kreed5120

Are you volunteering to pay for it? The University certainly is financially strapped at the moment.

I view it more as a consolation prize. Obviously I'm disappointed to not make the tournament. My thing is football routinely sends 5-7 teams to the postseason to not play for a championship and fans seem excited about it. The regular season champ deserves some sort of postseason.

10-11 seed would place us ahead of multiple at-large teams. That's not going to happen. Realistically the best that we can expect is a 13 seed. The OOC schedule was solid, but we've lost to every quality opponent we faced. The bigger issue is the MAC is historically bad. The worst I've ever seen it. Using today's NET rankings, not a single MAC game that we have on our schedule would be classified as a Q1 or Q2 game. All 18 games would be Q3 & Q4. Historically speaking we're going to have a bad night and lose to one of these cupcakes. You have to go back 70+ years to find the last time a MAC team went undefeated during conference play.

There is no need for an additional tournament. The NIT just needs to be expanded to 48, like the women's tournament is set to be this year.

I'm slightly more optimistic than that, but mid-major slots will certainly be at much more of a premium than they were before.

What makes you think that? The conference regular season champion no longer gets an auto-bid.

It's a nice test, but the season will still come down to 3 days in March. The MAC is a complete joke this year. Even with a win we'd be 1-4 in Q1 & Q2 games. That won't get us a NIT bid, let a lone a NCAA at-large.

The selection process is still done by the committee. It's not like they take NET 1-4 and make them the 4, 1 seeds. Then make 5-8 NET teams the 2 seeds and so on. The NET rankings are just a tool they use. They still take other things into account, like injuries.

I still cant take WMU seriously. Good on them for getting to 4-0, but I feel it's more of a testament of how bad the rest of the MAC is. Someone has to win these 200+ vs 200+ match-ups

I saw Akron dropped a spot in the NET rankings despite winning by 17. I guess it just goes to show you how bad the MAC is this year.

Maybe if they focused more on basketball and less on hockey their program wouldn't be a dumpster fire

That makes two of us

Even that's not enough. Coaches leave, players transfer when you reach that level of success. I don't really have the numbers in front of me now, but I doubt Buffalo is drawing better now than what they were before Oats had them winning a tournament game. A program like St Pete's had their 5 seconds of fame, but I'm guessing attendance isn't materially up that much since their run. Every year a new Cinderella emerges, but they quickly fall back to irrelevance. Very few ever are able to make something out of it.

The MAC is the right fit for Akron. FBS football limits Akron's ability to move anywhere. No conference would ever accept Akron as a football only member given the state of the program and going independent really isn't an option. Also, refs aren't conference exclusive in college basketball like they are football. The same guys officiating an OSU-Indiana game on a Saturday are the ones who also officiate an Akron-Ball State game on a Tuesday.

I feel for some it's just easier for them to make excuses for why people aren't coming than just admit people aren't interested in Akron athletics. Akron needs to find a way to enhance the experience to make people want to show. There is no cost, outside of literally paying people to show up, that will pack the JAR on a nightly basis. I feel northeast Ohio just doesn't care much about basketball. Just look at how terribly the Cavs were drawing before they drafted LeBron in 2003. There was literally rumblings that the team might move. Look at how poorly they were drawing when LeBron was in Miami. Look at how bad attendance was when he left for LA. I literally paid $15 for a lower bowl seat that had $5 preloaded. Fans just started returning when the Cavs got good. Nobody around here even cares much about college basketball until March. This Is very much a football first area that are more fair weather fans when it comes to anything else. We just don't have that basketball culture of a Cincinnati, Indiana, Kentucky, etc.

I'm not sure if Vegas knows something that I don't, but I'm seeing Duquesne listed as 1.5 point favorites. I get it's at home, but that doesn't sound right.

CBS Sports has a deal to show a MAC game every Friday. With the MAC being as bad as it is (9 teams with a NET of 200+) that just doesn't give many options for quality games.

I actually thought GA for $15 was the normal price in previous years. They probably discounted them for winter break and OOC play. It's why in prior years I just bought season tickets. At $4 a ticket it's cheaper than going to a high school game. The breakeven is literally attending 4 home games.

I should have been more clear. It was Whitesell who the program spiraled downwards on. He started off decent when he still had Oats guys, but progressively deteriorated as Oats players graduated and transferred. I don't have an opinion on the new coach.

It shouldn't be that big of a surprise. When you reach a level of success where schools like Arizona State and Alabama come calling for your coach, eventually you will replace them with a less than stellar hire.

The majority of the MAC ESPN+ broadcasts are biased. At the end of the day these broadcasters are both fans and employees of the University they represent. I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

Boldin's brother is head coach at Lake Erie College so the NEO connection is already in place.

Hearing this makes me feel old.

You probably have to Venmo them $10 as well to cover the parking.

There is no resell market for Zips athletics because there is little to no demand for it. Multiple times I've just had Zips tickets handed to me from complete strangers when I was waiting in the ticket line. When I was a Zips season ticket holder, I would have gladly given the tickets away for games I couldn't attend, but finding someone who wanted to go was next to impossible. I've seen several posters here offer tickets for free. Perhaps when I get tickets in the future, I'll do the same. Outside of this forum, I don't know anyone who wants to go to Akron games.