Dave in Green

GoZips, Ada Zip has clearly stated that he understands that high majors won't come to the JAR and all he's asking is why the Zips can't get more higher-ranked mid-majors to come to the JAR. Others have the same question. It's a fair question that deserves straight answers focused on mid-majors, not high majors. With that in mind do you agree or disagree with what I've said above? Any insights you have on this specific issue would be welcome. Your comment about bringing money to Coach Dambrot suggests that higher-ranked mid-majors might cost more to bring to the JAR than the lower-ranked ones currently on the schedule. That would be a valid argument if the basketball budget is inadequate.

Louder does not translate to better, worse or the same automatically. Could be any one of the three. Has anyone actually heard the band practicing recently?

From one dear and respected fellow fan to another:

From 100 members in 1999 to 170 last season was a growth of 70 over 15 years. It's a real growth spurt to be up by 90 to a total of 260 members this season. I'm really looking forward to hearing some of my favorite Chicago hits Saturday.

In a sense they do. The scheduling rule of thumb is that teams that are ranked much higher will not schedule games in mid-major gyms and teams of similar rank will only schedule home-away series. Teams have to be significantly lower-ranked before they will come to a mid-major gym without a return game. Over the last 10 years the Zips have averaged just inside the top 100 teams in the country, sometimes well inside the top 100 and sometimes in the 100-150 range. Teams at the good end of the 100-200 range are going to try to get a home-away series with the Zips, which means a return game every other season. It's not until you get up close to 200 and above that teams will sign up to play at the JAR without a return game. Ideally you'd want to focus on the high 100-200 and low 200-300 ranges. But those are the teams that all the other teams in the Zips general range want to sign up for home-only games. So there's a lot of competition for those teams, and often you have to settle for teams higher in the 200-300 range. Complicating that is that at the time contracts are signed it's not always clear whether a team is about to have an up or down season. Marshall is a good example of a team that was top 100 when the Zips signed up for their home-away series. But by the time the series began Marshall was decimated and closer to a 200-level team. So scheduling better teams at the JAR is not as easy as it might seem. I believe that Steve McNees handles all of the Zips scheduling. Steve is very approachable and interesting to speak with, and I'm sure he could explain scheduling details a lot better than I can for anyone who's interested in following up with him.

Zips have played Dayton 13 times, but only 3 times in the past 25 years. Zips have played Xavier 5 times, but only 2 times in the past 25 years. One thing to note about scheduling is that creampuff home games give teams scheduling flexibility because they don't have to schedule a return game every other season as in a home-away series between two more equal teams. Teams use that flexibility to schedule away games against stronger teams that wouldn't play a return game in a mid-major gym. The Zips have reached a point where ESPN is inviting them to some pretty good tournaments with opportunities against high-majors, so they need to retain some scheduling flexibility. That means the Zips are always likely to have at least a few creampuff home games on their schedule.

From not ranked to #8 reflects the true value of the win at Maryland on top of wins at Georgetown and VCU. Not to be too greedy, but imagine where the Zips would have been ranked if they'd also beaten ODU on the road to go 4-0 -- maybe right up there with 4-0 Creighton.

There's flexibility in home vs. road scheduling. Financially challenged SWAC teams play almost all OOC games on the road to make money to finance their programs. UA schedules more balance between home and road in part to reward loyal fans who show up even for the creampuff home games. UA is not likely to completely ditch those fans. But it wouldn't be unreasonable to swap a couple of creampuff home games for tough road games if the coaching staff believed that would help the program get to the next level.

The NCAA counts a ticket sold as paid attendance as long as it was sold for at least one-third face value. Tickets don't actually have to be used (butts in seats), just sold. Part of any sponsorship package can include a block of tickets given to the sponsor in exchange for sponsorship dollars, and those count as ticket sales and, therefore, attendance. For example, CMU sells 5,500 football tickets to IMG and IMG distributes those tickets to various people. Can't has met NCAA attendance requirements by using athletic department funds to “purchase” tickets after the end of the season. This appears to be a case of one area of a university buying tickets with money that goes right back into the university's bank account. If that's legal, then the NCAA minimum paid attendance rule can easily be met simply by shuffling ticket money within different areas of a university's budget. In other words, no school need fear losing Division 1-A status over NCAA attendance requirements. There are many ways to distribute tickets that count as paid attendance as long as there are many empty seats to be filled. The only thing a university loses is the ticket sale income that help pays for the facility. If fans aren't fighting to buy tickets and tens of thousands aren't being sold, there's good logic in seeking alternative ways to get butts in seats in an effort to build future demand for paid tickets. I'd expect Larry Williams has lots of good thoughts on this issue.

