LosAngelesZipFan

As the article points out, these are not times of plenty in Ohio-- which makes what OSU spends on athletics all the more outrageous. The state should mandate the half what athletics gets funded go to offset the state's funding of university. It's insane that Ohio has one of the lower percentages of college graduates, in large measure because the cost of Ohio's state universities is way above average. Ohio and Ohio State are poster children for how out of whack our higher educational system is.

vote 4 Zippy.

Agreed

Florida is now supporting 4 BCS programs, plus UCF and Fla. Atlantic which have visions of getting there, on a population base of 15M (admittedly growing quickly). Ohio's is 11M and flat. I think you are right that UA cannot organically grow into the Big East-- we could run the MAC every year and average 30K in attendance, but I still don't think it'd be enough, which is why I go back to the concept of the game changer. A merged UA-Can't absolutely dominates NEO, which is still a top-15 market.USF and Miami and others didn't just happen-- and the fan support followed success and program scale, not preceded it. It's happening as we speak in Cincinnati. UA doesn't have all the assets of SF or UC-- so it has to do something else to get there.

From the LA Times today on the improbable rise of South Florida to #2: "Tranghese [big East Commish] saw South Florida as a mother lode waiting to be mined. It was a large public school, with about 45,000 students, in a state rich with football talent." Hmmm.... that is a description that could apply to UA (particularly apt if there was a merger with Can't, more on that below).The article credits South Florida's entry into the Big East as being critical to its rise-- both in ability but also in perception. It compared SF to Fresno State in 2001 who beat highly ranked teams Colorado, Oregon State, and Wisconsin but only ever got as high as 8 in the polls, at least in part because the perception and exposure deficit created by being in the WAC, a non-BCS conference. In other words, South Florida has received more national play even though 3 of its wins are over Elon, Fla Atlantic, and Central Fla just because it is in a BCS conference. (And in this regard, let's not forget that Ohio State is now ranked number 1 even though it has downed one "ranked" opponent--Purdue at 23-- and 3 of its wins are UA, YSU, and Can't.)The article also talks about Tranghese wooing Louisville and Cincy, as well as S Florida. The takeaways:Scale matters-- enrollment and market. We have to be perceived as a major university in a major media market.Community support matters-- not necessarily fan support, thought that is important, but political and business support for the institution as a whole.Trajectory and vision drives the whole thing-- Is there visionary leadership is in place that is committed to pushing the institution to the highest-possible level, is there some reason to believe the leadership can attain the vision, and is there a sufficient pool of support to get it there (es evidenced by endowment, research support, facilities, etc.)Conference matters-- it is easier to go from Conf USA to Big East than MAC to Big East-- which is why Marshall is not in the Big East today.This has obviously been a wacky year in college football, but the path to a mid-major program like UA growing into something else is well-established. I think UA actually measures pretty well on the list above that would make it at least attractive for a conference like the Big East-- certainly we have made HUGE progress on all those things with Dr. Proenza's leadership. We must increase the community support and really think about whether the MAC makes sense in the long run-- has nothing to do with whether we dominate the conference or not. The point is we could dominate the MAC, like Marshall, get ranked in the top 15, like Marshall, and still not be in the position to get a bid into a BCS conference. Getting into the Big East was a game changer for S Florida--the football program is 11 years old for God's sake. If we don't have the prospect of wheedling our way into a BCS conference (or even Conf USA), then we need to do something else that is a true step-change. All of this-- every aspect-- would be so much easier if UA and Cant merged. I know it's heresy, but it really is a huge opportunity to change the game, in a way that a UA-CSU merger wouldn't because CSU brings little to the party. I think there is a window of opportunity to do this