MDZip

Ding, ding, ding. It was the 2007 "Patriot Bowl" that was played at Cleveland Browns Stadium (although the location is listed as Brown Stadium, Providence RI at the top of the ESPN recap). The Zips beat Army 22-14 for their only season opening win in more than a decade.

Pitt loses a starting cornerback.

One week to go - assuming the Zips can win this game anyone know the last time they started the season with a win (hint, no one currently in school was likely to have seen it, expect maybe if John Blutasrsky is enrolled).

Maybe the team thinks the A-Roo looks like a donkey like some on here have expressed.

Sure wouldn't seem like it. They said the old deal was $1M per year. Lets says it got upped to $1.2M. When the MAC shortly returns to 12 members that would be $100K per school per year. If the average ticket price sold over for those games was even $10, you'd only have to get 500 more fans at another couple of games instead of those Tuesday/Wednesday games if you get scheduled with two of them at home like the Zips did.

And more fine journalism AKRON, Ohio -- Before LeBron James left the Cavaliers in 2010, fans gathered there hoping to see him resign. Next month they will gather there to welcome his return. If that's what they were hoping for they got their wish. I suspect most folks there would have preferred to see him re-sign at the time.

From all the articles above, gotta be good to be DeAndre Yedlin right now, teams now fighting over his services, a nice $300K bonus from being part of the World Cup, man this young man has the world in his hands right now. And through it all it appears he is staying very humble. Gotta be happy for him (just wish they'd mention UA a few more times in the articles about him ).

Perry Kitchen also got a mention.

DeAndre gets another pop culture shout out.

Some cheap shots (for all the players they "profiled") but in the vein of all publicity is good publicity... Hey can we get the title changed to Yedlin makes the final 23? Sure hope he at least gets a few minutes in one of the matches.

And she was only 5 centimeters from tying the NCAA Championship meet record. Two sophomore pole vault champions this year, the future is bright here at Pole Vault U.

I generally like to recognize the sports that accomplish some pretty big things while not getting a lot of attention. As of this moment the women's outdoor track and field team sits tied for second with three competitors left (all in the pole vault) so while it's unlikely that the Zips will catch Oregon for the title, it is still quite possible for them to finish the NCAA runner-up. That's pretty amazing. And the men currently sit in 7th with no more events so the Zips conceivably could have a top ten finish for both the men and women. The only other schools that have a reasonable shot at doing so - perennial powers Oregon and Florida. Nice work again Coach Mitchell.

One thing that does stand out though is that none of the bowls are against any BCS conference foes. The Motor City Bowl used to allegedly be against the 7th/8th place Big Ten team but that didn't happen very often.

Just looking back on the write-up on the Reese trophy and the men really had a phenomenal year. While no huge story like a bowl game, NCAA basketball tournament appearance or soccer final four, it's pretty amazing what the teams accomplished this year. Locking up the Reese trophy without outdoor track and baseball (who came in second and made the MAC title game respectively anyway), the soccer team won the league yet again, indoor track won the title (plus an individual national champion), cross country was second, golf was second and basketball actually had a bit of a down year but still was second in the East and made the conference semi's. Even football was respectable with a third place East finish. That's a hell of a performance from the men. Women weren't quite that good but another fine showing from track (second place for indoor and outdoor), a really unexpected swimming and diving title, softball grabbing the third seed in the tournament and of course the women's basketball team winning their first ever MAC title. Quite a year. Here are the final Reese Cup standings (and the gap between Akron and second place Can't State is larger than the gap between Can't State and last place Miami - wow): Akron 8 79.5 9.93 Can't State 8 61.5 7.68 Toledo 6 45.0 7.50 Eastern Michigan 9 67.0 7.44 Ball State 6 41.5 6.91 Western Michigan 5 34.0 6.80 Central Michigan 7 45.5 6.50 Buffalo 10 61.0 6.10 Ohio 6 35.5 5.91 Bowling Green 6 35.5 5.91 Northern Illinois 7 41.0 5.85 Miami 7 39.5 5.64 Still pissed we lost the overall Wagon Wheel challenge again.

He signed with Western Michigan.

Not laughing as hard this year. Phil lists 11 Zips on his preseason all-MAC team. None are first team but things are certainly looking up.

Huh, saw that article but didn't notice the names of the coaches in the box to the right who just missed the cut. That means the author regards KD as no worse than the 75th best coach on their list. Out of 343 coaches and the only MAC coach represented that's not so bad.

Motif works for the Thundering Turd and Outhouse Pitt.

I could see it happening but certainly hoping it doesn't. That's a tough OOC schedule. But I found the preview to be pretty straightforward, honest and accurate with a definite element of hope to it. I thought it was well done.

Think the list could still be updated since they still list Frye and Corner as being active - as well as Hixon even though he did just retire (two teams later than they have him listed). I think this leaves Chase Blackburn as the only Zip currently on a roster who has played in an NFL game.

Here is the bracket - http://www.mac-sports.com/Portals/20/2014MACBaseballBracket_1.pdf. It says that the Championship Game Replay will be necessary if both teams have 1 loss after Championship Game is complete so it appears that if both Akron and Can't make the championship game undefeated, it's a winner take all scenario, but if one enters with one loss and wins the "final" game, one more will be played to determine a champion. Still an odd format.

It is a bit of an odd format since it is not true double elimination. It is double elimination on each side of the bracket and those the survivors play 1 game for the championship. As it stands right now if Akron and Can't (the last two who have not lost) each win their next games they will play 1 game for the title so if that happens the loser will have only lost one game instead of two. With most double elimination tournaments that I am familiar with the one that gets to the title game undefeated would take on the loser of the elimination bracket and that team would have to win two games against the top team to win the tournament (and usually there are also crossover games so that you don't have to play the same team twice until the championship) so it is a little bit of an odd format. With this format, however, Buffalo or Miami would have to beat the Zips two straight games to keep the Zips from the championship game, so now I like it.

Loved this comment on at the bottom of the article "All other FBS video departments apparently not run by absurdist sketch comedy veterans: step your respective games up. Fear the dadgum Roo indeed". If all publicity is good publicity, well this was different and funny.

A throw away quote from the story "He said he has assured city officials that the bowl would not compete with a planned arena for downtown Akron". So does that mean the decision on a new home for Zips basketball has been made?