Let'sGoZips94

Last year was GW's first winning season since 2016-17. They've been middle of the road at best, and largely a bottom feeder in those 8 or 9 seasons. If GW had been a powerhouse with the status of Dayton or VCU, are they playing at American (still hard to give them credit for this considering it's essentially a home game in DC) or ODU? Who knows, but history would tell us no. Go look at VCU's & Dayton's schedules this year for reference; zero lower end road games, and Dayton actually has FSU coming to Dayton for a game. My issue is with the hypocrisy of the GW coach complaining about MTEs creating exclusive power conference fields, while his own conference has been practicing the same shift in scheduling over the past decade or so. If he had his perfect schedule, he'd also lean towards power conference bias. Heck, Georgetown played at GW to start the season. They're playing Florida in some Orange Bowl Classic in December. They were invited to the Basketball Hall of Fame Tip Off and played against USF. They are choosing to participate in the Cayman Islands Classic this weekend - McNeese St., Middle Tennessee, and Murray St. All of this before they get the privilege of playing a loaded A10 conference schedule. Spare me the crocodile tears, GW coach. (This is a much better discussion for the World of College Basketball thread)

I think that injury to Eric last year was a blessing. I don't know if he and Evan are here this year if Eric plays last season, and Eric's talent would've been wasted on last year's team. He's a much better fit this year without Nate Johnson on the roster and has room to really showcase his athleticism and abilities.

The American game was also in DC, so hardly a road game. ODU is more respectable. My point is these coaches act like they're being blindsided by this segregation in college athletics. It has been happening for nearly 4 decades, ever since tv media deals became a thing. It has been accelerated with conference realignment and COVID, but nobody should be shocked. Consolidation of power & money is a tale as old as time in society and sports are not immune without legitimate guardrails (NFL is the best example). Yes, big schools quit going to mid-majors to play regular season games years ago; however, it's not like the A10 is lining up to play at Akron, Miami OH, Ohio, Kent, etc., despite being geographically appropriate. There are 0 A10 @ MAC games this season, and very very few in the last 5 years despite nearly half the A10 having MAC schools right in their backyard. Is that not similar to the trend we've seen with the power conferences? Treat others the way you want to be treated; it's the golden rule and is the only bulletproof method to avoid hypocrisy. In 5-10 years, whose to say the A10 won't be only participating in MTEs with schools from the AAC, Big East, and PAC12? I get the GW coach's point, but it's hard for me to take him seriously when, if he could have it his way, he'd only play power conference schools anyways. Revenue sports in college athletics need OOC scheduling rules to fix this, but the powers that be aren't going to bite the hand that feeds them.

I find it funny that an A10 coach is complaining about being frozen out of competitive opportunities. When's the last time an upper echelon A10 school made the trip to a MAC gym?

The only MAC team to lose tonight was UMass (Charleston). NIU smoked Loyola Chicago (that program died with Sister Jean - RIP) and EMU beat Oakland.

From someone on Iona's board... "Akron is better than anyone we'll see this season not named St John's. They would destroy anyone in the MAAC." MAC, MAAC - we own it all. 😉

Our 18 pt loss at Purdue is going to look very good all year long. They are up on #15 Texas Tech in the Bahamas 81-49 with 2 minutes to play. Update: They won the Baha Mars Championship over #15 Texas Tech 86-56.

Evansville wins by 4. I will forever hate Oregon State. See y'all Monday night vs. either Yale or Charleston.

Oregon State didn't want it.

Oregon State within 2 with 4 minutes to go.

Oregon State needs to get their crap together. I do not want 281 KenPom Evansville on the schedule (Oregon State is 136 for comparison).

Assuming Akron can have at least a decent shooting night, we should wipe the floor with either team on Sunday.

Someone should tell these teams the game started a while ago. This is awful.

I think you misread a lot of things. 😉

Groce knows he has a team that can push the MAC's traditional ceiling when it comes to seeding. Margin of victory matters, hence why we're not dribbling out the clock until the very last possession in these blowouts. Iona was previously 4-1, having beaten Princeton by 20, Fordham, Kansas City, and Hofstra. They just dropped to 176 in KenPom with the loss, but have had a solid start to their 1st season under the new HC. Akron is up to 74 in KenPom and can really start making some moves with likely Oregon State and either Yale or Charleston left in this tournament, plus Milwaukee, Tulane, and Murray State coming up. That was quite the performance despite about 7-10 minutes of less than stellar play. Eric Mahaffey's best game, Young rebounded nicely, Tavari really got everything started, and Evan was all over the place. This team is just so impressive.

Halligan is in.

What a stretch by Eric Mahaffey there. Young is much better this game.

Love that dribble drive layup by Big Stank.

Yale's resume isn't impressive thus far. Their hype is still a carry over from last season, although they will still end up being the class of the Ivy League most likely.

As the AD of a school whose football program is currently experience academic hardship, it's an easy line to throw in to show that academics are still a priority (even if every common-sense-having human being on this earth knows that academics haven't been a priority in revenue-generating athletics for years across the country).

Some thoughts... - Love that Goodrich took the time to craft this letter. Not sure I recall any recent ADs doing something like this. - I do wonder if the importance of the next 8 weeks silently refers more to JoeMo's decision rather than the other categories mentioned. Fundraising is really the only other crucial component to the next 8 weeks. The NCAA has a new 1-window transfer portal from Jan. 2-16 which only means players have to be in the portal by the 16th (recruiting doesn't end on the 16th). Talent hasn't been the issue, at least not nearly as big of an issue as coaching and financials have been. Every school is going through talent overhaul YOY. It comes down to financials and coaching as the key denominators between programs. - I re-read Goodrich's bio. Something that stands out is he negotiated the JMA Wireless Dome naming rights agreement at Syracuse and the Yuengling Center naming rights deal at South Florida. If I'm not mistaken, the football stadium's naming rights deal ends within the next 5 years. I wonder if he'll be here to negotiate another naming rights deal for his resume. That could be a big step in the financial health of the football program.

Troy lost in 3OT to USC on a buzzer beater 3. Edit: I found the highlight. What's worse is Troy should've won but the receiver on the outlet pass lazily attempted to secure the ball. USC stole it with 6 seconds left, passed it up the court with 3 seconds left, and the guy took 2 dribbles before getting the shot off at under .6 seconds. Brutal.

@Z.I.P. 11:30am today for you if I'm not mistaken. You're welcome, you lucky, Hawaii-living son of a nutcracker. 😂

WVU completes the comeback in the 94th minute.

WVU - once down 2-0 in this game - just tied it at 3-3 with 3 minutes left in regulation. Great night of soccer.