Aaron

Akron has won the Wagon Wheel Challenge again this year, as they have every year since dropping baseball. After eight years of the 'all sports' challenge, Kent won the first four, and Akron has won the most recent four. Has this promotion now run its course? In every year except 2013-2014, the team that won the football game won the all sports challenge. Most of the sports are not competitive at all, with one school winning 7 or 8 of the last eight years. Kent domination : Baseball (before 2015-16), Men's Golf, Women's Golf, Women's Soccer, Softball Akron domination : Men's Cross-Country, Men's Indoor Track and Field, Men's Outdoor Track and Field It was a nice idea to get other sports involved in the wagon wheel rivalry, but ultimately it comes down to the football game anyways. If Akron had not dropped baseball (and you assume a Kent win in every season), the two schools would have been tied the past four years, with Kent retaining possession of the challenge trophy.

The wagon wheel competition only counts team scores at the MAC championships on Feb 24th. Thankfully, the dual meet won't count against us. I keep the wikipedia page updated, and included the dates that points will be counted this time around : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagon_Wheel_(trophy)

Balsy, Toledo was last in the MACC in 2004, but have more appearances than anyone except Marshall and NIU. They've cracked their share of berths Akron is now the only team to be in the MACC exactly two times - from current members, Buffalo, Ball State, and Kent have been in once, and EMU has yet to make it. East leads the West 11-9 since the first MACC back in '97

There are four of us with the right guesses on Ball and Chapman - @zzx, @Lee Adams, @Aaron, and @blueandgold. Surprisingly, between the four of us, we cover all possibilities on wins and sack totals. There WILL be a winner as long as Chapman stays leading receiver: zzx - 7+ wins, 20+ sacks Lee Adams - 6- wins, 19- sacks Aaron - 6- wins, 20+ sacks blueandgold - 7+ wins, 19- sacks Good luck and Go Zips!

I'd be happy to be wrong with the win total - I also hope @zzx is correct

This weekend the alumni band is playing, I look forward to seeing everyone in Lot 9 before the game. I could easily see a scenario where the Zips beat everyone they play in the MAC East and still manage not to win the division. Has that ever happened before to another MAC team?

I just updated the wiki page on the Wagon Wheel Challenge with the results of this year's win. This might be one of the few positives to come from the university dropping the baseball team - with Kent's usual dominance in that sport we would have tied the past two years and Kent would have retained the trophy.

I took the 'offensive shootout' options, with the Zips ultimately winning. I believe that Bowden keeps the team focused well enough to bounce back from last week, but they don't have the defensive personnel to stop Ball State's run game. I see Akron winning with some good clock management and coaching - being dominated in time of possession but trading a few BSU FGs for Zips TDs that ultimately keep them on top.

I am down on this game, worried that WMU will be making a statement against the Zips. Woodson can carve up the best defense when he's on his game, but there's too much unknown there for me to be certain this one remains a shootout. I believe that the Zips run defense remains stout against the Broncos, forcing them to throw more often. Unless their QB loses all the poise he's had this year, I don't think this will translate into turnovers, and could easily see Corey Davis getting most of their scoring opportunities. I'm guessing that Western hangs 42 on us (just slightly under their season average). I'm just not confident that Akron can put up more than that.

The band did expand, as the past president was a BIG fan of marching band. He authorized quite a bit more money for the band program, some of which was used to offer everyone in marching band a small scholarship. From a separate donation, the band also finally got new uniforms last year (their previous ones were bought around 96/97). From what I hear, there are over 70 alumni signed up to come back for the game this weekend and march this year. I'm one of them, and looking forward to it.

1) Appalachian state's secondary seems to be good quality. Getting more than 20 completions seems like it would be quite difficult for Woodson 2) Without the defensive and special team scoring, Marshall is a different game. I'm not sold yet on the Zips offense moving 'at will' against quality opponents. I don't have a good feeling about this game. 3) App State seems to be a rush-first team, especially if they start to get ahead, and could get 200 yards. However, I have confidence in our rushing D, and believe that they will hold them under 180.

