Dave in Green

The good news is that PR messes usually do not result in longterm structural damage and can be recovered from with the right moves. A typical good case is when all the bad news is compressed into a short time frame, resulting in a series of negative stories that may create an impression that the sky is falling and the earth is going to end. It's important at this point to cap the flow of bad news and start trickling out good news at a steady cadence while there's still media and public attention focused on the distressed entity. It appears now that we're in the process of entering the second phase. We know how UA handled phase A and now we get to watch and see how they handle phase B, aka recovery. The public loves underdog stories of almost anything fighting back from adversity, and often ends up with a more favorable overall opinion than if the bad news had never happened. UA is now on the clock with this opportunity.

We can wish for more while still appreciating what we have. Everyone understands that UA is not in the same class as the likes of Duke, Kansas and the other major programs that have won 20 or more games for 10 or more straight seasons against tough competition. But that level of consistency is not easy for any program to achieve even with easy schedules. Season after season more than half of the D-I teams in the country play weaker overall schedules than UA, yet not a single one of them has been able to match the Zips' 10-year string of 20+ win seasons. That's a worthy achievement for Zips fans to take pride in at the same time they're wishing for even greater future achievements.

This Inside Higher Ed story says Nick Saban was initially worried that Alabama would be at a disadvantage in the stipend era, so Alabama simply recalculated and came up with a much higher number. You know, costs are so much higher for everything in Alabama and their poor football program needs all the help it can get to be competitive. The story also describes how this can actually end up screwing non-athlete students:

"Conflate your own policies" is nothing more than one person's colorful interpretation of funds earmarked for new initiatives, capital repairs and improvements. We were already discussing in one of the other active threads the subject of cutting programs and people vs. freezing all new development. Anything more I may have to say on the subject will be in that thread.

So the $60 million is actually a $20 million budget shortfall, $10 million for new initiatives and $30 million for capital repairs and improvements. Another case of mountains of inaccurate speculation being generated due to lack of accurate details being made public in a timely manner.

Until we have access to all the fine details, all we can do is speculate. What we've found in recent months is that it's difficult to accurately speculate about moves being made at UA because incomplete, conflicting and erroneous data is being published. Some of that is the fault of UA's self-admittedly poor communication, some is the fault of cursory journalism and some is due to factions at odds with the current administration pushing their own agendas. As for a new main entrance off of Exchange having better access to Buchtel Hall, a quick look at the map reveals a simple solution: Move the existing practice football field to the current location of the baseball field and place the new visitor parking lot in the current location of the practice football field adjacent to the Student Union. There are also other options we can discuss. But we really need more hard data about the plan to understand exactly what they have in mind.

Not sure why it's necessary to start yet another new thread to repeat opinions on a subject already posted in existing active threads. Each new duplicate thread just results in the same people repeating the same opinions over and over. If we keep it to a minimum number of threads on the same subject we can reduce repetition and save ourselves a lot of time.

The initial reaction to Burns from some quarters was that it was just Dr. Scarborough bringing in one of his buddies from Toledo. There hasn't been much discussion about Burns' actual performance at UA. If he proves to be a true marketing wiz he should become popular among those who have expressed the most dissatisfaction with UA's previous marketing efforts.

1. Looking at the northeast corner of Exchange and Spicer in Google Maps and ignoring all the buildings, the track is too long to fit between Exchange and Nash Street to the north, so Nash would have to be eliminated. The width of the track would barely fit between Spicer and Goodkirk Street to the east only if every single building is eliminated between Spicer and Goodkirk and Exchange and Alpha Delta Pi /Lone Star. There were some pretty shabby buildings there, so that would be a major improvement to that area's image if the track ends up there. 2. It does make sense to have the public entrance (not student entrance) to the U off of the main street bordering the campus, which is Exchange. Zips fans should appreciate the fact that this would showcase the excellent new athletic facilities as the first impression on new visitors to the campus. The impression of UA from driving by on Exchange has drastically improved in recent years, and it sounds as if it's going to get even better. In addition to the Grand Entrance, there's also a Grand Mystery:

Check this thread for a possible solution to the paste problem.

Yep, this will provoke a lengthy discussion all by itself as every proposed new expenditure in the project is questioned in light of the budget cuts. The overall question will be: Why couldn't UA have saved the $60 million by freezing all new development for a few years instead of cutting people and programs? UA needs to have good answers ready.

Killer schedule for VCU. Coach Giffard seems determined to build another Akron-type national power program there.

Great news. Since VCU was in "others receiving votes" in several of the top 25 polls, I'm assuming they are considered at least a top 50 team. That's a good road win to get the season started.

Ada Zip, what you ask for is not unreasonable. I like to think of the streak-based recruiting strategy as making the most of what you have. Coach Dambrot first built up the Zips from losers to winners with local players. Then he started leveraging the 20+ win seasons to recruit more talented players from around the country. If it can be leveraged to recruit more top-notch players like Noah, that makes for a stronger Zips team, and a stronger Zips team will be able to win 20+ games against tougher competition. Fans just want to see a light at the end of the long tunnel from losers to winners to big winners.

Getting Buffalo on the road in the first conference game of the season is another piece of great news. The Zips have struggled recently in Canada. But with all of UB's player losses and a new head coach there's a good chance they will be most vulnerable early in the season. Remembering last season's loss at the Q when it was the Zips who were hurting, the Zips should smell blood in the water and attack without mercy.

