zen

we'd be 0-4 if we added Morehead State, Slippery Rock, and Murry State to our loss to Gardiner Webb. What's the diff? However, for a sure win, schedule YSU.

the decision of playing in infocision (if the facility is legal acceptable for it's use that way) should be left up to coach and the players. Personally, I think that if we could sell 20,000 tickets for a playoff game (or if we played another match against a top3 team), it should be considered, but if coach and players don't like it, such as the fact it's artificial turf previously discussed, then it should be out. Instead, plans for future expansion of the field on Lee Jackson should be accelerated asap.

Yar! Nicely's downfield throws were terrible in the part of the game I saw this week, but I'm tired of changing horses. I say ride Nicely out unless he gets hurt. It's not like we're going to blow a perfect season.

Scorchers in the Valley had the game on the main bar screen and one in the back... but they had a band coming in and I only saw the first 2 quarters before bailing. I was amazed by ALL THOSE DOWNFIELD PASSES! wow Unfortunately, I was amazed that NONE of them were accurate. Our receivers were open on almost all of them. I had to leave. It was probably a good thing. Our defense didn't let the game get out of hand for over a quarter. That was nice.

sorry, I forgot that it was the sintax that killed it last time. wow, my memory sux anymore

I wouldn't bet money on it. Firstly, it's wolstein. I didn't look up his history, but I believe he is a cleveland area developer. Secondly, even though it's summit county, I can attest that the geographical identity up there is somewhat gray. The fact that cleveland media dominates the entire region help shade that gray of N.Summit to the cleveland side. But who knows...

no no, it sounds like this might happen now. If I remember right, it was the fighting between communities (and maybe certain residents about issues, can't remember for sure) that killed it last time.

Looks like Ryan Bain in a #82 jersey. Did anybody notice that Bain is not on the roster? Can't be Bain, he's not in pain!

Neither.....straight brainfart. Damn... I was going to keep mulling it over seeking some profound paradoxical wisdom.

He's right-on about advertising. It's not easy to watch NFL anymore and NCAA isn't much better. I grew up loving (american) football, and it's a passion I'll probably take to my grave, but it's not hard to argue with the characterization that it is sporadic fits of action intermixed with lots of talking and advertising. And of course, if you were THERE, then the long time outs become even more obvious

what I said... I have nothing to change yet... I am normally the one saying that a coach needs at least 4 years to put up or shut up... where all of the former coach's players are gone and he has also had enough time to establish his culture. I was sticking up for JD several years ago when people were calling for his head. I wasn't saying that I believed in him and he didn't have enough time, I was just saying that there was a chance that he didn't have enough time. Well, he got his time and failed. However, if we go 0-12, particularly after the statements like you posted above, Zach, I will not be as patient as understanding. Obviously, as a fan, I don't matter, but if I am normally a wait and see guy, and I can't wait and see, this is a very bad omen for Ianello. If those guys were saying that the cupboard was full in order to sell a few more tickets, they should have more foresight about all of the lost ticket sales as soon as people realized the product wasn't there.

First, there are a lot of very good FCS schools with teams that qualify for the NCAA BB Tournament. Why would other conferences drop down? That's a good question and I hate to answer it with another question, but I will. What if the BCS schools start there own division or even more, leave the NCAA and have their own Super Conference? There is already an NAIA, why can't there be another organization. The MAC is in big trouble and they need to figure it out soon. That is why this discussion is on this board. It is an important question. Okay, I have seen the super conference concept before. But that is a different discussion. That would shake up a LOT of things, not just the MAC.

There is absolutely no reason to go FCS with our soccer and basketball programs, and with the regional population/market we have. However, that's all moot. Even if the MAC becomes unequivocally the worst conference in the BCS, it will not drop down nor dissolve (unless other schools move down, and why would they?). What exactly is the point of this discussion?

Unfortunately, 0-12 with Ianello and 0-12 without Ianello is still 0-12. I say, give him the season to turn things around.

