Let'sGoZips94

Miss St is bigger than I thought. Love our effort though.

Here we go! Let's Go Zips!

Which is genius.

Those pre-game hype videos for each team are SWEET. Can't wait to see the one for Akron.

I don't know if you saw my post in the soccer thread where the Big East was mentioned. The Big East media deal with Fox Sports is a 12 year, $500M deal - ~$40M per year. They don't have football. Compare this with the MAC's 13 year, $100M (~$8M per year) deal with football. Although the Big East deal is set to expire in a couple of years, their ratings beat most other sports on FS1, so this will most likely be renewed and maybe for even more. The $32M annual increase would more than justify moving every sport possible out of the MAC and into the Big East, while going Independent in football until a conference is found.

Yes.

Can confirm the Barstool Sports Invitational is on their app (i.e. Roku). When you open the app, at the top, scroll over to LIVE and it will automatically start playing.

How about 16-20 times a year as a full member and our football program finds a different conference? Like finding ourselves in a conference that is more than 1 step above a high school conference?

(Replace the Del Fuego's building with this news/new conference)

Big East was mentioned in another thread as Akron having a foot in the door for soccer. It would make too much sense to get as many sports as possible into the Big East, especially basketball.

Funny you should say that. They've sponsored 7445 collegiate athletes thus far across all sports - not just the mainstream ones. https://nilcollegeathletes.com/sponsors/barstool-sports

Barstool Sports broadcasting any event is going to be an electric factory. Might be best for families to put the game on mute and listen to the Akron broadcast haha. Side note: One of my favorite video series Barstool has ever done is their Storm Chaser series prior to COVID (looks like they revived it last year). Two of their main personalities traveled to college basketball games where the home team could upset the away team in a manner worthy of storming the court - hence the series title "Storm Chasers".

Responding to the bold in order... - Understatement. - My question about these inevitable lapses: will they come against opponents like Mississippi State, or during the lull of the January/February MAC grind? Groce's teams have always lapsed in the regular season which is typically against lesser opponents. I wonder if his "March is what matters" carries over to regular season games against better opponents like South Dakota State, Mississippi State, etc. - Beating the Jackrabbits without a larger offensive performance from Hankerson is somewhat scary. Just goes to show how scary this team could be if they put it all together on a single night. - Is it really a Sincere Carry special if it doesn't include skipping down the court, only to have your ass whooped the rest of the game? There is not a more opposite comparison than Carry & Tribble. One is an arrogant, cocky, showboating prick; the other is a humble and selfless. - They're somewhat similar to Akron. Lost their top scorer (and #3 scorer), but retained their stud big man. They only had 2 guys score in double digits against Corpus Christi (they only put up 63 pts), and the 2nd guy was barely in double digits with 11. The question becomes: do they have guys step up in game 2 that were absent in game 1? - If Freeman stays out of foul trouble and we shoot more than 30% from beyond the arc, we win this game. Hunter and even Lyles will be huge in helping Freeman stay out of foul trouble vs. Tolu.

Given the state of college athletics and their coinciding low attendance in general, I thought it was a good crowd. The blue chairbacks left a bit to be desired, but the crowd noise sounded great and the views of the upper levels were surprisingly nice given it was the first game of the season.

Really, really, excited about this class.

Makes zero sense to have him play this year barring an injury. Even then, we have Kobe Mitchell, Garvin, Johnson, and Hankerson for eligible guard depth.

Bassitt's going to end up in San Diego. Melvin and Bassitt are reportedly best friends.

Not to mention he was probably illegally recruited by Kowalchoke.

Congratulations to all who received honors, especially Jared. Here's to hoping there will never be another Coach of the Year or All Conference member in the MAC from Akron going forward. 😉

We've had a chance all season outside of OU. This team competes, and I don't see that changing.

AT Boise, too. I don't know who Boise returned from last season, but they won the MWC, which has Nevada, San Diego State, etc. First of all, I 100% agree our win over South Dakota State is going to look really good. Second of all, props to South Dakota State for their schedule. Their first 4 games all had significant postseasons last year... Akron (NCAA Tournament near upset over UCLA) Boise (Won MWC, 8 seed in NCAAs, lost to #9 Seed Memphis) St. Bonnie (Lost to Xavier in the NIT Semifinals) #10 Arkansas (Elite Eight) Their 5th opponent is Stephen F Austin, which has had a ton of success in recent years and despite not making the NCAA or NIT last year, still posted a 22-10 record). After that, they have Valpo and James Madison, before going on the road to KSUcks and Bama (back to back days - 12/2 & 12/3). If they tread water through their OOC schedule, they could run the table in conference, as it's pretty weak. This will probably prove to be the OOC win we've needed to boost our seeding resume.

Dambrot's Zips vs. Groce's Bobcats 2008-09: 1-1 2009-10: 2-1 (Akron lost in the Championship Game) 2010-11: 0-2 2011-12: 1-2 (Akron lost in the Championship Game) Advantage Groce's Bobcats 6-4. We also never blew OU out like they did to us. Our victories were either a couple possession difference at best or OT/2OT. 24 pt loss in Athens (2011-12) and 25 pt loss in Athens (2010-11).

Found this regarding Spriggs.