MDZip

Also love that the Zips will get a game in before facing Penn State. Nice scheduling. Now give us what we should get out of the West next year and I could see a chance of actually competing for the MAC Championship (assuming the defense can be shored up but the offense returns a lot of talent). Wow again. I believe.

I love how Terry Bowden played to win it. A fake punt deep in our territory, going for it and scoring a touchdown on 4th and 2. Some great plays by the defense and special teams (how about Pratt's tackle and onside kick recovery and Grice's blocked PAT). What a great way to end the season, gives a lot of hope going into 2014. Who saw a .500 MAC record coming with having to play the top three teams in the West? Well done.

ESPN highlights Tressel's Principles of Coaching class.

Latest USA Today Bowl projections have 6 MAC teams going including Toledo out to Boise (nice if we can send them there "cold") and NIU to the Fiesta Bowl (I now hope they do, let the MAC be the conference that sticks it to the BCS in the last two years of it's existence) but the AAC gets an automatic slot so watch the Fiesta Bowl match NIU against UCF. I bet it happens. They also have BGSU against Notre Dame in Detroit - would love to see that one as well. We picked a bad few years to suck since MAC bowl bids have been flying off the boards the last few years.

I'd like to see that too but you couldn't do it without having at least one of the next three years have only five home games. Would be OK with an FCS team each of those years giving six home games a year. Plus at the moment one of those games a year count toward bowl eligibility. We have four good home and homes already included in those years (Marshall, Pitt, Louisiana and now Applachaian St). Thats a good set to have home and home series with.

Appalachian St. is also nicknamed the Mountaineers so you may have seen that.

Another nice quote from that article: “Akron plays in one of college football’s finest facilities and Coach Terry Bowden and his staff have the program on track to compete for Mid-American Conference championships in the near future. We think our fans will enjoy an early-season trip to Ohio — one of college football’s hotbeds — in 2016 and we are excited to host the Zips and their fans at The Rock in ‘17.” But the thing I found most interesting was that Appy St. will head back to Michigan for a game next fall. Would have thought Michigan would not want to dredge up those memories.

Georgia Southern (who just knocked off Florida) is also moving to 1-A status. If we get to play Appy State at 1-A status I am OK with this as a series. Now I am even more annoyed we didn't beat Michigan at the Big House, this could have been for the Ann Arbor Championship. So according to fbschedules.com our OOC for the next few years looks like: 2014: 09/06 - at Penn State 09/20 - Marshall 09/27 - at Pittsburgh 2015: 09/05 - at Oklahoma 09/12 - Pittsburgh 09/19 - at UL Lafayette (or 09/26) 2016: 09/10 - at Wisconsin 09/17 - at Marshall 09/?? - Appalachian St. 2017: at Penn State at Appalachian St. Iowa St is in 2018 and 2019. So if we can buy an FCS game in 2014, 2015 and 2016 our schedules look pretty solid with 6 home games each year.

.500 is the definition of very mediocre isn't it? The only real difference in CMU's and the Zips schedule this year was that CMU got to play WMU and EMU (and didn't get BGSU or Can't). They even both played at Michigan in wildly different games (to account for the wildly different game each had with Ohio and UMass). If the Zips had CMU's scheule they might well be sitting at bowl eligibility too.

Agreed. The "Let's go Zips" was so clear on the stream that even the announcers commented on it. Dang it, was looking forward to cheering with them at Virginia this Sunday.

I originally thought so as well but someone posted the final RPI numbers after all the tournaments earlier in this thread, and the Zips ended up 20th and mostly the teams above them were the top 16 seeds, so the Zips can't complain too much about that part of it so they were gong to get a play in game almost no matter what. Disappointing end to another pretty darn good season.

Good for NIU but it may only be a one week phenomenon. They have WMU while Fresno has a better San Jose State team and both will face good but not great teams in their conference chmapionship. The AAC, the league that they need to stay ahead of, has no conference championship, which might work in their favor in this scenario. This will be interesting to see how it plays out.

No game yet but I can see it now.

No they are on the 2015 schedule. Zips will likely pick up another FCS home game as the fourth OOC game for next year.

According to Top Drawer Soccer, Marquette has never won an NCAA tournament game (only two appearances), so no reason to start now. Zips have dealt with bad weather many times before. I think the Zips experience in big games (and Marquette's lack thereof) gets them through this one. On to the sweet sixteen.

I didn't get the stream to work until about 30 minutes left in the game. If I was judging only on that I would have thought Indiana to be the far superior team. Zips had way too many unforced errors and errant passes at the end of the game. They are going to need to pick that up to beat Marquette. Good news though - B1G regular season AND tournament champs.

Technically Akron is the 24th seed and St. Johns would be no higher then 25th so it should be at Akron but this exact situation happened between Akron and Charlotte a couple years ago and it ended up being played in Charlotte. There was also some nonsense about a "bid process" that was never clear so bottom line is it is indeterminent where that game would be played. All irrelevant of course unless the Zips take care of Marquette, but the Zips have made it to at least the sweet sixteen the last six years. If you want an omen, a MAC school already beat Marquette in soccer at their place in the NCAA tournament. WMU's women's team took out #2 Marquette in what might be the biggest upset in the women's tournament history. Effectively a #15 seed taking out a #2.

Could Ohio be demoralized enough to drop one to UMass? And if NIU wins tonight perhaps Toledo decides they don't care about the Black Friday game? That would lead to a lone third place finish in the MAC East, anybody see that possibility before the season? As a matter of fact if either of those situations occurs the Zips would be tied for third and very worst case are tied for fourth. After three straight years of living in the basement I see that as a big improvement.

Here's a situation that NIU's weak crossover schedule can work against them - if Toledo beats NIU and they and Ball State all end up at 7-1, Toledo will be the winner based on the tougher crossover schedule (which is the same way the Zips won the East in their only MACC year). All of them played Akron so that is a wash, but Toledo gave the East leaders, BGSU and Buffalo their only losses of the year. In contrast, NIU had Umass and Can't State while Ball St. drew Miami and Can't State. NIU has a ton on the line tonight because if they don't win not only is there no possibility of a BCS game, they probably won't even win the MAC West. The "backroom" guys didn't think this one through very well.

Toledo may have a ton to play for - if they beat NIU (and it is at Toledo) and then they, Ball State and NIU all end up with the same records (highly likely since NIU has WMU and Ball St has Miami left), then Toledo is the MAC West champs.

Most fun play of the game was a Can't State fake punt to a lineman who was lined up as an up back and who ran 60 yards including hurdling the Ohio return man. #MACtion Two mishandled punts earlier in the game. #NotMAction Can't State just went up 44-13. I agree, how the hell did OU beat us 43-3?

The Zips have earned a top 16 seed and there shouldn't be anyone that they should fear seeing in the tournament (although the same holds for just about every other team - this one is wide open). While it's cold, Philly is a very easy trip for me - c'mon Zips - Seattle, Cary, Santa Barbara, why not Philadelphia?

Are you suggesting that St. Mary's=Dayton and MTSU=Wright State? But for that to be the case wouldn't all those games have to be on the road?

Is that including 2009, the year where the Zips were the #1 seed or not?

Yes, but he has never once sat in the stands and watched the Zips. He's too close.