from a position of strength, and to really create something incredible--60K enrollment, endowment approaching $1B, $200M of research, 200K alumni, huge branch campus system, etc. I don't know about you, but I would much rather see a combined UA-Can't playing in a BCS conference and becoming a institution of global impact, than either a UA-CSU merger that in the end leads to UA being a branch campus or maintaining the status quo for the foreseeable future (and event that becomes less likely given the current political climate and budgetary constraints of the state) This is a topic worth discussing...Here's the full article:South Florida provides boost to Big EastThe conference needed help after the defection of three schools and the Bulls have done it. In fact, the 11-year-old program could be on its way to the BCS title game.Chris DufresneOctober 18, 2007To relieve stress, Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese used to sneak out of his Rhode Island office and hit buckets of golf balls.Whack to Miami, whack to Virginia Tech, whack to Boston College.In 2003, Miami led a 'Cane Mutiny to the Atlantic Coast Conference that rocked college football and caused a ripple-effect realignment.Miami and Virginia Tech were gone by 2004, with Boston College joining the ACC a year later.The Big East's major conference status was in peril and there was talk its champion might lose automatic-qualifier status to a major bowl game."I didn't have a lot of people calling me up saying, 'Don't worry,' " Tranghese recalled this week.Anyway, here's how it worked out, and next time you need a magician to pull rabbits out of hats, give Tranghese a call:From Conference USA, Tranghese plucked Louisville, which won the Big East title last year and defeated ACC champion Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl.Tranghese also wooed Cincinnati, which is 6-1 this year.But it was another Conference USA school, located in Tampa, that Tranghese considered to be Microsoft at $10 a share.The school was South Florida, which is now a program-defining win over Rutgers tonight in Piscataway, N.J., from having perhaps the straightest line to this year's Bowl Championship Series title game."I thought they needed us," Tranghese said, "and clearly, at the time of losing three schools, we needed them."The Bulls debuted at No. 2 in the first BCS standings and have the strongest credentials of the six remaining undefeated major college teams.South Florida has defeated Auburn and West Virginia and is ranked No. 1 in the BCS computers.South Florida started its program from scratch 11 years ago.Its first and only coach, Jim Leavitt, a disciple of Iowa's Hayden Fry and Kansas State's Bill Snyder, has been in charge from the days when the coaches worked out of trailers.Leavitt is a bit crazed, sometimes running conditioning drills with his players.Asked if he dreamed all this was possible, Leavitt recently said, "I dream about having another day in my life to live, to be honest with you."Bulls quarterback Matt Grothe, only a sophomore, is a top-drawer player and a five-alarm competitor. Defensive end George Selvie, also a sophomore, leads the nation with 11.5 sacks.Consider the utter outrageousness of this typed sentence: South Florida's path to the national title might go through Rutgers."A lot at stake, a lot on the line," Bulls linebacker Ben Moffitt said of tonight's game.How South Florida handles the national attention may be a key in how far it goes."The big thing is, treat it like a bottle of poison," said Carl Franks, the Bulls' running backs coach. "It's not going to hurt you unless you swallow it."Tranghese would be lying if he said he saw all of this coming."Did I expect them to be No. 2 on Oct. 15?" he said of South Florida's BCS ranking. "No, but I expected them to be in the top 20."Tranghese saw South Florida as a mother lode waiting to be mined. It was a large public school, with about 45,000 students, in a state rich with football talent."I talked to our [big East] football coaches and they said if you put them in a conference with a BCS berth, they're going to win," Tranghese said.The Big East needed South Florida, but South Florida needed the protection of being in a BCS conference.Some college have-nots wonder whether South Florida could have risen to No. 2 in the BCS had it, as a member of Conference USA, beaten the same nonconference opponents.Karl Benson, the Western Athletic Conference commissioner who has fought for increased access for the five leagues without