MDZip

See these are the kinds of opposing fans I welcome on our board. Fun, knowledgable (even about us some), talks some smack but doesn't sound like an a$$, and absolutely does not dismiss the possibility that (while not likely) a Zips upset is not out of the question. I think he is too cultured for a PSU fan, we really should try to convert him to the correct side.

I think they're probably giving evryone a look right now - neither Alex Allen nor Dale Martin got any carries. Here is what I did like though -Receiving:Richard Sandilands 2-65; Jeremy Bruce 1-10; Broderick Alexander 1-20; Jeremy LaFrance 3-32; Rhyne Ladrach 2-18; Larry Dawson; 1-13; Randy Greenwood 1-16; Andre Jones 4-61; Gary Pride II 2-26; Nadir Brown 1-22; Deryn Bowser 2-17; Nolan Procter 1-1.There is a lot of talent at the WR position. And look, a tight end (who actually caught a couple balls) sighting.

Yeah nice dig Maria - "Akron's success is a tribute to coach Caleb Porter and his staff. Not just because of the way he prepares his team to take the field, but because he is able to convince good players to move to Akron, Ohio, and play in the Mid-American Conference."Boy just think what Porter could do at a good school. How come you didn't take a shot a Notre Dame whose best player is named Bright Dike? It's a personal shot either way isn't it?

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/ncfnationPSU's Wallace likely suspended for 1-2 games August 13, 2009 11:58 PMPosted by ESPN.com's Adam RittenbergJoe Paterno is all for second chances, but the legendary Penn State head coach doesn't tolerate academic missteps of any kind. So it's no surprise that Paterno will discipline cornerback A.J. Wallace for cutting classes.Wallace likely will be suspended for Penn State's first game or two because of his academic issues. So the Nittany Lions probably will be without one of their most experienced defensive backs when they open the season Sept. 5 against Akron."I've told A.J. I might not play him in a game or two because he had cut classes and if he cuts anymore classes he won't play," Paterno said Thursday at media day. "I think you've gotta send a message and there's no sense sending a message to someone who's not a player. He's obviously one of our better players. ... Now when I play him will depend on what I hear back from our academic advisers."Penn State will crush Akron and Syracuse whether or not Wallace is on the field, but it's important for a new-look secondary to build chemistry as quickly as possible. Sophomore D'Anton Lynn could get an opportunity to shine in a starting role early, though I'd expect Wallace to have the top job most of the season.I applaud JoePa for this, and I am glad its happening against the Zips (didn't much care for the crush Akron comment in the article though).

Your wish is my command. Here is our record against the rest of the MAC over the last five years. Still not all that great. Thank god for Can't (and I don't say that all that often ).Ball St 1-2BGSU 2-2Buffalo 3-2CMU 0-3EMU 1-0Can't State 4-1Miami 1-3NI 2-1 (including MACC)Ohio 3-2Temple 0-2Toledo 1-1WMU 1-1

I read in the Quad Countdown where the Zips have a winning record against only four MAC opponents. So I went and looked up the records for all-time and from when we joined the MAC. It's true and it's even worse in conference play. Anyway here are our records: MAC OverallBall St 4-5 10-8-1BGSU 5-9 7-10Buffalo 8-2 8-2CMU 5-8 9-12-1EMU 6-6 16-11Can't State 12-5 29-20-2Miami 4-11 5-13-1NI 2-2 6-5Ohio 9-8 12-12-1Temple 0-2 7-11Toledo 2-6 8-8WMU 2-7 4-11 So except for Buffalo and Can't we're no better than one game over .500 against everybody else in the conference in conference play. Does this surprise anyone? Guess we have a long way to go to "dominate" the MAC.

Cool looking flag waving on the scoreboard video screen right now. Not exactly an HD view through the Web Cams but at least they're up and you can see it.

I think some people's frustration is that policy at least "appears" to be the reason that Akron is not more highly regarded nationally when all of us believe that it certainly should be. There is no reason that Akron shouldn't be regarded as an excellent academic institution, for many of the reasons outlined above, and yet it most certainly is not at least in the general national perception. My daughter is looking at schools and has a book called the Best 381 colleges in the US. Many MAC schools are listed but not Akron (and many other schools that are listed are no better than Akron). It's also funny to me that the big football and basketball factories all seem to make these types of publications. So when we get better at those, then we'll be an elite institution. I'm only partly kidding and I wonder if a little of our push in athletics now might be related to that. A lot of it is perception. Proenza is working hard to change that, but I think that is the root cause of these kinds of discussions.

You got me to thinking about the last time I got one. I think I have one more recent but I can't find it, so the last one I can find is Spring 2008 (with Zippy on the cover). Anyway the back of the magazine has both a number (330-972-7270) and email address (alumni@uakron.edu) for the Alumni Association.

With the large number of home games that we have scheduled this year I hope someone had the foresight to schedule enough matches on a local field (say, St. V again) so that if we do get into a bad weather situation again this fall and the Lee Jackson field is deemed unplayable again (highly possible since the field itself has not been updated) that we will have an alternate place to play a game (at least that is how I fuzzily remember the NCAA rule).

Hey, who picked last year's game? Ball St and Buffalo each have a vote. I see the East race as wide open, there is absoultely no favorite (no preseason poll I've seen has the East Champ at better than 5-3 in conference and I think Phil Steele had a five way tie at 4-4 (maybe he saw the basketball standings and figured football worked the same way?) Anyway, the Zips have just as good a chance this year as anyone, I think they have been underrated so far. In the west, I think WMU has the most complete team and Hiller is pretty much LeFevour's equal and the game is at WMU. So it's Akron and WMU and we know what happens when Akron gets into a MACC against a more highly regarded opponent (historically this tracks at 100% ).

