MDZip

Portland State is also the #1 seed in the Big Sky conference.

MU, OU and CMU all have the same record. If Miami beats BGSU and OU knocks off Buffalo, OU is the four, Miami is the five and CMU is the six (MU and OU both beat CMU this year). If I had my prefernce, I'd rather see it shake out that way and have all of tough East foes on one side away from us. While CMU did beat us it was at their place and I think we'd like another shot at them. I'd rather not play a team three times unless its the championship. Plus Western is no pushover. Since we're guaranteed the three seed, any way it works out is fine. At least we have the bye and are away from Can't so we can just have fun beating them with no tournament implications on the line. Here's to being the MAC East Co-champs!

NIU and VCU were my fault, I made the JAR too small. There is plenty of room for one more though ...

I'm not sure what all the angst is about. We played a pretty good game with some lock down defense against another pretty darn good mid-major team. Those are the kind of games we want to play, look at the effort at Dayton as another example. Sure, I'd have loved to have won them both, but the effort is there, its not like a few years ago when we'd get blown out by teams like those. Its great that the expectations have been raised so much but how many of you remember the Bracket Buster games we had as "also rans" just a few short years ago? ESPN thought enough of us to put us on against a very good team on ESPN2. Why all the gnashing of teeth? In the final analysis, this game didn't mean much, but it did give Wood an opportunity to get back in the game and start to get his legs back again. Of course he looked tired, he hasn't been able to do much conditioning for two weeks (but he also sort of had two weeks of rest). I think it was the right move to get him back in, he certainly appeared ready and he did a great job. His absence gave the McKnight brothers some valuable time and experience and the team has got to be better for that. I love the thought of having Wood back for the stretch run when we all thought he might be gone for the rest of the year. There are three big games coming up and hopefully three more after that (and hoping for at least one more following that). We have some gritty players, we have some athetes and I still have hope that we can pull this off - we almost upset Can't in their gym, now we have them in ours and I want to see them on a neutral floor in Cleveland (hopefully in the final). Go Zips!

Nervous, very nervous. Despite their dismal record, Ball St. is no pushover. With the amount of injuries we have plus the fact that even with a poor record they continue to play even the good MAC teams tough and they are at home makes me worried. This has the makings of a big upset. However, if the Zips have the heart I think they do, they gut out a tough effort and come away with the W, 72-68.

Don't worry I found his "u". Evidently the Leakin' Urinal is using it. Here is an excerpt from today on a story on the Browns titled "Cleveland Browns: Success Breeds Greed??"Hold on there, big guy. I don't think so. One decent season, does not a five-year contract make. Not buy a long shot. Mind you, after the Browns dispensed with Charlie Frye after the home opener debacle against the Steelers way back in September, Anderson showed that he had some skills at the QB position.

Seemed like the right time to re-post this.

And for those of you who were wondering where Quade Milum went (probably including Quade) - WOW.

While I suspect its probably been done before - Tim O'Shea and Clint Howard - separated at birth?

On second thought, clearly, we're going to need more room, so I readjusted (and took out Xavier since it was only an exhibition).

Apologies to BirdZip since he posted the original, but this seemed like a fine time to update it.

Great game but really disappointing.

Did we pick up the Arizona Cardinals QB - evidently Leinart is doing a great job guarding Roberts.

Somebody have Zippy go kick that ugly Flyer mascot's butt!

Who's heart dropped on the prayer 3 pointer?

