UAZipster0305

Thank you.

Me too. I can actually plan an entire evening around watching a Zips game. With iCoach, I'd turn it on for the first half of the first quarter then find something else to do.

As predicted by CK. Kudos.

Ball St. looking very good up 10 at home against USF late in the 3rd too. Can we be the icing on the MAC cake? I think we have a chance, and it will be an entertaining game.

Yes, really.

I am in favor of this only if it's done without the intention of making roughly N players compete for (N-1) scholarships. That would be wrong. What I am wondering is, did those players leave because the writing was on the wall in that they wouldn't be on scholarship and wouldn't receive playing time or because they had other interests and priorities and KD was anticipating that this would happen? If the latter, kudos to KD. However, I'm not sure which is the cause and which is the effect. Please feel free to share some insider light on this topic.

I would like to propose to the administrators/moderators that content copy and pasted in its entirety from an online source not be permitted. As a Nation, we complain about there not being enough Zips coverage by media outlets. Then, when there is coverage, we diminish the hits and corresponding advertising potential by essentially stealing the content and posting it here. It's a self-deprecating cycle.

I neglected Rutgers. Throw them in and it's a respectable 14 member conference. Could two more large, respectable D-1 schools complete the highly sought after 16? Who's left and worthy? Tulane? UAB? Houston? Regardless, it's the best of the MAC and C-USA in addition to the remaining football schools of the Big East. It's interesting how all quadrants of the State of Ohio would have representation too. How should it be split up? East-West? North-South? Leaders-Legends?

I now expect UConn to join the ACC thus creating the first super conference. Interesting how similar Cincy, Louisville and Memphis are to UA, UT, and Buffalo...all are large midwest urban state schools. UCF and USF also make an additional solid pair. NIU and SIU could round it out for a respectable 10-team conference. Not likely to happen, but hey, I can dream. Ohio, Marshall, and East Carolina would also be good additions.

http://news.yahoo.com/Can't-state-student-1...-031554165.html

Try as he might, GP1 will not surpass the quality of this post in the coming year. The second half of the third paragraph is spot on! Well done. However, I disagree that the NCAA death penalty for PSU football or athletics in general would necessarily weaken the cancer fundraising. If spun properly, fund raising for children's charities could be greatly enhanced. Put a donation box at the gates of every other college football, basketball, or soccer game in the country, and there you go! Millions!.

Unless you want to be a business professor, who needs a Ph.D. in business? For industry as a business person, the M.B.A. is a more appropriate terminal degree, is it not? Ph.D.'s in the sciences and engineering are valuable for R & D. And I would think someone who does a Ph.D. in economics and/or mathematical modeling is doing business research. So what's the value of a Ph.D. in business? Just curious...I honestly don't know.

Thanks for the input, bobbyake. However, I think CUSA is still stronger even without SMU, Memphis, and UCF. If the MAC gets JMU and ODU and kicks out Florida Atlantic, I think the MAC has the edge in men's soccer. I'd like to see the MAC add SIU in all sports as well. I'm all for the jump to CUSA. If the administration is given the opportunity, I think they take it. If nothing else, it puts us in a conference that is not already watered down with Ohio schools. I like the rivalries with Ohio, Miami, Toledo, and Can't, but they can still be maintained with OOC scheduling. Joe Akron certainly does not want to see a schedule full of directional Michigans. I also disagree with GP1's idea for a new division/league/conference featuring football in the spring. No way that has momentum if starting during March madness or shortly thereafter. And any later and the school year is over making it an awkward transition for incoming and graduating players. Being offset with the NFL schedule also guarantees that no recruit aspiring to play professionally would take a chance with this new schedule if given a chance at a I-A program. It makes us the default second tier. I know, that's where we are now, but it is certainly not where we aspire to be a few years down the road.

Great to see my old post finally getting some play. I remember writing this nearly three and a half years ago. Crazy, seems like it was last week, but three great seasons and a National Championship later, here we are. Anyhow, the series records from the media guide are inclusive of the post-season. Interesting how I proposed a ways back (can anyone find the thread?) that we schedule programs with whom we aren't winning in the all-time series...and we have a schedule featuring UI, SIUE, and SLU. Would anyone like to expand on this thread and suggest other programs they'd like to see us play in the future? I'll start...Georgetown...big name, Big East school and I can't remember us playing them since I started closely following the program 15 years ago. The same goes for UCLA.

I think CUSA would be a solid place for our soccer program. UAB, South Carolina, SMU, UCF, Marshall, Memphis, Kentucky, Tulsa...impressive list. Much better than UB, Buffalo, Hartwick, Florida Atlantic, and BGSU. West Virginia would probably have to follow us, and if so, Northern Illinois would get the automatic NCAA bid from the MAC every year. You have to figure NIU would want us to go as well.

