mrelegazna

It appears it will indeed be availabe for a fee via Gozips/Collegesportsdirect:http://www.collegesportsdirect.tv/liveEven...3&frm_year=2006besides the College Sports Direct website, you can pretty much figure out all live games available, either streaming video or audio, via the following links, which have become indespensible to me:http://mattsarz44017.tripod.com/http://hometown.aol.com/zagsfan2715/basketball2006.htmhttp://www.thegamelive.com

...what the single game Rubber Bowl attendance record is for a Zips game (i.e., not counting Cleveland Browns exhibitions?) Couldn't find it in the media guide.

Did anyone catch this color guy (Ron Brown) say the dumbest thing an annoucer has ever said (seriously) when they were reviewing that UC incompletion?"Now, we know the ground cannot cause an incomplete pass...The ground is the ONLY thing that can cause an incomplete pass!

...and here's a great, great resource for college football on tv and live streaming games on the web, including All-MACcess games:http://mattsarz44017.tripod.com/football2006.html

You know, before every game we get fans of the opponents in here, and for the most part they are gracious and cordial. But this one really takes the cake. This is the nicest opposing fan post I think I have ever read. It made me feel good to be an Akron fan, and has also made a UNT fan out of me. Major kudos, and go Mean Green.

Phil Steele.I'll be here all week. Seriously, I'm not too worried either, although I hope the players don't have a "Bah! This'll be a cakewalk as usual." attitude. Another mitigating circumstance to the BG game is BG committed six turnovers. I think it's safe to say we will not.Come to think about it, is this the biggest football game for Can't in decades? If they beat their rival, they go to 3-0 in the MAC East and they still have Buffalo, EMU and Ball State left to play and likely beat. Their players, coaches and fans - all 24 of them - will be super-hyped up (and hopefully tight) for this game, and we have to match them in intensity. Or put another way, we have to take them seriously. If we do, we should win.If not, I move that we pre-emptively ban Antonio Gates from ZN the second the final gun sounds.

Bump.As promised (sorry it's later than I said it was gonna be...)http://www.sports-central.org/sports/2006/...s_and_poker.phpHalf of my column deals with the NCSU game fallout, and I link directly to Zips Nation. Hopefully that will direct more traffic here and keep the momentum going!

I watched the week 1 Ball State - EMU game on all-MACcess, and the picture quality was good (I have DSL). It seems to be that they are only picking up games that are on TV somewhere (locally, regionally), and streaming that broadcast wholesale, graphics and all. I will definitely be ordering the CMU game as well. Not sure about Zips Zone.

Wow, what a beautiful post. It brings a tear to my eye. You see, perhaps the Penn State fans shouldn't have pointed it out, but it's true: They are going to absolutely kill us and we are poor saps living in a dreamworld if we think this game will be anything but an abject beat-down, with PSU pulling their starters before halftime, just like a couple years ago. It's the integrity and somlemnity of JoePa, however, that allows for such a magnanimous gesture like the post above and permeates throughout PSU fandom. May God Bless you, TheSkyIsBlueAndWhite! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

What were you saying again about a lack of respect?

To our visiting Penn State fans,The line on this game is in the neighborhood of 16-17 depending on where you look. So it's not INSANITY to honestly, legitmately predict that Akron will keep it close, anymore than it's insanity to predict PSU will win by twice the spread or more, which a couple of you have. To be sure, most of us are predicting a close Akron loss with well-thought-out and -written reasons, so I suspect that's why you are mostly picking on the one guy who didn't. The talent gap between an elite school like Penn State and a MAC school is dwindling. It will always be there, and it will probably make the difference in this game, but a close game that's in doubt throughout is very, very possible. A lot of Akron's strengths and experience (like at quarterback and the defense in general) match up well with the Penn State's counterpart units being new starters, and we are not obligated to regard those guys all as awesome superstars in the making. Not saying it will happen again, but lord knows Penn State has needed a rebuilding year or two after losing a ton of talent in years past.Penn State 27, Akron 21.

What's nice is that 10 the 11 MAC games will be broadcast either on TV or on the web opening week, with Indiana-Western Michigan the only exception (You have to live in the proper market to see BSU-EMU though). My source (get ready to drool, by the way, if you like comprehensiveness. To call this a "TV listing" doesn't do it justice):http://mattsarz44017.tripod.com/football2006.html

wow! calm down. that was just my understanding and there is nothing wrong with having a female mascot. personally i think it's kind of cool to be only one of two in the country. I live in Newark, Delaware, not far from the University of Delaware, who are the Fighting Blue Hens. That's right, Hens! And yet, somehow, all the guys around campus aren't mincing little pansies, and they even won the Division 1-AA football championship a couple years ago. So Zippy is, as much as mascots can have a gender, a girl. Who....cares?

Does some one understand this? I don't think I fully do. Does it mean that if we don't hit 15 thou this year, we must for ten straight years? And what if we don't? We lose D1A status? Or we are just "restricted" from bowls? And what does that mean? Barred from bowls, or only "restricted" from certain ones?

I was also thinking how familiar this all sounded (somebody in the original scheduling thread, I mercifully forget who, went off the deep end and said the AD should go to jail for allowing this schedule to go down, and he was serious.)The lateness of our first home game is definitely a bummer, hopefully the whether stays decent into November. Also, just going with my gut here, I don't have any research to back it up...but I suspect that the Wednesday/Thursday games on national television are more of a financial and recruiting boon to the program than having a full stadium (not saying a full stadium isn't hugely important, don't get me wrong)....I suspect it's still better even if the cameras catch those embarrassing shots of empty sections. You've got to get on television. Akron football is a fine product and it needs advertised.

