ZachTheZip

There are going to be two open houses in August to tour the completed stadium I don't know the dates yet, though.

In 2015 the Big East will lose their automatic BCS bid to the MWC, if things keep going like they are.In 2011, a tipping point will occur in the conference landscape. That's the year for change. I think that a new conference or two will appear.

We're not playing Michigan State. I have no idea where they got that from, but it's not happening.

Devo was never at OSU, though, right? They just pulled his offer. He could've played last year, so he wasn't subject to transfer rules. I wonder if it's somebody else?That's what I thought, too. Devo was a redshirt last year, not a transfer. He never signed an LOI with OSU.

If your plan is to put yourself in the position for an at-large bid, that is how you need to schedule. Anything less than that and it's not enough to impress the committee. If that's the type of schedule you want to play, fine. I believe that the odds are too stacked against us to make something like that feasible. It sacrifices most of the home games, and it doesn't prepare the team to win the MAC tournament (there's a much better chance to get into the tournament here than by hoping for an at-large bid) than playing as many teams that play the same style as the MAC teams as possible.The logic behind our schedule is that since an at-large bid is so difficult to get, we're better off creating a great record over a span of a few years while dominating the MAC, and then moving on from there. It's a slow process, but it's how those top mid-major teams got to where they are, and it's how Akron will get there. The fans are way too impatient.

http://www.salisburypost.com/Sports/072309...t-West-Mayfield This guy just graduated, so the transfer would sit this year but play in 2010?

J. Wood had the back-to-the-basket style down. Push towards the basket, then either go up with an in-your-face dunk or dish it out to an open shooter. That's what I want to see from either Zeke or one of the 4s. Watch some film of J. Wood and see if his play style and attitude can be emulated.

Thanks for the silver lining view, Scott!!Any updates on your team, Zips? You're hearing the Penn State news: McDonald off the team, Clark pumped up to 240 lbs/3% body fat, Sean Lee eager to hit someone besides a teammate, etc. No news is good news. Akron has a history of our top recruits not being on the team by the first game, but supposedly that's no longer a problem. Once camp starts up, we'll find out about position battles and stuff. I'm thinking that the QB spot will see a battle, despite returning a QB who started for two years already.

Who are we playing in 2010?I only know of a road game at Indiana and a home game against Syracuse. Playing a game at Kentucky is possible on opening weekend, but I know that Michigan is looking for an opponent on that date to open their newly-renovated concrete slab/stadium. I hope that we can talk them into playing there in 2010 and then at Browns Stadium in 2011 as a home game, like Toledo is doing to OSU this year. I'm willing to bet that it would sell out just because of all the people who would show up to boo the Wolverines. Please make this happen, Hunter, before it's too late.There's also another home game spot open in 2010. Maybe a 1-AA team, or something to that effect.

CSU plays in a better league. They only had 4 conference games against 200+ RPI teams last year. They also play Butler three times.Akron doesn't have a Butler to play twice or thrice a year, and we had 6 conference games against 200+ RPI teams. Therefor, to schedule on the level of CSU, we need to play three more top 25 teams to simulate playing a Butler, and then two more on top of that to cancel out playing against EMU and NIU, which are worse than any team in the Horizon League. That's 5 top-25 teams, likely all on the road, replacing our 5 worst non-conference opponents just to keep up with CSU playing in the Horizon instead of the MAC. And then on top of that, if you want to schedule your non-conference games like they do to give yourself a shot at a non-existant at-large spot, you need to schedule four MORE top-25 teams. That's 9 top-25 teams to keep up with CSU. Maybe one of them is actually at home if we're lucky. That only leaves 5 non-conference games left to play with and a road BracketBuster. And then you have to win at least half of those games and win at least 13 MAC games to get to 20 wins. And then you have to make it to the conference tournament finals because if you don't, they will tell you that you're not good enough in a tournament setting to be worthy of an at-large bid. And even then, with 22 wins your record isn't good enough for a mid-major and you had a losing record against top-25 teams so you're on the outside of the bubble looking in and you'll have to hope that Can't State's Athletic Director will make an arguement for his hated rival to get national attention and a spot in the NCAA tournament.That is what it takes to schedule like CSU will this season. And even then you're not guaranteed anything.

The number of Mid-major at-large bids this since 2004:2004: 122005: 92006: 82007: 62008: 62009: 4This pattern isn't going to end any time soon. The time of mid-major at-large bids is ending.

If your RPI and SOS is high, they'll tell you your record isn't good enough. If you win 26 games, they'll tell you you didn't play enough top opponents. That's what being a mid-major is about. Your entire conference is a slate of cupcakes, which kills your SOS like it did to Miami, and you don't have enough non-conference games to schedule lots of top teams without sacrificing home games and wins.All Akron can do is win the MAC. Only a fool believes that any team playing in such a crappy league as the MAC can get an at-large bid.

They just launched an Infocision Stadium twitter feed to track the progress of the stadium being built.http://twitter.com/newstadiumAbout 8 months too late, if you ask me.

http://abalive.com/headlines/index.html?article_id=248The American Basketball Association team needs a home. Perhaps this is the catalyst to building a new arena? Whether UA builds their own arena or not, the city will have an arena downtown.

They're just not good at identifying potential opportunities. What seems obvious to us when we point out all these opportunities to do things, to them just isn't seen or is seen as not worth the effort. I'm not sure whether it's worse to be so bad that you can't see the massive potential we're sitting on at UA, or whether you're too lazy to take advantage of it.Maybe they're just so completely understaffed and underfunded that they really can't do the things we're suggesting, in which case it's a failure of the Athletic Director. I think this is the most likely scenario. they know that they can't do these things, so they focused on one thing to be good at while not focusing on other aspects of what they're needed to do. They focused on marketing to companies while leaving the fans out of it. It should have been the other way around if you had to choose.

Looks like they will miss out on 5 catches this yearyeah, but weren't Penn State fans saying that they were returning WRs with experience that weren't starters? I can only assume that this guy was one of the ones being referred to.

They should be advertising single-game tix much more than season tix. Sure, you sell more tickets for the game against EMU and Dumple, which probably won't be sellouts, but you get more fans long-term by getting more fans to come to the game for the first time and getting them hooked. This is the year to get them hooked, and then you can focus on selling season tix next year after they have already decided to come to a few games next season.

The marketing department needs to make a BIG HUGE DEAL out of the August 17th date. You play this date up and get it into people's minds NOW. You see other, more successful marketing campaigns doing this such as the professional teams in Cleveland.Don't drop the ball, start running radio and TV spots for this. Do some ticket giveaways for radio prizes and have them mention that you're getting the tickets before they go on sale August 17th, like they do with concerts. They mention the date because it's a form of advertising.There's only one grand opening for the stadium, only one chance to get things right. Don't hold back and plan for the long-term at the expense of not getting things right in the present. Doing things the right way now creates precedent to keep doing things right in the future.

Absurd. Absolutely absurd.I can go and buy single game tickets for almost every other school in the country right now.

Senior Penn State WR James McDonald charged with DUI

Nah. They're just excavating scoreboard after leaving it in the mud overnight after it rained.

http://mac-sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPS...;ATCLID=3761375http://mac-sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPS...TCLID=204762838

So does this mean we're trying to attract an AD from the Carolinas? Somebody call GP1

Get some hints, but don't name any names unless you find something very interesting like a terrible candidate that we need to rip on.

I think we'll know a lot more sometime next month. After observing the Rutgers and Houston hiring proccesses, they won't list any names until they have a group of about 6 finalists, and then it will be pared down from there.