kreed5120

It's definitely a factor, even if its only a small one. I kept cable a long time just because I enjoyed watching ESPN before bed. I would also listen to ESPN Radio on my commute to work and back and while sitting at my desk at work. I cut back my viewership (and eventually just quit watching/listening all together) not only because of the politics talk but also because of the constant TMZ journalism. I give zero sh!ts about which player is hooking up with whose girlfriend/mom/sister. I can't stand the constant making news stories based entirely off speculation and zero facts.They got away from real reporting and talking about the on the field/court product. I can't be the only one that felt the same.

I'm not going to go as far to say last season was a complete failure. I hate the if you're not 1st, your last mentality. I'd give last season a B. We fell short of what I expected, but still had a pretty good season overall. Had we not got run off the court against UTA i'd probably of given it a B+.

6-7 teams get priority over 5-7 teams. In a system where ~60% of the teams make a bowl with fewer and fewer schools scheduling FCS opponents, its statistically improbable for a 6-6 or for a 6-7 team to not make a bowl.

I doubt they know where they would be going this early. I imagine they would be getting these passports more as a just in case scenario.

I like the long-term outlook for the team, but this season will most likely be a rough one. We are thin at about each position and we will be asking a lot of unproven players to play big minutes.

Fair or not TV ratings and ticket sales is what drives bowl match-ups. An 8-5 Iowa will generate more viewers and ticket sales than a 11-2 Toledo.

Glad to hear he is having success. I sometimes grew frustrated with this shot selection, but I could tell he always gave 110%. He should have a successful career in whatever league he ends up in.

As did I in my detailed explanation I provided you, but it still doesn't change the fact you're here claiming your opinion is more right. We're just are using different measurable.

And I would love to see this happen. It would certainly silence many of the critics for the time being. Like I said the way to silence nay-sayers is winning and winning often. I imagine very few people would be critical of a 9 win season.

Of course you don't agree. I've seen your posts all over this board. Your opinion is somehow always rights and everyone else is always wrong. There isn't much objectivity in that... We may have outperformed expectations up to this point this season but that's only because expectations were incredibly low to start with. My and many others expectations when Bowden was hired 5 1/2 years ago was that we'd be competing with the Toledo's of the world to be the top dog in the MAC by now. By those standards he's failing. Perhaps you are content consistently having a 5-7 to 7-5 football team. Others and I want to see 9 and 10+ win seasons. We play in the MAC East which is perhaps the worst division in all of FBS. Getting to 9 wins should definitely be feasible.

And how many 20+ wins seasons did we have in basketball from the period of us joining the MAC until we hired Dambrot? The right coach can make all the difference.

Being able to beat the cupcake is much better than being the cupcake like our football team has been for the past 10 years...

There are two sides to every story. I've seen posters making excuses for why we lose. We gave up 48 points and 626 yards and there was a poster who stated the game would have been closer had a few bounces gone our way. Seriously?! These nay-sayers, as you like to call them, are people who want to see Akron succeed. They want to see Akron be perennial MAC contenders the same way NIU and Toledo are. What frustrates me is the apathy among Zips fans. It seems to me many posters are content just being a 6 or 7 win team who when the Zips lose by 3+ touchdowns says oh well that was against a good team. I want to be the top dog. I've been critical of Bowden as I've lost faith in him being able to be that guy who elevates Akron to those heights. I will be a happy guy if I'm proved wrong and I assume those other nay-sayers will feel the same. I don't feel I was critical of last weeks win but I did state that we weren't going to win too many games where we are out gained 2:1 in yards. More times than not the outcome will be closer to the Toledo game than what it was for the WMU game. There is an easy way to silence the nay-sayers, win and win often.

I don't think, or at least hope, anyone is happy with Saturday's result. Just because people have lost faith in Bowden doesn't mean they want to see Akron not succeed.

I don't expect us to win too many more games where we are out gained 2:1 in yards. The offense will definitely have to step up its production this week if we hope to win.

To me I'm just not okay with having a perennial 5-7 - 6-6 football team. I want a real MAC contender and I don't want to offer him a long-term extension until he shows he can do that. Perhaps this is the year he elevates us from being a mediocre MAC team to contender. I hope that's the case.

I want to get to 6 wins before I start looking seriously at bowl destinations.

How I'd like to see the situation play out. 8 or more wins = Bowden extension 6-7 wins = Bowden play out contract or offer 1 year extension and lets see how Zips do next year before locking him in long-term <6 = fired

I think watch parties for NCAA tournament, bowl games, or MAC championship games Akron makes would be terrific ideas. If they can rent it out to bring in some side money by hosting concerts, video game tournaments, or whatever I'm fine with that too. They either haven't tried renting it out or there just hasn't been a demand for it.

I don't watch all 41 games, not even close to that many. I also can say I don't watch the Food Network. I'd probably actually watch more games if there were fewer as I'd view it more as appointment TV. I agree there was a point in the past where there were too few bowl games. I just feel there has been an over correction and making a bowl game has lost a lot of its value. A 5-7 team making the postseason is by no means a decent season. They reward mediocrity and in some cases less. What I'd like is up the win requirement from 6 to 7 and reduce the number of games to ~30. Under said scenario that Zips team would have still made a bowl game,. They just wouldn't have been playing Utah State. Edit: Perhaps as a fan I view things differently from you all. I would just take winning the MAC or even MAC East over winning a bowl game.

Nice of you to try to insinuate what I'm thinking... Nothing you said has anything to do with what I'm saying. I stated Utah State was a 6-7 team because that's indeed what they finished the season being. Math can be hard but if a team enters a game 6-6 and loses, they are now 6-7. Had they beat us I'd say we lost to a 7-6 team. My gripe with the bowl system is completely unrelated to Zips football. Once upon a time making a bowl was a great reward. Now making a bowl game should be bare minimum expectation as over 60% of teams make bowls. We literally have 5-7 teams making bowl games these days. I complain about the NBA playoff system too for the same reason, its too inclusive. At the end of the day competing and winning in the MAC is more important to me than beating some random 6-6 (as you put it) non P5 team in some obscure bowl. I'll take beating the Toledo's and Western Michigan's any day of the week over beating Utah State. For the record I did enjoy beating Utah State. I just enjoyed beating WMU more.

Okay, that one slipped my mind. I agree that win was better.

In my eyes this was our best win under Bowden. We beat a 6-7 Utah State team in a glorified exhibition. This WMU team is a much better team in my eyes and puts us in a place to actually contend for a MAC Championship.

We were starring at a 7-8 win season last year before we lost to Buffalo and Bowling Green. If this game taught us anything lets not circle wins and losses until the games are played. Upsetting a quality team like WMU doesn't mean a whole lot if we turn around and lose to a terrible team like Kent later in the season. Lets just take it one game at a time.