Captain Kangaroo

1.) You don't build a $62 million dollar stadium if you have ANY intentions of dropping to 1-AA.2.) There is no savings in dropping to 1-AA. You save 22 scholarships...that's it. That's peanuts.

True! And, now that I think about it, with a spread offense aren't quicker players generally a better fit for the spread scheme than a slower, less shifty 6'5" receiver anyhow?As long as we are putting lipstick on the pig, please explain to the rest of the class why you would rather date the bearded lady from the circus instead of the Playboy centerfold.You can't rate a MAC school's recruiting class on November 1st. We'll be fine when the first Tuesday in February '09 rolls around.

If we beat Toledo, and the game is truly for a championship, I see Buffalo bringing 6k themselves. We'll be over 15k regardless.If we lose to Toledo, and the weather is terrible, I think 10-12k is expected.Since I paid $60.00 for my four reserved season tickets, and based on the devaluation of Zips tickets, does that mean my family's attendance at the Buffalo game counts as 60 heads?

Hey – we all know there were times like the 2004 game with Marshall on ESPN2 that we packed the Rubber Bowl with more than a few freebie tickets – but that game was a launching pad for our image and we needed to show the nation a solid crowd in the Rubber Bowl. That game specifically paved the way in changing a lot of opinions about Akron, about the City, and was vital in moving the stadium project forward. Akron football, for a night, was a national story and it mattered. The stadium project had been bandied about in various incarnations for years, but after that game in 2004 it really gained steam. That Marshall game/win may well rank in the Top 5 moments of Akron Football history along with the bowl wins, the win over NC State and the 2005 MAC title game.Just because it worked in 2004 doesn't mean it is applicable to 2008. We have a hell of a lot more to "sell" for the upcoming Buffalo game than we did vs. Marshall in '04.Hey...if they want to charge $1 for such a pivotal game...have at it. Just don't tell me you're running a deficit.

FWIW - Ball State's top two receivers this year are 6'0" Briggs Orsbon and 5' 10" Dante Love. They have some big guys too...but watching the BSU/UA game I recall those "bigs" dropping a lot of balls.There's usually a reason a 6' 5" WR ends up at a MAC school. He either has frying pans for hands, grew 4" in his senior year or was injured his senior year. Or smoked too much weed.

They'll probably make a killing. After all, it's not like UA is spending anything on facilities upkeep.Make a killing on $1.00 tickets? Where's a smilie smoking weed when you need one?The reason for the $1.00 tickets is to try and fill the bowl for TV. Plain and simple. I contend that you can both fill the bowl, and make a little cash too. But why would you want to do that...

I would place the odds of such a deal somewhere between Blutarsky's GPA and a K.e.n.t. basketball player's BAC.

I will never ever agree with the concept of "marketing" a game by giving away free (essentially) tickets. You hear so much talk from the Athletics Department regarding the need for revenue...you have an INCREDIBLY attractive game (likely to decide a Division Championship, last game at the Rubber Bowl, opponent that will bring several thousand fans...etc.)...and you give away tickets for a buck?It isn't a shocker that the promo is associated with the Alumni Association. That's all the old-timers @ UA know *insert old man voice here* "Let's give away free tickets, like we did for the Acme Zip Game. That'll pack the house. I remember when the Great Wallenda...."

Which game I go to will be decided by whether we beat Toledo on Wednesday. Win and I'll be at the Bowl. Lose, and I'll go to the JAR to support a real team with a real coach.I have three responses here:1.) What basketball game in on Thursday night November 13th?2.) If UA hands out $1.00 tickets for the Buffalo game, I hope they never ask me for another dime the rest of my life. They obvoiusly have more money than they know what to do with. Tickets for the last game at the Rubber Bowl...a game for the MAC East Championship...where the opposing team will bring several thousand fans...and we are going to give away tickets for $1.00?? You GOTTA be freaking kidding me. Nice Marketing. Who gets paid to make such a decision?3.) Which real team with a real coach is playing at the JAR on the 13th? I would enjoy meeting this person.

Troy OH RB

Can He Get Jacq to Quit Turning the Ball Over in the 4th Quarter?

Assuming the Zips don't screw up royally...and we all know that's a possibility given our inability to close the deal on wins @ the Rubber Bowl...I have to believe the November 13th game at the Rubber Bowl will be a sell-out. As evidenced by the massive support at The Q when their basketball team was rolling, Buffalo fans travel VERY well, and they are going to be sky high going into that game. Even being a weekday game, I'd expect several thousand Buffaloians to make the trip. Locals expecting to walk up and get a good seat for that game may leave disappointed. Especially if the tarp isn't lifted.Like the Marshall game several years ago, it should also be a great "showcase" game for the MAC in front of a semi-national audience (ESPNU).

My advice - If you want to go to the game, there will be tickets. Whether it is through UA, Pitt or from a scalper outside the arena, there will be plenty of tickets available. If you do purchase from a scalper, I HIGHLY doubt you'd pay more than face value for a ticket. Unless, of course, you are a terrible negotiator.