There's not a tremendous amount of community support for the Zips, and he seems to have a difficult time getting high schoolers in and excited about playing for the Zips at first glance. The University sports facilities are amazing (especially for the MAC), and he has great success recruiting players who understand what college football is about, and for one reason or another aren't cutting it at their current place. I would answer that it is out of necessity, but intentional. Coach Bowden has been turning around the incredibly poor state of our football team for a few years now, in a four step process - lose big, lose little, win little, then win big. He's somewhere between steps 3 and 4 right now. To understand when all the community support disappeared, look up 'Rob Ianello head coach' and be thankful you didn't have years like that to endure.

I'm not sure if PNC is still sponsoring the Wagon Wheel Challenge, but Akron has finally won the challenge 7.5-6.5, helped in no small part by our track domination. The 'all sports' wagon wheel challenge started in 2011 and has been won by Kent in all previous years. Here's hoping this is the start of quite a few years of Akron wins!

That's what I was worried about. I'm not sure that an extra 1 million will cover the travel expenses in the VERY geographically diverse AAC. Sending all of the University sports down to Texas and Florida on a regular basis would kill a travel budget, I'm sure. We would go from not having a conference member more than 430 miles away to having our closest games 230 miles away (and the farthest around 1300 miles).

GoZips, Speaking out of pure curiosity, do you know what the conference money difference would be between the AAC and the MAC? It seems obvious that if we ever get any chance to join a P5 conference, we should take it immediately! Immediate monetary gains and a possibly re-invigorated fanbase seems like it would make a huge difference. Going to a different G5 conference is not so obvious a move in my eyes. While it could certainly help raise the quality of competition, would it REALLY help our scheduling? Or provide enough money to justify the larger travel expenses? If so, then that's great. Akron needs a way to stand out from the other Universities around Ohio! However, if this is another cash sink rather than increased revenue (assuming fan interest remains roughly even), then I would be hesitant to make that move. From outside appearances, an invitation to the AAC or C-USA seems like a mostly lateral move, which could end up being a cash sink. An invite to the B12, B10, or ACC seems like an impossible dream. Does somebody more tapped in to the monetary side of college sports have additional insight?

That is one of the more creative April Fool's Day pranks - very enjoyable

That did it, thanks!

In the previous site, my profile name was 'Aaron'. Now it is coming up as my login id, 'aorians'. Is there any way to revert back to Aaron, or did I log in with the wrong profile somehow? Thanks

The other thing people seem to forget is that our great record isn't solely in the OOC 'cupcake season'. We won the MAC regular season by two full games. Most coaches at other MAC schools get offers from high majors and leave after winning the MAC. I don't know who would come in and replace Dambrot who could do better - not to mention the intangibles of the Lebron connection, the alumni factor, etc. Rather than Dambrot being the issue, perhaps a highly skilled assistant coach (well-paid by the University) could help jump things to the next level?

Agreed - while the tough games that Buffalo played may take a toll on them physically, they look very sharp and focused mentally. Can't say the same for the body language of the Zips. I have faith in Dambrot to get the guys fired up for tomorrow night though. It might play in our favor that MAC referees haven't allowed a team to repeat at tourney champions in the past 15 years. One more win and we're back to the big dance!

The first game in Cleveland always worries me the most. IMO, the Zips biggest advantage over the rest of the MAC is depth, and it is why we've made so many conference finals. Hopefully our opponent has as hard-fought a game as we did. In that case, I'll bet on the Zips bench being better than the other team's bench any day of the week. Most of the MAC schools seem to have 6 decent players, while Akron seems to have 9 - those fresh legs make a bigger and bigger difference in these back-to-back games.

If I'm reading KPI info correctly, they have confirmed that many of tournament committee pay for memberships to KenPom, and highly regard his ratings when determining seeding and at-large. We're ranked 84 on his list. However, KPI, which aims to place tournament seeding on each team, has us at #44 (of the teams entering the tourney) which would put us solidly in the 11-12 range.

Right - we have to make it to the MAC Championship game next year, so we'll know pretty much right after the game where we land

I went to the Rogers Centre for the Bills game in 2013 - it was very nice, and the crew knew what they were doing when converting the field. I would outfit all my friends in Zips gear and make a strong showing if Toronto brought an NCAA bowl game back!

That's a fantastic win! Time of possession certainly helped - 40:53 to 19:07. Our defense might move up in the rankings as well, as we held Can't to 10 yards rushing, and 135 yards total. Incredible job!