Z.I.P.

What? No points for CLUB Baseball??? It's a sad day.

As long as it doesn't hurt our defense/ GK...it sounds good to me.. our high athleticism and talent is well balanced, in the end it will even out no matter what it causes. Guys -- let me know if the refs call the men's games this way also! Will be interesting to see. I spoke yesterday with the center referee who called the game on Friday, and he tried to explain it to my simple mind -- it s a complicated call. But, apparently, if ANY "offsides" players -- who are in a position to control possession -- are not moving away from goal, then its supposed to be called offsides. At least that's what I think he said. It does make it a lot more difficult for the oinesmen and CR, as they now have to watch which direction every player is running -- not just where they are on a line across the field. Overall. I don't like it.

I went to my first (women's) college game of the year last night -- Pacific 1 Hawaii 0. Three different times after the Hawaii goal keeper cleared the ball and it was captured by Pacific 30-40 yards from the goal, the Pacific kick back into the penalty area found several Pacific players in an offsides position. However, the assistant referee declined to raise his flag, allowing play to continue. The people around me said that as long as the offensive (Pacific) players were moving away from the goal area the ref would alllow continuous play. Now on the first two plays, Pacific lost possession of the ball and Hawaii began a counter attack. However, the third time, a Pacific player who was in an off-side position (and running first away from goal) managed to trap the ball, and Pacific began an attack which after about another minute resulted in the game's only goal. Can anyone explain how this new rule is being interpreted? How was the off-sides rule judged by the refs at Akron last night? I can understand the interest in maintaining continuous play -- that's basically the advantage call. But when the team that's off-side manages to get possession, I would expect the ref or AR to stop play and make the off-side spot restart. THAT not only eliminates the off-sides trap, but allows them to take advantage of being in an off-side position. BTW -- kudos to the great start by the Wahine Zips!

I guess I missed seeing him play -- both when Akron played here in 1991, and the previous year when Huggy brought the Bearcats to Hawaii. Where does he work as a TV analyst -- what network?

Frye on Wednesday underwent surgery to repair damage to his right (throwing) wrist. Cable said once Frye rejoins the team, a decision will be made as to how long he will be out of action. If you can't make the Oakland Raiders roster, what's next, joining Bryan Williams in the Continental Indoor Football League?

This may help confirm the speculation that Christiano Ronaldo was seen at Dix Stadium yesterday. Doug Martin is going all out to perfect his team's "flopping" abilities. Even bringing in the world's best coach.

The Jerseys are made by OT sports. They're 100% polyester and seem to be pretty well put together. I'm no expert though. Attached are a few pics. And these are the official jerseys of UA Table Tennis?

Call me when Portland State announces their agreement to join the WAC. Go Viks!

What is the manufacturer? If it says Adidas, I'm happy. Hopefully not the same folks who made the BB jerseys. They look fine, but aren't very well put together.

You might have gone to the wrong school, ITZ. Hawaii still operates their coed all-jocks dorm, Hale Anuenue (Home of the Rainbow). Maybe the NCAA enforces this rule the same way as football attendance standards.

For anyone from out of town, wanting the jersey (hint to L.A. Zip, Kangaroo Craig, etc.), just give a call to Nicole at the UA Bookstore, 330-972-6706, and she'll hook ya up! I hope to be wearing mine around the isles next week. Stylin'!

I updated the link to show the parentage of the idea. I want some credit here, considering that I got none for "Fear the Roo!" Oh -- BTW -- I got my tickets in the mail today -- but no scarf. I hope I don't have to fly to Akron to pick up my scarf this time. That would make it a pretty expensive purchase.

I updated the link to show the parentage of the idea. I want some credit here, considering that I got none for "Fear the Roo!"

I don't know much about Hartwick, except -- they ARE the only MAC opponent that has won a national championship (late 70s), though there student body was not yet alive.

Zach and company, How would you rate the goalkeepers? I read they played a half each. Does freshman Alex Luevano have a chance to unseat the veteran keeper?

Has anyone seen a complete schedule of televised college soccer games? Please send link when you do!

If your a fan of the greatest game in the world, check it out. OOOOhhhhhhhhhhh! I thought we were going to see the real Jet of New York, Thierry Henry. Oh, well...

Next up: Sports Illustrated Pop Culture Grid! Standing by stage right. Athletes in the mix: Kristy McPherson LPGA golfer. Q: My verdict on LeBron's Decision: "Good by me. Sorry, Akron!" Dear Kristy, no reason to express your sorrow to the Rubber City, we didn't "lose" His Eminence, Cleveland did. And, for the umpteenth time...Akron is NOT Cleveland!!! Not!

Does the fact that the time was moved up from 7:30 mean the lights aren't functioning yet, or that these are the green Zips?

