Z.I.P.

Color me skeptical, but for some reason I doubt that Terry Pluto wrote the response listed here. I could be wrong, but it was just listed in the comments section. Seemed like someone was making it up. Again, I could be wrong, but it didn't seem like it actually came from him.If it wasn't Terry, then it was a perfect impersonation, a Tina Fay does Sarah Palin job.

I think the most significant part of this article is actually the comments section afterward. Notice that it receives the same sort of remarks that used to appear in Ohio.com -- and the same "You should be glad for the scraps we feed you" response from the Plutonic one.To whit: "I really wish the PD would cover more local MAC specifically Can't and Akron. I know more about the migration patterns of perch and walleye from the PD sports than whats going on with two of the top programs in Ohio." And Terry's response (in part): So far, I have not received a single email on this Akron/Can't story.That's at least 5 MAC type stories in the last few months from me. The Plain Dealer sports section seems to be morphing into the old Akron BJ, while the Beacon is improving -- at least in its coverage of Akron athletics.

If you don't tailgate with me, I'll cry. Be careful Cap'n, those Polynesians always break out the sweet okolehao. --For your 'edit'fication-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okolehao

Yo DiG,You got to rep the new hometown my man! Enough with the Polar Bears. How did our Bulldogs look? As a former freshman benchwarmer for the Orange and Black, I long for the olden days when Winter was a break from football, and a chance to beat Woodridge (twice even) to prevent having to play Canton McKinley in the opening round of the tournament.

I think it's been over two months now and Hartwick still does not have a soccer coach yet. There is talk at the soccer boards that the admin at HU would like to drop down to D-II or D-III (whatever the rest of the school competes at), but the soccer alums have been vocal and have kicked in (no pun intended) the $$ needed to keep the program alive in the Big Time (if the MAC can be called that).My understanding is that Syracuse is no better or more competitive than Hartwick, but they pay more (!). In fact, with a national title and several final fours to their credit, Hartwick is a bigger 'name' in soccer than the Cuse.

Some fascinating info on the Sounders@Heart blog in this interview with Steve Zakuani. He's a very bright young man, and wants to share his own dream with youngsters from his homeland. Someday, we could see a Steve Zakuani Soccer Academy in the states that might rival Brad Friedel's. First he needs to become a star in MLS, though. Will this be the year? We're only three weeks away from the start of the season -- if the labor problems can be put behind us.http://www.sounderatheart.com/2010/3/2/133...e-steve-zakuani

Dude! You got 8 months to get ready fo da show ovah heah.http://www.hiff.org/ Hawai'i International Film Fest takes place 1st week of November

My bad- thats 3pm till 730- when French and Dunn take over the airwaves.Great NEWZ! I am pleased to see our local AM radio stations that focus on sports (1350am & 850am) are starting to feature programs other than OSU. Guess it helps that Akron has teams (Soccer, BBall) that are worth following and are successful.BTW, if anyone listens to Tony Rizzo's show on 850 AM WKNR, then you should listen tomorrow 3/4/10 for a non-Zips topic......SURFING. Our forum friend scottditzen will be on discussing his movie at 10:30 am.Stream here: www.espncleveland.comDamn, hope I didn't miss this! Any discussion of kite-surfing, or even boogie boarding? About time Cleveland meets the (real) North Shore.BTW -- does this station have a voice name of "Goldbloom" or something similar, who covers the Cavaliers? He was interviewed by the ESPN Honolulu station yesterday about LBJ.

If anyone at the U of Akron is paying attention to this, I hope they will in fact try to design the new soccer stadium with view points of the campus and downtown in mind. However, they will still not be able to make it onto the list of the most scenic stadia on the planet. Anyone up for a game in the Faroe Isles? http://www.thebesteleven.com/2009/08/sceni...r-stadiums.htmlp.s.: I believe this website belongs to the BigSoccer blogger Bill Archer, who lists his address as Uniontown, OH. Anyone know him?

It is very disappointing that the Rowdies fail to fill those tiny sections. 1000 students for soccer, but less than 100 for basketball? Yeah, that's front-running @ it's best. I shudder to think what soccer attendance would be should we have a down year.But kudos to the Rowdies that do show up. You guys do a great job!Yeah! Like when we fail to make the Final Four!

