a-zip

Then how do you explain the lack of attendance at the Info? Let me guess…. Even though football has a beautiful stadium it doesn't win enough…… Basketball wins tons of games but has a HS arena…... Soccer attendance is down because we didn't win another national championship……. Excuses, excuses…. Renovate the JAR, Build the Greek Village and put it right between the JAR and Info. See what that does.

2937 attendance for the Marshall game

What those on this board who want to blindly spend money on new arenas, new stadiums…."blah, blah,blah" are not doing is convincing me or anyone that matters. WHY is it money well spent. Hell, I think the whole Greek Village might be a better ideas to increase time and pride on campus. Making the JAR "nicer" is a prudent idea.

Comparing soccer to football or basketball is apples to oranges. The numbers at a soccer game are so low, to use them as an example is silly to me. The cost to build a nice soccer facility vs a basketball arena vs a football stadium are not comparable. The contract to keep the top head soccer coach in the country is dwarfed even an assistant job at a BCS football or basketball team. The number of people required to fill a soccer stadium is minuscule. BTW - when Lolla was our coach - we were consistently ranked in the top 10 (even #1 for a while), consistently beating top teams, consistently winning conference championships and consistently going to post season. Not much difference between he and Porter except for the national championship. My point on MTSU is they are in a conference we aspire to. They are one of the top basketball teams in the conference we aspire to and when we played them we did not have more than 3000 people at the game. Do you think Conference USA is taking notes? We have had some marquise wins under Dambrot - this year we beat an SEC and PAC 10 team. My point is the same as many others have voiced. Nobody give a s%&t. This state is balls deep in scarlet and grey - even local high school football teams out draw our football/basketball teams. If you look at the home/home numbers for us against Ohio U or Can't State, their attendance has been higher and we have won more games. I just don't get it.

Using soccer CROWDS as an example? I personally never said soccer was easy to draw a crowd…what I said was I don't consider getting 3-4K people together is much of a crowd for anything. Let me ask it to you this way. If you had to go to the board and justify spending 70,80,90, 100 million dollars on a new arena…..what examples would you use to show that it was a good investment? Our successful soccer program that averaged 3,500 people? We built a brand new football stadium and started attracting WVU and OSU? Cleveland State built a new basketball season and it is packed? BTW - the person who said they didn't know who Middle Tennessee was…………..They are in Conference USA - the conference some aspire to

I find it hard to understand how a fiscally responsible person would spend twice as much to build something that would likely be only half (or less) full the majority of the time (even for conference games). DIG - even using your numbers from 2 years ago for conference games would not fill a renovated JAR, let alone a new arena. I think NE Ohio has spoken. They have done so with their lack of support for a football team that has Terry Bowden and Chuck Amato as coaches in a state of the art football stadium. They have done so by only putting 4,553 in the seats for home conference basketball games two years ago. They have done so by not supporting a new basketball arena.

In the words of Chris Carter "C'MON MAN"…..what does it take to rank in the top 10 in college soccer attendance 2,500-3,000 people. Hardly something to get giddy about. Our basketball team has 9 seasons in a row with 20+ wins. That is a lot of wins with a coach who is tied to this community. We have not had over 3,000 people at a game this year. Middle Tennessee (who is a good team) drew 2,700 people. The "go big or go home"…."build it and they will come" does not seem to work for UoA sports (I would love to be proved wrong). I think you could make the JAR in to a TD arena and it would be "right sized". It could be nice and very loud. IF, for some crazy reason, a renovated TD/JAR consistently sold out…..charge more for tickets. If the demand was so high, THEN I could see justifying a new arena. Turn the JAR into a nice practice facility or maybe a hockey arena.

Go big or go home is what got us a big, giant, empty Info. As much as I want us to upgrade all of our facilities and move to a bigger conference - the lack of interest in our teams does not warrant anything more. This might be the most responsible decision made in a while. This is what I have been talking about with my frustration in attendance. Folks, you can't keep building these big giant facilities and hiring top coaches if nobody is going to show an interest.

I tried to start a new poll for who we think will be the starting QB against Oklahoma in 2015, but can't seem to make it work. Maybe someone else can start it if you think it is worthy. Anyway, I see the QB competition as being incredibly exciting and think it will produce someone who will take us to the next level. Lots of talented new faces and incumbents that are going to have to work VERY hard to keep their spots. Pohl - he is talented and experienced Chapman - exciting, highly regarded recruit….I would have to think he is eager to make a splash Woodson - had his moments, just didn't appear to be ready Kincaide - I like this kid, excited to see what he can do - 6'5"/225!!! Hirschmann - is he eligible? before he got hurt he looked impressive

My bad, I get it now......... win and they will come. I mean just look at our women's basketball team's attendance skyrocketing 11/14 1205 11/15 668 11/18 1262 11/25 531 12/5 592 Nevermind.....

Then why do all the other MAC teams (that have worse records) have higher attendance than us? Fu&^%ing pathetic.