I understand. It's like the Cleveland thing -- some folks on here hate all things Cleveland and others don't. Some like one uniform and others don't. Some prefer the Roo to the Z and others don't. Some prefer beer over wine and others don't. I don't expect we'll ever reach 100% agreement on any issue in this forum ... other than the pure joy of beating Can't.

In considering the big picture of Zips basketball scheduling, let's at least all start from the same place with the basics: 31 = NCAA maximum number of regular season games; 18 = MAC-scheduled conference games; 13 = Available games to be scheduled out of conference. With that in mind we have tournament, road, home and overall scheduling to discuss. The Zips have been facing their biggest name opponents in tournaments which are always away from the JAR. The exceptions are when a tournament allows UA to host a lesser opponent as the NIT Season Tip-Off did this year with Charleston Southern, which was only 13-18 last season. I think most would agree that adding one weak home opponent in exchange for shots at Villanova, Arkansas and Green Bay is a fair tradeoff. Iona and UC Santa Barbara are both respectable mid-majors the Zips get to meet on a neutral court in the Las Vegas tournament. Those two tournaments eat up 6 of the Zips' available 13 OOC dates and account for 1 unexciting home game. No one has expressed major objections to the Zips' recent tournament strategy. Of the remaining 7 open OOC dates, 2 are on the road and 5 at the JAR. That adds up to a season OOC split of 7 away games and 6 at the JAR. Taking the 2 road games first, Cleveland State is a solid opponent and Coaches vs. Cancer is a worthy cause. Hard to fault that. The game at Marshall is one of those home-and-away series we'd like to see more of. But it was scheduled back when Marshall had a decent program and they've lately taken a fall. It was a good idea at the time but it's not always predictable when teams are going to fall in competitiveness and prestige before all the games are played. Sometimes it works the opposite way and teams turn out to be even better than when they were originally scheduled. Of the remaining 5 home games, the first one with Hiram is exactly what several have suggested on this forum: Instead of playing a weak D-I team that hurts RPI even when you win, play a quality lower division team that has no negative impact on RPI. Virtually every D-I team in the country schedules 1 or 2 early season tuneup home games with lower division teams for precisely this reason. That takes care of 27 of the Zips' 31-game schedule and leaves us with 4 home games that are really at the heart of this discussion. If the Zips had been able to schedule 4 more respected opponents in place of the 4 on the schedule (Coppin State, Bethune-Cookman, South Carolina State and Lipscomb), there would be little to seriously criticize about the overall schedule.

One key recruit's take on the subject:

I was thinking more along the lines of Akron taking ownership of the Ohio football image the way NIU is sticking it to the bigger teams in Illinois. But if everyone thinks Akron should duck any association with the state in which it's located, how about an outline of the city map of Akron? That would likely show up on all the college football trivia lists right up there with the Zips nickname and kangaroo mascot.

Of all the MAC images shown, the one that jumped out at me was not a uniform but a field design. I really like the new NIU field design with the outline of the state of Illinois and a star where NIU is geographically located. Something like that may have been done elsewhere but I don't recall having previously seen it. I can picture a Zips field with an outline of the state of Ohio and a big Z.

I think it's important to understand that there's a wide diversity of opinion on this, and no reasonably workable solution is going to satisfy all. The really hardcore Zips basketball fans are going to show up at the JAR for as many games as possible regardless of the opponent quality. They may wish for better home game opponents, but prefer seeing the Zips beat up on cupcakes to other entertainment options. Other fans run the gamut from those being willing to show up at the JAR for a couple of the better teams that the Zips could realistically be able to attract to those fans who wouldn't show up for anything less than a national power. For example, how many more fans would be likely to show up at the JAR if the Coppin States, Bethune-Cookmans, South Carolina States and Lipscombs were replaced by Valpos, Ionas, Louisiana Techs and Illinois States? Based on previous attendance at such games I think at best it might create a minor attendance blip. It likely would somewhat help the Zips' RPI, though winning road games against higher-ranked opponents is the best way to raise RPI. Even losing road games against high-RPI teams can help more than winning home games against low-RPI teams. The Zips coaching staff starts with a budget to work with and input from the AD about having at least a certain percentage of OOC home vs. road games. They work within those initial constraints to try to put together the best schedule they can for the players, the fans, the program and UA. Hopefully they take some of the more productive suggestions from fans like those who post here and incorporate that into their thinking.

NEWS FLASH -- ABJ publishes positive UA story: University of Akron reports 12 percent increase in new honors students

Just checked and found that you can vote as many times as you want in that poll. I changed it from 59%-41% to 48%-42% with about 3 minutes worth of voting. So a few really determined multi-voters on either side could easily swing the vote one way or the other.

GoZips, it's pretty well understood that big-name teams are not interested in playing at the JAR. It's really the steady diet of 250+ RPI teams that some are saying turns them off. I think the question being asked is why the Zips can't cut more home-and-away series deals with higher-ranked mid-major programs like the one they had with Middle Tennessee? They get us to visit their place in return for them visiting the JAR, and each gets a quality home opponent every other season and no one has to pay anyone any money. Are other mid-majors in the Zips' general RPI range not open to that kind of deal?

Add Au Bon Pain and Qdoba to the list. Aramark to take over dining services at the University of Akron