mcperp

Nice idea.

Nice work zipboy; I think the key is getting teams on the schedule that are historically solid to smooth out the clunkers that occur when a team might be decent one year, but terrible when the actual game rolls around. It would be nice for the MAC to set up a league challenge each year with the MVC, or A-10 (similar to big ten/acc matchups), but neither of those leagues would likely go for that deal.One way to get some scheduling cache is to host an annual holiday tournament and invite two historically good and/or recognizable teams and one historically poor team. Example: Akron, West Virginia, George Washington, and Morehead State. We'd need a multi-year commitment from local companies to invest in this tournament and to provide appearance money for the bigger schools.

Thanks for the info GoZips. The game vs. Wyoming is intriguing though not sure it makes a lot of sense hoops wise. I guess if its home and home then it gives the players a chance to see a unique part of the country. Lamar is another quirky selection, though their coach has a similar pedigree to KD, born and raised in Port Arthur TX (where Lamar is located), and went to school at Lamar as well. They also have 2 players over 300 pounds including one who is 7-1.It sure would be nice to have some home and homes with Mizzou Valley teams like S. Illinois, Creighton, No. Iowa, etc. It's a good midwest matchup and would help our strength of scheduling.

That was a nice blast from the past. Joe was the 80's version of Adam Morrison. I can still see him at old Memorial Gym with his left elbow awkwardly angled as he jumped, legs going sideways, the ball looking like something Phil Niekro might have tossed and then swish! He had a mate on the team whose name escapes me (Rick Akins?), who was also a terrific 3 point shooter.

That's sweet. I like how the "scheme" consisted of mumbling the players' name, Classic!

Not to mention having to survive one of the Rubber Bowl Men's Rooms which fragrantly add the sour, ostentatious smell of pee as a segue to getting knocked out by a falling chunk of stadium concrete.

Power changes in the NCAA are normally glacial. Top recruits are always going to gravitate to the winning programs, and as long as you're playing 11 on 11 with the big boys, MAC teams just aren't going to win very many games because of talent and especially depth.I think the best way the Zips can make the quantum leap to a Boise or Louisville is to find an offensive coordinator or coach willing to eschew conventional offense for something completely original. If you look at some of the recent quantum leaps by previously moribund programs, they nearly always involve some sort of new scheme which serves to counter superior talent with creativeness and execution.A few examples include the run and shoot, run by U of Houston in early 90's as well as Hawaii, the early west coast offenses run by a number of teams with great success (Kentucky w/ Tim Couch, Utah, Boise State (prior to the last few years where Boise was physically capable of beating big teams, they used to just bury the other team in points with precise unusual offensive sets). A basketball analogy was Loyola Marymount 15 or so years ago when they had some sort of run and stun offense that launched a shot within 8-10 seconds per possession; they'd routinely score 100-120 points a game; the flip side of that was Princeton with their half court pick and rolls and high post offense, they would routinely score 40-50 points a game and still win most of the time.We need to have some cache in order to draw better athletes, and if you can't beat em with brawn, beat em with brains. I don't have any idea what that offense might be, but surely a new generation of offensive manuverings are around the corner, I just hope the Zips can get to the corner the fastest.

I'm sorry I gave my opinion. I forgot this is a discussion forum. I'll stop giving my opinion.I didn't bring politics into this. A politician did. His name is Fingerhut.I will refrain from any further comentary, since it has been made clear to me that my opinion is obviously unwanted. That's not true. I think a lively discussion of opinions is what makes this site worth worthwhile. I respect that you disagree with me and anyone else who has posted on this topic. No hard feelings.

I dunno, I thought I listed out facts that can be objectively corraborated. Your take on it is supported only by a belief that government is bad, and all politicians are deceitful. I don't think anyone can deny that yeah, some government is bad, and yeah some politiicians are deceitful, but to whitewash the whole topic with one-sided rhetoric is corrosive and wrong. If you're so certain that free market forces are the be-all and end-all, then you cannot in good faith be in favor of child labor laws, environmental regulation, FDIC insurance, education for all, etc. Regardless, like I said earlier, the initiative Fingerhut notes is about economies of scale in many areas of redundancy. This is the antithesis of bureaucracy.

Did we read the same article? The whole point of the proposed move is to gain efficiencies through cooperation and merging of some (not all) redundancies. Infrastructure will mean two things; the bricks and mortar projects funded by capital budgets, and processes (i.e. - purchasing, accounts payable, accounting, etc.). This is the exact opposite of bureaucracy.What's not mentioned in the article is the fact of the declining college age population in Ohio. The cohort of available HS Seniors in NEO is declining and will continue to erode for at least the next 10-15 years. This commission is charged with identifying such areas which include some academic offerings, but the academic side of things will be much more difficult to implement than merging business functions for example (this has already been talked about with Can't State, akron, and csu as partners; but was shot down last year).The sad truth about higher education in Ohio is this; the state legislature and governors haven't supported higher ed for 20 years, but most egregiously, since 1990 when Voinovich took over. The state subsidized 61% of a student's tuition in 1980, today that subsidy is only 28%. The end result is extremely high tuition, extremely high student debt to those who go to college, less student's staying in-state, less affordability for minorities, and many other problems. These aren't opinions, they are facts. In Ohio wants to stay competitive, have competition, compete, the answer is to better support the schools particularly in the area of tuition subsidy. Competition in the case of higher ed in Ohio and the US is fueled by the individual state governments, the fruit of this fuel is further fanned by private interests (research, co-ops, etc.).

Yeah, I saw that, and was a little surprised he went that early despite some big numbers at NIU. All in all, the MAC did pretty well with 5 players drafted on day one.

