ZipCat

Well there's the whole problem where Akron cut a majority of it's Master's programs. I hold a master's in chemistry from Ohio University because Akron was dumping most of its programs. Akron has chem, but not the supporting staff or courses for what I needed/wanted. It takes staff to make a decent program. You can't just cut them, scatter them to the wind and then expect to make decent master's programs. So, like GP1, unless you actually hire (and fairly compensate) the people running master's programs, it absolutely is just a shameless money grab.

Yeah, it's super annoying to watch a team who is down 2-scores that have been outplayed the entire game, do little ego-cheers after the ONE good play they've had all game...while they're still losing.

It doesn't help that the NFL has an officiating problem, that leads fans to speculate that the games are rigged. All you had to do is watch the Chiefs game to suspect something fishy is going on in the NFL. It doesn't even have to be true btw, as conspiracy theories are brain-melting stuff; but it's too painfully obvious that the game IS NOT OFFICIATED EQUALLY even in the same game.

Regulation? LoL, we live in an anti-regulation world right now friend. Put it on the list of things that will never happen.

Yup. And instead...we got the Arbys sign...

I'm a graduate of both universities (hence by screen name) so it's the two games I look forward to most. But the last time I really felt energized about it was just before the cancelled 2020 MAC game. We're now even 5 years removed from that just about, and it's not like there's been a big reason for the Rivalry to have been reignited for anyone whose been on campus in the past 10 years.

How many times are we going to have this conversation? -JAR Sucks. -The OU/Akron rivalry isn't what it was 12 years ago. -UA Student body has literally more than halved over the past decade. Why would we expect more?

Give them all to me. I love them all.

Well the whole idea that they even said there wasn't a "unified identity" was BS. We had a unified identity: it was Zippy. And in the 2000s they clearly made a standardization of everything AKRON ZIPS Logo, AKRON ZIPS with FULL Kangaroo logo, where you could interchange "The University of Akron" in the same font style. You then had The Z-Logo derived directly from the same Font and stile, you had the AROO which was clearly derived from the A in the stylized font with the head of the Full Kangaroo. You had a VERY CLEAR unified identity of a brand. Just Gutherie and the other Resume-Builders at the U wanted to put "Rebranding" on the resumes. Give ALL of the Akron Logos. I love ALL of them, except the freaking arby's logo.

Explain what is wrong with this take instead of resorting to an ad hominem. My life is perfectly fine, thanks for asking. Like how can you live for several decades watching College Athletics, and think the system is "fair" or make statements like "this is screwing over the fans"? Like seriously, of course it is. The fans aren't what make money in MAC sports, the filling TV time slots does. I knew this over a decade ago when I was a student at UA, how can't you? And aren't we, as adult fans of UA athletics, supposed to have these more uncomfortable conversations? Like how can we stand as the case study of the culture of resume building, and not discuss it? Where is your intellectual curiosity? Very disappointing response from a UAkron alum.

But the MAC doesn't exist for you and me. It exists so that Execs, University Presidents and University Athletic Dept heads can pad their resumes to move onto something else and get paid six-figures salaries while doing it. We don't live in a meritocracy. We live in a plutocracy where a select few do what they want at the expense of the rest of us.

CEO brainrot.

Sorry Bowden floor 😂🤣

I mean, I'm the debby-downer who thinks the U would be better served getting rid of the football program instead of keeping it, and even I can acknowledge that 4-8 is better than 2-10, 1-11, 0-12. It's a step in the right direction. The days of firing a coach after a down season for a school like Akron should be over. The U has bigger problems than Football (27m deficit) and we cannot afford to keep firing coaches to to try to be "competitive" in a sport that it's literally impossible in 2024 to be competitive in. If the Zips are 6-6 next year, yes, that would be improvement. Hell, returning to the Bowden Floor of 5-7 would be an improvement.

I was at the 2013 game when Bowden's 4-7 Zips showed up and beat Toledo to become 5-7 for the first time in YEARS. You could feel the program was on the upswing, and the next year the Zips went 5-7 again, but with that progressively better win over Pittsburgh and 2015 went 8-5 with the Potato Bowl win at the end of the year. Feels like there is potential to go in a better direction. But let's also pump some realistic expectations. College football has irrevocably changed. We shouldn't, as a fanbase, be chasing a No. 25 overall ranking or major win over a major program. Grind out an existence in the MAC. Be competitive. And find a way to a MAC Championship every couple of years. That's what success at Akron would look like.