Ryno aka Menace

Wow I really wasn't expecting that ranking....I mean I expect us to be on the list but....damn.

I disagree that this is a bad move, I think it is pretty smart actually. 1. Notre Dame is struggling because of bad coaching and having a higher standard for admission that most schools which limits the athletes you can recruit. (Anyone can get into an SEC school) 2. BYU wants to get into a BCS conference....its a lot easier if you A. don't have to pay millions for leaving the conference. And B. The conference that takes BYU won't look like a bully or poacher in the eyes of the media. 3. They can make their own schedule, if they are smart the will schedule like Boise State to hard games and the rest mid-level to bottom feeders. It all about the number of wins. Don't believe me watch and see what happens if Boise beats VT and goes undefeated and Miami who has arguably the toughest schedule in college football goes 10-2 guess who going to the better bowl game. 4. By being independent you can schedule all to play teams all over the country to get more national exposure. BYU wants to get back to the days of Steve Young and Jim McMahon, and Ty Detmer. Notre Dame only has to finish in the top 8 and the are in a BCS game. Look at their schedule if they win 9 games their in. BYU has to win 7 games to go bowling thats it. I guarantee that a 8 win BYU goes bowling before any 9 win MAC, WAC, Sun Belt, or Conference USA team. Its what I don't like about college football, perception you have to look good not necessarily be good. Look at Cincinnati last year, they had no business playing Florida but ya know what the had the W's in the win column and receive millions of dollars and got national exposure and can get some better recruits because of it. If Akron was independent I would like to see a schedule where we play teams like..... Northwestern Rutgers Louisville Western Michigan Central Michigan Miami of Ohio Syracuse Indiana Illinois Montana St (or some top 15 FCS team) Army Navy Wake Forest Maryland Duke Iowa State Baylor Minnesota Anyone in Conference USA Anyone in the Sun Belt And 2 "money" games If we could schedule like that and win 7-9 games we would go bowling to. 7 wins in the MAC and you could be sitting at home, unless you knock of a BCS team somewhere in those 7 wins.

One thing that always seems to amaze me.....every year it seems like multiple sports media predict Can't going 500 or better and every year they go 500 or worse, more often worse. I never put much stock into what preseason poll say.

Doesn't matter if Akron is the #1 TV market, the Akron market is dominated by Buckeye fans, same with Cinci don't let bearcat fans fool you.

Iowa St wasn't going bowling staying in the Big12, last year was one of the better years. Side note LOL I know Turner Gill is probably thinking Damnit I move to a BCS school, and now the school may move out of the BCS. *speculating Kansas goes to the Mountain West*

I think you are spot on. It's hard to believe the MAC could be any more irrelevant than it already is, but just when you think things can't get any worse, they do. The only way to salvage any dignity for the MAC is for it to drop to I-AA and have a team competing for a championship every year. The Zips could be that team. Instead, we are happy to get our asses kicked by BCS schools three times a year and play in a crappy conference. If realignment does not happen AND the NCAA does not accept the Great GP1's proposal of separating D-1A, the top 30 teams should leave the NCAA and start their own league. There is already an NAIA, why not another type of league? This could be a good thing for college sports as the destruction of the NCAA would be a good thing and this would destroy the NCAA. Yep this is nothing but bad for us, with conferences going mega, out of conference games will practically be unnecessary, and if a school does decide to play an OCC you can guarantee that they will be looking for cupcakes. *insert the beating of a dead horse* And as far as which conference is better Conference USA or the MAC, this will be answered shortly, lets see which schools will get plucked from their affliations...Toledo or Memphis, BGSU or Southern Miss, Akron or SMU, East Carolina or Central Michigan, Houston or Buffalo, Central Florida or Can't, Marshall or Miami of Ohio, Tulsa or Eastern Michigan.....you get my drift.

Dang, our conference had like 5 out of 10, we keep some great company.

I hope that doesn't happen a merger with the Sunbelt, people might think we were 1AA for sure.

