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I look at all those Q4 wins for the Zips and it makes me scratch my head. The names of those programs are far from what I think of as programs that are typically Q4… hopefully a bunch of them build their numbers going foward.

There is a silver lining: Akron has the best facilities in the MAC, a great FBS opportunity for players to showcase their talent, and a competent president/ athletic director. Under Nemer and Goodrich, those advantages will pay dividends sooner rather than later and the only direction to go is up!!

Catdaddy's keeping on top of this but I was also pleased to see the ABJ tracking the fluid situation

Best facilities in the MAC? You need to visit Miami's football building. And before you point to InfoCision, remember that an empty stadium isn't much of a recruiting asset.

Lunardi has us as a 12-seed: https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/bracketology/ncaa-bracketology-2026-march-madness-men-field-predictions?appsrc=sc&RuleNumber=Not Applicable&consent_mode=ccpa

Excellent article on Jason Shokalook. article has many quotes from Jason. https://rg.org/news/soccer/mls-next-pro-mvp-jason-shokalook-road-top-american-soccer

The last memorable EMU game for me was a couple of years ago when Emoni Bates was 1-12 from the field and I think we were beating them by 50 points at some point in the 2nd half.

I like your distinction between playoff and invitational tournament. Let me expand on that... For me to take it seriously as a playoff, it would have to be setup like other NCAA Tournaments where conference champions get an automatic berth. This would discourage all of the ridiculous conference consolidation and ensure that, from the start of the season, everyone has a legit shot of winning the title (however stretched those odds may be). The fact that the ACC Champion (Duke) was excluded while a team not even eligible to play in its conference championship game got into the "invitational tournament" is ridiculous, regardless of other logical justifications.

I'm not bored by college football. I just don't take it as seriously as the people who run it want me to. For example, Friday Im going to see a band call Parks Brothers play. The playoff will be on. Every once in a while I'll look at the screen to see what's going on. The point I'm making is this. As much as they want us to believe it's a playoff, it simply isn't. It's an invitational tournament and the winner is called the National Champion after. To me, they are at the same level of champion as they were when they used to vote for the national championship. They just go about it a different way.

One of my top 5 favorite games at the JAR

Thankfully, college basketball and NHL. The NBA is unwatchable, and beyond the Zips, college football bores me to death anymore.

Maybe the rest of the MAC should go for the easiest schedules possible (provided they win them). Gives us a shot at a real Q1 win.

Thanks for passing this along TennZip. Rarely do you read an article where the interviewed athlete has such mature and articulate comments. Jason is another example of the exceptional quality of young men who come thru the Akron soccer program.

And as a reward for Miami playing that extraordinarily difficult out of conference schedule, they start with cream puff Ball State.

Hopefully our coaching staff can stay in place for the foreseeable future and actually build something at UA. That is the one thing that has held us back. Hiring two of the worst head coaches in FBS history has dug us in a hole that is hard to come out of. Also doesn't help that people in NE Ohio only care about one college football team and it's not us. So there will always be this reputation that the Zips aren't a "real" school and our games don't matter.

So in every tournament where a team wins five or six games, there is also a team that theoretically loses five or six. That team this year is Michigan. Washington beat NC State who beat St. Louis who beat Akron who beat Notre Dame who beat Michigan. Congrats Wolverines!

Student for a day tickets are available in the Student Section. Got my tickets transferred to there.

Josh Hardin was a starter in 2024 and he transferred out. I highly suspcet that was due to Pittsburgh poaching him with huge NIL dollars.

Scratched out serial number on a gun.