automatic-qualifier status, offers an interesting case study.In 2001, WAC member Fresno State opened the season with nonconference wins against Colorado (which finished third in the BCS standings that year) Oregon State (preseason No. 1 in Sports Illustrated) and Wisconsin (at Madison).After the Wisconsin win, Fresno State rose to No. 11 in the Associated Press poll, and later made it as high as No. 8 before a loss to Boise State ended the Bulldogs' longshot title hopes.This year, South Florida parlayed wins over Auburn and West Virginia to go from unranked to No. 2 in this week's AP poll."You talk about a quantum leap," Benson said. "Some of it is that the brand the conference you're a member of delivers greater national recognition."It will be years before the Big East/ACC fallout can be fully accessed.Boston College and Virginia Tech are thriving in the ACC; Miami is not.The Big East certainly did not die, and what did not kill it made it 5-0 in bowls last year.And, like it or not, South Florida has joined the BCS Big Top."It's difficult for some people to recognize South Florida in that light," Tranghese said. "Guess what: It's not going to be last time they're here."Blitz package* WAC Commissioner Benson isn't worried Hawaii (7-0) debuted at only No. 18 in the first BCS standings and is convinced the Warriors, if they go unbeaten, will reach the No. 12 or better threshold required to earn a major bowl bid. "It would be hard to keep them out," he said.Benson notes every previous undefeated team from a non-BCS conference would have qualified under the current top-12 rule:In 1998, Tulane finished No. 10 in the final BCS standings, but then a non-BCS school had to finish No. 6 or better to earn a major bid. In 1999, Marshall was No. 12. Utah, in 2004, finished No. 6 to earn a Fiesta Bowl berth. And Boise State got to the Fiesta Bowl with a No. 8 ranking last year after the access rules were changed.* The New England Patriots are undefeated, the Red Sox are battling Cleveland in the baseball playoffs, and the addition of Kevin Garnett has made the Celtics relevant again. Does anyone in town know that Boston College is ranked No. 3 in the first BCS standings?"I guess there's a knock that BC doesn't have great fan support," senior quarterback Matt Ryan said this week, "but that's not the feeling amongst the team."Ryan said 5,000 fans made the trip to Notre Dame last week and things could really get exciting should the Eagles keep winning and Ryan stays in the Heisman Trophy chase.Ryan grew up in the Philadelphia area and his loyalties remain with his hometown teams, but he says there's nothing quite like Beantown Fever. "It's been pretty special to be up here and feel, in some sense, that you're a part of it."* When Miami (4-3) plays at Florida State (4-2) it will mark the first time since 1977 that neither team has been ranked. "It's still Miami and Florida State to us and to the players," Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden said.* Arizona State Coach Dennis Erickson on his team's 7-0 start, with California, Oregon, UCLA, USC and Arizona left on its Pacific 10 Conference plate: "Realistically, we know where we've been, and we know where we're at, and we're realistic about who we have to play in the next five games."* The athletic director who hired basketball coach Ben Howland and a football coach who runs the West Coast offense was fired Tuesday, but it wasn't UCLA's Dan Guerrero. It was Steve Pederson, ousted this week at Nebraska.Pederson came to Lincoln five years ago from Pittsburgh, where he hired Howland from Northern Arizona. Pederson ushered Nebraska Cornhusker football into the modern era when he brought in Bill Callahan, whose West Coast offense has produced a 14-14 record in Big 12 play. And now Pederson has been ushered out.Nebraska is 4-3 but reeling after dropping two straight games by a combined score of 86-20 and now Tom Osborne, retired 10 years after winning three football national titles in 25 years, has been hired as interim athletic director.Osborne, 70, said Callahan's job is safe until the end of the season, but look out then.At least no one will walk away needing food stamps. Pederson will get a $2.2-million goodbye check. Callahan, if he is fired, will be owed $3 million.If Callahan goes, how far might Nebraska turn back the football clock? Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan last Friday set a WAC record with 75 passes against San Jose State. That was three more passes than Nebraska made in the 1960 season.

