MDZip

Michigan has eliminated South Carolina. Will take on the winner of Penn State-Maryland.

If there is one sport where I think trash talking would be a very poor idea, it's rifle.

What no one has seemed to notice is that this has elevated the Zips to a tie for fifth in the MAC East. So much for those prognosticators who picked us to finish last in the East. So there!

Really rooting for either Boise or TCU (but not both) to make the National title game and the other to make another BCS level game just to see what happens. The folks who set up the BCS give lip service to this being a possibility but never thought someone might actually walk through the loophole. Go Alabama! or Go Arizona! Someone knock one of the top two off the perch. By the way, did you notice the TCU AD's comments about OSU's schedule? "Especially when I start to look at their nonconference schedule made up of the MAC schools -- that'd be Ohio, Eastern Michigan. I had no idea they were going out and testing themselves week in and week out." If TCU will pay us I say we voluntarily give up our slot against OSU next year, give it to TCU and then play Arkansas St. The MAC, the whipping boy of big time college football.

On this day, I am thankful that Cleveland State does not have a football team.

Fixed it for you, you're welcome.

This one was just given away.

Insert dead horse icon here. No surprise we made the pillow fight of the week, but in a mild surprise: "Know Your Enemy:" The winless Zips have to know they're actually good enough to beat Buffalo in their finale, this week's Pillow Fight of the Week.

I've never really cared about Ohio State one way or or the other but the statement from their president Ohio St. prez disregards TCU, Boise St really ticks me off. Direct quote - "Well, I don't know enough about the Xs and Os of college football," said Gee, formerly the president at West Virginia, Colorado, Brown and Vanderbilt universities. "I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer's row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day." God, what an elitist a-hole. If you're not one of the BCS Universities, apparently you will never be worthy. Ask him about the long and glorious history of USF. No one doubts those schools play somewhat tough schedules, but the opportunity isn't there for schools in others leagues. Well, I guess they could schedule Oklahoma, USC, Ohio State and Florida and hope they are all good that year and beat all of them. Morons like him are whyI want to see the death of the BCS. Then prove it on the field, Gee-normous ego, with a playoff. Please Boise State, make the BCS championship and beat the crap out of whatever wonderful school they put you up against. In MAC news, NIU is now #26 in the AP poll. Nice to see someone from the MAC getting some recognition.

Speaking of post-regular season awards, Top Drawer Soccer announced their team of the year awards. Four Zips on the first team (Sarkodie, Valentin, Ampaipatakwong and Nagbe), two on the third team (Meves, Nachoff) amd two on the newcomers/freshman team (Mattocks, Kitchen). Only eight players, how disappointing.

Maybe he's Doug's cousin.

I'd say KD wants this one pretty bad, one of his quotes stated (paraphrasing) that Waters must think his team is pretty good and that we're not very good for them to come here. This is a big test. Go Zips!

SMU was indeed a very big player on the National Stage, with Eric Dickerson and Craig James as the "Pony Express" they contended for a National Championship I think around 1984. By 1986 some major recruiting violations had occurred including verifiable proof that players were being paid. SMU promised the NCAA they had cleaned things up, but in reality they were still paying players. When the NCAA found out, they gave SMU the "death penalty". Basically, that means that whatever sport is being punished (not every athletic program) doesn't exist for whatever length of time the NCAA decrees. For SMU, they had no team in 1987 and had no scholarships for quite a while. They have never fully recovered that level again.

Indiana was the Big Ten regular season champs so they will be no pushover but Cal or Brown (assuming we can even get past Indiana) wil not be either. No team that makes it to the final eight is going to be easy. Look at Drake last year, unseeded and knocked off #4 Ohio State and almost took UNC out of the Final Four. Interestingly, while all five Big Ten teams are still alive they face Louisville, Maryland, Akron, UNC and South Carolina in the round of 16. All five could conceivably be gone after this weekend.

News Collector has surpassed Zach as the top poster on ZipsNation. This is like John Henry being beaten by the steam hammer. A moment of slience please ...

