or the other, the axe of reality is going to fall on most of the G5. The money just isn't there, and even some of the rich programs are sacrificing the Olympic sports to prop up football, which, let's be honest, even at Toledo few really care about it. Front-loading entire athletic departments toward football and basketball while cutting other sports is eventually going to invoke some interpretation of Title IX or spur the advent of new legislation to protect scholarships and opportunities for students who actually go to classes, pass classes, and graduate instead of smoking dope in the elevators of the Exchange Street Residence Hall (Sorry to vent but I had enough of that when I was moving my kid into his dorm room). At this point, as a loyal UA alumnus, I just don't give a damn about football anymore if it's going to be a money-draining, losing embarrassment. Joe must go.

I used to believe Akron could consistently be competitive in football and that was true pre-NIL era. Now our enrollment has shrunk considerably and even programs like EMU are getting 7 figure donations for their collectives. We aren't going to be able to win in a system where our competition is able to pay $100k for a starting OL, but we can only afford to pay $30k (numbers are made up, but inputed to emphasize a point). Unless some massive donors come out of the woodwork, I just don't see how Akron can win, at least to the consistency of someone like a Toledo.

Because there are actual students at Akron who are attending classes and doing assignments in worthwhile majors like; accounting, engineering, finance, computer science, etc. Are you just going to allow anyone playing on a 0-4 win football team get a guaranteed 3.0 in one of those majors when they didn't put forth any effort? Not to mention they will be competing for jobs in those fields with other Akron graduates who put in the time and effort. In fact, even against the TAs who were the ones completing their assignments. Not all majors are a joke and not all players are enrolled in worthless majors. Akron isn't OSU or Alabama. Attending here isn't getting a degree to become an NFL player.

If we were sending 10 players to the NFL annually, like OSU, I might see this argument. Why would we want to devalue our Akron degrees by just handing them to random athletes on a 2-4 win MAC teams who have little to no chance of going pro?

If this was 2014, I get it. But nowadays...how do you even calculate who is credited for a player's graduation after they've been at 4 different schools? We get 40 new kids every season and the NCAA is complaining about them not graduating? Who knew? When Joe signed on, at his press conference he stated "I don't just want kids to get degrees...I want my kids to get meaningful degrees (not just major in eligibility)". That noble goal lasted about 47 minutes, then the portal concept blew up and put the kibosh on any football-academic fantasies. The bulk of today's players are no longer in college for an education. It's a job. Their goal at UA isn't to get a degree, it's to perform good enough to get noticed by a bigger program. Along with the training tables being cut last year, was the academic support staff reduced too?