Dave in Green

@bobbyake, I'm primarily interested in basketball. While I don't have a lot of interest in soccer beyond the Zips, I do appreciate reading stats like those you presented. I don't see anything unreasonable in any of your comments. The world is constantly changing, and the smaller the world gets, the faster it can change. I recently read an interesting article about how basketball is the fastest growing sport in China. Who knows what's going to be the most popular sport in any country 50-100 years from now? All we can do is look at stats and trends and try to estimate where things are going. Makes for interesting conversation.

I don't follow soccer closely enough to catch the meaning of your reference.

Deja vu: The NCAA was founded in 1906 to protect young people from the dangerous and exploitive athletics practices of the time. The rugged nature of early-day football, typified by mass formations and gang tackling, resulted in numerous injuries and deaths and prompted many college and universities to discontinue the sport. In many places, college football was run by student groups that often hired players and allowed them to compete as non-students. Common sentiment among the public was that college football should be reformed or abolished. President Theodore Roosevelt summoned college athletics leaders to two White House conferences to encourage reforms. In early December 1905, Chancellor Henry M. MacCracken of New York University convened a meeting of 13 institutions to initiate changes in football playing rules. At a subsequent meeting December 28 in New York City, 62 colleges and universities became charter members of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS). ..... NCAA History

@Blue & Gold, the local (NEO) media angle on the new NCAA rules focused on the local tournament (King James) and made it appear that it was being singled out. The national media put it more in perspective, with many tournaments across the country being affected. The story below speculates that the NCAA rules were designed to reduce the power and influence of AAU coaches and return it more to high school coaches, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your point of view. Another Blow to Grassroots Basketball

@UAZip0510, we're definitely in agreement that if KD has the LeBron factor to add to his other recruiting tools, it may produce a small advantage in some cases. If recruits choose UA over other schools based on the total package that KD presents, the LeBron factor may be part of the winning edge without even being obvious to KD or the recruits. It's just part of the total package, and no Zips recruit may ever say that LeBron's support of the Zips program was the deal sealer. Even those Zips fans who aren't so hot on LeBron should wish that the total package KD has to offer recruits is better than that offered by coaches from other schools who UA often competes against in the recruiting wars -- all within the spirit and letter of the NCAA rules, of course.

Well said. That about sums it up for me. I'd be happy if LeBron's association with the program was the tie-breaker in the decision of a recruit or two to take UA's offer over an offer from another winning mid-major program. It may have already made the difference with a Zips player or two, but that's pure speculation because we've yet to see any proof of that.

While I'd like to know more specific details about how Zips basketball has benefited from the LeBron connection, KD makes it pretty clear in this article that it does help recruiting: “We get to recruit a lot of good players because of LeBron, because of the connection with LeBron.” "I think it’s a good connection, I think it will stay a good connection and it’s a connection we have to have to take the program to the next level. Without him, it’s a little harder.” "The kids we recruit, they just know he’s good so as long as we are connected to him, then we’re good.”

@GP1, I haven't seen anyone here claim that LeBron's association with Zips basketball would be the "primary" reason why recruits would choose UA over another school or fans would buy tickets to Zips games, so it appears we're all pretty much in agreement on that. The difference in opinion appears to be that some believe more than others that it could be one of many influences on the decisions of some recruits and some fans. Also, any benefits that KD derives from publicity about his relationship with LeBron can be good for the program. As long as KD remains the Zips head coach, anything that benefits him can be leveraged to help benefit the Zips basketball program.

Guess it went right over your head. I thought it would be pretty clear to everyone that my stance is that LeBron's association with Zips basketball is a valuable asset because it can help make the program more attractive to quality young players. Just because there's been no proof presented here yet that it hasn't already happened doesn't mean it hasn't or won't. I value assets, and I like them even better when I know for sure that the assets have been leveraged to produce results.

In an earlier chapter of this serial discussion, I suggested that a new college football division might separate itself from the BCS and gain more public interest by adopting rules that favored offense over defense. Let Wild West offenses regularly put up 100 or more points per game and see if the public favors that over an Alabama-LSU no touchdown defensive slugfest as we saw in their first meeting last season.