The WAC now trying to lure North Texas. When you're trying to lure a mediocre team from the worst FBS conference, you know are in big trouble. Once this is all over the WAC's profile will be lower than the MAC's. Of course at that point that MAC will be even further from the top tier than ever.

I did! +1 +2 If you think the Millipede game made us a better team, I disagree. No, I'd have much rather seen a little easier D-1 team to start, I hate the D-III games (especially considering Millikin considered it to be an exhibition). My point was that upon re-examining our schedule and with the apparent emergence of some teams that might not have been considered good when we scheduled them (Detroit, Youngstown, UIC) along with some of the better teams (Minnesota, Temple, Dayton) our schedule is a lot harder than it appeared on the surface. Other than that I'd have loved to have had MSU.

I did! +1 Greedy B***tards.

Pretty weird though, Valpo is also 2-1 with the #3 SOS, but is ranked 63rd.

And some people still wanted Michigan St. too?

Can't ended up in spot 25, only three points higher than the Zips. Kind of surprising with all of their NCAA appearances and wins but we will get lots of oppotunities to pass them this year: * NCAA Tournament victories - 5 * NCAA Tournament appearances - 5 * Conference regular season titles - 4 * Red Line Upsets - 4 * NIT victories - 3 * Leading conference in offensive or defensive efficiency - 3 * 20-win seasons - 3 * NIT appearances - 2 * Individual statistical leaders in conference (PPG or RPG) - 2 * NBA Draft picks - 2 * Other postseason appearances (CBI, CIT) - 1

Zips up 1-0. The video stream is working very well but I'm getting no audio. Anyone hearing the broadcast from the video stream? Edit: Audio doesn't matter, it finally came in but its just the field sounds (which is still kind of cool). UConn goes down (7-6 on PK's), and so does Duke. ACC has only Maryland and UNC left. Not one single Zips opponent has lost yet (Michigan came back too).

Two of our opponents (OSU, MSU) have moved on. I love seeing teams we took on move on. Makes me feel that much better about our chances.

Your question appears to ony relate only to football, but I think it is a much bigger reason. When I went to Akron, quite frankly I didn't like it, it was the only school option for me for a number of reasons. When I graduated and moved 350 miles, I didn't think I'd ever really give it another thought. But then my horizons broadened a little after I went to other schools and I realized it really was quite a little educational gem even if it looked like a few concrete blocks dropped in the middle of the city. So then I stopped being embarrassed of being from there and at the same time Proenza started the Landscape for Learning and completely transformed the campus. I told people that if it looked back then the way it looks now (with all the accompanying student ecoutrements), I might have actually wanted to go there. When I was in the honors program we had a special study carrell in the library, now they have that beautiful new dorm. Anyway, I started to realize what a diamond in the rough Akron really was, so I let other people know it as well. I started to contribute money and then realizing that sadly, a lot of perception of a university has to do with its sports teams so I started giving money there as well. The place has enormous potential and I want to help it realize it. Since the sports teams are entwined with the university, I enjoy them too. Even though the football team is having a poor year, its still an event to go to the games (especially for me because I only get to go a couple times a year). The football team will turn it around (I will be there to see their only victory this year) and all of the other teams are worth supporting. Going to the Zips NCCA basketball tournament game was a ton of fun and so was the soccer championship at Cary last year. Have my tickets ready for this years championship as well. I believe in them that strongly. So it's not about just the football team, its support of the entire university. Someday all of that potential is going to break through and many other folks will recognize what I do.

DJ Gallo included this little item in his column this week. When I first saw it, I was thinking that's kind of cool, perhaps he was equating it to the fact that he helped a team that is 0-10 not quit and give the team a chance to finally win a game until I read it and realized that he just wanted to remove the first r. D*ck. Name of the Week Gary Pride, WR, Akron: Think about it. Gary Pride is just one letter -- one small, innocent typo -- away from a major American city holding a huge parade in his honor. That's pretty awesome for a 5-foot-8 MAC receiver with 19 career receptions.