GJGood

Just looking for thoughts on the recent announcement of a Sun Belt-MAC home and away annual basketball challenge. https://crescentcitysports.com/sun-belt-mid-american-conferences-introduce-mac-sbc-challenge/ Does anyone know if this takes the place of the algorithmic national scheduling proposal that was being discussed in the 22-23 thread? I like the idea of a MAC-SBC challenge but would have preferred a nationwide home and away opponent by algorithm. Anyone heard anything more about the national plan? Speaking of future schedules, prior to the Caymans tournament I heard Coach Groce day next year’s schedule is shaping up to be even tougher than this year’s. That got me thinking could the Zips be headed to the Bahamas next year? Seems like that would be a great trip for the team given one of the players plays for the Bahamian National Team.

Is there a Behind the Mic for this game since I am not paying to stream the actual game?

10 conferences means ten conference champions that won championship games on the field. Why in a 12 team playoff do we reward only six of the ten champions and then have six teams determined by a committee in a boardroom. Won’t there be many years where determining a 6th and 7th conference champion be like splitting hairs? Why not reward champs 7 thru 10 with the same opportunity as champs 1 thru 6? Furthermore, if you are always giving six conference champs berths why are you only giving four champs priority seeding? Seeds 1-4 will always be taken by conference champs but why not seeds 1-6? I think the answer is fairly obvious. They want 13 people in a boardroom to outweigh on field results and for them to manipulate the rankings in such a way that any Group of Five conference champ will not get a top four seed, and most likely very rarely get a top 8 seed. I can already predict what will happen the first year of a 12 team playoff..... Accolades will be thrown around because finally a Group or Five champ will be invited but that champ will be seeded no better than 9 in a 12 team field despite half the field being teams that could not win their conference. No conference champ should ever have to play a road game against a team that did not win their conference in the playoff. Champ at champ, non-champ at non-champ OK but not champ at non-champ, no matter the team name or conference they come from. ON THE FIELD result must come before committee ranking. Why do we rely so much on 13 people in a boardroom to determine who is in the playoff when they said a playoff was created to decide it on the field? A boardroom is not on the field. I understand needing a way to seed but we need to maximize on field result and minimize opinion

I know it’s silly but nice to look at this pic. Love seeing the Zips logo right in the middle of things.

I imagine the coaching staff will be scouring the transfer portal for P5 DEs and LBs this off-season. This staff has vastly upgraded talent but it doesn’t seem to be gelling or as evident on the D side as the offensive side. That said, even they have had some good moments. It’s like they have a lot of good pieces but they haven’t fit them together.

I like this schedule with fellow mid-majors like SDSU, Bradley, Marshall, and even a little lesser low-to-mid like Maine. I would imagine Bradley and South Dakota State are home-and-homes with reverse sites in a future season? Also like the MSU game, wish it could be in Akron or maybe Cleveland but playing them in Philly is a good neutral site. Love the competition in the Caymans. Only complaint I have is both Muskingum and Concord. I feel like one of those two is ample enough lower tier competition and if we wanted someone that posed such a small threat that we could have done it from the low levels of D-1... maybe the St Francis program that the football team is playing, it’s at least D-1. Overall, though, I am not complaining.. just hope in the future we can get a bigger name or two in the JAR

To me what makes it horrible is just the rehashing of the same programs, what I am proposing should help in that regard

Wow! My thoughts exactly.. right down to the number of teams.. I would like conference champs seeded better than wild cards (but we know that won’t happen).. in my format last year I still would have had MAC champ NIU playing at Louisiana in the 7/10 matchup but it wouldn’t be like that every year and I did have G5 member Cincinnati hosting Oklahoma State. That would have been great in my opinion.

Agree on the NFL comparisons and I don’t like where it is going... but at the very least if it has to go this way can they create a playoff that resembles the NFL... win your conference and in and seeded ahead of any wild cards... that would be something.. would be interesting to see something like a MAC champ hosting a power conference runner up in a December playoff game. Yes, I know it will never happen but that would align with the NFL model.

