kreed5120

They see Akron as an 8-5 team that lost a lot of starters to graduation and by pundits opinion hasn't had great recruiting classes. I can see how an outsider might have them this low, but I feel the Zips will finish better than 8th in the MAC, which is where they have us ranked.

I was very vocal in my displeasure in Akron's OOC scheduling. With games secured against Creighton, Louisville, and UTEP combined with whatever mid-majors we face in that Savannah tournament, the schedule isn't shaping up to be half bad. I'm going to hold out congratulating them until I see the full schedule, but I'll be the 1st to give them their due if it's well deserved.

Thinking they would give a dime for a new arena...

Maybe I don't understand the differences enough, but if the Zips intend to not play him this season, why would they elect to blueshirt him over redshirting him? I guess my question is what advantage does a blueshirt have over redshirting or just putting him on the roster?

I don't know how well his havoc defense will translate to the NBA game when an increasing number of teams have 4+ ball handlers on the court at any given time. I certainly can't see him succeeding in Houston where the star player won't buy into his defense 1st mentality.

I don't think we will ever see radio completely die. I still listen to talk radio on my commute back and forth to work. I also will listen to games on the radio when I'm driving. No denying that with music playing devices and sirius the customer basis is shrinking. I expect radio to become more syndicated with fewer local stations.

I never said there wouldn't be demand outside your hypothetical power 4. All I said was there would be 9 conferences instead of the current 10. The ACC would collapse and every other conference would move up 1 spot up on the totem poll. There are 128 FBS teams so if you are saying all conferences are going to have 20-25 teams, that means there will only be 5-6 conferences total. Even if 20+ team conferences transpire, I feel I'll be long dead. Your entire concept is based off hypothetical TV dollars, but what you fail to realize is people are dropping cable. ESPN is currently gutting its staff because its subscription revenue is way down. The more people you add the bigger the pie gets, but also the more slices that need to get cut from it. Schools like OSU, UM, Bama, Texas, Florida, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Penn State, LSU, and Georgia would be better off breaking off from their current conference and forming a mega conference. All these teams pull the weight of their respective conferences and forming a conference that includes all the powerhouse names ensures you don't have teams like Wake Forrest, Vanderbilt, Purdue, etc. who offer the conference little, but get the same benefits as the teams that earn the conference the money.

I'm fairly certain that was part of the agreement when UMass joined for football only. Obviously basketball takes precedence over swimming or wrestling so if it's a sport that we need the MVC to meet the minimum team requirements, it could backfire if such a demand makes them look to join a conference elsewhere,

The biggest argument to play FCS over FBS is to get out of the athletics arms race. We are already committed to paying for a stadium and a field house regardless if we stay at FBS, drop down to FCS, or just drop football entirely. The cost of 20 extra scholarships and higher coaches salary to play at FBS level instead of FCS level is more than offset by guarantee games and TV money. You also have to take into account the additional cost of travel to play in MVC over MAC. I don't feel Wichita State will be staying in the MVC much longer. Without them in the conference, I'd concede the MVC is still a better basketball conference, but I don't feel it would be that much better to be worth our time to make what would just be slightly above a lateral move.

If the ACC literally lost every team besides Boston College in your crazy scenario, the conference would be better off just folding like the WAC instead of trying to find 9 or more teams that it would need to add. At that point Akron would be better off staying in the MAC.

I just can't see how a big conference would accept Akron when it can't consistently draw 10k+ for football and only fills it's 5500 basketball arena a few times a year. If Akron could develop a legitimate following and the community and students embraced the athletics, it could grow into something as the Cleveland-Akron-Canton area is a very large market. I just feel Akron has to prove it has fans before we get accepted over safer expansion picks.

I could see how Akron would be an attractive option if it had the full support of northeast Ohio. The problem is like it or not NEO is Buckeye country. I don't see that changing anytime soon, even if we were to join a larger conference.

If we could get Creighton plus 2 other similar like teams, that would be great. Our regular season tournaments don't really expose us to quality competition this year.

I see him going round 4 or 5. I don't feel 22 teams send scouts to Akron's pro day if they felt Brown was a borderline UFA type of player.

Playing quality opponents in the regular season helps prepare you for when you face quality teams in postseason. Playing cupcakes that you can easily beat by 15 doesn't.

Of course you have to win. If you notice, I also said a MAC team would need to get 2-3 signature wins. Those would have to be OOC wins as MAC opponents don't really provide marquee wins. You can't win them, if you don't play them.

Had Akron had a Monmouth type OOC year this season, I feel the Zips would have been sitting in a really good position to receive an at-large. The MAAC outside of a couple teams is very bad. The MAC despite not really providing the opportunity to pick up marquee wins, isn't a bad conference. Do I think Akron gets an at-large anytime soon?...No, but I don't feel it is impossible for a MAC team to get one if they schedule aggressive OOC and pick up 2-3 signature wins.

I see the Zips did ~$1 million in ticket sales and another ~$2.3 million in donations (not sure how much of that were true gifts and how much of that was the Z-fund portion of season ticket sales). I don't see how Akron could possibly make a profit paying $40k or whatever it costs to get a team like Bethune-Cookman to play here plus pay game day staff . The majority of the paid attendance at those games are STH and I don't feel many, if any, would cancel their season tickets because Akron played only 14 home games instead of 15. I can't see how it would cost the Zips $60k+ for a 2-3 day trip West Virginia, Michigan, Indiana, etc.

I feel we have a talented QB and play makers on the perimeter. I'm still nervous as this offensive line is going to need to gel quick.

I agree with much of what has been said, but I'd like to add playing Bethune-Cookman or South Carolina State doesn't prep us well for when it comes time to play a VCU, Notre Dame, or Gonzaga at tournament time. The Zips aren't accustomed to playing against opponents that have big, fast, strong, and highly skilled players. Sure a MAC team might have a few of those guys on the roster, but they don't have a roster full of them. It's easy to see why the Zips have been overwhelmed at the big stage.

We lost to a 17-15 Austin Peay team at the JAR in 2009. I'd say that's a cupcake.

But any fan knows if you play enough cupcake games year over year, you are bound to lose at some point.

I'm not disputing that there aren't some teams out there that won't play us, but I feel it's overblown. If we made enough calls, some big name program would bite on facing a recognizable program that consistently finishes in or around the top 100 every year. It's a numbers game. If I had my eye on 1 girl at the bar then went up to her to get her number and was rejected, that doesn't mean that no attractive girl in the bar would be willing to go on a date with me. It means I should try my luck with another.

Yeah, it would be no different than my face after I found out we lost to NIU in the regular season. Fans got over it. 5 years from now the only people that will remember it are the Texas-Arlington fans.

Buffalo won the MAC tournament last year and had a host of challenging OOC opponents this season. OU managed to schedule Oklahoma, Memphis, UMass, and St. Bonaventure the year after they made the sweet 16 and were returning DJ Cooper. Why are big names programs scared of Akron, but not other MAC programs? Something smells fishy.