mcperp

The reason why people tune in to drug addicts like Limbaugh, sexually deviant and ultimately impotent O'reilly, "Slot Machine" Bill Bennett, "I'll shoot ya in the face" Chaney, serial philanderer Gingrich, and the other assorted felons and miscreants is the same reason that Jerry Springer, ironically, is so popular; hate, lying, and half-baked declarations posing as truth is always more palatable to those looking for poor saps even more miserable than themselves. Why bother with intelligent discourse when it's easier to devolve into a culture of hate and prejudices with the rabid bleating of reactionary talk show hosts. Hate and fear in digestible radio doses sell. I'd much rather hear the opinions of righties like Bill Kristol, Christie Todd Whitman, George Will or William Buckley because there is thought and erudition supporting their remarks.Anyways, nothing wrong with another good sports station which I think is at least one thing most lefties and righties can agree upon.

Good thing Ann Coulter is so relevant these days...oh wait the reactionary right got booted out of the House and Senate in DC, and didn't do so well in Ohio either. Guess "talk" radio is cheap, but at least that derivative Crazy Coulter can still offer her nutritional bile for right wing alarmists.As for 1350 being all sports, cool with me, especially if Zips coverage is expanded.

Wow, what a weird step for zipsnation tonight. This board is usually 99% filled with intelligent discourse, or at the very least, some fun and caustic sarcasm. This is not to chide anyone, but what started out as a benign analysis by sgm has turned into name-calling and some terribly broad derivative generalities. I mean honestly, all sgm did was offer an opinion based on his perception and research. I'm surprised at the invective directed at a regular contributor and zips fan. If an opinion can't be offered without a ton of baseless attacks as a retort, then this board might need to re-evaluate its mission. Now if you excuse me, I need to get to my night job as time-keeper at the Q. just trying to lighten the air a bit!

Folks, be reasonable. This is a Zips fan site, sgm has posted over 600 times on this site because he too is a Zips fan. To accuse him of not being a fan of Akron is truly unfair, and sounds like McCarthyism at its worst. The point sgm makes (IMO) is that OSU has no compelling reason to play at Akron for the moment anyways. Like it or not, and as rabid Zips fans we don't, OSU is the director, and Akron, BG, OU, etc take directions in the college sports world. Let's face it, if Youngstown State wanted us to play there, JD would make sure that they play in Akron 2, and probably 3 times. When there are competing viewpoints to an issue, sometimes its wise to look to Occam's razor as a guide to separate logic and zealotry.

Should we play at Tiffin next year?

Ugh, a dome is best left to the 1980's and early 90's. A retractable dome would be great but way too expensive. Anyone who's ever watched a game at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, or the anti-septic Georgia Dome can tell you that the "feel" of the game is definitely not the same. Without a major donor, it's hard to imagine a new hoops arena so close to the heels of a new football stadium. If nothing else, I'd like to at least see the JAR seating reconfigured to more of a fieldhouse and less of a box.

Wow, I thought SC Upstate was just a derisive term for Clemson by a Gamecock fan, but it actually exists! Must have been a lot of free Pabst Blue Ribbon at that marketing meeting. I like the tournament, we have a great shot at winning the whole thing. Oregon State had a rough year, and I think only Colo St and Portland State would be the other potential threats.

Umm, it's obvious (I thought anyway) that none of the sports are making money. The term self supporting was used in my context to merely identify which sport is doing the best job comparatively in supporting itself financially, even though they too are losing money. My apologies if the vagaries of my note were misinterpreted, and yes, I'll see you in Business Finance class tomorrow!

