ZachTheZip

lots of close calls early.

There will likely be a few dozen students watching in the Commuter lounge in the Student Union.

Offered his teammate, too. OT Billy Rone.

I was looking up some stats and found out that we're only one of three teams in the country without an interception on defense.

it's popular because it was embedded to ESPN's Page 2 Column. Every hit there counts as a view for the video.

I am confused about the RPI. I know how it is calculated but how is it used? Does the Final Poll position play a role or is totally the RPI? Help! It's a tool used by the selection committee. Same with the polls. The RPI plays a bigger role than the polls, however. The polls can be influenced by the RPI (voters may look at the RPI and change their votes) but the RPI isn't influenced by anything but wins and losses.

New offer: JUCO OT Patrick Ward.

Ianello wants to improve the passing game. I'm not sure what he means by “we have to throw it better. That’s got to be, in the next seven games, what we grow up with.” Seven games? So our aim is to be good by the end of the season? At that pace the players he's working with will have graduated by the time he gets them to the level he wants and he'll have to start over with a new group. Also, two of our best O-linemen (Kasparek and Bice) are out for a month. Marquelo Suel and ShelDon Miller are also out.

We abosultely need to win this game... but even then our RPI will take a hit as it might knock UCSB out of the top 25. RPI is always graded all the way out to the last team... but beating top 25 teams have more impact than the next 25. Right now our RPI looks to be pretty weak. Winning out will help that... but we still need to be concerned about UNC, Creighton, New Mexico... and some 1 or 2 loss teams ranked below us. We need to see some teams step it up... Like Fullerton, Northridge, New Mexico, Cal Poly, Tulsa and Ohio State. The RPI isn't determined by human rankings. Knocking them out of the top 25 in the polls doesn't mean anything to how the RPI is calculated.

The official RPI hasn't been released yet. Really, we're in a good position at #3. Beat UCSB and we're in good shape.

Akron-brand motor oil. Nice logo. That "A" would look pretty sweet on the side of a football helmet.

New offer: RB Elijah Hughes. First new offer I have found since August. DE Pierre Aka commits to Iowa State.

You know there are people here who actually believe what CK wrote, right?

Are they full scholarships, or are they partial? I'm looking at the dollar amount, not the total unit number. Football scholarships costs just over $900k. But none of that included room and board, meal plans, or book purchases. Without calculating room and board, meals and books, the real costs aren't being calculated. Please go back and rework the numbers. I'd like this project completed by close of business today. Sorry I'm a day late, boss. Here are the latest numbers. Total student aid costs $4,401,715 and football student aid costs $1,670,766. So 38% of student aid goes to football. In terms of total operating expenses, 27.8% goes toward football. Quite a bit of the athletic department's revenues and expenses don't get reported, it seems, but financial aid is laid out for everyone to see.

Believe in "The Plan." We are losing games at a breakneck pace, so we're just like Al Golden and Temple. Championships a-plenty are just around the corner. How many championships did Al Golden win, again? MAC East titles?

We're 20-point home underdogs to a Sun Belt team. Thanks, Rob. Florida International message board.

Listening to the new sports talk radio station, every on there all day has been talking about how the Browns are running an offense (West Coast) that doesn't play to their strengths and that the head coach is trying to force his players into positions that they don't quite fit. They said that a transition year is needed while the coach installs his preferred offense where playcalls and formations are a mix of the best plays for the type of players you have and some basic ones that you want to run in the future. I thought it was an interesting parallel to what Ianello has done. Why can't we mix in some shotgun snaps or give Moore the option to run? Of course, if we want to use an offense that plays best to our strengths then we should be running the wishbone.

Al Golden (Ianello has openly confessed to following his model) never won the MAC East. In fact, to this day Temple has never beaten a MAC team with a winning record. Is that the level we're striving for?

I think the Rowdies have prepared the Zips somewhat for a true hostile crowd. The players know what we can do to opposing teams and they should be well prepared to endure the same thing at UCSB.

Are they full scholarships, or are they partial? I'm looking at the dollar amount, not the total unit number. Partial scholarships add up to whole ones. One full scholarship or two half-scholarships should add up to the same amount. Some sports are "head count" sports where everyone gets a full scholarship and partials aren't allowed, while others are "equivalent" where you get a set amount and can divide it however you want. In the end the total equivalent scholarship numbers add up to the amount I listed, no matter how it is divided among athletes. 15 full-ride scholarships is the same as 30 half-scholarships. To figure out the money, you need to find out how much the total number of scholarships, whole and partial, add up to be and then multiply that by tuition. The problem comes from in-state and out-of-state tuition rates which are vastly different. I took the average, and multiplied by the number of scholarships got $2.7 million. Football scholarships costs just over $900k. But none of that included room and board, meal plans, or book purchases.

Did someone coming out of the plasma center tell you this or do you have legit references? Title IX prevents an imbalance between male and female scholarship numbers. It's pretty easy to look up the NCAA scholarship limits for each sport. I just grabbed them, added them up, and multiplied them by an average of the in-state and out-of-state tuitions fo get the $2.7m number. But you have to remember that not all sports get full scholarships to everyone, and so there are significantly more athletes than scholarships. But in terms of scholarship money, football gets about 1/3rd. And like I said, we probably offer less scholarships than the max for each sport to maintain Title IX, so the actual numbers are probably lower. But I don't have those numbers to work with.

Assuming that every sport uses their full scholarship allotment (except football where we know we are under), the athletic department is responsible for the following: -Men's sports- Baseball: 11.7 Basketball: 13 Cross Country/Track & Field: 12.6 Football: 79 Golf: 4.5 Rifle (co-ed but classified by the NCAA as a men's sport): 3.6 Soccer: 9.9 Total: 134.3 -Women's sports- Basketball: 15 Cross Country/Track & Field: 18 Golf: 6 Soccer: 14 Softball: 12 Swimming & Diving: 14 Tennis: 12 Volleyball: 12 Total: 103 All together that's 237.3 scholarships. It's probably less, with some men's sports being under-funded because of Title IX. You end up with the scholarships costing about $2,716,002.91 per year, assuming that in-state and out-of-state athletes are split 50/50. Add in room and board, books, and stuff like that and it probably ends up somewhere between $6m and $8m. About 1/3rd of the money goes toward football scholarships.

A true fan wants what's best for his team. Right now, what's best for the team is a new coach. Ianello is already doing as well as he possibly can. He won't get better over time. This is it. It's where we're at and where we'll remain if we keep him.

Perhaps they did that because it was blindingly obvious to them what it took a 2-15 record and countless embarrassments for others to see.