MDZip

And that's what we have to look forward to with the football team right now. "They are what we thought they were." At least for those of us that enjoy the soccer team, it is still great. Hopefully football comes back someday sooner than later. (sigh)

A bigger question there might be would Villanova want the MAC. No chance. If they have an invite from a conference they are already in that is a BCS conference why would they make the same investments they'd have to make for the Big East to join the worst (or at best second worst) conference in the FCS?

At least we didn't have the worst loss to an FCS team today. Virginia Tech fell to James Madison 21-16.

Well that's how the GoZips.com title ought be to anyway.

8 straight shutouts - amazing.

Outstanding - welcome to 0-4 with a legitimate shot at 0-12. On the bright side we might be #1 (on the ESPN Bottom 10 list). I hate when "wait til next year" comes this early.

Wow, 31-31 with four minutes left. Man, I hope Brevard turns out to be a juggernaut.

Man, what a weapon he is as a defender. Incredible player. Can't see him staying after this year, so good to see him giving it all for one more shot at glory.

Zips and Falcons tied 0-0 30 minutes in, the Zips have 12 shots (5 on goal) while BGSU has one. I would imagine BG is packing everyone back and hoping for that one lucky goal.

It means that there will be two games like last year and two others. The four teams ranked the lowest will play in two games (say 65 vs 68 and 66 vs 67) for the right to play a couple of #1 seeds. There will also be two games with the lowest at-large teams teams playing each other, so say two games for #12 seeds play each other for the right to play a #5. Effectively there would be six #12's and six #16's in the tournament.

41-0 Zips. That's the standard set last year for playing an FCS team at home.

The best part of all is at the end. Man, did we get lucky landing him. I still can't believe we're talking about the Zips.

I already bought mine with the plan to sell them on StubHub if the Zips don't make it, but with the size of that stadium, I may not be able to do so. I also looked at the stadium layout, doesn't look like there are too many seats behind the team benches. UCSB Stadium

Actually only been to 1, the Ball State game two years ago. But I fortuitously sat next to JohnnyZip84 so it wasn't so bad.

I am so annoyed that I was IN North Carolina and couldn't make it to the game. Wow, knocking off the "other" #1 team at their place 3-0, that's impressive. Let's take it to Wake!

I learned that Wagner has been with us for three years, which even incorrect is still more than I've gotten out of the local bloggers. It is kind of nice when an opponent puts this much effort toward you. Makes you feel just a little more important.

That was a really good piece. Zip_ME87, if you had even the tineist bit to do with helping them get that on the air, thank you. Stadium and campus in the background shots looked terrific too. I'm even going to be in North Carolina on Friday but in the wrong place. Killing me not to be able to be at the game.

So to boil it down, the real question is would a strong OOC schedule lessen the Zips chances to win the MAC? On the plus side, you'd think a tougher schedule would toughen them up for conference play but on the down side they could be a little more beat up, and have a little more fragile psyche if they have a rough non-conference schedule. On the whole I'd lean toward the tougher schedule, because if not, you've eliminated half your options for the NCAA tournament. Looking at this year's schedule, hiowever, there is at least the potential for an at-large bid if they do very well OOC (like 13-3 with a couple of marquee wins). Don't think you could say that as easily in most previous years.

Folks, the Zip in Paradise would love the opp to see a Zips football game in the future, West of the Mississippi (prefer West of the Rockies), but in all seriousness, the only WAC/MWC schools that would even CONSIDER playing home and away with Akron would be NMSU, USU, Idaho, SJSU (unlikely they would travel to OH) and Wyoming. UNLV? unlikely, but let's give'em a call anyway! And someone please tell the I-Coach that he still owes a game @Hawaii from the Owens era. This better not be true. When Ianello said we would be excited about our future schedules it wasnt this garbage! Ianello probably had zero impact on setting up the 2011 schedule. We'll see what it looks like from 2012 on.

I'd pay $100 to do this.

Actually that's exactly the opposite of what it says: 2011 UCF @ Louisville Duke @ Akron 2012 @ Duke Louisville Akron @ UCF So our OOC games next year would be @OSU, @ Cinci, home against FIU and probably an FCS team.

Uh, I'm pretty sure the Syracuse staff knows what kind of defense the Zips will play. I bet they even played against it before. I just read it here...I called up Doug and told him...I heard Sh!t and mad scrambling in the background...Thanks for the heads up.ZachThe Zip You are my favorite opposing team poster ever.

Well thanks, now there's no reason to even go. But if this even remotely happends we will elect you king.

But Spicer Hall is back. OK, so it's no longer the former elementary school turned registrar's building, but it is a brand new very nice dorm right behind the Info.

And this piece today - Can't State Coach feels fire driving his team. I certainly hope he feels it, with a career record of 24-46, it is right under his seat.