Dave in Green

There are some specific statements in there that address issues we've been debating on ZN.o. For example, the statement that "We will compete at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics" should put an end to the discussion here about dropping down to a lower level in football. It's now in the master plan to remain at the highest level available to UA.

They set some pretty specific goals, including citing numbers for championships won, dollars raised, etc., so now there are numbers with which to measure their actual performance. That's a good first step. But it's generally unexciting news for fans who are more interested in seeing, for example, an artist rendering of a potential new basketball arena.

So I was a little off: Zips Athletics Unveils IMPACT 2020

I've been waiting for this review. Nice to see you at the game, Captain, and glad to see that your concerns about the starting lineup were answered. The one thing that I don't think has been mentioned by anyone yet, and which I thought might be in your report, was that the Zips looked better on defense. Maybe some of that was the CSU players not being completely into their game, and maybe some of that was the Zips defense keeping the CSU players out of their game. In any case, I thought the Zips did a better job of staying in front of their men, switching off appropriately, etc. We'll see if that holds up in the upcoming home games.

Maybe what I overheard was the timing of the announcement internally at UA. Obviously the public announcement is coming in the afternoon.

As I said earlier, look for the announcement to be made late Monday morning, sometime before noon. If not in the next 45 minutes, then most likely early afternoon.

The official play-by-play said that NIU was both offside and guilty of an illegal block, and that the 5-yard offside penalty was declined and the 5-yard illegal block penalty was accepted, resulting in no play. The freeze frame replay shown at the end of halftime clearly showed an NIU player's body past the ball just before the ball was kicked as well as an NIU player blocking a BGSU player before the ball went 10 yards. An interesting sidelight is that the onside kick rule was changed by the NCAA last season to add a fair catch option on a "hard spike" kick where the kicker drives the ball into the ground and it takes a big, high bounce. If the receiving team calls a fair catch, players are free to catch the ball without interference as long as the ball doesn't take a second bounce. That was the type of kick that NIU used, but I don't believe that BGSU tried to call a fair catch.

6 wins = bowl eligible. Here's reality:

I can agree with all of this since it doesn't contain any references to spring football. But seriously, anyone who enjoys watching lower division college football, high school football or peewee football should go have themselves a ball. FBS level football is the minimum level that interests me, and it doesn't need to be SEC or other major BCS conference football. MACtion football among the better teams in the conference is at a high enough level to be entertaining and interesting to me. The Zips were not at this level a couple of years ago, but they're starting to get there. As a Zips supporter, I've been attending games over the past few years, but not getting a lot of enjoyment out of them. I really enjoyed the look and feel of the Zips' win over Toledo. The Zips are about to achieve the minimum level of football that I find interesting and entertaining.

No, but I'd estimate the trend is similar to the five-year trend of @Zipmeister post content, i.e. pretty flat.

@skip-zip, FSU's win over Clemson was a good one. The win over Miami turned out to be not as good after Miami also lost to Virginia Tech and Duke (48-30!). But FSU didn't have any letdowns along the way, as they dominated every one of their opponents. I don't see FSU dominating Auburn or vice versa. I see a close game between two really strong teams.

I just went to ESPN and clicked on a few dozen college basketball box scores from last night. In a surprising number of them, one or both teams had at least one starter who played less than 20 minutes and at least one non-starter who played more than 20 minutes, and it wasn't due to a starter being in foul trouble. This is not as uncommon as might be assumed. Especially in the early stages of the season, coaches juggle lineups to find the best combinations of players to have on court at various stages of the game. Some of the various combinations we'll see from the Zips may not stick. But they need to be tried in order to measure results. Looking at just one player, Deji earned another look by virtue of his nice performance in the Malone exhibition game. The knock against Deji has been that he hasn't been able to perform like that against a good D1 team. But Deji responded to being a starter by having perhaps his best game against a D1 opponent. He was not embarrassed going up against CSU's athletic players. He looked as if he belonged on the floor, knocking down 3 of 4 shots and getting a key defensive shot block in crunch time as @Hilltopper mentioned. Deji showed in this game that he can be a contributor, and that's important for the Zips' depth at guard.

One thing's for sure -- the more tOSU defenders push back on tOSU doubters, the more delight the doubters will take when tOSU is exposed. I really like the FSU-Auburn matchup. FSU has been consistent all season while dominating a schedule ranked as weak or weaker than tOSU's, while Auburn has been improving week-by-week since their only loss of the season while playing a tougher schedule. Both teams appear to be peaking when it counts, and we can only hope that they both have their best games of the season in producing a memorable national championship game. I'd love to see FSU end SEC dominance, but Auburn has been playing like a team of destiny in recent weeks. I can't wait to see this game.

It's very simple. You don't plan on getting the BCS bonus. You celebrate it as a windfall in the rare instances when it happens. Of course you're disappointed when you fall just short of getting it. But you don't build your budget around it. You accept who you are and try to be the best you can be within the limits of your resources. This works well for individuals in life as well as colleges in football.

tOSU running all over MSU defense to even the score at 17-17. MSU is toast unless they can generate an offense and rediscover their vaunted defense.

JT and UA make it into the B1G championship storyline: Tales from Indy: Jim Tressel won't be among the crowd

FSU taking care of business, up 17-0 at the half. tOSU comes alive and only trails 17-10 at the half.

Uh-oh, tOSU fans. MSU up 17-0.

Quite a statement by Auburn -- 545 rushing yards and a 59-42 beatdown of the #5 team in the country. Time for FSU and tOSU to make their cases.

I had thought that Mizzou might have a better overall team than Auburn, but Auburn is starting to take control of this game in the 4th quarter (52-42).

Auburn 45, Mizzou 42 after 3 quarters. Total combined offense so far is 1,057 yards.

@ZachTheZip, I do not know if there will be a formal press conference. "Future goals" could range from vague generalities to interesting specifics. I'm led to believe that there will be enough said to be of interest to many Zips fans. But my experience on this forum tells me that not all Zips fans will be satisfied with whatever is said.

Auburn-Mizzou game turning into a MACtion-style shootout. They just keep trading scores without being able to stop each other. Looking like the last team to have the ball in the 4th quarter will win.

So much for Oklahoma State being one of the two best teams in the country. Who would have thought the mighty Cowboys would fall to Oklahoma with the Sooners' starting QB out with an injury. Auburn and Missouri played pretty even in the first half, and we should know in another 90 minutes or so which one of them will fall by the wayside. Then it's on to the late games.

Do you really believe that UA's share would have gone into someone's pocket as opposed to being used to fund Zips athletics?