Good luck to the Lady Zips. Hope they can bring back at least some sort of post-season tournament bid. That said, I have to add that as weak as the MAC men's BB is, the women's is even weaker. That Can't State team in third, I saw lose twice to a Hawai'i Wahine squad that hasn't won 10 games this year. They were B-A-D. And not in a good way!

Athletic teams have hurt Akron for too long now. This year alone we've seen Rhode Island, VCU, Can't State, and (needless to say) NC State & Texas A&M out-athlete us. After 5 years of KD recruiting, we really need to be getting more explosive athletes to don the Zips' blue & gold. I'm tired of seeing forwards lay the ball up. Get guys in here who abuse the rim when they play. Or how about a 2G who can actually dunk the ball on a fast break?That's what I've been saying for the last four years. That's what scares me in the tournament. If Can't brings their A game I don't think our A game will be enough to beat theirs. We are a top flight MAC program. Why don''t we get the athletes Can't and OU get?I have to say I am fascinated by these comments about Akron being at an athletic deficit vs other MAC teams. From my distance, I'm lucky to see more than a half-dozen MAC games a season, but the Akron team I see doesn't look any less athletic than K-ent or the Big 'O'hio. Maybe they have one or two players who are more athletic than anyone Akron has -- and I can't necessarily vouch for that (haven't seen Ohio's frosh phenom), but there's no doubt in my mind that Akron has more depth of athleticism -- shooting, rebounding, intensity. And don't forget that intensity, especially on defense, makes more than a bit of a difference in a league the level of the MAC. It WOULD be nice to see the entire conference make an athletic 'jump', but I'm not holding my breath. That would require more athleticism than the Z.I.P. has at this point in time.

LMAO. Thanks for remembering me! Would you believe, I almost got on the CBS Evening news Saturday? I was five feet away from their West Coast reporter Ross Palumbo as he delivered his standard drivel notes from Diamond Head Lookout. They edited it out by air time, however. There must have been a couple thousand others there partying and waiting for the wave that never arrived. I should have brought my surfboard.

SeeTee, I feel more like you every losing season at Akron. That's another reason why our soccer program is rising by leaps and bounds. Next season, you may need a season ticket to get in the gate to see Porter's Prospects.

So according to Gozips.com, the Nigeria-born Balogun has just two years of eligibility remaining. Strange, since from what I have been able to gather, he has never played a college game. Another doff of the "Screw You" cap to (and from) the NCAA! Here you go, Michael. NCAA Michael Balogun

It looks to me like another one of those top-heavy MAC schedules where we will need to win out the final two, and maybe three games to have a shot at the East crown. But, it can be done. Big Game Of the Year (BGOY), looks to be NIU at home in early October. I'd call it a "must win". WMU home game will be very important also. Win those two, and Akron is a contender.

As far as invitations to preseason tournaments and all that. I am unable to find any rule officially giving the NIT champion a spot in next years preseason tournament. However neither of the 2009 NIT finalists (Baylor and Penn State) went to this years preseason tournament. In fact, none of the four semi-finalists (Notre Dame and San Diego State) appeared in this seasons tournament. I find it hard to believe that all 4 of these teams would turn down the chance to play in the preseason tipoff. Look, I'm not saying the NIT hasn't been beneficial to the Zips in the past. And I am not going to completely write off this team if we don't make the NCAAs. Am I going to watch if we go to the NIT instead? Probably. But I'm not going to be into it the way I would be the NCAAs. There isn't much of anything to get excited about. The Zips have been there, they've won there. I suppose getting to the semifinals or the championship game would be a little more exciting, but I honestly don't think it would even hold a candle to another NCAA berth. Don't even get me started on the CBI.I believe with the appropriate amount of cash for the entry fee, the loser of Friday's game is a shoe in for the CBI. Well then, allow me to be the first to say, "CONGRATULATIONS GOLDEN FLUSHES!"