I have to believe that the win over previously unbeaten Maryland would have had even more clout with voters than the Georgetown win, and those two wins back-to-back would have earned more voting support for the Zips than they received in this week's poll. So I'm thinking the votes were in before the Maryland game. If the Zips can make it three big wins in a row by also knocking off St. Louis, they certainly deserve to be ranked in the top 10.

Not directly, but they indirectly can. Voters in polls who consider RPI as one of the many factors in ranking teams may be inclined to rank a team at least slightly higher if they see it has a strong RPI.

That's a really well-researched story. I especially enjoyed the details about the quirky Ernie Adams, who's stealthily been doing statistical analysis for Belichick over the last quarter century. Overall the NFL comes across like NASCAR, which has always played cat and mouse with teams pushing the limits of the rules right up to the edge and occasionally over -- some teams more aggressively than others. The old NASCAR saying credited to Richard Petty is: If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'.

And also the hottest, most fatiguing weather the Zips will face all year. The following from the USA Today story is encouraging:

Nice SoccerAmerica story: Akron sweeps Top 10 teams on road

The de Sade reference is something all Zips football fans can relate to.

That has to be one of the toughest 4-game road trips any team will face this season. Winning 3 of 4 is especially sweet when you win the 2 biggest. I think we may have a keeper coach.

How many teams beat Georgetown and Maryland back-to-back on the road?

Yellow card on AKR TEAM???

MD doing way more subbing throughout the match with only two playing every minute vs. seven Zips. Hope our guys are in good shape.

Good thing LZip is not a UCLA fan or he'd really be hyperventilating right about now.

Good call. Uncertified replicas of college football helmets that wouldn't be allowed on an actual playing field can be bought for less than $100. But real NCAA-approved helmets with all the safety features sell for a minimum of $300 in a generic color. Custom helmet painting, decals, etc., add a fair chunk to the $300. Add in a modest retail profit for those producing and handling the special Zips edition and $500 is not an unreasonable price to pay for someone who wants the real thing and not a cheap plastic imitation.

There will always be questions about Coach Embick until he produces the kind of season his predecessor did as head coach. That's a tough challenge that few coaches in the country could take on, and the few who've proven they can do it are comfortably locked into contracts at major schools with soccer reputations as good as or better than UA's. The head coaches who haven't yet proven themselves would be at least as big a gamble as Coach Embick. While I have questions like most everyone else, one thing I have confidence in is Coach Porter's knowledge of the game and the people in it. If he thought Coach Embick was the best option to lead the Zips program, I'm willing to give him more than two years to prove himself. This is light years from the iCoach situation where even those who most wanted to give him a fair chance to turn around Zips football knew at some point in the second season there was no chance.

Pity should be reserved for those who make themselves perpetually miserable obsessing over unmet unrealistic expectations. Even the best teams have up and down seasons. My realistic expectations are for Zips soccer to be a top 25 program season after season, top 10 some seasons, top contender for the national championship some seasons and an occasional national championship. I would be disappointed if they went on a long slide in competitiveness with no end in sight.

It will be easier to establish the running game against teams with less talented defenses than Oklahoma's, and that will help open up the passing lanes to get at least modest contributions from the Zips' weak passing game.

Since his HS coach, who should know, has now tweeted that the visit was both official and unofficial, I'm going to split the difference and think of it as semi-official. But really, the smart thing to do was to make it unofficial. Willie had to spend a few bucks on gas and missed out on the paid entertainment allowed by the NCAA. But in return there are fewer NCAA restrictions for unofficial visits in non-entertainment areas, i.e. the really important program stuff.