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NCAA tournament to go to 76 teams. All the 16 seeds and half of the 15 will play in the opening round. Just another excuse to shove the automatic qualifiers down further so they can shove a few more P4 teams in. I hate college sports more everyday.

This one hurts. I will never forgive John for poaching our guys.

Worth noting just 71 players have filed as early entry candidates for NBA Draft 2026, the lowest total in over 20 years. With the player pool much smaller than usual, maybe there's a shot? I would think a summer camp invite, at least.

According to an email from Coach Embick about Day of Giving, the 2026 home schedule features matches against the following (potentially more as he said they are finalizing some dates). Dayton, Army, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Creighton, Georgetown, Xavier, Butler and Robert Morris

This is a fantastic home schedule. We will see some of the best collegiate soccer in the country. I am so glad we got out of the MAC and into the Big East. We need big crowds for each of these games to cement our reputation as a near impossible place for visiting teams to win.

Article from the Beacon on the Spring game - https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/akron-zips-football-coach-joe-095601341.html

I talked to a coach about him. He said the player was brought in for depth and development. This staff does an impressive job in mining and growing under-developed players. Another interesting part of the discussion was that the staff rates itself on the performance of the players they bring in. Regarding JUCO's they have a hit rate of about 50%, but on high school players they are near 90%, especially in O linemen. The obvious problem is that we are developing high school players for other programs with money. It is what it is until Congress changes things.

Zips add Buddy Hammer Jr.

I think we also need to equally keep in mind that some of the other MAC programs are catching up. Even without a decline in the Zips program, the competition is getting closer as they learn and adapt to the NIL era, an area where UA was in the forefront and got a head start on the rest of the MAC.

I definitely expect a step back this season, but I expected one had Groce stayed, too. Tavari, Shammah, and Amani are all really tough to replace. With that said, I do think this team can be competitive in the conference, if for no other reason than I believe in Coach Ford.

No. Willis Jr. missed the entire season. Who knows if he's the same player as he was at WMU, and that was during a really bad year for the MAC (23rd or 25th ranked conference when he was averaging double digits). A 6'2" without a 3P shot is an interesting add as the MAC will seemingly be as tall as it has ever been next season. Not impressed with either of Kent's or Toledo's Portal classes so far. BG & Balls have had the best Portal classes along with Akron IMO. Simon thrives in the Portal but can rarely get the pieces to fit together on the court. Balls looks like they'll have a pulse for the first time in years. I can't tell what Toledo, Kent, Miami OH, and Ohio are doing with their classes. Akron is getting bigger and more physical while maintaining athleticism. This final piece Akron adds will complete the roster and I'm curious to see who that is. If they can add another 6'7"-6'9" Forward or a sniper from 3 (G or F), look out.

He has impressive film, that’s for sure. We might’ve gotten a steal. If Duncan stays at LB, then I think we’re done there. If not, I imagine one more will be added.

Thanks, I thought that was a done deal. His failure to sign now makes sense. It is weird in that before the college money, players could not wait to make money and left college early. Now they want to stay in college to make more money than they ever could as a pro.

The Zips could play a little Ten team on the Road.

https://akronzippedup.substack.com/?utm_campaign=pub&utm_medium=web A superb edition of Zipped Up! Lots of good stuff. Clears up a few things for me.

Players have 5 years to play 5 years of college ball from the time they graduate high school or the time they turn 19 - whichever comes first. No more redshirts (which is a good thing).

On the defensive line regarding the high school players that they brought in last year that sat and were not allowed to get any reps "to develop" going into next season ... Brown - Demery is 6'4 about 330 lbs had a sack/force fumble Saturday and is going to be hard for anyone to stop at the zero gap; Watkins is about 6'4 240 and looks raw but has been getting a lot of reps, he returned the fumble that Brown-Demery forced for six; Bivens is listed on the roster at 6'0 255 although I think he is much heavier; and Kavals is listed at 6'5 265; he is 6'6 and is between 275-280. Not sure if they are going to move him to tackle or leave him at end, (last year on scout team he played both and did well; he has long arms and is quick and athletic) he played end in high school and qb so he is athletic. Should be interesting to see if these guys can contribute right away this year.

I checked in to see how our three most recent Zips have been doing. After starting just one of the first four matches for Crown Legacy, Ashton has started the last four matches in a row. Austin FC 2 have only played 6 matches so far and Stefan has appeared in all 6 matches including 4 starts. One assist. Mitch Budler has not appeared yet for Pittsburgh but has been on the bench for 7 of the past 8 matches.

Zips clinch the number one seed at Firestone!

I feel it's telling more and more international players are coming to America now that NIL is a thing. Earnings very widely my league. There are probably only a few international leagues paying better than college basketball.

Hopefully one for Akron.