I don’t really see anyone from the MAC going anywhere but I do wonder if the MAC expands. With all these conferences jumping up to 14 and 16 teams would the MAC start courting some top FCS programs?

So, I know baseball at Akron is different than football, basketball, or soccer but who should we be looking at for the head coach position? Who would you like to see?

I know these are the two Zips in the Major Leagues, but do we have anyone else playing professionally in the minors?

I am not going to complain about the logo because I like it better than a couple of the recent ones and not as well as a couple others. what I don’t understand, though, is why the change in traditional text font? That was always an Akron trademark to me.. and really this new font isn’t that fantastically different so why not keep the old one for continuity and tradition sake?

Personally, I think having a known name as the head coach was probably a good move to get the program up and running again. Obviously things didn’t go exactly as planned with year one being shut down due to a pandemic. I do think the team has improved each year but I always wondered how long term of an investment Coach Sabo would be. I like him but he may not be the best college baseball coach at this point. His name, though, did put eyes on the program that might not have seen them otherwise. The next hire is a crucial one for the program. They need a solid recruiter and game manager with a successful college coaching background and positive attitude.

Maybe do something to more clearly see that there is a ‘z’ within the A without it taking away from the A itself?

I like the basketball floor above but I also like our current floor the Roo head on both baselines is truly unique to us and unique overall. I do like, though, that if they are going to remove the baseline Roo that they at least put paint in the lanes. I am not a fan of the non-painted lanes in basketball. Too bland, makes the floor look like they are playing in a bowling alley. Display the school colors and logos/ mascot where you can.

Please feel free to move my post if it would be better served to be in another place. I was not sure where to post.

I saw this today and it certainly got my attention, both because I attended the same high school as the previous Gwinn generation that sent brothers to Ohio State to play football but also because he is class of 2025. How common is it historically for Akron to offer this far in advance?

While I don’t disagree I guess I don’t understand how the games those non-televised teams played outside of the Bracketbusters were any more important. The Bracketbusters also helped with future scheduling since there was always a return contract.

Really like the idea of this just like I did the Bracketbusters, especially like the guaranteed home game part

I agree that offense in college basketball seems to be about guards and athleticism first and foremost.... but you can’t tell me that having a rim protector like a Zeke Marshall doesn’t alter as many shots as anything else in the game. I want an athletic true 5. I was excited about the development of Aziz and bummed that he is gone. The sport was still rather new to him and his development curve was likely to be faster than others plus I thought he already was showing signs of being pretty good down the road.

Just thinking out loud but is Jalin Billingsley out of Lutheran West in Cleveland and transferring from Georgetown still available? Seems to me that with his versatility, size (6’8” 225lbs) and local ties he may be worth a look. Any thoughts on him?

What the NIT also failed to realize is while OSU’s arena was no more than 15% to 20% full for the game the JAR would have been packed had the game been in Akron. If the attendance wouldn’t have been higher it at least would have been close and the atmosphere would have been a 1000 times more electric

I know but at least in that scenario Akron was given a firm 6 seed. It wasn’t right but if two upsets happen and 6 comes up against 7 then you at least know you get to play at home. That is what they took away from St Bonaventure in favor of Virginia of the ACC.

So what I was afraid of with the NIT is actually playing itself out tonight. St Bonaventure and Virginia are meeting in the third (quarterfinal) round of the tourney. Both of these teams were among the teams the NIT did not release seeds for. When asked to explain why Virginia is going to get to host the Bonnies the NCAA said UVA gets first option because the committee had them seeded better. Here’s the problem, though, in the first round St Bona played the 4 seed and UVA played the 3 seed... therefore SBU saw themselves as the 5 seed because that is who plays 4s. Conventional wisdom would make UVA the 6 seed because they opened at the 3 seed. Yet, the P5 school with the bigger name and larger arena gets to host. It might only be the NIT but it still smells like corruption to coddle to the P5 or the bigger names again. You just know someday this will work against Akron or the MAC. College basketball fans should demand better and more transparency but they won’t because it’s just the NIT and just mid-major schools ( at least non-power conference) getting jobbed.