Also - the Zips have only 17 total scholarships to offer for 2009. We're being very selective.I'll try and get some recruiting scoops shortly.

I'll take the bait. Here is the current Top 20 ranking. Who would Ball State beat in this list based upon the fact that their schedule is full of teams that are a combined 11-29 against DI-A teams? The two best teams are Akron and Navy. I would dare say that neither of these schools are in the Top 75.After watching them get beat 52-30 by an unmotivated Rutgers team in a bowl last year, I need more than just someone saying to me they are a Top 20 team to believe they are a Top 20 team. I'll buy BSU when they show they can beat a team with a pulse. In the mean time, BSU may be in the top half of college football, but my guess is they are closer to #60 than #20 or higher.One last thing Captain Kangaroo. I just learned on this board that you are indeed not an electrical engineer, but a sanitation engineer. Is it hard keeping up with Zips sports and monitoring a web page from the back of a garbage truck or have modern hydraulics trucks made it more easy? The things I learn on this board............GP1:Who would Ball State beat in the Top 20?Complete Standings AP Top 25 1. Texas (65) BSU loss 2. Alabama BSU loss 3. Penn State 8-0 BSU loss 4. Oklahoma 6-1 BSU loss 5. Florida 5-1 BSU loss 6. USC 5-1 BSU loss 7. Oklahoma State 7-0 Competitive loss 8. Texas Tech 7-0 Competitive loss 9. Georgia 6-1 Competitive loss 10. Ohio State 7-1 Competitive loss 11. LSU 5-1 Loss 12. Utah 8-0 Toss up13. Boise State 6-0 Toss up14. South Florida 6-1 Toss up 15. TCU 7-1 Toss up16. Missouri 5-2 Loss17. Pittsburgh 5-1 Win 18. Brigham Young 6-1 Toss up 19. Kansas 5-2 Win20. Ball State 7-0 Tie 21. Georgia Tech 6-1 Win22. Tulsa 7-0 Toss up 23. Boston College 5-1 Win24. Florida State 5-1 Win 25. Minnesota 6-1 WinThis year's Ball State team is much better than last year's edition. They aren't Top 10. Probably not Top 15. But they can play with anyone in the 15-25 range. BSU's schedule is weak, but they're manhandling everyone. Similar to Penn State.BSU goes 12-0 in regular season play. I already owe you a 6 of Yuengling...double or nothing?

UA1987 - Here is my quote:"If you want to continue a discussion on scheduling, please start a new topic. This topic is reserved for the Acme Zip game."Pretty clear. I simply asked you to move the discussion and create a new thread.Since you elected to not start a new topic, but to divert this thread, and because you seem to like attacking me, your post was deleted. This year I personally paid $400.00 in 2008 to upgrade this board and keep it running smoothly. I did so to promote discussion regarding Zips Athletics, and I'm happy to do it. I did not do it to give people a forum to toss around 3rd grade-level insults. Other boards may encourage that stuff, but not this one. If that's a tough rule for anyone to follow, those people are encouraged to participate elsewhere.Thanks,CK

1.) If Ball State would have played most other D1-A teams, they'd still be undefeated. They are a legit Top 20 team. THAT is what UA should strive for. Not an undefeated schedule based upon 12 cupcakes.2.) This is 2008 and the Zips haven't won more than 7 games in two decades. Scheduling based upon the hopes of an undefeated season is like planning your retirement based on lottery winnings.3.) EMU is a horrible, horrible program. It has been for a decade. Genyk is correct - EMU DOES need to play 12 terrible teams. They need to get some sort of a winning tradition back. UA's football program is in MUCH better shape. We don't need Hampton or Liberty on our schedule to pad our coach's record. 4.) The MAC East is the sorriest conference in D1 football. It is the easiest of all possible routs to a championship game and a bowl bid. To further dumb-down what is already one of the easiest D1 football schedules year-in-year-out is reaching for the lowest of the low-hanging fruit.5.) The Zips have been competitive with every "BCS" school we've played for several years now. We've won twice. And when those two "wins" were put on our schedule several years ago, they appeared to be blow-out losses in favor of the BCS team. There is no "guaranteed loss" for the Zips anymore. 6.) Ask Toledo what they'd trade for their win @ Michigan a couple weeks ago. Or their Penn State win. Would they trade a home game against Youngstown State for it? My friend went to Toledo -- he got 36 text messages within an hour of the Michigan win. Conversely - I received Zero after we beat EMU.7.) Today, we need $700,000. Bad. Maybe in 5 years we don't. But we do today.That's all I have to say on the topic. If you want to continue a discussion on scheduling, please start a new topic. This topic is reserved for the Acme Zip game.Thank you.