I think there are verrryy few if any posters here that are all "JD is a God" anymore, after any win, so I think the premise of this criticism is flawed. More the to the point, however, is that those of us that have been airing our frustration after the breakdown Saturday really just care about the program making real and consistent progress. I think the criticism has been very measured and specific-- no one has been trashing JD, just kind of calling it like it is. (IMHO)

Why are we down so much at this point? Is everyone voting against since we are still undefeated?

They moved it back so it would fit into the mayor's busy calendar

On the offense-- doesn't it seem like we have an awful lot of tools but no strategy to use them? It's like their is an offensive scheme/approach that had been adopted that all but ignores the actual talent that does exist on this team. To paraphrase one of the bigger idiots of our era, you go to war with the football team you have, not the one you would like to have.Arthur-- solid receiver with a canon of an arm. Some above average MAC backs in Williams and Allen. An excellent receiving back in Kennedy. Two big TE targets (who granted have trouble catching). A highly mobile QB with good arm strength (CJ7). I dunno...seems like there are assets there that would provide more than enough firepower if creatively deployed. The best play that's been called all year was the play action against Can't in short yardage that went for a TD-- where was that yesterday? Again, where is rolling out Jackson? Hell, where is Jackson period? We obviously don't have the receiving corp or o-line to justify a drop back passer. Why does it feel like this was a rebuilding year but we never actually had anything to rebuild to? Why does it feel like there is no progression in any aspect of the game for this team and program?

I totally agree on these fluke wins-- it's nice to get the W but in every case it is more about being given the game than us winning it. And then it is followed by a total break down. Frenchie just summed it up=="3rd and 2 and they run it right up the middle".I'm sorry, a couple of nifty trick plays on kick off returns or a lucky lateral on a punt return doesn't change the fact that the play calling is consistently bad, the team collapsing in the 4th quarter, untimely and too many penalties, no killer instinct to put away a game they are winning, and finally-- I realize I am deep in 'butt monkey' mode-- WHY DOES THERE NOT SEEM TO BE ANY AKRON ADVANTAGE IN OVERALL TALENT IN ANY GAME WE PLAY AGAINST MAC TEAMS?!!!!. I keep hearing that we have these amazing recruiting classes but in the end we are really not qualitatively better. In fact, it appears that Can't, for Gods sakes, is fielding a more physically imposing and faster team than us.Sorry, don't mean to be negative. When do we start putting games away we should win? The occasional fluke win is great-- but it totally distorts where the program really is.

The get 3 tds in the 4th quarter. Awful. Jacq goes like 1 for 7 in the 2nd half. Arthur doesn't get a throw in the 2nd half. WHAT THE F??

that's just gross. Temple drives all the way down and scores on our vaunted secondary. That's just disgusting. The defense just collapsed. Once again the offense couldn't get a critical first down to secure the game. Bad play calling costs this game. Awful.

3 dn and 2 and they have stuffed williams the past drive and Akron runs up the middle and doesn't anywhere close. Stupid call. We are giving the game away

BTW, whatever happened to C Jackson? Is he off the team? I still think he is the superior QB-- Jacq is really one-dimensional

oy. Bad enough we are just imploding here towards the end of the game, but what's up with everyone just standing around and milking the clock immediately after a questionable call that could get reviewed? Seriously-- no one is signalling from the sideline to snap the f'ing ball so the call doesn't get reviewed? It's like Faust is back...no gameday awareness...irritating

Follow the money is EXACTLY right... the business and political establishment in Cleveland is now viewing CSU as a real asset in injecting life into a moribund part of downtown Cleveland. In fact, they are focused on using CSU as a development tool to a degree well-beyond what Akron's political leadership has done for UA (exhibit one: the mayor of Akron couldn't bring himself to show up for the press conference announcing the stadium project because he was irritated that UA hadn't received his blessing for the Quaker Square purchase). I guess my point in this discussion is twofold-- first, Akron will get screwed in this transaction-- the U, the city, the region. Akron cannot outmuscle Cleveland. That being the case, it might be smart to be proactive and find a solution that would actually have real positives and at least a mitigated set of negatives.The second point is that it is time for the political and business community of the region to WAKE THE F UP and start falling over themselves to support UA. It was great to see the frickin Kalamazoo paper is submitting videos to YouTube. Wow. That's what local media support is like? I have often said that the region's leadership should get fully behind UA because it is the only development asset that can't pick up and leave-- well, guess what, the State of Ohio is telling you that it very well might walk... and can you imagine what would happen to Akron is UA ends up as a community college/branch campus. Things have to change-- the status quo is neither affordable nor ideal. NEO desperately needs a world-class university, something to be a real economic pump. UA needs to shape, drive and own that change, view it as an opportunity, or it will be victimized by it. Pretty plain and simple equation.