Where did our coverage go?

normally that's a funny jab at naysayers.... unfortunately, I think the sky is actually falling

I don't go there tons, and I've never been there during a zips game except once (the game was on there), but I do know that the Scorchers in the Valley prominently displays U.A. gear around the whole joint... and relatively little of any other. But you guys seem to be talking downtown

They can laugh all they want. Anything less than $18 is selling at a loss, and won't be made up through concessions or merchandise. They're killing themselves financially (even more than usual) in an attempt to keep within the NCAA attendance rules. huh? By your logic, selling at $54 will be 3x less of a loss! It really doesn't make sense if demand isn't there to sell at $54, and the same is true for $18. Example of reducing price to make more money below. It's called optimizing volume versus price. 4000 tickets at $18 yields $72,000 6500 tickets at $12 yields $78,000 By lowering prices significantly, you drew more fans and offset price with volume. Not only could you make more money, but you create a real event experience which increases future demand. You assume a demand for tickets. What if there are no more people who wanted to go to the game Saturday than those who showed up? quite true. However, since we aren't even coming close to selling to capacity, an attempt to drop prices to see what increase in volume would occur seems sensible. The worst thing that could happen is that you don't sell significantly more tickets, and you have found out where you stand. To use the above numbers, if you had a $3 ticket game and sold 30,000 of them, you'd get 90,000. Of course, the disaster would be if you still only drew 15,000. lol. I would trust experience and experimentation in these matters over some guy with a pocket protector and an abacus predicting optimal price.

They can laugh all they want. Anything less than $18 is selling at a loss, and won't be made up through concessions or merchandise. They're killing themselves financially (even more than usual) in an attempt to keep within the NCAA attendance rules. huh? By your logic, selling at $54 will be 3x less of a loss! It really doesn't make sense if demand isn't there to sell at $54, and the same is true for $18. Example of reducing price to make more money below. It's called optimizing volume versus price. 4000 tickets at $18 yields $72,000 6500 tickets at $12 yields $78,000 By lowering prices significantly, you drew more fans and offset price with volume. Not only could you make more money, but you create a real event experience which increases future demand.

You build a fan base. Through winning. And the slightest customer service wouldn't hurt. Would it? How many people would travel to a school (they never attended) 150 miles away to watch a 3-9 Buckeyes team? That hadn't had a winning record in years? This is football heaven. Bernie Kosar built a winning Arena team and NEOhio broke all the attendance records. There are more people at some NEOhio high school games than many colleges can draw. There's a D3 school in freakin Alliance that's on TV about every week. The Akron Aeros broke attendance records, drew better than all but 5 AAA teams. The Cleveland Force drew SRO crowds 20,000+ to see indoor soccer. This market is starving for a winner. Sold out entire seasons at the Jake. Imagine what a college football program could do. Nobody wants to see this program become respectable and win conference titles and bowl games and make Boise State look like a failure more than I do. To walk through campus and see more Zips garb than tOSU. I know personally what potential this area has... If you build it, they will come... I believe this is 1000% true. All value judgments aside about people who need (not just a winner, but) a team of perennial stature in order to latch on and become "a fan", because you and I who root for them when they aren't such believe ourselves to be the real fans.... that doesn't change that the above is all true. It doesn't matter what you call them. You build a program that wins and has the perception of future promise, they will indeed come.

Miami is not one of the schools I expected to be on the "move down" side of the MAC. I always thought their pride in their tradition would be enough to carry them through and make moving down an unthinkable proposition. Akron is quickly being isolated in the MAC as a school with a desire to improve athletics. Still, I think if the MAC dropped some weight then things would look better for the schools that stayed. I don't really disagree with your post. Since the 1970s, Miami has had spurts of being good with long stretches of being really bad being the norm. I believe Miami has made a decision to basically have a football team because they have to. What Miami really has is a nationally ranked hockey team and I believe that is going to be the focus of their AD. UofA could do the same thing with the soccer program. I've been saying for a long time on this board and I get crucified every time I say it, but it appears as if it is going to come true faster than I even thought it would. The MAC needs to drop down to I-AA before the BCS schools and the NCAA do it for them. If we do it on our terms, I will be the best scenario. If we do it on their terms, it will be a shitty deal. The league is a I-AA league right now that just calls itself D-1A. The party is over. MAC schools and our society in general don't have the money to sustain the costs it takes for everyone to constantly be in a "building process". What has been built in the MAC in terms of facilities is still small time in comparison to what BCS schools have. If you have any doubts, take a drive down to Columbus and drive around the basketball arena and look at their sports complex. Ours doesn't even come close to that. That statement is neither pro, nor con, tOSU.....It's just a fact. Us being behind is never going to change because the party is over and there is no more money to throw at sports teams. What we do have are really good facilities compared to the I-AA schools. The MAC would be the best I-AA conference and the champion would stand a good shot at winning the National Championship each year. Sorry guys...the party is over. I don't say that to be an a-hole or anything else. Just take a look around at our society. Is there anyone out there who believes there is money sitting around for UofA to become a BCS level school? We're freaking broke for crying out loud. It was fun to debate these issues the past few years, but the reality of our society in the past two years has changed everything. There is NO FREAKING MONEY. No money = no "building". I hope they tear down the stadium and get rid of the football program before they drop to I-AA. I have zero interest in I-AA ball. +1