I didn’t grow up in the Akron area - I was born in Youngstown. Thus I was a relative late-comer to the “Acme Zip” hoopla in August 1984 when I toted my life’s possessions into Bulger Hall. While I missed Wallenda tight roping across the field, I did see the 30k crowds and game day festivities that pretty much embodied the start of fall, and football season in Summit county, pre-2000. Like locusts, the students and community came out and supported the Zips…once per year. Students snuck kegs of beer into the stadium. It was a hell of a party. Yes, once per year 30k really happened. I saw it. And in the games following the Acme Zip event, 3k (or less) happened. While some people point to the game’s erosion as a poster child for the bungling UA Athletic’s administrations of the 1980’s, 90’s and even early 2000’s, the Acme Zip game’s demise was hardly UA’s fault. And if you pine for the game’s return, at least in the form it embodied at its merciful conclusion, you really don’t know what you’re asking for.From 1900 through about 1987 Acme was the premiere grocery store in the area. And Acme would pay for big time game day entertainment. Companies like Finast, Apples and Giant Eagle were just then beginning to enter Acme’s territory and erode its market share. Fast forward to 2001. Acme’s investment level (in the Acme Zip game) started to drop significantly once Fred Albrecht stepped away from the day to day operations of Acme. The last Acme Zip game featured fireworks some two weeks after 9/11, which actually cost UA more than double the sponsorship payment. Tack on the game’s hospitality costs (hospitality for Acme and their guests exceeded $7,000) and UA was stuck with a deficit of $12,000 before Zac Derr ever kicked off!When Acme’s contract with UA expired, they were paying the Zips approximately $5,000 in cash towards the game. That’s it…one check for $5,000. For that, beyond $7k in hospitality, Acme mandated UA give them category exclusivity for grocery stores – meaning that UA could not engage any other stores for sponsorship. That’s a pretty sweet deal for $5,000!The final nail in the coffin of the Acme Zip tradition was Acme’s 2002 directive that the Acme Zip game be the Akron/Can't State football game every year. Get this -- they would give the $5k to Akron one year, and Can't State the next. Now, instead of $5,000/yr….we were down to $2,500/yr! And still, no other grocery stores would be permitted to sponsor UA athletics!Do you like the tradition of the Wagon Wheel? Acme wanted UA/Can't State to do away with it, replacing it with … the BRONZE BAG – a square, bronze grocery bag. If you dig through the bowels Buchtel Fieldhouse, somewhere between the leftover “Click it for Cricket’ clickers and “Frye for Heisman” signs you can still probably locate it. Note to UA officials – I will increase my donation to the Z-Fund by $150 if I can have this bronze piece of Zips memorabilia.Acme also slashed their media support by 50% heading into the 2001 game, which greatly affected the already heavily-discounted ticket sales. Acme also stipulated that 40% of the ticket revenue must go back to Acme to help “cover their investment.”Selling $1 tickets is not sports marketing. Running deep deficits in premier sponsorship categories is not sound business. And most of all, having a partner that takes 40% of the gate up front to cover their costs, and potentially makes money on the deal, is pretty much the sucker business deal of the century. The Albrecht’s are decent people and great benefactors of the community, but they wanted a sports marketing partnership with UA and Can't that was a flat-out bad business deal. Can't eventually signed on with Giant Eagle as well, as they could not walk away from dollars. When Giant Eagle signed the first three-year contract starting with the 2002-03 academic year, it was for a total of $165,000, NET, over three years. That’s more than the Acme Zip game had generated, net, in the previous 11 years combined!College sports is a business, and it takes real dollars to pay for the scholarships and all of the other expenses…in excess of $15 million dollars/year even at UA. That’s why $1 tickets are a thing of the past, and why we’ll likely continue to play a BCS school on the road @ $700k+ every football season for the foreseeable future. That income is critical.The Acme Zip Game was a great thing…in its day. But like a 59 year old stripper, it wasn’t a pretty sight at the end. Its time had past.

cfb_bowl's eloquent post reminded me of an old Far Side comic -

For the most part, JD's staff has remained intact. Ferri, Moorhead, Bleil, Flemming...all are pretty tenured @ UA. Pry left for Illinois. Nori left for the 49'ers. Wally left to be a head coach at a lower division. If you can appreciate a coach's desire to advance their career, those are all pretty acceptable "losses." It isn't like they left for equivalent positions @ K.e.n.t or Toledo.I don't think our staff turnover is any better or worse than anyone else over the past 4 1/2 years. It seems about average.

If the great Ronaldo were in attendance, he would have exposed #10 as a flopper.

I was at the match. Your summary is excellent. Zamanski's feet are ridiculously fast...that assist was sweet. As far as the Michigan player (#10) going down...it looked like a flop to me. He screamed like he was shot and the ref waited a couple seconds...then figured he had to call something. Shockingly, 5 minutes later, the previously near-death #10 was back on the field.Cold, fun night.

I'd like to start by saying "YOU"RE CRAZY". This is the most amazing post in board history. What big picture? Whose big picture? Why oh why would anyone post this? I'm with GP1 on this one. I wish I could top his incredulous exasperation, but I can't. The only more astonishing post I can recall was the guy that wrote "Why all the hatred of K.e.n.t. on this board? I don't understand it."

Are you sure that this game was that good ... I must have been watching some other game!If the game's quality tripled, it MIGHT have merited "Goodwill."

I wish we could afford Bill Needle. He's the best.Yes - I'm being sarcastic.