Blue & Gold

You guys are arguing about what to me seem to be two separate issues. My assumption is that everything football related will be done before our home opener with Morgan St. However, the project in it's entirety may not be completed until much later than that. In fact, if you consider the new dorms a part of the project, then who knows, it may not be done for another year?

I couldn't agree more. I've got a lot of fond memories associated with the JAR, but we desperately need a real D-1 facility. I try to take friends and kids that I work with to Zips games in attempts to make new fans. However, the JAR is an embarrassment. When I take kids up to Zips games they're always excited to go. However, they ask me, "Where do the Zips play?" and I try to prepare them before hand that the arena isn't very nice and that the university really wants to build a new facility. Even with the 'curb-your-expectations' speech, when we walk into the JAR they're always underwhelmed. When I tell the kids we're going to a big time college basketball game they have these visions of a really nice arena and then we walk into the JAR and it's a completely underwhelming dump.For we die hard fans the Zips could be playing at a S. Hawkins playground and we'd bring folding chairs to watch them play and scream ourselves hoarse. However, for the fans that we're trying to reach, the arena is a BIG part of the whole game day experience and, sadly, the JAR both communicates and leaves the distinct impression of SMALL TIME.

I just went for a walk around the complex this afternoon. It's looking great! They've also gotten a lot of work done on the new dorms. It just really struck me once again how much this stadium is going to affect the resident student population. It really seems to be the anchor of the campus now and I know all the resident students will be proud to go to such a beautiful facility.Unfortunately, they've now fenced off the walkway between the Field House and the Info, so the web cams offer the very best views of the stadium construction now. And btw, Steve Sweich is one cool dude. I walked by the baseball game today and he was in attendance, cheering on the baseball team. It didn't even look like he was sitting with anyone; I believe he was just @ the game by himself cheering the team on. The baseball team often plays in near anonymity, so, cool showing of you, Steve!

Same here... I might have been in there right about now and further.Sadly, we didn't lose the bid because of price or product, but mostly because large institutions like Universities tend to stick with what they have had, regardless of what's out there.I highly doubt that they are behind in some critical way. As I said before, you can host a football game even if you don't have the finishing touches on furnishings or tweaks on equipment. If the core power services, communications and infrastructure is in place, and you have a finished field and seats to be sat in, you got a football game.As is, The Info looks better than the Rubber Bowl already!!!

Conference USA doesn't excite me much. Is it a better football conference than the MAC? Yes. But I think we'd be better off being the Boise State of the MAC than jumping conferences. Here is the list of C-USA schools: East Carolina Houston Marshall Memphis Rice SMU Southern Miss Tulane Tulsa UAB UCF UTEPSorry, but doesn't that just strike you as a pretty lame conference? And it's SOOO spread out!!! On a purely practical note, our traveling expenses would skyrocket. But on a more fan-friendly note, who would our rival(s) be? Who would you love to hate? Marshall is the only natural rival on that list. (As an aside, Marshall was on the way down just as they were leaving the MAC, so I wouldn't read too much into their lack of success in C-USA. Those Chad Pennington, Randy Moss, Byron Leftwich Marshall teams would have rolled C-USA just like they rolled the MAC.)In the MAC we have many natural rivals: Can't Miami Ohio Toledo BuffaloWouldn't you rather love to hate those guys than UAB, UTEP or Rice?Again, IMHO if we rule the MAC the Info would be packed - every game. People love to be associated with a winner - see our 15 minutes of glory when we won the MACC. We need sustained success. People need to be secure and confident that if they invest emotionally in the Zips then they are going to get a return on their emotional investment - not a discouraged, broken heart (which diehards like us don't understand - that's why we're diehards! That's why I love you guys!!!)If we could become the big dog MAC daddy that everyone feared - ala, the Boise State of the MAC - people would be proud as a peacock (jeez, that's what my grandpa used to say) to associate themselves with the Zips and folks would flock to the Info and the JAR.

Man, you hit on a couple things I was thinking myself. Next year I think we may miss Nate's presence a little more than we're anticipating - defensively. Hopefully Zeke will make our D even stronger though.I wasn't too surprised about Brett being listed as a starting forward in lieu of Nik Cvetinovic, because Elton had B-Mac listed at starting small forward while Nik is a power forward. And, not surpisingly, Elton had Chris McKnight listed as the starting power forward. I'm extremely excited about Nik's game and he'll surely be one of the first players coming off the bench.Could you give us more insight into Alex Sullivan's game? Is he a point guard or shooting guard. Lead guard? What does he like to do? Drive to the hole, shoot from the outside, etc.? Is he strong defensively? Thanks!

Unfortunately, I think Dr. Z was joking about Dru and Rome being in the interview. In one of the highlight clips of LeBron you can see Dru bringing the ball up the court and throwing an alley-oop to LBJ. Thus, I took Dr. Z's comment about Dru & possibly Romeo as tongue-in-cheek.You're right about us needing to reap every last grain of publicity from our unbelievably fortunate association with LeBron. I really hope that Dru, Rome, KD and UA are all mentioned in th 60 Minutes feature!

I also remember Channel 3's report explaining that the new stadium was part of a central-campus sports complex. However, when UA gave the stadium announcement I remember the Don being outspoken about how unhappy he was that the Info wasn't located closer to downtown (even though it's only about a quarter-mile away ) Afterward, apparently, Proenza & the Don got together and decided that if the U was ever to build an arena, then the city could have input into where it is located. I don't think the agreement by Don & Proenza was really a big surprise to anyone because, at least on ZipsNation, the general understanding was that, if there was an arena to be built, then the city and the university would work together on the project and that it would be located on Main Street across from Canal Park. That design would give us Canal Park and the LBJ Arena together on Main Street and the Info about half-a-mile away on Exchange. Also, the arena would be on the block adjacent-to-the-south of the Polsy Building and adjacent-to-the-west of a UA parking deck. So the location is definitely in the campus footprint.