I'd like to expand upon this, lance99... The English Premier League (EPL) does not actively pick and choose who gets moved up and down though. It is totally performance-based. The EPL does not have a playoff system, and standings are kept in a single table. That is, it is not broken down into smaller regional groupings (East/West, American/National, AFC/NFC, etc.). At the end of the season, the team at the top of the table is the league champion, the top four teams earn spots to play in the Champions League the following season, and the bottom teams get demoted to the next lower tier with the top teams from that lower tier advancing to the EPL. The movement of teams between tiers is known as relegation and promotion. (The Champions League concept is also really interesting, and it exists in North American professional soccer too.) Hence, at the end of the season, some of the best EPL games are not at the top of the table as there may already be a lot of stratification with the winner and top four teams already decided. Instead, the best games at the end of the season are usually the relegation match-ups. Relegation and promotion is huge for the pride of the respective fan bases. Because MLB is the only tiered professional sports setup in the US (aside from MLS), it is the only sport that could support relegation and promotion. I would love to see this. Good bye KC Royals. And how exciting would it be for the Aeros to be able to move up to AAA for winning the Eastern League? Relegation and promotion is also an interesting concept for college football, but the last few years that would not have bode well for us. Interesting to think about though.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/09/o...lear/?hpt=hp_t1 "It cuts both ways - it activates both Democratic and Republican base voters,” said John Green, an expert on religion and politics at the University of Akron. “The most likely effect is that it makes an already close election even closer.”

I agree 100%. ODU and JMU have comprehensive athletics programs and solid academics. They would be natural in-state rivals and add VA to the MAC footprint. I'd also like to see UMass and Temple dropped entirely if they refuse to be full members of the MAC. The commissioner needs to let it be known that the MAC is not to be used as an intermediary or stepping stone to another conference.

Moderators, please delete.

I think you are calling me out on this one, DiG, so here I am. I certainly did say those things in the context of setting a goal of being eligible for an NCAA at-large, which means playing to win every OOC game and not using it as a presaeson or expecting / intending to only qualify for the NCAA's by winning the MACC. In the past, this was KD's approach, and I will stand by my assertion but not incessantly argue (yet again) with those who disagree. To my knowledge, this is the first public buffet-style comment KD has offered for Joe Akron and (Joe NEOH ). Neither care about Zips Basketball until we start acting like and then playing like an OSWho caliber program. That reality sucks for us die hards. Nonetheless, now that we are talking like BAD A$$ES, let's come out of the gate in the fall playing like it too. Otherwise, we are total chumps and known more as the guy on the playground who runs his mouth rather than a feared opponent. Kudos to KD for advancing his philosophy commensurate with the direction of the program and potential talent of this team. However, I would have left out the talk about an NCAA Championship until we at least win a few NCAA Tournament games. Get our program to have success like Butler and VCU (both recently by far better than Gonzaga), then the National Championship talk becomes relevant. Is it remotely realistic to go from never having won an NCAA Tournament game in program history to getting to the Final Four (let alone winning a National Championship)? Instead, I would have preferred KD to have made a statement about being in the conversation for or being granted an NCAA at-large or earning the MAC's best tournament seed in modern history. These are realistic goals. Win ONE NCAA game next year, and I will be happy. Win TWO, and I will be ecstatic. These are also realistic goals. Anything more than that will garner the interest and support of Joe Akron and Joe NEOH; anything less will likely be just another 20+ win season...and what great shape the program is in if this is a point of complaint. The standards are high. Seriously, way to go, KD, keep it up!

You are going to make a comment like that and not leave a link?

This is actually the way most 4-4-2's are played. One forward drops short to collect and distribute the ball while the other stretches the defense and looks for holes behind for through balls. The difference is semantics. It matches up well with a defense that plays a stopper and sweeper because it can require the sweeper to mark and thus not be completely effective in covering space and passing lanes.

How can you not love TB?

WVU is a great addition. They bring a name brand and a perennial Top-25 program. They have met us twice in the NCAA Tournament recently and got whooped both times, once in the snow. They don't like us at all. This has the makings of a strong rivalry! Kentucky and South Carolina are two schools similar to WVU...they are in BCS conferences that don't sponsor men's soccer. They would be great additions to the MAC, but I believe they are both currently affiliated with CUSA.

I could care less about the MAC regular season championship! And in seasons where we won the MACC, no one else did either. It's a consolation prize and only bought us a first round NIT loss. And besides, we've now been there and done that. Keeping this on-topic, do you think anyone from OU cares they finished third in the MAC regular season? Of course not! They will remember it as the best season in their program's history. I want post season wins and preferably multiple ones. This team has the talent. Anything less is underachieving anymore.