UAZipster0305

Great news for Arth, and even better news for the University! Here's to saving some money over the next few years!

While our alumni support may currently be small, those of us who are still around are die hards. And I see having an urban campus as an asset. It roughly means we are uniformly accessible to the greater Akron area, and many of the student-athletes who will be recruited either come from another urban area or appreciate urban culture.

I've thought a lot about this recently too, but I hadn't (and was scared) to formally gather the numbers. Kudos for doing so. As is often said about planting trees, the best time to do so is right now. The same can be said about starting a winning tradition.

Game day! My prediction: 2-1 Zips. Not to get ahead, but I've not posted since the bracket was announced. I'm sure Kentucky did not want to see us as a potential opponent so early in the tournament. We control our future. If playing to our potential, we are a Top 10 team and could win 3-4 games. Time to show some heart and character. Let's play Akron soccer!

2-1 wins for both the Zips and USMNT tonight. I'll take both! To those who watched, what was different for the Zips tonight?...lineup? rest? motivation? Seems that the Georgia State may have been a trap...it happens to the best of teams. When playing well, we're a Top 10 team, just gotta stay focused.

At home after dominating possession nonetheless.

Very uninspiring effort overall. Akron football and soccer must have traded rosters for the weekend.

Terrible no PK call.

Unmarked in the box. No excuse for that.

We needed that!

Our play in the final third lacks purpose and urgency.

I never had a problem with Bowden not being renewed, but as you point out, a cash strapped university cutting academic programs like crazy while BUYING OUT Bowden was the appalling part. All so we could hire iCoach 2.0. It really makes me wonder what UA could be post-Proenza with perfectly average hires in place of iCoach, Arth, Larry Williams, and Scarborough. Given UA's financial circumstances, Arth shouldn't be bought out either. Tell him he won't be renewed and hope he gets another job knowing what's coming. State it publicly if necessary; shame him into leaving. That gets us out of buying out his contract or having him hang around. That's the best outcome we can hope for.

Well that was disappointing. I hope this proves to be the Cleveland State game of circa 2009/2010. That's what we get for me talking trash with an OSU alum at work. I guess this means we'll upset them on the gridiron in two weeks though.

Let's get this thing tied, so we can finish them off in OT!

Got it...just wasn't working in my Firefox. Working in Edge. Thanks!

The gametracker does not seem to be available. Anyone mind giving periodic updates?

Because it's now more evident than ever that via a relatively small investment in facilities and a coach, your non-P5 brand and university can be featured on national tv winning a National Championship against a Big Ten team and perrenial powerhouse. To me, that's better than playing in a no-name bowl game or the NIT every year. Even if it doesn't get the alumni as excited, the exposure is better. Winning a game in the NCAA basketball tournament is about the only realistic thing that tops this achievement, but in Akron's case, we literally have one more men's soccer national championship than we do NCAAT wins in basketball. When or how else would Akron or Marshall win a D-1 team national championship? I live out-of-state, and when I tell people that I went to Akron, if nothing else, they know our powerful soccer brand. That's a great return on investment.

Marshall was clearly the better team and deserved to win. Kudos to them, and yay to another non-P5 winning a team National Championship. In the last five minutes of the second half last night, the commentator referenced Indiana, Akron, and Maryland as the "hallowed grounds" of college soccer. It's awesome to be recognized in this way, and it's certainly been true in the past 15 years; however, I think UNC, UVA, and Stanford could make as much or more of a claim to such a distinction than us. College soccer is arguably the 4th most recognized sport for winning a National Championship behind football, men's basketball, and women's basketball, so one has to wonder if other mid-major AD's are taking a look at Akron and Marshall and thinking it wise to compete in men's soccer. It only takes a top notch coaching hire to compete with the P5's and win a National Championship. For all Cincinnati's success in football and men's basketball, they've only ever won two team National Championships, and those were in the early 60's in back-to-back years, so essentially the same team won two titles before the modern era.

Said every NEO sports fan since the beginning of time. This is another hiring of a friend just like iCoach was. Lazy and without vision.

I think it's on following the President's fireside chat address to the nation.

Not sure what to make of the list because I don't believe in the stars and the recruiting class rankings. Instead, I'll share a few thoughts and observations based on the info for each player that was available via GoZips.com: 1) It seems there wasn't much interest from other MAC schools in these recruits. 2) Arth and company beat out some other strong programs for these players though. 3) The academic accomplishments of this signing class are impressive. 4) On "paper" this seems like a great class of true scholar-athletes. 5) If this talent can be coached up and combined with a dynamic game plan, the program could turn around quickly. Next season will be very telling. 6) One recruit wants to major in architecture and another in architectural engineering. Good for them, but does UA offer those programs?

As with this year, the hard decisions will be coming from higher up the food chain than the Athletic Department.

"...it has happened before..."

You nailed it! This is an epic and tragic disaster. Arth isn't going anywhere until his contract is up. If only we had that same desperation to keep Bowden around until his was finished.

There is symbiosis among universities and their cities/towns, so this is great to see: https://www.bestcities.org/rankings/americas-best-cities/ Akron, OH #92 behind Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland, but ahead of Dayton. Toledo didn't make the list.