MDZip

I did that thanks, just hoping someone might have quicker access to get it fixed since as it is it is a rather embarrassing remark about our two biggest donors. I did pay attention in my UA English classes.

I was reading the story on Zips.com about the "topping-off" ceremony. Good story, fairly well written until I came across this (Dr. Proenza's remarks):“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to InfoCision Stadium at Summa Field. The progress being made is outstanding and this ‘Topping Off’ ceremony celebrates a significant milestone along the way. I want to recognize of course my colleagues Gary Taylor and Tom Strauss who are here and provided the initial impotence to get us moving. Thank you FirstMerit for your additional gift.Impetus, perhaps?!?! OMG, who can I contact to get that embarrassment off of there?

Its fun to do but it has only been done four times this year - all four have been losses and since we win when we don't do it, I personally pledge not to start another this football season. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go tie my rabbit's foot to my upside down horshoe.

Now that would be fun, but I think the Wolverines have zero chance of being Bowl eligible this year (it will break a 33 year streak, longest in the country). They are 2-5, have Michigan State this weekend (who just dropped out of the rankings), then Purdue and three ranked teams (Minnesota, Northwestern and OSU). In other years that might have looked doable. I do not think so this year.

Seeing as how that's the area I live in I have heard a little about CJ, but he's doing average at best. He's averaging less tahn 100 yards per game, and I saw him play a little against Rutgers and he looked terrible. The MEAC is not known for really high quality football. With Jacq's performance this year, I think we kept the right one. Seen nothing on Hakes. And the crabcakes aren't as good this year, either.

They're probably just taking wohever happens to be in first in the MAC East as their "projection", but it is fun to see our helmet between Oklahoma, tOSU, Texas and Alabama. And East Carolina would be a fun bowl opponent. The Motor City Bowl is projected as Ball State/Wisconsin. That would be fun too. How about we win the MACC so we get another crack at Wisconsin on a neutral field?

If you're a BCS conference, that's probably true, a tough OOC schedule doesn't help you much because its just increases the chances for losses and your conference schedule is generally viewed as tough anyway. For non-BCS though, a schedule like ours was a good idea, one really tough game and two possible winnable ones in the BCS and one non-BCS (we'd have been getting some buzz if we won all of them - and looks like Wisconsin actually could have been possible and even with Syracuse being bad our beating them got some recognition for us). Look at the buzz East Carolina generated (they'd still be in BCS bowl discussion if they hadn't blown it in their own league). Then look at Ball State - with the exception of a Wisconsin like game, their schedule looked much like ours, but no one is giving them any chance of even being in the BCS bowl discussion - why? Strength of Schedule. I think an OOC schedule like the one we played this year (but we should have had two home games) is right about where we should be.

Of all of the teams in the division, Buffalo is the one that scares me the most. I think the division may well come down to the winner of that game. Buffalo has two league losses and they are to Western and Central. Bad scheduling break for them, but they were close losses. I believe Central won on a last second field goal. Buffalo is just kind of lurking but they are well within striking distance. Actually, it will be kind of nice to watch everybody pound on each other while we're off, so we can see what we need to do. I don't see much chance that there won't be a tie for first, so I looked up the tiebreaker procedure on the MAC website. Its pretty complicated and at this point there doesn't even appear to be a way to even put forth some possible scenarios but maybe it will be clearer after the next couple of weeks, but if I read it right, if we have to get to criteria 3, West crossover winning percentage, we may be in trouble. Anyway, here is the criteria:MAC Football Tiebreaker Divisional ChampionsThe divisional championship shall be decided on conference winning percentage. If two or more teams are tied for the championship, they shall be considered divisional co-champions. The following tie-breaking formula shall be used to determine which team will represent that division in the MAC Championship game:1. Head-to-head competitiona. In the event of a multiple-team (two or more teams) tie, the team with the best head-to-head record amongst the tied teams wins the tie-breaker;b. In a two-team tie, head-to-head competition will be the first criteria; c. If two teams did not play, the second criteria is used to break the tie; 2. Record of tied teams within the division [versus rank order, highest to lowest, of division teams]a. The above tie-breaker procedure is used to determine rank order in the division;b. Team(s) eliminated in the second tie-breaker criterion are not included in further consideration in the tie- breaking formula;c. Head-to-head competition is again used to break the tie between the remaining tied teams. 3. Comparison of conference winning percentage of cross-over opponents of tied teams;a. Tie-breaker is awarded to the team whose cross-division opponents had the best cumulative conference winning percentage;b. Head-to-head competition is used to break the tie between the two tied teams. 4. If multiple teams remain tied, the final tie-breaker is as follows:a. Record of tied teams versus cross-division opponents in rank order;b. Head-to-head competition is used to break the tie between the two tied teams.

Well that helps - that's "probably" the outcome we wanted. Temple wins.