We have 13 and only need 3, the only possible candidates I see are Army, Navy, Western Kentucky, Marshall, Middle Tenn. The Way I see it Pac-16 1. USC 2.UCLA 3.Okla. 4.Okla. St 5.Colorado 6.Wash. 7.Wash. St 8.Oregon 9.Oregon St 10.Arizona 11.Arizona st 12.Cal 13.Texas 14.Texas Tech 15.Texas A&M 16.Stanford Big-16 1. OSU 2.Michigan 3.Penn 4.Wisconsin 5.Nebraska 6.Notre Dame 7.Mizzo 8.Ill 9.Indiana 10.Iowa 11.Minn 12.Northwestern 13.Syracuse 14.Rutgers 15.Michigan St 16.Purdue SEC-16 1. Alabama 2.Arkansas 3.Auburn 4.Florida 5.Florida St 6.Miami 7.Georgia 8.Georgia Tech 9.Clemson 10.Kentucky 11.LSU 12.Miss 13.Miss St 14.South Carolina 15.Tenn 16.Vanderbilt Western Mountain-16 1.Air Force 2.Boise St 3.Idaho 4.BYU 5.New Mex 6.New Mex. St 7.Utah 8.Utah St 9.Wyoming 10.Fresno 11.Hawaii 12.UNLV 13.Nevada 14.Colorado St 15.San Deigo st 16.San Jose St Conference USA -16 1.Kansas 2.Kansas St 3.Baylor 4.UTEP 5.TCU 6.Houston 7.Rice 8.North Tex 9.SMU 10.Tulane 11.Tulsa 12.UAB 13.Troy 14. Iowa St 15. Marshall 16.Middle Tenn ACC-16 1. Boston C 2.Duke 3.Maryland 4.North Carolina 5.North Carolina St 6.East Carolina 7.Virgina 8.Virgina tech 9.Wake Forest 10.West Virgina 11.Louisville 12.Central Florida 13.South Florida 14.Memphis 15.Pitt 16.Uconn MAC-16 1. Akron 2. Ball State 3.BGSU 4.Buffalo 5.Central 6.Eastern 7.Western 8.Can't 9.Miami 10.Northern Ill 11.Ohio 12.Temple 13.Toledo 14.Western Kentucky - closer to teams geographically so less expensive to travel 15.Army - will they go back to Conference USA? 16.Navy - need a home *YSU don't be scared be a big boy Sun Belt-16 1. Ark St 2.FIU 3.Florida Atlantic 4.Louis-Laf 5.Louis-Mon 6.North Texas 7.Troy 8.University of Southern Georgia (moving to D1 in next 2 years) 9.Middle Tenn 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. Not sure where they will go? These 3 left Conference USA would they go back?) Cinci Army Louisiana Tech - Maybe Sunbelt? Middle Tenn - closer to teams geographically so less expensive to travel if join MAC Does anyone really want to join the MAC? I think this is the beginning of a playoff. 8 sixteen team conferences, conference champs in a playoff, the rest in a bowl game.

His momma called him Cassius, I'm gonna call him Cassius. hahahaha Big Ten (11) to potentially add more than one team That could open a few spots for Akron to move on up. Just to play devils advocate could expansion of the Big10 be a bad thing for Akron...Im just saying we seem to have the worst luck sometimes. Let say the Big10 expanse with 3 or 5 teams, they raid the Big East leaving the conference with about 5 teams.....Conference USA and The MAC have 12 and 13 teams respectively. What if CUSA and the MAC stand their ground and and BIG East becomes defunct (It has happened before...see Big West). Now we are playing with West Virginia, UConn in our Conference, Cincinnati, Louisville, South Florida go BACK to Conference USA, etc. We could be looking at a situation that would probably push us down in the final conference standings! Any thoughts?

uh, yeah. That's an abusive coach.Growing up to be a woman isn't such a bad thing either. Sweetheart you don't understand the inside world of football and never will, nor a boy's development into a man, and that's not your fault, but it was the furthest thing from abuse. Abuse is something that leaves an individual scarred. I was far from scarred from that experience, in fact, it inspired me to one of the greatest moments in my athletic career. Far from being scarred, I'm thankful to my coach for what he did.I gotta agree with this statement!!! But I will say this I coach football ages 5-8 yes it is tackle at that age. As a coach you also have to know your players, now most of my players I can't even raise my voice at cause they will cry instantly, I can't explain it, but the kids that I can "yell at" when they aren't playing well, are by far the best players. Not that's not to say that will change, and I do yell or get loud very little becaue this is a new generation of kids, kids raised by t.v. and xbox. You can't run them to much cause of heat, hell some of these 7 and 8 year olds already have personal trainers!! Get this the kid told me since he has a trainer he doesn't have to run with the team, I called his dad over and said right in front of both of them he is either on this team or he isn't if he is he doesn't everything he teammates does period.

Very Valid Points...i agree indeed.

And Alabama, Florida, and Texas will all finish above Ohio State, and Penn State, and Cincinnati. in your most recent poll.

Hmm...I find it interesting you chose this method to support your arguement. I think your comparing apples to oranges. I think a fair approach would be to compare top 40 schools in a geographic area collectively, now population gives the warm states some advantage but take a look for example....Warm States top 40 programsFlorida = Florida, Florida St, Miami, and South FloridaTexas = Texas, Texas Tech, TCU, Texas A&M, Houston, and very soon SMUAlabama= Alabama, AuburnCalifornia = USC, Cal, UCLA, StanfordGeorgia = Georgia, Georgia TechSouth Carolina = South Carolina, ClemsonKentucky = Kentucky, LouisvilleLouiana = LSU, vs.Cold States top 40 programs:Ohio= OSU, Cinci (and a bunch of below 40 ranking schools)Michigan = Michigan, Michigan St, Central MichiganPenn = Penn State, PittWest Virginia = West Virginia, MarshallWisconsinVirginia = Virginia, Virginia TechKentucky = Kentucky, LouisvilleAnswer these questions and get back with me....How many "southern or warm weather" schools have players from Ohio, Michigan, Wisonsin, or New York, etc.?How many cold rust belt schools have players from warm weather states like Texas, Cali, and Florida? How many kids from Akron go to any middle to lower level D1 southern school like Old Miss, Vanderbuilt, FIU, or Alabama Birmingham?How many MAC schools have a kid on their roster from Florida?How many Sun Belt/Conference USA have kids from our "recuiting hotbeds of Ohio, and Penn? As a collective group the south has better teams and they recruit mostly in their own backyards. IMO this is where your arguement starts to falls apart. Also alot of the top Northern schools have no competition in their state for recruits or very little, ie Boise, Iowa, Mizzouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Penn. St, and Nebraska. An easy way to visualize would be to draw a line through the middle of the country and see which side as more good quality football teams.http://tjsportsource.tripod.com/fb_05_location_map.gif