I'm perplexed that so many folks out there think Quinn's going to start from the get-go in Cleveland. Had he gone #3, he absolutely would have been the starter from day one, but barring injury or 10 exhibition season TD passes, it's going to be Frye under center. If the season starts 2-8, then yeah, try another QB, hell bring back Mike Pagel...uh maybe not. I love the Joe Thomas pick, and adding Steinbach gives the team their best line since coming back into the league. I would challenge nearly any NFL QB to be productive behind that porcelain OL the Browns had in 2006. Frye's intangibles are immense, and yes he made some bad decisions last year particularly near the end zone, but 1) he's still young, and 2) teams as bad as Cleveland have to take chances where better teams don't; and 3) Changing Off Coordinators didn't help either. This is a make or break year for Charlie, he'll have an upgraded OL, hopefully the skill players remain healthy.

I still believe Phil Savage is an astute judge of talent and can play the "smoke and mirrors" with the big boys. No need to take Adrian Peterson at #3, Browns will trade pick to Vikings who will bite on Quinn, which leaves:Bucs - Calvin Johnson (assume Joe Thomas to Detroit and Russell to Oakland)Cardinals - Amobi OkeyeRedskins - LaRon LandryBrowns - Adrian PetersonFalcons - Leon HallDolphins - Gaines AdamsTexans - Robert Meachem (a reach, but Houston needs targets for new QB Schaub)

What a vicious idiot! He pompously points a finger without any knowledge or proof and just vomits a line like that. Do you know who actually said it?

I see your point and you're right. There is a VTech tragedy everyday in Iraq and in other parts of the world. Still, wearing the Hokies colors fosters awareness of our violent world, and hopefully results in more kindness towards each other. Any great tragedy such as VT, 911, Pearl Harbor needs a form of ritual to help ease the utter madness of a massively tragic event.

Timmyboy brings a lot of enthusiasm and insight to this board. Why would anyone want to sap that energy by chiding him about his spelling. He unveiled the bad character of Rick Boyages with his passionate letter after the Miami game debacle. I've never found his posts difficult to understand. And at the risk of breaching sanctimony for one thread, how about InTheZone considering removing his picture making light of the Can't State shootings. There's plenty of other images that convey UA's superiority without using murder as the prop.

For those inclined, here's a good link that explains eminent domain in Ohio.http://ohioline.osu.edu/als-fact/1000.htmlObviously U of A is a public entity, but the athletic program (like many other universities' sports programs) is likely set up as a private non-profit corporation. This is done for a variety of reasons, but one of the consequences of this set up is the difficulty the public has in obtaining financial records of UA sports. Unfortunately a landowner threatened by eminent domain could make a case that since technically the football program is not a public entity, eminent domain in its usual applications would not apply.The U of A legal team is smart enough to make sure that the actual ownership of the stadium will be a public entity (the university itself, city of Akron, etc.), and don't be surprised if there is an academic component to the new stadium where students will take classes. I can't imagine a landowner winning an eminent domain case in the long run, but there's a real possibility that the legal wranglings may push the stadium opening until 2010 or 2011. I sure hope not.

The Zips don't have many options with conference affiliation for football. The MAC is the only logical choice. The Big East just kicked Temple out for the same problems Akron faces, so the Big East isn't realistic.However, for hoops; one possibility is that the Missouri Valley Conference expands eastward and takes in Akron and Butler (from the Horizon). This would make 12 teams in the MVC, and they could split into 6 team divisions. Akron, Butler, Indiana St, Evansville, Illinois St, and So. Illinois in the East. The other 6 teams in the west. Of course that would be contingent on the MAC allowing foots to remain in their conference.One thing to be aware of is the changing nature of conferences. If the Zips move to the MVC, maybe 5 years from now the MAC will be as good or better. Looking at geography and budgets, the MAC might still be the best option.

Man, leave the OSU/Akron alone, that topic is beat. Would like to see the Zips and Cleveland State co-hosting an Xmas tournament at the Q. Need big sponsor bucks, but could definitely bring in some top D-1 teams if the price is right.

Alleman's one of those undersized (yeah it sounds strange when you're 295lbs), but mobile OL's that Denver loves. Wouldn't be surprised to see him end up there, or even Seattle with Holmgren and his West Coast offense.Hope Browns resist the temptation of Quinn and get a slam dunk OT like Joe Thomas, or Calvin Johnson at #3.

Does anybody know what it might cost to put on a 4 team holiday tournament for hoops? Bring in one very good team that would actually come to Akron if price was right, one local team, and one other mid-major school. It would help beef up our usually "big name free" home schedule, and give us some recognition and maybe an RPI bump. We used to have these awhile back, though if during winter break many students might not be around to attend.Seems you'd be looking at $100 - $110k in appearance fees to get for example:So. Illinois, Youngstown St, and Middle Tennessee Butler, Robert Morris, and W. KentuckyXavier, Dayton, and Indiana State etc.Probably another 30-40K for other expenses. Just guesses...Sure would be nice if some corporate sponsor picked up most of the tab, and if it's a non-profit maybe even tax-deductible contributions by Zips fans.

If he wants it, I can see him becoming a graduate assistant at UA next year.

love that tribe!, pitching, pitching, pitching, will get it done...

wow, that's really subtle! on the other hand Brutus looks mildly pleased.

wow, how's that for a contemptuous reaction?This was a thread about a radio station, remember?Anyway, I can pull in 1350 all the way up to north summit co, even in the day time. Yeah, I thought it was a thread about a radio station on a sports blog as well, but if you look at the responses, the slippery slope into politics was initiated by someone else. A blog is about give and take. remember? Contemptuous? maybe, truthful?, yep One benefit of 1350 is the return of Tony Bruno to the airwaves. He's humorous and passionate and especially good during football season.