Holy Title IX Batman!! Total revenues for women's basketball, softball, volleyball, track, and soccer - $52,717 Total expenses for those sports -$2,871,008; Percentage of revenues to expenses 1.8%.Men's sports stats - Football percentage of revenue to expenses - 18.2%, basketball - 51.5% (by far the best self supporting sport)Having worked in higher education budgeting for many years, I can tell you that UA's sports income statements are very similar to other schools of comparable athletic prowess and resources. The revenues displayed by Rasor do not take into account the apportionment of the university's General Services fee which is about $360 per semester for full time undergraduate students. I'd guess that UA has about 22,000 students which if converted to all full-time students would equal roughly 16,000 full time equivalents. Doing the math with the General Services fee of $720/year; you get about $11.5 million. Now the question that Rasor needs to ask is, what percentage of the General Services fee does athletics receive?Using Rasor's data, the net loss for all sports was $9.04 million. I have no doubt Athletics receives the lion's share of the General Services Fee, but likely not the 80% necessary to cover a $9 million deficit. Other sources of funding that probably aren't noted would be athletic donations (both restricted and unrestricted) and various general revenues (licensing fees, facility rentals, etc).What does all this tell us? Well, in order to be considered D-1, you need to fund a lot of sports with little or no revenue, Title IX puts an onerous burden on an athletic department that any AD would acknowledge in a private moment. However the two big things it doesn't calculate is the marketing advantage a D-1 program provides to potential students, and the fact that sports exist because we love them. After all, cost of Tuition $8,000 cost of housing $5,000 cost of beating K.e.n.t. three times in the same year...priceless.

I see your point LA Zips Fan. I'm not sure the Zips can count on drawing any huge name teams for the 2009 season at home. Perhaps the other logical choice would be Pitt or West Virginia, but can't imagine either of these two recruiting rivals coming to Akron. The scheduling of Kentucky and Indiana though perhaps not the most glamourous makes sense in that Akron can boast of a Big Ten and SEC school visiting, and Kentucky and Indiana can fulfill their 2 games at home and 1 at Akron contract while also getting what they would consider a winnable game on the road. Kentucky's program is not that bad either, and by 2009 they may bring a fine club up here.

Didn't Dakich turn down the West Virginia job a few years back?

I don't think C-USA is a good fit for Akron, plus it seems every few years that league sheds half its members and adds another 6 or so. For better or for worse, the MAC makes the most sense as if offers stability and the geographical rivalries. The league just doesn't have the cache, and will always be a mid-level conference with an upset over a major every once in awhile. At least you can always find a seat for any game.

This may already have been posted, but if not, take a look: If the link doesn't work, simply type rick boyages letter to fan in the yahoo search.http://media.www.thelantern.com/media/stor...gepublisher.com

The NIT committee does indeed base their selections subjectively, including perhaps ironically deciding to leave Akron out due to their connection to LeBron. Since high schoolers can no longer go straight to the NBA, the old farts, took it upon themselves to slap the most high profile of all "straight to the NBA" players by punishing his friends and hometown.Not saying that this was the only reason, but if these subjective decisions needed a "tipping point" then Lebron certainly provides that final dagger.

Not poor losers, it's righteous indignation. Who cares if the NCAA looks down on us, why should we mollify the beast, and with our hat in our hands, humbly inquire as to if a 30-2 record in the future might garner an NIT bid. Believe me, the main trait that the NCAA exudes is pomposity so they won't even notice a protest at a school like Akron.

that's impossible because if you're not going to be a part of the ncaa for this one incident, then we're not going to be d-1, never going to any national championships, never going bowling, etc. we need the ncaa, and yeah they f-ed up, but we can't just cut ourselves away from them. if we tried that would be just plain stupid. I'm not advocating overthrowing the NCAA, or leaving it; merely getting rid of anything that has their dirty fingerprints on it. I guess I wasn't clear enough.If we burn a bracket, then the straightlaced guy from Provo is going, "why are they burning BYU", the guy from Las Cruces is going, "senor Zippy muy loco", and the guy from Pittsburgh is going, "look Blanche, Akron's got fire"... ok, bad example with PITT, but if we burn brackets, we will look like we're attacking the institutions in the tournament when the real culprit is the NCAA. DON'T let the NCAA point their finger at us and say THAT'S ANOTHER REASON why Akron wasn't allowed in the NIT.It is the NCAA who deserves the public reprimand!

And...why not hang any MAC or NCAA pennants, flags upside down as well.