I read an article on Greg Jennings (WMU) on ESPN and it got me to thinking there are some pretty good MAC players in the NFL so I did a quick run through the rosters to see what an All-MAC NFL team would look like. Every team but Temple has someone on an NFL roster (even Buffalo) and 51 players were represented (though some were probably pratice squad players). Only a handful of NFL teams didn't have any, Miami had the most with 4. We're a little thin in some positions (I had to do a 3-4 defense since there is only one DT) and I didn't count any UCF nor Marshall players even those that played while in the MAC (Randy Moss is the only one I would have added anyway). Here is my list, not as strong as I would have thought, what do you think?OffenseQB - Roethlisberger - PIT - MiamiRB - Taylor - MIN - TolRB - Turner - SD - NIULT - Shelton - MIA - EMULG - Bell - TENN - MiamiC - Ghiaciuc - CIN - CMURG - Mruckowski - GB - BGSURT - Staley - SF - CMUTE - Gates - SD - Can't StateWR - Jennings - GB - WMUWR - McCareins - NYJ - NIUDefenseNT - Muir - GB - Can't StateRDE - Taylor - AkronLDE - Babin - SEA - WMULB - Blackburn - NYG - AkronLB - Campbell - WASH - BGSULB - Harrison - PIT - Can't StateLB - Guzman - IND - BuffaloCB - Young - NO - Can't StateCB - Perry - MIA - EMUS - Smith - MIN - AkronS - Elam - NYJ - Can't StateSpecial TeamsPK - Suisham - BGSUP - Zastudil - CLE - OhioKR - Cribbs - CLE - Can't State

Anyone happen to watch the ESPN Top Games of 2007? The Zips made the highlight reel at the end twice - once for losing the MAC Basketball Championship and then the win at Western Michigan in football. The good thing is they only said Zips during the football highlight.

You're being a little hard on the MAC (although it is possible only one team will finish with an overall winning record - that would be bad). In general the MAC OOC schedules were not easy - would you rather have played our OOC or OSU's? And the MAC did at least get one signature scalp, WMU's upset of Iowa (at Iowa). Lets see, we beat WMU who beat Iowa who beat Illinois who beat OSU. We could have won the Big Ten if it wasn't for that sticky loss directly against OSU. At least the Sun Belt is worse than us, they have only one winning record and the potential for only two. The WAC has two very good teams, everyone else is mediocre. Conf USA has a couple good teams and not much else. All the non-BCS conferences struggle at some point.We're a part of it, we've never been more than mediocre in the conference. Even the year we won, we were only 5-3. I'm still hopeful, but 2005 raised our expectations quickly. I think that's good, but realistically we still are in about the same boat we were in when we joined the MAC. Next year and 2009 are going to be critical years to decide if we step up or step back.And for the first time that I can ever remember there are no MAC teams listed in ESPN's "Bottom 10".

You're being a little hard on the MAC (although it is possible only one team will finish with an overall winning record - that would be bad). In general the MAC OOC schedules were not easy - would you rather have played our OOC or OSU's? And the MAC did at least get one signature scalp, WMU's upset of Iowa (at Iowa). Lets see, we beat WMU who beat Iowa who beat Illinois who beat OSU. We could have won the Big Ten if it wasn't for that sticky loss directly against OSU. At least the Sun Belt is worse than us, they have only one winning record and the potential for only two. The WAC has two very good teams, everyone else is mediocre. Conf USA has a couple good teams and not much else. All the non-BCS conferences struggle at some point.We're a part of it, we've never been more than mediocre in the conference. Even the year we won, we were only 5-3. I'm still hopeful, but 2005 raised our expectations quickly. I think that's good, but realistically we still are in about the same boat we were in when we joined the MAC. Next year and 2009 are going to be critical years to decide if we step up or step back.

Jabari (2 categories), Reggie Corner, Bryan Williams and Igor (15 of 18, that is really impressive, especially when compared to last year) are all still listed among the NCAA leaders.

Actually, they do, its just hard to find. Go to ESPNSoccerNet, then mouse over USA at the file list at the top and then NCAA | High School is the last entry on the drop down menu.

Anyone ever notice that despite the fact that you have to vote for every mascot matchup every time you vote, it is rare when all of the matchups add up to the same number? Most of the time it is only 4 of the 6 that add up the same. Just a curiousity.

Winning the next four (a fairly tall order) makes everything else moot - the CMU game might as well be an out of conference game if that happens. It will only matter if we have to go to the tiebreakers, and the way it seems WMU is going, that probably won't fall in our favor either.

Zippy's up by about 400 this morning. Still a long way to go.

I think it's great that there is only one team in the Bottom Ten. Even though the site is somewhat tongue in cheek, there are usually three MAC schools or more listed on it (occassionally three in one spot when they just lump "Directional Michigan" together. Hopefully, we get to see Temple back on the list next week (you get an automatic week off if you win, but that deosn't protect you from the foloowing week).