It was similar, but Faust had an additional problem. Faust had a problem with the number of scholarships he had to offer and the number of partial scholarships being used. Keep in mind Faust took over a I-AA team with I-AA talent. I wasn't quite in school yet, but I believe Dennison had 65 scholarship players and not all of them were full scholarships.The first step Faust took was to dare to have an honest discussion with each player from the Dennison era and tell most of them they were not D-I talent and they would never see the field. A lot of these players were on partials and weren't D-I talent. This pissed off a lot of players and caused it's own problem, but Faust did the right thing. Combining enough partials freed up enough money to start to offer more full scholarships. If anyone can remember, I would like to know the answer to this. When did UofA finally have enough money to field the NCAA limit of scholarship players? If my memory is correct, it was about half way through the Owens era. Reason 287 why this program has done little in the last 20 years.You are correct. The NCAA didn't let the Zips automatically jump from 65 scholarships to 85. We could only offer 25 scholarships per year, working our way up to 85. If 8 kids quit the team...to bad...you got your 25 per season, maximum. It took us forever to get up to 85. It might not have happened until the Owens-era.Nothing like playing against schools like Auburn and Florida with 70 only scholarship players.But when did we finally have 85 endowed scholarships? I know we could have offered them, but I think it took some time before we could actually pay for that many so we in fact did not have 85 scholarship players on the team.Several years ago -- maybe around 2003/2004 era, someone (I think it was the Michiganlive website -- is that the FreePress?), published the actual number of Am. football scholarships provided by MAC schools. Remember, this was a period when the league was more successful than more recently -- the BigBen era. Only one or two schools came close to providing the full number available under NCAA max's, and I recall that EMU then was only giving between 45-50 total, several were around 60-65. I would guess than Akron was in the mid-upper 60s, maybe 70ish. These numbers -- or the lack of NCAA maximums isn't primarily due to players dropping out (although that accounts for a secondary loss), but rather to budgetary restrictions. Based on that I would be surprised if MAC schools are today very close to the 85 scholarships limit. Someone do some research -- Mike Razor, where are you?

I always thought that was the definition of Jamie Bosley. Eh?

Can't say that I have any interest in baseball, but I noticed the team is playing the New Mexico State Aggies in a 4-game series in the Land of Enchantment -- if you can so refer to the salt flats of Southern New Mexico. I can't remember the last time any Akron team played a team from the Western Athletic Conference -- it MAY have been the women's BB team @ Hawai'i in 2000! Hopefully this will be the start of a trend of UA teams heading West of the Mississippi or even W of the Rockies.HOWEVER, for reasons unknown, Gozips.com refers to NMSU as members of the Sun Belt Conference, which they left about 4 yrs ago to join the WAC. Whoops!

Regional broadcasting of college football HAD been introduced by then. I remember the Pioneer Bowl broadcast myself, being a HS senior at the time. The game was played at a time of year (second week in Dec?) that it may have gotten a national broadcast. I also seem to remember watching Akron play vs La Tech, and Terry Bradshaw in the Grantland Rice Bowl in 1967/68.

Way to go Zips!

Does the team have any indoor tournaments? I guess college soccer has gone away from that -- which was once the entire off-season practice. Used to have a February event at Memorial Hall with many top programs, including IU frequently. But that was maybe before many of you were born.

Isn't that what they (members of the flock) call revealed truth? Of course if you're not a member, it isn't likely that it'll be revealed to YOU!

Yurachek also made several other announcements Tuesday:Coastal will offer a football season ticket package for the first time that won't require a donation on top of the price of tickets. Fans will be able to purchase a four-ticket family package for seating in the bleachers that will be added in front of the new fieldhouse this offseason.The school was concerned that many families were unable to afford to cost of tickets and a donation to the athletic foundation."I want to introduce our football product to as many people in this community as we can," Yurachek said. "In this tough economy we've got to find ways to infuse new blood into our football program. Young families are always looking for entertainment on the weekends. By creating that family zone, we can introduce this campus to people that haven't been here to test drive our product."Coastal also plans to raise the price of single-game preferred (teal) seats to $25, Yurachek said. He felt some of those seats lost their integrity last season at $20, because people were able to buy them for several games without making a donation.Those South Carolinians must make more money than what I've heard (Right-to-Work laws and all that), if they can charge $25 for Coastal Carolina vs Wofford. Good luck Hunter!