Personally, I'd consider it an investment. We might lose some ticket sales because the home games are televised NOW, but there will be many others who catch the games who wouldn't have attended anyway and who might start to take interest. I'm with the "expose the product" side of this one.

Does anyone know if some of the older residence halls(Gallucci, Grant) will be replaced or is this just purely new construction. Either way, this is a pretty substantial increase in residence space. I think they remodeled those residence halls within the last 10 years. I'd be a little surprised if they razed them and started over now.

1. Yes. I believe he will fail. Every Zips football coach since we left the FCS has failed. Ianello will be no different. 2. Akron is not a mediocre program. We're worse than that right now. And the quotes are about teh strentgth of teh coaching hire, not the program. 3. I don't believe that. The quoted source said that. But yes, the coach is responsible. If talent alone won games, we would have been in a bowl game last season. 4. Notre Dame fans had nothing good to say about the assistants Ianello brought with him. Illinois fans rejoiced when we took their DC. If you want to ignore their complaints with blind optimism, after they spent years watching those assistants, be my guest. 5. I believe it. Rasor believes it. Ianello says he has a multi-year plan to win. That usually means he has given himself, or the AD has given him, a few years before he has to win. He has no pressure, and will use this year to build towards his future plan at the expense of winning this year. If you don't believe that, you've already given him an excuse for losing. 6. He has alienated his team. One incident got published across the country. It was more than a mis-fired text, because it indicated that he talked behind his players' backs instead of addressing that player's concerns directly. That's not soemthign you only do once, it's a type of behavior. As for giving him a chance, I can't. I can't because I already gave a coach just like this a chance, and his name was JD Brookhart. I can't because he was not the best coach available, and was chosen more due to his past connection with the AD more than his ability to lead a team. I can't because he's making the same mistakes that got Brookhart fired, and doesn't see a problem with it. I can't because all I see is five years of failure and another coaching search, history repeating. Son...I think you are a moron. Turn out the lights..no one is at home. You and I won't be debating in the future. no reason to get so personal. I understand what you mean, but why call him a moron? The part that seems contradictory to me is that if you have no hope, then why are you even here? If you want to go on record and be bold and make a prediction about the coaching hire being bad, then you have my props. Let's see how it pans out. But you still need to have hope that you are wrong. If you can't handle a challenge, go root for the Yankees

I think right there is the root of the issue. There isn't any "rivalry" between Akron and Cleveland. It's not that at all. I think for most of us, it's just the problem of Akron being associated with Cleveland. Besides the pro sports teams, I just wonder what value Cleveland has to those of us who live in Akron. For the record, I've probably spent an equal amount of time in both the Cleveland and Akron areas in my lifetime. So, I'm on pretty equal footing as far as my knowledge of both places. But most recently, I've lived in Akron, and I believe it hurts Akron dearly to be looked at as "a part of Cleveland". When does akron get associated with cleveland outside the state (with the few extraneous exceptions). I have told people from outside the state that I was from Akron, and more often then not, been asked where (near Toledo, Columbus, in BFE?) that was. Actually, most of them have heard the mention of the name of the city of Akron often enough for it to slightly register in their subconscious that the later wasn't true, and that Akron is not some 18K intersection of two interstates, yet they can't seem to place it on a map. I am NOT advocating the absorption of the Akron area into the Cleveland persona as if Cleveland were the Borg. We all know that Cleveland couldn't take Chicago to the prom, let alone look in the direction of New York. However, it might not hurt Akron to reverse engineer Borg's parasitic mindset and hijack Cleveland's media a little bit more sympathetically. Who knows, in 30 years, they may be building a "northcoast arena" in richfield and tearing down the Q to make space for a UA polymer conglomerate research facility