That must be a new thing, I never heard that in my three years in Columbus (campus area).

Z.I.P beat me to it. I don't think anyone outside the Akron area ever says "Akron U." It's a local term to distinguish from Akron, the city, proper.

This is the kind of denial/delusions of grandeur I'm talking about. The Cavs and Chicago/Detroit are on the same plane. They are equal competitors...I know some of us like to pretend that so it is with Ohio State and Akron, but it's just not the case. No one here can argue that Big Ten is significantly more talented than the MAC, and no one here can argue that a MAC school hasn't beaten Ohio State in the better part of the century. That's not the case with the Bulls and the Cavs. That's not the case with the Clippers and the Lakers, or even the Devil Rays and the Yankees....the difference, the fact of the matter is, is greater for Ohio State/Akron.If Ohio State ceased to be tomorrow, I know that a lot of you have convinced yourselves that some of the blue-chippers they sign would instead choose Akron, but they wouldn't, or any other MAC school....they'd go to schools offering them the visibility, exposure, and/or a chance to win National Championships that OSU offered them. I know that there's isolated incidents of students being offered by elite schools and signing with MAC schools, but they are a slight minority to a vast majority...but these are still minority cases and not adequate to prop up a theory of "Ohio State is holding Akron down!"The only example of a school truly raising it's profile from semi-obscure to elite and sustaining in the last 35 years is Gonzaga. They share the Spokane market (a lot closer than Akron and Ohio State, which are in two different markets, mind you).(Pitt and Louisville were mentioned, but Pitt has been competing for National Championships since the 70's and football, and Louisville has for about as long in basketball).Can someone still root for both Gonzaga and Washington State? Well, they play in different conferences...Gonzaga, in spite of their success, has not been asked to join the Pac 10, even though they are outstanding and one-sport admissions to conferences is more commonplace these days) or even the WAC. One rooting for both only would have to make a "choice" when they play their annual battle, and in the unlikely even tthey meet in the NCAA tourney. So based on lack of a common conference alone, of course you can root for both (this is another way the Cavs/Bulls comparison falls flat).Now, that's an example where a school HAS achieved equality (surpassed, even) the high profile school it shares a state with. I don't know exactly how they did it, but I don't think it was because they landed a bunch of recruits that would otherwise be headed to Pac 10 schools, or because students at Gonzaga refused to support Washington State in any way. Really, it's a great example of a)How you can succeed in spite of having a "big brother" at your doorstep." God, I'm not even halfway through my thoughts on this matter but, gotta get back to work....

I am definitely a big fan of both, being from Akron (North '94) and attending Ohio State.To answer your question, I would definitely prefer to see Akron beat Ohio State, for one simple reason: A win would mean so much more to Akron than the loss would for Ohio State. Us Ohio State fans have already seen them win a NC, and will probably see them do it again. They are one of about ten or so elite programs in the country that are pretty much assured of never being down for too long a term. That's true whether the OSU haters here like it not.I don't mind the guys here like Zip Watcher who hate the "Suckeyes." I do mind these loyalty tests (isn't this about the 8,000 OSU vs. Akron post we've seen in the last year?) that suggest either you can't or you shouldn't be a fan of both.Akron can be the next Gonzaga, they can be the next George Mason, but the MAC will always be on a different plane than the Big Ten, a big enough difference that rooting for them both is hardly mutually exclusive. And that's okay! Ohio State is not holding the Zips down anymore than U-Dub held Gonzaga down or Virginia/VT held George Mason down. We all would like to see the Zips acheive the most dizzying heights imaginable. But I think some of you are unhappy about having allegiances to a school that's not among the uppermost elite, and you're looking for a scapegoat. It's silly and unnecessary.

Thanks, guys! I am Kevin Beane!Not immediately sure how I can prove it but...I am. :)I've mentioned my love of the Zips in my column before, I believe. I'm sure I will again....But now that you know my secret identity....PLEASE no PM's messages saying, "So you have mentioned the Zips in months! Give us an entire column! If you were a true Zips fan, you would!" Actually, saying that occurs to me how I CAN prove it...I will mention zipsnation in my next column! :DMy columns are published every other Thursday, so look for that in two weeks.The column is called Slant Pattern, and if you click on "Slant Pattern" on the left-side of the column, you'll get my last several columns. Plug plug plug.

I would say all five road games are very winnable. I realize ORU was Mid-Continent champs, but the Mid-Con is arguably the worst DI hoops conference these days, thank God we got out. With the group of guys we have returning, if we can't beat ORU, even on the road, we can't argue too much about a lack of respect. Not that that will stop us. I'm honestly more worried about a bad team from a good conference (Duquesne) than the best team of a terrible conference.

Reminds me of a few years ago, a guy was standing outside of the BankOne building downtown holding a sign that said, "Don't bank at Bank One."I thought! "Oooh! A protester! What's his crusade?" So I asked him why he was protesting against Bank One."They screwed me out of some money."Oh.

Thanks, guys...

Don't mean to be lazy and use you guys for research, but before I try fishing around stats websites, does someone have this info at arm's length? For last year?*Akron's total defense ranking (YPG) in the MAC?*Akron's run defense ranking (YPG) in the MAC?*Akron's pass defense ranking (YPG in the MAC?

I might've interpreted it wrong, but I don't think those second-tier Big Ten games are moving away from ESPN Plus. I think they will probably "share" those games, and probably the only games the Big Ten network will show exclusively are the super-clunkers like Illinois vs. Indiana that even ESPN Plus won't pick up.