No one has yet been able to produce hard evidence that proves or disproves the value of LeBron's support to the Zips basketball program. In the absence of such data, no one gets to claim victory in this debate. It's a tie.

I guess you can find something to support whatever argument you want to make. I entered the following search terms into Google -- lebron james university of akron zips -- and the first hit at the top of the list is a Washington Post story with the following headline and lead: University of Akron Basketball Program Has Big Supporter in LeBron James PORTLAND, Ore., March 18 -- Chris McKnight joined in a pickup basketball game the first time he stepped on the University of Akron campus as a student and incoming scholarship basketball player. One by one, his teammates decided whom they would guard, when one of them said, "Chris, you got LeBron." Guarding LeBron James is both a benefit and challenge of being a men's basketball player for the Zips. Mostly due to a relationship with Akron Coach Keith Dambrot, who tutored a 13-year-old James and later coached him for two years at Akron's St. Vincent/St. Mary High School, James is one of the Zips' most avid and important supporters. I wonder if Chris McKnight would have ever made the lead in a Washington Post story if not for LeBron's relationship with KD and UA? Washington Post Story

This is a really difficult discussion, but one that's really important to have. Everything in life is a balance of risks and rewards. Football is no different. It makes some lives richer than they might otherwise be, and it can also destroy lives. Everyone should be demanding fair and honest assessment of the odds on both the risks and the rewards so that we can each make our own informed decisions about where we stand on the issue. We all need to understand that some people on each side of every debate have vested interests that lead them to focus more on the pros or the cons, so not all published data is completely reliable. We have to try to dig through it all and find the data that we believe to be most realistic and objective.

If you had said that to Tressel, he might have asked you when you were planning to take your first UA English class.

Are there any other areas where we want UA to emulate Can't other than distribution of cheap beer?

Maybe I missed it, but I don't recall anyone saying that LeBron has had a major, measurable impact on the Zips basketball program. If someone has actually made this claim, then I think all the rest of us would like to see some measurable proof. Otherwise, I think we're all mostly in agreement that associating LeBron with Zips basketball has the potential to do more good than harm, but we've yet to see evidence that the potential has been realized.

@Keener'92, my best guess is that no one has changed their opinion about the use by anyone of the term Akron U from their previously stated opinions in past ZN.o discussions. Some people are just way more sensitive about it than others.

Free publicity may or may not produce measurable results. No publicity is guaranteed to produce no results. Take your pick.

@bobbyake, one thing we all agreed on in that other thread is that there has been a huge gap between announced paid attendance and unannounced actual attendance at Zips football games. Actual numbers of butts in seats probably exist somewhere within the administrative offices at UA, as I believe they scan a ticket or student ID card for every person who actually enters the stadium, and that scanned data probably goes into a central computer file. However, it's likely that those actual attendance numbers are kept secret by UA to avoid the embarrassment of public disclosure.

Yes, it was the last post in the Betancourt thread in Basketball Recruiting here.

Good catch. My quick research was a little too quick to catch the two post-season losses after the 12-0 regular season. Had Ball State won the MAC championship, they would have been 13-0 and had a real shot at finishing in the top 10 prior to bowl game selection.

Ball State had a perfect 12-0 record during the 2008-2009 regular season and was ranked 12th in the BCS standings -- just two spots out of the top 10. After losing their bowl game, they finished the season 12-1 and had a rank of 22nd in the final BCS standings. So, yes, with the right schedule and a perfect regular season, a MAC team could indeed earn a BCS bowl invitation if the "AQ/non-AQ" provision is removed. It's at least a small step toward eliminating the football caste system.

The 36th player selected. Pretty darned impressive. EDIT: Oops, 39th. I was looking at a mock draft, not the real one.

A really in-depth analysis of Weeden here for those who are up for a long read.

By the way, this is a really good article. It shows how the world operates. Laws, rules and regulations are established, and then creative people figure out ways to get around the rules without actually breaking the letter of the law if not the spirit of the law. It's called survival. It helps explain why humans are currently the dominant species on the planet.