A couple of posts here and the Buchtelite interview with Fingerhut have touched on something I have been thinking since I graduated from UA in '89: Merging UA and Can't would be a total homerun. In fact, I wrote an op-ed piece in the PD about it in 1991 and even proposed a name-- Ohio Northestern or ONE U. If Fingerhut is serious about re-alignment, then I would argue that this is the best chance for Akron to maintain it major institution.Now, hear me out on this. The core offerings are highly complimentary-- UA has engineering, Can't has architecture. UA's polymer program and Can't's liquid crystal program are highly synergistic. NEOUCOM would move to a new campus in Akron between UA and Akron City, creating a huge development that would re-shape the city.Fingerhut says he wants world-class-- the combined institution would have and enrollment pressing 60,000, putting it easily in the top 10 and essentially equal to Ohio State in enrollment. The endowment would near $500 million. Combined research would put it in the upper tier of learning institutions. It would be an institution with a commanding presence throughout all of NEO, and its size and scope would make it a real contender for world-class status. Ohio would have 3 top-tier public research institutions in ONE, Cincy, and Ohio State.Through sheer size and scale, ONE would instantly become an obvious candidate for membership in the Big East and, quite frankly, could make a very good argument for to become the 12th team in the Big Ten (OSU would fight this tooth and nail, of course, but maybe the rest of the Big Ten would enjoy the demise of OSU's monopoly on the abundance of Ohio talent enough to over-rule their objections). And I think all those Suckeye fans in NEO with no connection to Columbus will entirely flip over to ONE fans once the thing gets going and is competing at a BCS-level. The proximity of these 2 huge public institutions is just silly-- it's time to acknowledge it. Ohio just doesn't have the tax base of affording this. Akron and NEO does have the desperate need for a world-class institution to act as an economic pump for the region. Logistically, it wouldn't be that difficult to manage-- Can't becomes the primary 'underclass' campus (freshman and sophomores), Akron the upper and most of the graduate schools. An expanded bus network runs shuttles every 5 minutes so you are almost always able to get to the other campus within 30 minutes. While I think this merger has HUGE upside potential, it also is a smart defensive maneuver. For all of UA's success and momentum since it became a state school- and the record is impressive when you look at enrollment or endowment or what has been done with the campus-- I will bet you a combined UA-CSU will be based in Cleveland, and UA will be the branch campus-- the Cleveland business community and political constituency is just too powerful to miss the opportunity to finally fix CSU and get a medical school in the middle of Cleveland. The only safe path for Akron is to merge with Can't, and after the successful merger and establishment of the new U, CSU could become essentially a branch campus.

Up by 9...http://www.capitalonebowl.com

I am sitting in a Starbucks next to UCLA right now, voting for Zippy. Reminds me that I still would like to see the Zips place UCLA sometime-- be fun to see the Zips play in Pasadena even on a hot September day. I wish someone would get on that.Don't forget: http://www.capitalonebowl.com/

Wow. that was disgusting

Is CJ out because of injury or did he do something wrong?

Is there any place to watch the game online? The Athletic Dept. really needs to include online in its listing of media.

I was thinking this same question-- CJ scored on a bootleg to the right. That's how they need to use him. They kept running an option formation but then either handing off inside or CJ would keep it with almost no apparent attempt to pitch-- doesn't make sense. They need to run the option at least a few times per game, and they need to roll him out so he has a clear running lane. Also, they have a solid receiver who can clearly throw (Jabari). They have a decent passer that can run (CJ). And they have at least one back that is a good receiver who has also shown the ability to throw (DK)-- sounds like alot of options and possibilities.Jabari just drilled that throw on the kick off-- doesn't that make you think. He's so big-- can he be used as a slot back some time, almost a TE? Just trying to think of things that might open it up a bit, mix it up.

Does anyone have the email addresses of Fingerhut and Strickland-- I would suggest we start sending emails about how stupid it would be to disrupt Akron's tremendous instiutional momentum-- by almost any measure, Akron is surging and it would be the height of stupidity to distract from that. Anyone got their emails?

v concerned about next week based on what happened last year and today