ZachTheZip

A lot of MAC fans (especially the more western ones) think NDSU is a good geographical fit. They're crazy, but I felt like it should be a choice. If not NDSU, I suppose you could consider the SIU Salukis as an alternative western team.Army was in C-USA and it was a complete disaster that may have scared them off from ever joining a conference again.Also, if you're intent on playing in a frozen stadium, keep in mind that UMass plays outdoors while NDSU has a domed and heated stadium.

Who would you want to be the MAC's 14th football school? Remember, this would be a football-only member like Temple. I'm listing the teams that have expressed interest in moving up, within the MAC footprint.There are two options: add another eastern team that we would play every year and move BGSU or Miami to the West, or add a western team that we might play once every 3 years or so.Western Kentucky is no longer an option. They're happy with the Sunbelt, deluded into thinking they're in a better conference. Army is happy as an independent.My choice for football only is Illinois State. When you look at what they're doing with their stadium in the near future it looks pretty nice. You don't have to shuffle the divisions around, and we wouldn't travel too far when we have to play a road game there, unlike UMass or NDSU.

Dumb move by Nike.On the bright side, every time another article come out, UA gets another mention.

I never put any stock into the Sporting News. They just make wild guesses for any team outside the top 25.

I thought this was interesting: The stadium is already bringing in over $1 million before the first game of the season. Add in GA tickets and concessions for every game and you're talking about a major source of revenue.

Stadium is "85% done"And holy crap, the new parking deck is costing $28 million! :blink:

That right there is the key. The problem right now is that the way we are scheduling we leave ourselves with one chance to get to the NCAA every year. It's win the MACC or hope for an NIT bid. If we boost our scheduling up to the point where we can get ourselves in the conversation for an at-large bid we don't have to leave everything up to the tournament. We've all seen how fickle the MAC tournament can be. Heck, this years team that won the tournament was on it's death bed against lowly Toledo until a miraculous series of events in the last minutes of the game. I don't think we have to schedule a murderers row of teams like Miami does, but our current scheduling doesn't impress anyone and we really are left with only one shot at the NCAA.Miami had the #1 non-conference schedule on the NCAA last season. They had the #1 SOS in the country before MAC play began. At the end of the season their SOS was ranked #108, which isn't nearly enough to impress the selection committee. The point is that it wouldn't matter if our non-conference schedule consisted of the entire Big East and ACC when playing the MAC will drop it below 100. It's impossible to schedule a tough enough group of teams to cancel out the effect of playing the MAC, as Miami showed last year. Not to mention that there wouldn't ever be any home games trying to do that. Even then you would need to have a winning record against those teams.So why not focus on preparing the team to win the MAC, while playing a few interesting teams in home-and-homes and building a reputation for being a winning team.

The dearth of BCS conference fans visiting here is at an end. I can't imagine how many confused Indiana fans will flood this place at the beginning of the season. Many of them think that the game is being played in Indiana.

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/19979034/detail.htmlDo your worst, little dude.

Confidence is contagious. The players reading this (I know you do), know that we as fans are confident in you. I know that you have the ability to beat Penn State or any team in the country if you play to the best of your abilities. Anybody on the team who thinks other wise is a loser with a loser attitude. Don't just go out there to try to win, go out there to actually win. I know you can do it, but I can't play the game for you.

That just gave me a great idea. We should play up the "What's a Zip?" thing. It can be a viral thing. Post billboards and flyers all over town with only those words on them in blue and gold. Or maybe do it nationally in random conspicous places. Offer no explanation, no link to GoZips.com, nothing. Be mysterious and let people find out for themselves. Get buzz started all over the country. Sometimes it seems like you can't start anything cool from within Ohio; it has to come in from outside the state.Maybe hold a youtube contest where people try to explain what they think a Zip is.The athletic department can take full credit for this. Take it. It's yours. Just do something, something big.

How about The House of Roo?

I think the idea is to find quirky things about the "little guys", not focus on the actual team. It's kind of insulting.

http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/50178382.htmlThey finally set a date of July 28th. Hopefully there are bulldozers at the house on the 29th. I'm sick of that eyesore being stuck in a legal no-man's land impeding construction while not doing anybody any good. Nobody is benefitting from the house standing, not Morrison Jr., not the university, not the neighborhood, nobody.

It's terrible, but that's a by-product of having to use the nmnathletics template. It's hard to do all the things you want when you're not in control of your website.I personally hate seeing schools athletic websites that follow a template like nmnathletics or CSTV.Anyway, I would hope that things will improve once the team shop opens on Exchange outside the stadium.

I agree with this. Why even mention losing?Either way, you shouldn't mention that until you can back up your words with actions.

The running game will be a big factor. Everybody was hurt during the spring, but most of it looked minor and they were held out as a precaution. Alex Allen should have a big day. He has to be ready to go wild after last year.

So which of you guys is on Rivals, Yahoo, Scout, and Youtube saying that we don't have a chance?

ESPN grades him as a 74, and one of the top prospects currently committed to a MAC school so far, which is interesting since neither Scout nor Rivals really has anything on him.

uakronkid, you seem to have the Penn Staters in a tizzy over there. Gotta love it Hehe. I've been trying to get PSU fans to actually think about Akron instead of just blowing us off as a warmup for Syracuse who they believe is a far better team.you should ask them on their board about when they overlooked Toledo and what happened I'm saving that one for a little bit closer to kickoff.I haven't been able to get permission to post on their Scout board, I don't have an established rivals account, and the Pennlive.com board is so terribly designed that it's almost unusable. So I'm sticking with the ESPN conversation.

Rivals blog takes a look at the Zips. Leave a comment. Let them know that Zips fans are out there. She seems to like Zippy but doesn't mention the mascot bowl.

UA program drawing science professionals into the teaching business

Let's look at the RPIs of the supposed headliner teams compared to Akron's RPI.Akron: 99Auburn: 64NC State: 111UCF: 164Akron should be favored to win against all the teams we're matched up against here.Looks like Auburn is the only team that legitimately can claim to be a headliner over Akron. UCF shouldn't even be mentioned. Niagara is also playing in the tourney with an RPI of 49, which is much better than any other team in the field.

uakronkid, you seem to have the Penn Staters in a tizzy over there. Gotta love it Hehe. I've been trying to get PSU fans to actually think about Akron instead of just blowing us off as a warmup for Syracuse who they believe is a far better team.

What an NC State guy thinks of us. I say Akron is the better team here. A better RPI, a better record, better coach. Akron should be favored to win, but we all know that won't be the case because all they'll see is ACC vs. MAC and make assumptions.