I don't know if bracket burning is the right idea, teams and their fans that are in the tournament would look at it as an attack on themselves rightly or wrongly.The real target is the NCAA, not the teams who accepted bids to play in the tourney. I'd much prefer an absolute boycott and removal of any and all NCAA flags, decals, even stationary and plan a public flogging, burning, whatever. The NCAA or National Committee Against Akron, deserves no respect from us, and therefore their sponsorship, or whatever it is they claim to provide is not needed.Don't let the NCAA off the hook by letting them point to good and loyal Zip fans and try to shift blame.

So if I understand correctly, had the Zips gone 1-28 leading up to the tournament with losses to Tiffin 102-38, Oral Roberts 197-12, the Akron Barber College 87-49, and the loss to the 1904 Buchtel College Alumni team, 8-3, (the lone win being against a Rick Boyages led-Wright State team) but benefited enough from those 29 "tune up" games to win the MAC tournament in 4 straight... Then they'd take their 5-28 record out west against Oregon?Hmm, why bother playing any regular season games in the MAC, let's just move right into the tournament in November. Guess those 26 wins aren't even worthy of the NIT-wits.

That letter from Boyages is utterly unprofessional and is basically just a projection of his own inadequacies and folly as the guy who was ultimately responsible for the "operations" of the tournament. To him, I say, "well done Rick" you've built upon your fine coaching resume and brought that gift of shall we charitably say "human error" to the highest reaches of the MAC Central Office.As far as the letter being "sophomoric", well Rick, many who attend college hoop games and play college hoop games, and go to college are sophomores.Now here's some advice for you Rick, make sure the benches have Gatorade, and that the hoops have nets on them, other than that, please stay out of the way.

The whole thing is a slap in the face not only of the University, but of the city. There's no respect for our hard-working, non-glitzy town. The Zips hoops team is a gritty reflection of the city itself, and just shows that the self important morons in the NCAA figure that a snub of the city is just a day's work. They have no worries that our town will fight, and won't lose a moment of sleep over the whole thing.What can we do? It's a fair question, and always a good place to start when a calamity (relative of course to the world's problems) such as this have torn your foundation asunder. We must get bigger money and bigger support from the community in order to earn the respect of the NCAA. The NCAA is a money whore who rules parochially in any, and all David vs Goliath situations. We can start by getting local and corporate support for a 4-team holiday tournament at the JAR. Bring decent high-level teams like Pitt, WVU, Missouri State, Syracuse, etc with guaranteed money. Make it an annual, respected tournament, maybe even with LeBron tie-in. We cannot continue to allow others to control our own fate, wins over big name teams will go a long way in solving that problem.

You know what, F#$# the NIT too, just the used car lot of the pompous NCAA anyways. If the Zips actually did turn down an NIT bid then I can hardly blame them, why give the bastards their due. It's likely that if they weren't invited, then that will have more legs newswise than a game against Drexel or whoever. It'll be interesting to see if any coaches from other universities say anything about this whole atrocity. It will be nice to shine a light on the NCAA ogre and have someone investigate them for a change.

Oh no! ESPN news said he's a "great loser"? Oh man, it's over for the Zips and KD because some guy at ESPN said something bad about a guy whose team had their heart ripped out by a technician with a fat thumb at the scorer's table. KD should have just thrown his arms up, shrug and whistle, "dems the breaks, oh well". Perhaps the ESPN gurus would have labeled him as a lousy advocate for his team.

Oh please, to disparage Dambrot and sum up his legacy after tonight's game is truly unfair and incredibly shortsighted. To give all of us the benefit of the doubt, a crushing loss like tonight's game is a recipe for hyperbole, and ill-thought declarations.Keith has put together a nationally respected mid major program in just a few years, he wins games with good, but certainly not great talent. 26 Wins this year for crying out loud and a 27th taken away by an ineptitude not seen since the 2000 election in Florida. This is an NCAA caliber team, with a small chance to get in the dance regardless, mega conferences like the Big East and ACC will probably preclude that chance, but Akron's recent media spurt can't hurt in the eyes of the committee, and if the Missouri Valley only gets 2 bids, one could open for the Zips.

Just got back from the MACC, Spectacular, amazing, and any other superlative you wanna throw in. Best game I've seen in a long time, and was the epitome of how great college BB really is. Tremendous effort by 2 tough, blue collar teams.