kreed5120

If a break happens, I think it will be the SEC and Big 10 forming a ~40 team league. There are only a handful of programs left outside those two conferences that they would want.

Personally, I quit caring for the random bowls. Back 10 years ago maybe 1 player would sit out a bowl game to prepare for the draft. Now star players skipping the games is far more common. To me it makes the games feel more like an exhibition than a meaningful game.

I think that's the problem. All schools want quality bigs that can play. There is a large surplus of talented 5'10"-6'5" guards/wings. There are only so many 6'10+ bigs who can run the floor and aren't a liability on the court. Most of those get eaten up by the big schools. We were fortunate for the past few years having a 6'7" walk-on who played like he was 6'11, but had the quickness of a wing. Those guys are far and few between at the mid-major level.

A four team playoff realistically was the correct size as most years there are only at most 3 or 4 elite teams. The problem is you had people crying thinking their team was unfairly left out and stood a chance had they made the field. Even with a 12 team field you still had Bama fans crying they were robbed. There will never be a way of pleasing everyone. Edit: Under the current format where Arizona State and Boise State were gifted the 3 and 4 seed over far better teams, the quarterfinal match-up between OSU and Oregon might ultimately be what decides who the national champion will be.

If one wishes to take off their Zips blinders, Kent has by far and away looked like the best team through the first ~10 games. It's more of a product of the rest of the MAC looking like dog crap as Kent still looks very much flawed. How you want to rank any of the MAC teams after that who knows.

I feel that's just college football in general. Most games aren't competitive. Penn State - SMU right now is a blood bath.

Yeah, tbh I expected more out of Okonkwo. I didn't think he'd contribute much offensively, but the highlights that I saw gave me the impression that he would be a force defensively and eat up boards. I guess that's why they call them highlights though. They typically only illustrate the good. Please don't think I'm placing all the blame on Okonkwo. I just thought he would be a big enough defensive presence that he could make up for shortcomings elsewhere. That doesn't appear to be the case so we'll just need more from everyone else. Hopefully Groce can find a solution.

The University acquiring Quaker Square was a huge issue with the city at the time. If I recall correctly the city tried to fight it. Akron had plans for expansion as they thought their 25k enrollment was going to grow to 50k. Instead it collapsed to ~15k. @GP1 is right the University shouldn't be in the business of redevelopment. One can't go back and undue what was already done, but they should look to offload properties and other assets that no longer fit the revised vision of the university. Use the assets to reduce the debt burden and reduce upkeep costs. Perhaps a developer will come in and make the community more attractive for potential students. The University holding decaying assets with little to no use does nothing for the university or city.

I didn't realize the Horizon League started conference play so early.

I feel a lot of the love of the portal is to do with the fact many schools are tired of spending 2 years developing a player to get 1 year of production out of them. It's better to spend a scholarship on someone who can contribute immediately as there is no promise of said player being around in the future. Edit: I feel most coaches would prefer the way the system was before. There is just no longer any loyalty of players to a school. Coaches are forced to adapt to the portal or be left behind.

I don't think anyone would notice regardless. At least not at Akron

That was my thoughts exactly

Replacing NIU with UMass is a huge net positive for hoops.

It could be a rough 2 weeks ahead unless this team learns how to box out and defend.

Yes, we've played 3 teams thus far in OOC play who have a pulse. We lost all three games and were ran out of the gym in two of them. Fortunately for us the majority of the MAC is the same caliber of the cupcakes many here complain about us scheduling OOC.

There typically is a long break this time of year because we don't schedule games during finals week, which makes sense.

I honestly don't follow the Horizon enough to know. My comment was based off them being 4th in the Horizon in NET when I looked earlier in the week.

A middle of the pack Horizon team at that.

Right now Milwaukee has more offensive rebounds than we have defensive. You're not going to win many games when you allow your opponent to rebound 50% of their misses.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some changes in the near future regarding this. Even many of the big schools, who the portal benefits the most, aren't a fan that the portal is opened prior to bowls being played.

Yes, it's interesting because even though this is technically a neutral court game it's not in reality. The same as when the Zips played St. Bonaventure in Cleveland last year.

Mikal Dawson dropped 27 for Marshall in that win. I'm glad to see he's playing well. He never looked the same post injury while at Akron.

Bama wouldn't be ranked ahead of several 2 loss P5 teams if SOS didn't matter. OSU wouldn't be ranked ahead of 1 loss Indiana. Penn State, Texas, and Georgia wouldn't be ranked ahead of Notre Dame. SOS certainly plays some sort of factor. Saying it meant nothing at all is just disingenuous. It just didn't mean as much as you wanted it to, which is fine if you feel that way. I won't argue there. If the committee currently cared only about ratings then Alabama would be in over SMU. Bama has a vastly larger following and would attract a larger TV audience. I don't disagree that the 12 best teams likely aren't in. However, claiming who the 12 best teams are is very subjective. You don't have the large sample size like you do in basketball to more accurately measure teams. More and more conferences are moving to 9 game conference schedules. The SEC remains at 4, but they all play an FCS game so it's still really only 3 OOC games thar you can use to measure them against others.

If that was true then Army would have gotten in ahead of all 2 loss teams. SOS certainly matters to some degree. Maybe not as much as some would prefer *cough Alabama*, but it definitely is weighed in.

This is kind of where I stand as well. The majority of the MAC schools have already gutted the basketball budget to focus on football. We get more return for the $$$ by focusing on basketball since others are committing less time and resources to it. No MAC school is going to sniff the 12 team playoff. Not in this day and age of NIL and freedom to transfer at will. It's still very possible for a MAC school to make the Sweet 16. There is no reason that MAC school can't be us.