I sent in a text message to scroll across the top of the screen at the beginning of the game about the Zips (and encouraging Temple) but haven't seen it yet. Maybe I should have mentioned a BCS team.

Pat Forde listed some programs that are blowing up, but finally used us an an example of something that wasn't completely negative. Syracuse (20). The record: 1-6. The streak: lost three straight overall and 10 straight to FBS competition. The Orange has been outscored 80-13 in the fourth quarter, continuing the ineptitude of the Greg Robinson Era, as it were. But the fact that the Cuse has come closer to beating Pittsburgh and West Virginia than it did to beating Akron tells you something about the ragged state of the Big East. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/sto...mp;lid=tab3pos1

Dennis Kennedy is also only 49 yards from 2,000 in his career at Akron and one touchdown shy of 20.

Nothing from 2003, no miracle wins of any kind. Seems to be just a JD tradition (but a darn fun one to have ).Source:http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/teams/schedu...6&year=2003

Nice find on this one - always good to see where Zeke gets singled out for being an independent thinker.

It is a long way off, but it's still fun to think about what could happen in the first year of InfoCision. Jacq will have another year of experience (and most of the good Junior quarterbacks will still be playing in the West not the East, so the league might still look like it does this year) and while he is not the best quarterback we've ever had, he is far, far from the worst. Alex Allen, DeVoe Torrence and Dale Martin sound like a pretty impressive set of backs, the O-line who has played really well this year will mostly be back, might even get to see Ryan Bain play and hopefully he'll be angry. On paper at this point in the season, next year looks exciting.

If you can run for 277 yards, we'll change the thread so it can count for your initials too, whether you drink the pickle juice or not.

Quote from JD in his press conference:Question: Are you hoping to get guys back from injury during the time off?Yes, I hope we do. It is a long time off and I hope we can get a few guys back, namely Aaron Williams and Evan Laube.So it looks like Aaron Williams could be back for Toledo. You know if there was ever a year to steal a divisional championship, this is it. We got a relatively weak MAC West schedule, and there isn't anyone in the East that is dominant. 3 and 1 really should have a chance at the East title and we've shown we can win on the road. How about a couple of home victories?

And a nice mention in Mark Schlabach's ESPN's "On the Mark" column, under "Ground Churning Tailbacks".http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/notebook?pag...k/onthemark1020And this from a guy who at the beginning of the season was just part of a three man rotation (not that I wouldn't love to have Alex Allen back too).

Something else I think is kind of a positive sgn - when I joined this board only about a year and a half ago, I was member number 1310. I'm encouraged by all of the new posters and just noticed that the number recently went over 5000. I know they're not all active, but an icrease of over 3500 in a year and a half is pretty encouraging. I really think there is some momentum starting to build. Part of that has to be attributable to the basketball team's success over the last few years, c'mon football, help us out (the 05 MACC is arting to look a little stale ).

I found my source. According to the macreportonline the East winner is guaranteed a bowl slot (assuming of course, bowl eligibility):This will be the 12th Motor City Bowl and the MAC has been involved for all 12 years.He later added the MAC’s two division champions are protected and will go to bowl games.Here is the article source - http://macreportonline.com/index.php/20080......For-Now.html

Apparently you are aware of a new definition for bowl eligible? Here's what I thought it was..........There is a special case where a team can finish with a losing record and still appear in a bowl game. If a team wins their conference, they are given a waiver of the bowl eligibility requirements if they end up with an overall losing record.There is the key - you can be bowl eligible with a losing record IF you win your conference (e.g. MACC), but not if you don't. So if the Zips would make it to the MACC at 6-6 and then lose, they would not bowl eligible. And by the way, I also saw (on the MAC web site?) the MAC East champ is "protected" for a bowl should they be bowl eligible.

Got to hand it to the guys - looked like Buffalo had the potential to give them a run, but the Zips shut them out. Haven't lost in MAC play since 2006. Michigan is up on Wednesday, they are currently ranked #18 in the country.

Well, that is true, assuming UB loses to Army. Last I saw, 10-3 Army, 2:55 into the 2nd.Army isn't a MAC school. Buffalo's conference record remains at 1-2 no matter how they do today.And our two MAC victories have been extremely lucky wins over the two bottom dwellers in each division. C'mon guys, show us something over the last four games of the season. I say 3-1 would get us to the MACC.

Iveljic's kick was blocked, Andy Hildreth grabbed it and ran for a first down, which Kennedy ran in for the touchdown three plays later. Devoe Torrence neither made a tackle nor burned his redshirt.

I just looked up some of the Zips records - Kennedy probably had the greatest rushing game EVER by Zips player. 11.1 YPC, three touchdowns and the second most number of yards in school history (the only one better was James Black at 295 and he needed over twice as many carries). Wow.