Oops if forgot about that other bowl, so we will be what 1 - 4.

Looks like 1-3 in the bowls for the MAC. Come on Central you can do it!! Give the conference their lone bowl victory.

Damn Idaho scores late....and wins....damn the MAC is sad this year.

^^This is a very moot factor at best.What we take for granted or simply do not know is that in the southern states, their Track Seasons start far earlier than up North. Also, State rules are more strict in the north regarding Track & Field than in the south. If you think this has no impact, just check the state records for sprints in northern states vs. the south. It affects the overall speed and muscle-conditioning which may give a slight, but certain advantage to conferences like the SEC.Compounded by the fact that the BigTen's 'game' hasn't evolved as fast as other conferences.It's just like the Auto Industry - The domestics didn't evolve until they were the laughing stock and they lost market-share. They currently - realistically make some of the best cars (i.e. Ford & GM, not Chrysler), but still are perceived as inferior.The Midwest still has some of the best athletes, but we're still behind in evolving our game to match the new benchmarks (i.e. SEC, Big 12 South). This doesn't mean we can't compete. Let's face it, Alabama plays 'Big 10' football and smashed Florida which plays purely 'SEC' football.So it's not like it can't be done.It's all about scheme and strategy. It would go a long way if the OHSAA would lax the rules.Curious what rules are you referring to?

What you deserve and what you get are two different things. Even though I agree with you it probably won't happen. I hope I am wrong.

Maybe we should add Villanova they beat the first place team in the conference?? Seriously has this conference beat 1 relevant team all year?

I see a conference with a "FEW" talented players, and no fan support. Hell some high schools have as many fans show up as us. Don't believe me I see a conference that was run by Marshall and now that same team is a middle of the pack/ bottom feeder of another so so conferenceAn undefeated Temple team that was kicked out of the Big East less than 5 years ago and is now undefeated in conference play.Can't think of any big games this conference has won. Why am I watching again? Turns channel....Cinci doing good, OSU doing good, Mount Union doing good, the rest are doing not so good.....and don't say OU, Can't, or BG because there records are inflated cause they beat a bunch of bad teams!So what do I see a crappy conference that needs to be revamped or go away.

Just curious how some of you feel, Colin Cowherd an ESPN analysts, talked about this very topic and he felt that there is a difference between going for it on your own 5 or your opponents 5. Which I am sure most of you feel. He says statistics can be misleading due to field position. I say hogwash, If i have Jerome Bettis as a fullback and statistics say 85% of the time I can get 2 yards, the stat is the stat doesn't' matter if I am trying to get 2 yards on grass, turf, dirt, my 5 or your 5, 2 yards is 2 yards. I bet Pete Carrol feel the same way I do after watching the way he coached against the Buckeyes. I had a high school coach who loved the wing T to death!! He never wanted to pass despite having one of the best recievers in the state. I asked him why he was so reluctant to pass, you know what his answer was. When you pass 3 things can happen and 2 of them are bad, interception, incomplete, or it is complete. When running the ball it is either positive yards or negative yards. My rebuttal was what about a fumble?! He laughed and said you won't run the ball for me fumbling and you could fumble after the catch so make that 3 bad and 1 positive.No let me say this I probably would have punted as well but it is obvious he had no faith in his defense. Peyton could easily drive 70 yards with 2 minutes on the clock and a time out. If he gets that 2 yards, he runs the clock out and wins.

We are always talking about a blue print to follow as far as moving up to the Big East.....Cincinnati 1949-52 The Bearcats were champions of the Mid-American Conference three times while earning a 33-10-1 record under coach Sid Gillman.

People always underestimate the power of confidence, When you go into a game thinking lets just keep it respectable or close...you get blown out. When you go into a game thinking this is my chance to show the country what I got, you end up beating teams like NCState and Syracuse. Remember Zips your D1 athletes just like them.

I love the graphite helmet, I love the grey pants and white jerseys,.....call me crazy too cause I think those unis are awesome! Every combination, I would love to see what they could do with a zips logo. I think a zipper going down the center instead of a traditional stripe would be sick especially if it was a real shinny metallic zipper.