UAZipster0305

Thanks. I don't do social media for a variety of reasons, so I had not seen this. This is about nothing more than the Sacramento media market for the sake of a larger TV contract. This is what college sports (and especially football) has become. It is sad and uninteresting. Why build a beautiful stadium if every decision is made in favor of tv viewership rather than creating a community atmosphere for alumni and friends of the university? It seems the two are mutual exclusive, as evidenced by Tuesday and Wendesday night games in November. Cue GP1 in 3, 2, ...

For what?

Why the G5 schools haven't already done this because none of them start the season with an opportunity to compete for a national championship is beyond me. Bowl games are nothing more than exhibition games, especially the low recognition/tradition ones. Other than a MACC this is all we are competing for even with a great season?! Big whoop. It's why I (and likely an casual Akron area college football fan) does not get excited about Akron football. This is also why Mount Union has college football interest, attention, and respect but we don't.

But there never was an option to ditch Buffalo and UMass in exchange for NDSU. The option would have been to add NDSU or not. I still favor not. It is on a geographic island and no one anywhere in Ohio cares about football in the middle of the Arctic, even if it is good football. In fact, it may be even worse that we get regularly whipped by another program with low to marginal brand recognition. The added travel expenses across all sports would also be significant. No thanks.

If YSU wants to waste money on excessive travel, let them. I see no value in regularly traveling to North Dakota just for the benefit of having another respectable football program in the MAC. With strained budgets and resources for both UA and its athletics department, this would be a total waste.

I strongly disagree. The MAC is still a regional conference, and with NIU gone, there is a breadth of three full states between the most westernly MAC school and NDSU. The MAC definitely does not need inflated travel budgets to make regular trips to the arctic. Besides, we already have a Canadian school that is much closer.

I didn't say we didn't play anybody in the OOC. I said, we didn't win in the OOC, and why would we when there is a defeatist attitude from the beginning? Of all the games you listed, I think the only ones we won was one against Penn State and another versus Mississippi State. That makes it 2-22 in the games you listed, if I counted right.

I watched UMass-Miami a few weeks ago. It was an excellent game that UMass could have won. Their big man is going to give us problems.

All the program building talk aside, relative to this game, UMass would be a very nice, relatively big name program to get a win against, even if they are in the MAC.

Everything about his attitude and comments indicated that the non-conference schedule didn't matter. It stymied any opportunity of building community excitement towards larger crowds and program momentum that could progressively build towards larger OOC wins and maybe at-large bids in future years. How would St. Mary's or Gonzaga fare if their coaches were perpetually saying that the OOC didn't matter? Or conversely, how would their programs nosedive if they started saying this going into next season? With a losing mentality you get losing. That's what KD's team had in the OOC and the non-MAC post-season. I give KD credit for elevating the program to sustained success in the MAC, but it was his time to move on.

Solid perspective.

The difference is that IU and UK have won many national championships and always make deep post-season runs AND they have traditionally been poor in football. Meanwhile, an Ohio school has not won a national championship in 60+ years and Ohio State sucks up all the interest for dominant football. Cleveland State, Can't, and Ohio all garnered national attention when they made NCAAT runs. Apathy is expected when we lose every major OOC game and post-season game outside of the MAC. To Joe Akron, we are a good team in a terrible conference, and that is supported every time we play external to the MAC. KD always said that all that mattered was winning the MAC. I think he had it completely backwards. Win outside the MAC, then people will start to care.

Exactly what I was thinking. Not that we should have beaten Purdue, but two of the other four losses should have been wins. It's the same story every year too, ever since KD...lose every important OOC game against respectable competition, compete hard to win the MAC/C, then get smoked in whatever post-season tournament we make. If athletics is about feeling and looking good for the sake of the university's brand/image, why not just schedule a complete slate of cupcakes and get a national ranking like the fraudster sweaters? They have to get up for five games per season and are doing it for that reason alone. They sleep walk through the rest of their schedule.

I did not. I don't bet. Crow tastes good when we still win though.

Zips will get out of the gate hot tonight, and the game will not be close five minutes from the start to finish. The good guys win by 20+.