GJGood

So if Wyoming beats new mexico in the season finale Boise State is eliminated from New Years Six consideration since you MUST be a conference champ to be the G5 representative. This would clearly put WMU in the driver's seat if (and that's a big IF) they win out. If Wyoming beats UNM the closest competition for WMU would probably be Navy.

Hasn't Akron beaten P5 schools five years in a row? What has that done for the perception of the program? What does beating projected last place Georgia Tech do for Ohio that beating Mississippi State, Oregon State, and South Carolina didn't do for the Zips? I guess I don't understand this thread. OU just did what we have done every year for the past half decade and people are acting like we need to be more like OU.

Same here, only PA announcer

Obviously a good sign and much, much, much better than it used to be. I just hope they aren't recruiting only the Akron-Canton area and not much else in Ohio outside of transfers. To be successful you need to get the guys in your own back yard but also be able to get guys that are a little less local but still regional as well. I just hope the NEO focus doesn't create a tunnel vision effect with respect to the rest of the state. Still it is obviously a good sign when the local talent regularly sees you as an option worth considering.

During the course of the season I go to games all over Central Ohio on Friday nights. I have to say I was truly impressed by two players I saw this week from Columbus Franklin Heights. The first is WR James Morgan and the second would be his QB Dylan Akers. I don't follow recruiting as much as some so I have no idea as to their grad year or who they may or may not already have recruiting them. I do know that Franklin Heights is not usually a school that produces much in the way of football. Until recently you could pretty much count on them being at or near the bottom of the standings but this year their team is 11-1 and heading to the Division II regional semifinals in the Ohio playoffs so these guys have been major program changers.

I know it is frustrating for us in this particular case but overall that is why I really enjoy the MAC. In every P5 conference there are a couple of programs you know will likely be at the top every year and a couple at the bottom every year. That makes them far more predictable, and in my book, boring. I like that in the MAC you can go from last to first or first to last very quickly. Nobody can rest on their laurels because they are so clearly ahead of half of the conference year after year. Just look at last year's MAC football Championship game participants this year, would that ever happen in the Big Ten or ACC to both of the prior year's championship participants? I like the feeling that every year and, for the most part every conference game, there is at least a legitimate fighting chance at success.

I agree that its all about the $$$ but still think there would be room for something like the CUSA champ to play the Pac-12 5th place or something. All the non-champs of G5 conferences in bowls could play other non-champ G5 teams..... It has just always seemed odd to me that the reward for winning the MAC could be a bowl game against the 3rd place Sun Belt team or vice versa, especially when talking about one of the teams having 10, 11, or 12 wins.

I really hope someday the MAC gets a specific bowl game for its champion and that it is paired with a team from a P5 conference. In fact I think every G5 champion not in the New Yeas Six should be paired with a P5 team.

Being a Reds fan in baseball (who would I rather hear talking smack all off-season fans of the other Ohio team or the other NL Central team?...ugh) but an Akron alum it is an easy choice for me on which to watch. Unfortunately, though, I work until 6:30pm so actually making the trip to attend at Infocision doesn't work out. I will be tuned in on the tube though.

Both the Zips and Bobcats will be favored against Buffalo but underdogs to Toledo. If those games follow those "expectations" then what happens in the Akron-BGSU and Ohio-CMU games won't have tremendous importance as far as the MAC East title because no matter their outcomes the Akron-OU winner will go to Detroit either by virtue of being ahead in the standings or by winning the head-to-head tiebreaker. Now if the Zips just hold serve against Buffalo and upset Toledo it is feasible that the Zips could clinch a trip to Detroit by beating BGSU if Ohio falls to both Toledo and CMU. If I were a gambler I'd bet on the game in Athens being the decider.

I wish the MAC had a designated bowl for its champion when the champion did not qualify for the playoff or one of the New Years Six games. As far as I know, though, there is no set bowl for the MAC champ.

So, should we root for the arch rivals this week?

I clearly remember Akron hosting #10 Virginia Tech back when I was still a student and the Leftwich leg game where Marshall was #20 so this clearly is not the first time the Zips will don the home unis against a top 25 ranked team. I think it may be the first time a ranked team has come to Infocision though.

I remember this one too. It went from very comfortable to pulling my hair out very quickly. I was afraid I was going to see one of the greatest meltdowns of all-time. You would never hear the end of blowing a 38 point fourth quarter lead... and to your neighboring arch rival no less.

Definitely a team win. I don't think I have ever seen a game where a team scored 9 TDs and they were scored by 9 different players until today. O'Leary had 11 points and 9 others had 6 each.

Jatavis Brown and Justin March-Lillard both made their NFL regular season career debuts today. Ironically they both did it in the same game as the Chargers were in Kansas City against the Cheifs. Brown finished the day with 1.5 tackles in sporadic playing time. March was the Cheifs leader in tackles with 8.5. Hopefully this is the start of a long and successful careers for both.

Is this the complete OOC schedule? Usually there is at least one game on the schedule during the last week of December. I usually make the trip up for any home games that week.

Actually, that game may have been the initial BracketBusters game and the Zips went to Richmond the following year. I just know it was ESPN's doing not Akron's or VCU's.

Actually that game was a return game for the ESPN BracketBusters game from the year before. By contracted rules it had to be scheduled even though both KD and Shaka have and had said they don't like to play against close friends. I did hate that the attendance wasn't better. Was that game played close to the holidays? I just seem to remember thinking that the game was competing with something that would pull some away and can't recall what that may have been. Not that there was any excuse for not filling the JAR for that one regardless.

Exactly what I have been thinking. If Akron wants to move up in all the revenue sports then the AAC would be much more likely than the ACC. If we are talking in basketball only terms then maybe the A-10 could be a future target. For football only, if the program continues to improve and then stabilize, I could see C-USA. In reality though I would think the MAC is where we will be for the foreseeable future.

He was the very last player picked in the 5th round at #175 overall.

I wouldn't mind seeing banners like that in the concourse of the stadium for fans to see on game days.

Personally I'd love to see Jatavis join Justin March with the Chiefs. If that came to fruition I may just have a true favorite NFL team for the first time in a while.

Good point, although, their women hosted their NCAA tournament games at St. John Arena. Value City Arena did have high school state semifinals coming in on Thursday, not sure if they would have requested that no games be played Wednesday to prepare for that though since it seems like all they really had to do was cord off some of the upper deck and put some star logos on the middle of the floor to represent where the teams were coming from.

Good post above. I agree this team needs to learn to play better when tired. I will not complain about the tired thing with respect to the Buffalo game since both teams were playing their third game in three days. The OSU game, though, one team clearly had an advantage in the "tiredness" category. Against OSU it was game 4 in six days and OSU was much more rested. I still wonder why the NIT scheduled the team that played most recently prior to the start of its tourney to also be one of the teams that tipped off in its very first game. The game could just as easily have been scheduled for 24 hours later with the same TV coverage by simply switching the ESPN2 Wednesday 7:00 and ESPN Tuesday 7:00 games. We'll never know if that would have made a difference in our game in the NIT or not but it is possible that it could have. I also think the first thing that tends to go when the legs get tired is the three point shot. Since that was so much of Akron's arsenal this season I do think the Zips could be more susceptible to the fatigue factor in that regard. That being said, though, the Zips do usually use a 10 or 11 man rotation which should keep players a little more fresh. Long story short, I'm only going to consider tiredness as part of the explanation with the OSU game. Against Buffalo both teams should have been equally tired. While the Zips were probably the more tired team against Green Bay I still think that was more a case of a letdown game after beating Arkansas and playing a highly ranked Villanova.