MDZip

According to this article we won't be seeing much of UMass as they will be heading to the Mid Atlantic Conference to face off with the likes of Temple and Miami(Ohio). Well there's your problem, right there. As soon as they find out the A in MAC doesn't mean Atlantic, they'll scurry right back where they came from. I think we should invite Villanova. Nice cross town rivalry with Temple.

If you look at the Championship website on NCAA.com, an autograph session is listed after semifinal #1. If we beat Cal and advance to the College Cup, would the Zips take part in the autograph session? Due to the fact that we're the 3 seed we will be playing in the later game. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have the team focused on the match than on signing autographs an hour before the game. The time is listed as TBA. I wonder if they'd have the teams playing in the later game sign after game #2. Either that or earlier in the day. Last year we were the late game and they did it after the game. Don't know if that applies to this year though.

Since it may not be available on-line anywhere, here is the best I can do with a newspaper scan. The first image was above the fold, the second, obviously, below it.

Last year after the semi-finals, they had an autograph tent and posters of the final four that the players signed. I have one with the entire team's signatures on it from then. I hope they do it again this year (of course also assuming that the Zips make it).

No problem, feel free.

As Paris Hilton would say, "Wow, that's hot." I love that there is a UA player on the face of one of the tickets. So much for not being recognized as a power program by the NCAA. Yep, Zips are prominent on the semifinal ticket. You can clearly see Akron on the front of Nagbe's jersey. Unfortunately its just Virginia raising the trophy on the Championship ticket. And for any of you clever college kids who can get out there and have an idea to print and use the ticket, I already erased the UPC and code number. Sorry.

Just got my tickets in the mail for the Final Four. C'mon Zips - beat Cal!

My son sent me a copy of a nearly full-page ad UA placed in the Wall Street Journal. The one I have is from November 10th. In it, Proenza writes about the new gold standard (I love the UA Au connection, maybe we should be Akron University). I know most people have heard the phrase but he makes a very good point with it and the biggest point of all tackles the UA open admissions policy head on. He states that current performance metrics for universities are based on how many students they exclude and how much money they spend. He argues that a university should be measured by how they help enable the success of their students. It is a well conceived and written ad and while I don't expect that thousands of students will come and beat down our doors because of it, I like the proactive approach that is being taken. I can't find a link to it, or I'd post it. Has anyone else seen these ads?

But perhaps not quite as "genious" as he thinks.

TCU is apparently joining the Big East. Doesn't say anything about how long they have to stay. I'm betting it is a temporary move and as soon as they can join the Big 12 or whatever BCS conference nearer to them, they're gone from the Big East.

Yep, IU's goalie made a lazy pass and hit it right back to Mattocks who put it right back in. Nanchoff scored the first goal.

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.