Here is my analysis so far; Football - ADVANTAGE CUSA - more bowl tie-ins, better TV deal, top teams Marshall, MTSU, La Tech, Rice, UTEP - average attendance CUSA - 21,510 average attendance MAC - 16,739 Mens Basketball - ADVANTAGE CUSA Six C-USA teams earned postseason bids in 2014. Tulsa played in the NCAA Tournament and Louisiana Tech and Southern Miss participated in the NIT, advancing to the quarterfinals. average attendance CUSA - 3896…….5589 for conference tourney average attendance MAC - 2869……….3542 for conference tourney Womens Basketball - ADVANTAGE CUSA - don't know why but since the men are better, I bet the women are too ;-)……I know ODU is a powerhouse Men's soccer - ADVANTAGE CUSA Three teams (Charlotte, Old Dominion and associate member New Mexico) earned a berth to the NCAA Championship, with New Mexico becoming the fourth C-USA school to advance to the College Cup. South Carolina is an affiliate member. Womens Soccer - see comment on women's basketball CUSA Highlights http://www.conferenceusa.com/ot/competitive-highlights.html CUSA Map http://www.conferenceusa.com/ot/c-usa-members.html School Endowment/Enrollment - ADVANTAGE CUSA Avergage CUSA Endowment $521,000,000 Average MAC Endowment $201,000,000

It is a formula the NCAA uses when it feels like it to justify seeding or putting a power conference team in a tournament. When it comes to seeding the NCAA soccer tournament…it means NOTHING

Great effort…good start to the season. Robo is class……WOW!

My comment was not specific to the Zips, the NCAA, MLS or FIFA. I think it is a crappy way to decide a soccer match in general. And Yaz.....yes it is a guessing game. Most any player NCAA and above can and will go to either side of the goal and they also do moves and shudders as they approach to throw the goalie off. It is impossible to react to 100 mph + shot taken from 12 yards away. Interesting article http://www.scienceofsocceronline.com/2009/04/penalty-kicks-by-numbers.html

So much room for activities ….. http://youtu.be/29jij4ldkNs

That is REALLY NICE and all we need. Make the SEATS steep and 6000 people could be a deafening home court advantage. Seriously….arguably the top basketball program in the country (Duke) has only 9000 seats and NOBODY wants to play there.

I have NEVER liked that after 120 minutes of exhausting soccer, a match is decided by guessing which direction a penalty kick is going….because THAT IS what a goalie has to do. ESPN did a piece on what the hardest thing to do in sports is and a goalie stopping a PK was the hardest. Most people thought hitting a major league pitch but; A PK from a soccer kick travels faster (125 MPH) than a MLB fastball A soccer goalie has to cover a space that is 8 feet tall and 8 yards wide (192 square feet to cover) A baseball strike zone is essentially just underneath the players shoulders and the kneecap and 17 inches wide (3.73 square feet) The baseball hitter knows in order to make a good swing the ball will be in this small zone A soccer goalie has no idea if the ball is going to go high or low…….right or left A soccer PK is taken from 12 yards away Distance from pitchers mound to home plate is 60 feet 6 inches The soccer goalie is not allowed to come off the goal line I am not saying this as sour grapes (OSU won fair and square, UVA beat us for the National Championship in 2009 and thousands of other games have been decided this way…..WE have won this way) BUT when you look at how difficult it is to stop a PK it is essentially a guessing game and I do not think a match should be decided by guessing. My suggestion would be to have a shootout similar to hockey. Give the offensive player the ball just inside mid field and have them attack the goal (allowing the goalie to come off the line and defend just like a break away in regular play). I think this would be MORE exciting and involve more skill than guessing. This uses the pythagorean theorem to calculate BUT with the ball only traveling at 60 MPH http://www.khanacade...v/soccer-thiago http://www.scienceof...by-numbers.html

Moved comment to separate topic

Hopefully the young USC team gets better throughout the year and helps us when selection times begin (although based on the our soccer team's RPI the NCAA will do whatever they want ;-)

Before forming opinions about how strict we are vs other schools……why a player who was cleared from a concussion didn't play, etc, etc………….lets wait to hear the facts. I seriously doubt Coach Dambrot wants to lose his franchise player either. I would have to think there is a very good reason for this.

As we go in to the homestretch of our season, some important numbers to keep in mind; W - L 2009 3 - 9 2010 1 - 11 2011 1 - 11 2012 1 - 11 2013 5 - 7 2014 4 - 5 (currently) W-L record of remaining 3 opponents 6-21. We SHOULD win the rest of our games. If that happens, our record will be 7-5, which means; It will be only the 5th time we have won 7 games in a season since going to Division I (27 years ago)It will be only the 6th winning season we have had in 27 years since going to Division I (27 years ago)Will have our first winning record in 8 yearsIt will be the 20th time we have had 7 wins since 1891We will have 12 wins in the last 2 years after 11 wins combined in the previous 4 seasonsA bowl game would give us a chance for 8 wins - which has only happened 4 times since 1891We will be bowl eligibleWe will have beaten Can't State 2 years in a rowThat should be huge motivation for this team and if that is where we wind up, I will be happy and I cannot imagine anyone arguing that there has been MAJOR improvement. GO ZIPS!! In the immortal words of Matthew McConaughey (while driving his Lincoln)....... "Sometimes you gotta go back to actually move forward. And I don't mean go back to reminisce or chase ghosts — I mean go back to see where you came from, where you been, how you got here. See where you're goin'. I know there are those who say you can't go back. Yes, you can. You just have to look in the right place."

I tried to like some of the more recent responses about the important game coming up. I got a message saying "you have reached you maximum for positive responses today"

Balsy is right on the money with this. Big Zip you stated above that we are talking about facts and then right after it you state an opinion. The conspiracy theories are also opinions. The fact is there are no facts in this situation other than TW played, KP did not and KP dressed. A simple comment was made by TB and people have gone crazy with it. He does not have to tell the media or anyone anything. In my OPINION TB is looking out for the best interests of KP and that hopefully will come out in the long run. In the meantime - we have the best head coach and staff in the MAC (and many other conferences). BEAT BG and take the lead in the MAC!!

Thank you Balsy......ZN.O has gone crazy.