Wow, how did you score tickets 4 rows behind the Cavs bench? Did you just simply have to bite the bullet and pay through the nose for them? When I go to a Cavs game I sit 4 rows from the top of the Q.

In camera 1 you can currently see why they left the gap between the press box tower and the west side grandstands. It looks like they are pouring concrete in the press box and they've got a pump extended up to the 7th floor from below the grandstand.

Exactly my thoughts as well....we need a multipurpose arena. It doesn't have to be huge. A nice looking, good sized, nice location arena would help the city and the school.If we'd have a nice, medium-sized (10,000 - 12,000) seat multi-purpose arena then we could bring in concerts that never come to our city. We must be the largest city in the nation that doesn't have a real concert venue (excluding summertime @ Blossom). Then the Enjoy section of the ABJ could actually report on the Akron scene instead of always pimping the Cleveland scene. That gets so tiresome.

I'm getting so sick of the weighted racket that is the BCS that I'm getting to the point of not wanting to schedule them anymore. Maybe the non-BCS conferences could get organized to make life tougher on the good ol' boys of the BCS? If the non-BCS schools would just schedule each other for their non-con games that might really put the screws to the BCS schools?I am a little aggravated at how difficult and time consuming it is for us to get a schedule together - but if BCS schools require 2-for-1 commitments, well then how are we EVER to have a smooth time filling out a decent HOME slate?! When you have 2-for-1 commitments the math just doesn't work out - it's like buying things with a credit card. I'm more for looking at 1-and-1's with the MWC or C-USA. I don't know. I just think we should pattern ourselves after Boise State. How are they scheduling? Let's model ourselves after thier program. But to answer your question about BCS schools, I'm all about the Big East. I enjoy our games with Cincy, 'Cuse & UConn. Pitt would be a no-brainer. Screw the Big 10 (except for when Columbus State wants to play us.)

Down with UNC! Down with the system! Down with the Good Ol' Boys Club! Down with the BCS! Go Bulldogs!

You gotta tell me how a game against Delaware State is more exciting than one against Morgan State.Any state university that's actually a state!

Remember why students come here? I don't think Akron is misguided by focusing on athletics facilities. It is great to think academics is the first reason why most students choose a school, but it's not, a strong athletics program is a huge factor. examples?http://media.www.gonzagabulletin.com/media...t-3303134.shtmlhttp://www.thesportjournal.org/article/imp...ncaa-division-iDo I think that is the way it should be? Not really, but as you can see it helps!Those are some very pertinent links. Thank you! Just goes to show that people naturally want to be associated with a winner. And in our current culture that largely means football and basketball. (Hopefully soccer will continue to gain popularity since we're well positioned for that potential wave!)

I am one of those in favor of scheduling a 1-AA opponent once a year and I also think it'll be nice to (hopefully) blow out an opponent in our first game at the Info. However, you are right - Morgan State isn't a name anyone is going to recognize. If it could have been an Illinois State, Indiana State, YSU, Rhode Island, UMass, Delaware, Delaware State or a team along those lines I think it'd have been more exciting. However, I don't want to complain because I know that this late in the year we were surely handcuffed and limited as to who we could bring in. On the bright side, if we hang tough with Penn State and then blow out Morgan State, that would make our game against Indiana a legitimately important big game!

I just perused channel 3's website and did not see the rendering. Can you post a link to the rendering you saw?

Here is a link to an article in today's ABJ concerning spring drills.ABJ on football spring drillsThe most discouraging quote from Gaffney's article:The biggest disappointment on offense has been at running back, where injuries have slowed Alex Allen (hip), DeVoe Torrence (ankle), Gary Pride (knee), Joe Tuzze (back) and Dale Martin (Achilles tendon). Martin, a highly regarded transfer from Louisville, tore the Achilles on March 12, had surgery on March 16 and will be out four to six months. In practice today, most of the carries were by 5-foot-6 junior Nate Burney and 5-10 freshman Thomas Miller. ''We have been devastated at the tailback position,'' Brookhart said. ''We are really on our sixth tailback. It has been tough.''

Who cares who it's against. When is it?According to Rasor's blog it will be on September 12, the week before Indiana.

Great link! Thank you!

Hey, I never mentioned any model. I have seen well executed and detailed drawings of a proposed11,000 seat arena planned for across the street from Canal Park. As I previously reported; thesedrawings have grown in detail and color since the early ones. Where there is smoke a fire usuallysoon follows.Sorry! I didn't intentionally misquote you. I thought I remembered you mentioning a model. But I also believe I remember you saying that there are two drawings, correct? One of a multi-purpose arena and one of a basketball-specific arena? Can you give us any more information on the drawings that you have seen and where did you see the drawings, if you don't mind me asking. Are the drawings available somewhere online for any old average Joe to see? Or did you get a peak of them in the basketball office, or something?

I did notice that. That made me wonder whether Columbus State doctors their figures because from all the reports I've heard their crowd was lame when we beat them in Columbus. In fact, the story was that our Rowdies outnumbered their students... in Columbus!

Could you give us a recap of the interview?

Is Rhode Island making a return trip to the JAR this year? Temple? Perhaps we could work something out with Xavier; we seem to have a friendly relationship with X? Would Mike Thomas be willing to help us out by getting something going between us and Cincinnati? Would UMass be interested in a few games? Our game with them 2 seasons ago was very competitive.

Yeah, his injury couldn't possibly be a complete tear; has to be more of a rupture. However, I'm now happy to have DeVoe Torrence @ RB instead of LB!