Coach Ford was having breakfast locally today with Coach Dambrot, moles say. Would have been fun to eavesdrop on that chat.

I am about as big of a soccer fan as there is, and my enthusiasm for the World Cup is modest, at best. I initially intended to go to several games in at least two different cities; Now, I won't be attending any. Politics have ruined it for most people already. I think the residual enthusiasm for the program from the Elite 8 is more significant.

Hopefully, coming off the World Cup and the Zips Elite 8 run last year, there will be some decent crowds.

I was on a Caribbean cruise last week. There was a large group of passengers at the pool one day who were wearing outfits that had both the US and Canadian flags intertwined. Everyone at the pool ended up loudly singing both countries national anthem. It was a fun afternoon.

I think it's possible to be argued that we can become as good or better in March, but I'm with you we will almost certainly take a step back during the regular season, particularly November/December. It will take us some time to be firing on all cylinders. Last season it just took us 1 half of basketball to work out the kinks. That's not going to happen this year.

I do believe that the team in Columbus.......is still recovering from the beatdown last fall.

Spurred on by the posts from Zips 1991 and Sgt Zip I watched snippets of the Zip LAX team vs EMU. Elaine Jones has one exciting team. They started 5-0 against EMU. Sienna Hinchcliffe is the real deal. She can flat out score anytime she has the ball. If the ladies tighten up their D they have a real chance against a superior UMass club. I hope the fans travel to Pittsburgh to give them a boost. Go Zips!

I am actually with you here. I think Amani is better than any C we have on the roster currently, but our production outside of him was very minimal to non-existent. We got 25 minutes of good to great C play then 15 minutes of pretty bad play. Theoretically Barre/MMK (I expect both to improve), Burton, and even Hammer (all of who I expect to see play minutes at the 5) should give us more depth in the front court. Also, gives us more versatility to adjust our style of play depending on the opponent. We can play Barre if we want to get bigger. We can play Hammer if we want to push the tempo. Burton something in-between both. I would expect more consistent 40 minutes out of our C even though none of them are probably getting All-MAC honors.

Zips win in 2OT!!

He looks to be the perfect roster add at this point. No matter if he starts or comes off the bench. At minimum, he should be an 8pt, 6reb, 20-minute guy with ability to deliver much more at any spot along the baseline. Those kind of players are hard to find.

Technically a senior as he did 2 years of JC, but with new NCAA rule of 5 years to play 5 I think he would have 2 years left.

Barre 6'10" Burton 6'10" Christion 6'9" Hammer Jr 6'7" MMK 6'6" White 6'6" Pence 6'6" Halligan 6'5" Henderson 6'5" Jones 6'5" Head 6'3" Staveskie 6'1" Wilson 6'1" Perkins 6'0" Average height is 6'4". Last year's average height for the 9 main contributors: 6'3" (this is with Tavari and Sharron listed at 6'0" according to ESPN.com). It may not seem like much but that 1"+ is a big deal. This year's Sweet 16 featured an average contributing roster height of 6'5" - the tallest Sweet 16 ever. Akron was almost 3 inches shorter on average vs the standard of teams we strive to compete with. Better yet, this roster is more versatile in their skill sets. As much as Hardman saved our butt at times last season, he was largely a one-trick pony. I'm not seeing anybody like that on this roster at this point in time. Safe to say I'm excited.

Fingers crossed it's a stretch four who can get physical defensively and rebound🤞

Connections made with high school recruits can pay dividends 2-3 years down the road now.

I would think twice about recruiting another HS player ever again.

I feel it's a given several teams have stepped up spending, as have many other mid-majors in other conferences. We had been spending 2x-3x compared to most other MAC teams in prior years. That margin has probably narrowed. It's still challenging to project with any certainty which team is winning the portal war in the MAC. Pretty much every MAC team is relying on D2, international, or low minute P4 drop down players to fill major holes. Some will produce. Others will be hype, but flop during the regular season

He redshirted, but I am also not saying Akron is recruiting over anyone else because we got him. We have no idea what players like Wilson or Henderson for Ball State will do in the MAC.

Senderoff lands Chansey Willis, who scored 28 at the JAR when he played for WMU. He always reloads, despite the odds.

That might have been turgent and busty. But just a guess. 😉

Softball won two more yesterday and are now 19-4 in the MAC with 4 conference games left. 2nd and 3rd place both have 14 wins but have more games remaining so I don't think we've quite clinched the regular season title but are getting very close.

Cj Nunnally signing with Falcons....

Falcons got Two Zips...

Malcom signed with the Falcons...

Right now, I've seen two of the current Zips who combined played 20 minutes a game last year. I've never seen Dustin Ford be a head coach. There are still roster spots to be filled. As such, I'm not quite ready to make predictions.