We're #4 in the National Collegiate Soccer Coaches Association PollAnd College Soccer News has us at #6

Hey Webmaster, I applaud your effort, but are you sure youy are looking to include Infocision Filed? It appears that most of your stadiums are concerned with soccer from our perspective (even the one NFL field you list is listed as playing soccer). Our stadium is unlikely to ever be used for soccer and our true soccer stadium is too small for what you listed that you are looking for. If you are looking to create an American football stadium section, there will be plenty of pictures on this site that could be used, but if we caught your attention because of our fine soccer team, welll we're pleased about that as well. Good luck on your project.

I've been excited about Zips soccer for a number of years. Even though I will probably only get to see one game this year (Indiana on the Friday night before the football), I ordered season tickets (at $50 that's a great bargain) just to help support the program a little more. Any time you have that level of talent and commitment on any level (and soccer may not be the marquee sport in college but its still well ahead of most other sports - and I would argue trailing only football and men's basketball on the UA campus) you want to help show support for the incredible job they're doing. If you can't do it by attendance, buy a season ticket (they're cheap and you get a scarf ).

And the test they are running on the scoreboard is pretty interesting.

So perhaps this reporter isn't exactly on top of Zip football. It's a nice story of reward for effort nonetheless. Do you think it's possible Tyler or someone else accidentally mentioned a scheme change to this guy but the details got screwed up somehow?Sadly, instead of that, I think he just has some fact issue problems ..."Junior Mike Thomas, a Hartley graduate who spent time last year at strong safety when he was the second-leading tackler (81), has moved to linebacker......Akron lost two of its first three last year, including a 17-15 loss to Big East champion Cincinnati on Sept. 27."Thomas never played safety and Cincinnati was the 5th game last year - though it is correct we lost two of our first three so he's got that going for him.

And surpisingly they even mentioned that he was a draft pick from Akron last year.

So it's meaningless but it's still fun to see us there. Nice work.

Almost to both UNC and Louisville - and only 7 from the top 40. If only we'd have started sooner.

Not that it really means anything now but votes are still being accepted despite the cut line (and the total is going up very slowly so not many people are voting). Would still be entertaining if we could sneak into the top 40, but regardless still a very impressive showing. Nicely done those of you who were primarily responsible. We may not be the biggest fan group but we're passionate.

Great tip! Thanks!!Ahhh the advantage of having a school name that starts at the beginning of the alphabet I got even lazier - I lined up Forde's vote with Akrons check box, then after the vote is over I use Alt-f, Alt-x to get rid of the voting window so now I don't even use the mouse (and I made the IE window very thin so its not obvious what I'm doing if someone come in). I'm averaging about one vote very 10 seconds. Glad I wasn't real busy today and that my Akron Compter Science education is really paying off.

This works pretty well - on IE go to tools, Internet Options, select the Privacy tab and set it to High. Then set your screen size so that when you click on vote in Forde's story, Akron will appear on the csreen. Click Akron hit return (since the submit button is the default) kill the winodw and click vote again on Forde's story. Still wish I had the time to write a bot for it though.

Now you guys have me playing too. Someone's count is off we are currently at 67.

I was wondering if that was going to be how we started to connect with recruits from the Southwest. I was worried it was going to be the "grassy knoll". Thank goodness Dennis Kennedy is no longer with the team.

The NCAA has a right to define how intercollegiate athletics are structured since they are the governing body (right or wrong). So they decide exactly what FBS, FCS, etc. need to have as standards to participate in those divisions (and remove those they do not deem worthy). In the same breath, they claim to have the best interest of the student-athlete in mind and yet don't have the balls to say that either it really is only about money and cut off all of the schools that don't make it money or actually make it about the students and have it be like EVERY OTHER sport in the NCAA including FCS football and down. What is so damn special about FBS football that it has to be this way? It's the money, admit it or give everyone the shot they deserve as member institutions at that level. It works great for the NCAA basketball tournament, and for those kids who are students (and not athletes) who have no shot at winning the tournament also have a great experience at it. Do those students not count - should they have a "lesser" college experience simply because their school chooses not to spend enormous sums of money on athletics? That is one of the great things about the NCAA tournament. You can play in a "lesser" conference against schools of your caliber and still get a shot and a fun college experience. Plus the seeding works out well too. The FBS needs a 16 team playoff (11 conferences and 5 at large). I don't care if the MAC ends up with seed 15 or 16, they deserve it just as much as anyone else. The claim that it about protecting the athletes from extra games is just BS. So its fine for the football players in FCS but not FBS? Tell me the difference. And what about teams that rise (and fall)? What about USF? A few years ago they were nobody now they have a shot at a National Title. If they had joined a "lesser" conference, they'd have no shot. Why them and not someone else? How about Miami, FL? Pretty much no football history until Schellenberger, who then went to Louisville and resurrected them and now they have a shot. How about FAU in a few years? That's where he is now. It's ridiculous to think about things as they are now as though they will never change (Washington & Jefferson, a tiny DIII school in PA, played in the Rose Bowl in the 20's). That is such an elitist attitude. Akron has a ton going for it, put it in one of the big 6 and let it go for a few years and it would be right there with everybody else (you think kids don't also get sold on who they play? You bet they do - and the old adage about a rising tide lifts all boats applies here). I think the huge payoff that each of the BCS conferences get might help some too.I read Pat Forde's story and I think he is only half serious, there are some lines where it appears he even thinks it wouldn't be the right thing to do but it's something to talk about. It's just not the right thing.