MDZip

Forbes released their list of the top 600 colleges and named Akron at 560. There are lots of reasons that these lists are pretty meaningless (although I'm happy we finally made one somewhere - one of those Princeton review books that I've seen lately lists just about every school in the country but not Akron) and the MAC did pretty poorly overall (everyone made the list but NIU but I could have overlooked them), with Miami at the highest at 331 at no one else above 450. The MAC always gets viewed as a second tier set of schools despite some really great things going on at many of the schools. This stuff annoys me. Top of the List

Always interesting to get the perspective from the other side as well ...USF Point of View“I have to give Akron a lot of credit,” said USF head coach George Kiefer. “They did a good job for 90 minutes and came out with a lot of intensity. The looked extremely comfortable out there tonight and looked like they were in midseason form."

And yet more work on it - I believe this is the titanium and gold inlay going in? (maybe as a precursor to testing the titanium bridge). By the way I was in North Carolina over the weekend and checked out the stadiums at ECU, UNC, NCSU and Duke. Though smaller the Info looks just as nice as any of them and is way better than Wallace Wade Stadium at Duke.

He has a design shaved in his hair that looks a bit like a Z. I'd guess for Zakuani but couldn't it serve a dual purpose?

Sounders on ESPN2 right now. Zakuani on the front line.

Just like when we recently pointed out opposing players in football who were highly rated in the national eye, we certainly have to give the same props to our own. The Zips had five freshman named to the College Soccer News "players to watch". 5 out of 100 is outstanding. We used to be excited to get one. Five was the most of any school, No wonder the Zips had the top recruiting class in the country. Can't wait for this fall.100 Freshman to Keep an Eye on

Even worse, Graham Watson (the "others" blogger for non-BCS schools) dosn't even rate her own blog this year. It's just lumped in with all of the other BCS blogs under the "National" blog (all of the BCS leagues still have their own individual blogs). So there wasn't enough readership of her blog with 54 schools in it to warrant having it stand on it's own?

But it's not a very accurate depiction. They stink in far more places than just the Pacific Northwest!

This is either great news (we have a potential star at middle linebacker) or awful news (our linebacker depth is so bad that a redshirt freshman who played at a tiny high school won the job). Please be the former, please be the former ...

They also have 6 in the CFN top 200 - http://cfn.scout.com/2/886628.html#27 LB Navarro Bowman (though we won't see him this year)#45 LB Sean Lee#58 DT Jared Odrick#66 QB Darryl Clark#139 RB Evan Royster#180 C Stefen WisniewskiSurprisingly, we did not have any players listed (though the MAC did have a reasonable representation). That's why the upset will be even sweeter.

Sorry to see Andrew go before we knew what he could do, but best of luck to him. Great timimg for Darryl though (and well deserved) as you really wouldn't have had time to award one to a member of the 2009 class and now there won't be any angst about "wasting" one that could hae gone to an incoming recruit. Looking forward to big things from Darryl.

I thought it might be a little early to start this topic, but then realized it is a mere 2 1/2 weeks until game time. So who's planning on going? I ordered 6 tickets through the Zips ticket office but I haven't gotten them yet. Anybody received theirs yet? So who's going (and any of you Penn State lurkers need not reply ).

You all see eyesore. I see a perfect ZipsNation party Tailgating house.

He looks pretty badass with the new haircut though. Glad to see him graduating (excellent for him and the program) and continuing to play. Thanks for the great memories Nate!

I went back just to see if we held our position. Someone must have kept working because we are spot #34 now. Regardless, far more fun on the board was the reaction of people at Akron at that spot. Some of them got pretty worked up about it. Here are most of the comments. (I saw a Zippy_UA comment in there as well).Farmhands (8/7/2009 at 8:36 AM) Akron? really, Akron? Come on. There's only two things that have ever came out of Akron and one doesn't even play football.CML1125 (8/7/2009 at 4:16 PM) Akron? Really?... Cmon now, I can argue about 10 teams that didn't make it that should be ahead of Akron.jrussjr (8/7/2009 at 4:59 PM) NC State in the top 5!!!!......Akron in the Top 40!!!!Justinjsu (8/8/2009 at 12:28 AM) Akron and Iowa over North Carolina who decided that crap akron aint won a big game ever have they? What type of idiot would put them in a Division 1-A football program...my high school team could have beat themvincedpirate (8/8/2009 at 1:48 PM) akron? who voted for this? how long has it been out? I came down to NC, NC State, Mizzou, and Maryland for my last sopt and picked Maryland. Akron was no where close. The only ones I voted for that didn't make it were South Carolina ,Louisville, and Maryland, but how is Akron on this list??? I'd put Marshall before Akron!vincedpirate (8/8/2009 at 1:50 PM) crazyness. one guy from Akron must've voted a thousand times(ed. note - Hey WinZip does he know you? )PENNSTATE In Boise (8/8/2009 at 4:10 PM) its a shame the military academies dont get more love. for generations they've been the bread and butter cupcakes for many of the 'top 40'. c'mom..how bout navy instead of akron, nc state, or utard??? after all, notre dame is in....nataliemaehollow (8/8/2009 at 8:12 PM) Akron huh? wow why don't we just put Eastern Michigan at number 6 right under NC state at 5???? nice listpenn_state_7 (8/9/2009 at 2:21 AM) Show Akron some love, you know they are gana roll PSU in Happy Valley..hhaaaahaaPretty funny.

We really should have surrounded Steve last year screaming "One more year"! Can you imagine how awesome the Zips would be if we had Steve-O back for his junior year too? (sigh).

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.