Nick Harney 6'7" combo-forward from Benedictine? If so that news broke months ago. He's greyshirting this year to work on academics and hopefully become eligible in 2011-12. If this is who you are refering to we still have one scholarship left to use on a PG. If you are refering to someone else I am honestly quite puzzled. We have a wealth of forwards on the team in the long term with Gilliam, Diggs, Egner, Green, Euton, Cvetinovic and Harney and are glarringly thin at PG. I suppose if we are talking about a stud like Jakarr Sampson (who is from the Cleveland area despite attending St.V's in Akron) or Anton Grady from Central Catholic it would make some sense, but we would probably need to pull a scholarship from someone else in order to make room for a PG then. that is not who I am referring to...new name...high level talent I am exceedingly confused by this then. If he truly is "high level talent" from "Cleveland" who "will be on campus this fall" I am truly stumped. It would almost have to be a transfer or a de-commit from another school. Nobody shows up on searches of rivals, scout or espn that isn't already committed. this is certainly a unique situation...unless you're from the Cleveland area, you might not recognize the name...but, be assured, he is a Big East/high major caliber of a player...academics were an issue and other schools backed off and Akron will pick themselves up a very nice little prospect if he keeps his head on straight I don't like being played, and I think that's what's happening here. This fella has Big East talent, but no one outside Cleveland is aware of it. Yeah, and you should see the real estate I got for sale in Kansas. Plenty of room to anchor your yacht behind the outhouse.

Hello, Mr Athletic Director? Puulllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze!?! Get us ready for the run to Santa Barbara!

That means they had to have at least 194 popcorn fires (@2k per call) last year for this to balance out $$-wise. Maybe they should create a hemp fire-alarm system if they REALLY want to save money in Athens! Wonder how long it took Todd Mollautt to put this story up on Miami HawkTalk?

If you go back over twenty years, our biggest rivals from the old Ohio Collegiate Soccer Conference were Cleveland State and Bowling Green. But both of these have, as they say, "fallen on hard times". We really have no rivals in our own conference, so I have to say without a bit of doubt in my mind, that the one team we have to stay on top of in our region are the hated Yeagleys of Cutter Town. Considering our own coach's pedigree, this rivaly will make some uncomfortable. But not we "old-timers". We still remember being torn apart by the play of Angelo DiBernardo, the greatest collegiate baller of my youth, and coach Yeag I's inclination to sub 10 players at a time. I'm here to school anyone who needs background on the past 35 years of Zips Soccer. Anything I don't know, that guy in Franklin County can answer -- he has even more experience than me!

Well, like CJ, he should have a pretty good view of the action from the Akron bench.

You assume that money would have been readily available to "improve academics". How much did us having a D-1 program play in Proenza wanting to come here? How much does D-1 mean to donors? People talk about the "glory days" like they were glorious. They weren't, we had heavy win seasons and averaged 14,000 fans. Our losing seasons average over 15. How much has being 1-AA helped YSU academics? How much has not spending $$$ on football helped Cleveland States academics. Understand that Academics are tied to history, that's it, nothing more, nothing less. Pitt is an "academic school" because of the polio vaccine. Miami(OH) matters because it's old and that is pretty much it. We could have spent our entire athletic budget for the last 30 years (I believe the latest number was 27.4 million) and you know what? It would not even equal 2 years of operating budget. It would barely pass up what we have spent on academics over the last 14 years. And even spending 822 million (which it would be less if we factored in the actual athletic budget over the last 30 years) you know what we would be? Akron University that wasn't even a state university until 1967. And if we only did the football budget (something around 9-10 million) the investment would be half that. But again you are assuming that money would be there (and no football, or lower tier football, and that money isn't there, it doesn't exist at all). We have received far more alumni investment, far more attention from being a mediocre D-1 football program then we ever did being 1-AA or D-II. The move to D-1 was made based off of what the growing student body wanted and a look at the academic investments that D-1 programs receive. Maybe the lackluster record is disheartening, but it took us 20 years just to get an on campus practice field. I know you old timers don't have much of it left, but give it some time. So you see, my comment did -- as I intended -- foster discussion. The point was forced on me by the lingering, and for now hopefully, bottoming status of Akron football. This pointed discussion is made at every university in America. I imagine everyone agrees that college athletics receives far more attention than it deserves in comparison to the academic mission of higher education. It is not a simple phenomenon to understand or resolve, and so simplistic solutions sometimes proposed from purely anti-athletics perspectives are not just unrealistic, but possibly counterproductive. As g-mann17 points out, in this nation (and particularly with public universities) failure to compete in intercollegiate athletics can have a detrimental effect on alumni and community support. But, administrators still must balance competing interests, many of whom are rightfully envious of the $$ that go to programs whose purpose is stroking the egos of wealthy alums and not-so-rational sports fanatics. Irrationality as a given, on balance, I'd rather be in our position than YSU's or CSU's, but we shouldn't be limiting our range of options to "competing" with minor league universities. This discussion ain't going away -- and the more football struggles, the more it will be repeated here and elsewhere in the community. Maybe a bigger concern is, if dreal1scout gets his Akron pole dancing team, how are we going to keep the Monster Hands to themselves?