ZachTheZip

It's pretty interesting to see who's keeping tabs on our coaches. ESPN's Chris Hansen is following Coach Kest, along with a few other MAC WBB coaches.Anyway, not that I've gone looking a bit further I've discovered that UA is pretty well represented on the service with Zippy, The Admissions office, The Parking office, and The ASG. The parking one is really useful.There used to be one for Football and Men's Basketball but it looks like the site admins nuked the accounts for whatever reason. I hope they can get those back up soon.

Not sure how many people use Twitter here, but there are at least three Zips coaches that I know of who are using it.Jodi KestJulie JonesJ.J. ThornberryI hope more Zips coaches start doing this. It provides a way to interact with the coaches while keeping updated on their teams.

Cool. That's a lot closer to where I live than where the Winking Lizard was. Wonder why it was changed to Monday. Perhaps because of the radio station's format change?

The first major event should be a game. Why not have a small-scale test run the week before with season ticket holders and students only? These people who are already planning on going to the games and who probably have already been in the stadium, so it's not really like it would spoil the moment.

Last season we had so many injuries to the DL it was insane. I think it will be a real strength this season.

This is probably a stupid question, but I'll ask it anyway. When did the Wayne Branch get a hoops team?BTW, NAIA D-1 Malone is generally more on-par with an NCAA D-2 school, than an NCAA D-3 school (as I assume UA-Wayne would be, if indeed they have a program).http://www.wayne.uakron.edu/ss_athletics.htmThey have volleyball, men's and women's basketball, and golf.Since Malone is NAIA the game doesn't count for either team's record or RPI. If we're going to play a game that doesn't count for anything, Wayne makes too much sense.

I like that idea. I do think it is a bit too late do do for this season, but I think they could do it next year.

2 months until we face Penn State and start the most important season in Akron sports history.http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/conversation?gameId=292480213

I think we'll see the lights go up pretty soon. Can anybody get some pics of the brickwork going up behind the east stands?

I don't get why we have to play Malone. Why not play UA-Wayne if we're going to play a lower-division team? All the money stays within the university, then. Plus it gives a chance for the Wayne Campus people to come to the main school.

So we're recruiting "above the MAC" now. Which teams are we competing directly against, then? Look at most of the offers Akron has given and a large majority are MAC recruits. The kids who are going to BCS schools have already verballed to those schools. We're not recruiting any better than any other MAC school. This is the problem.

Ask 100 smoking-hot girls to be your prom date. Prom is 7 months away. How many give you an immediate "yes?" Now wait a few months...after said smoking-hot girls have not received any concrete offers from guys who've been keeping them on the hook. All of the sudden you start looking a lot better. A few more "yes" responses start to roll in.Ask 100 "middle-of-the-road" girls to the prom. Prom is 7 months away. How many give you an immediate "yes?" Maybe half?Ask 100 homely, butt-ugly girls top the prom. Prom is 7 months away. How many give Doug Martin an immediate "yes?" Get the picture?Your analogy works if you assume that you're an average guy. Akron should no longer be in that position. Akron should be the guy that those smoking-hot girls are waiting on. I know why that's not the case, since Akron lacks two things: winning and being a part of the "popular kids clique" in the form of the BCS. But that doesn't mean that Akron shouldn't be above average when everything else is at the top of the MAC and the facilities are better than half the BCS.

Akron being more selective with offers shouldn't have much to do with the amount of verbals coming in. Akron has tons of offers out there but a low number of verbals to show for it. With the facilities and coaching staff, shouldn't we see less kids "holding out" for better offers and then verballing to Akron as a back-up option?

I'm all for expanding the campus footprint but only in areas where it is feasable to make the expansion LOOK LIKE part of the campus, such as the new stadium. There is plenty of expansion possibilities across Jackson Field south of exchange where the university now owns parts of the area and plans on owning more of it. Expanding into the downtown area can not transform downtown into a campus. There is too much traffic (the nature of all downtowns) and cannot be made to look or be pedestrain friendlyThere's really only one place in the core of downtown where an arena could be built, and that's across from Canal Park.There are really only two options to expand campus while keeping it from feeling fragmented: north and south. South of Exchange was supposed to be transformed by the University Park Alliance into a sort-of miniature college town in the heart of the city. That never really happened. In the future it might be a better option but right now it's pretty dangerous and that might turn away some people. North of campus up to Market Street is a mess of failed or failing businesses and assorted historical buildings. Nothing ties it together. It's like a no-man's land. You cold easily assimilate it block by block and double the size of the campus without fragmenting the boundaries of the university. I don't know the what logisitcs of either option would be, but I do agree that putting an arena out there in downtown wouldn't be as prefferable as keeping it more on-campus.

Pretty much the whole campus is downtown. Therefore any arena built on campus will also be downtown. Problem solved.

Looking at the national recruiting lists, the average school has 6 verbals at this point. BCS schools are averaging 8 verbals. It seems to me like Akron is already fighting for scraps. We need to be ahead of the curve, not lagging so much behind it. With the stadium almost finished isn't it concerning that we only have three recruits?

The home game against Austin Peay is part of this tournament.

I like the big AKRON idea. We had the giant letters in the side of a hill outside the Rubber Bowl visible on Triplet road, and it's something I would like to keep.

Maybe a giant banner like the one on the field house should go on that brick. Or maybe a home schedule.

When we promote something like UA athletics by word-of-mouth, we're trying to relate an experience that the person we're talking to hasn't had. It's much more difficult to convince them if we don't have something tangible to point to to show that others also follow the teams and that it really is a big thing. That's what marketing is for. I come off looking like some looney who's the only one in the world that cares about UA because I can't point an "outsider" to anything to back up my words. I can't show them a commercial with Zips highlights, I can't tell them to watch the news for team coverage. People are lazy, and if the proof won't come to them they won't believe it because they don't want to have to get up and go to a game or search for a website like this because that takes actual effort for something that they might not end up liking. It has to come to them, and that's where marketing comes in, and where they have failed. Passive marketing is inneffective in the face of apathy. It has to be "in your face". Once they see it, then they can decide whether or not they want the product. How can anyonce be expected to decide whether or not they want something that they haven't seen?If I am trying to get someone to come along with me to a game, it's easier if they have seen it on TV because it allows them to get partially excited before having to spend money to make an effort. Word-of-mouth becomes much easier when you have an effective advertising campaign backing you up.

Here's an idea: give away 5 season ticket packages of 4 tix each to 5 random GA fans in attendance. Every contest has to have a season ticket as part of the prize. You're essentially improving attendance for future games by doing that.

2008 non-conference opponent's overall record (Gonzaga and Valparaiso not included since they weren't scheduled): 205-192, average RPI rank 171.72009 non-conference opponent's overall record: 193-205, average RPI rank 174.7On paper, it's a very slight step down but it gives us an opportunity to beat some name teams, which wasn't present last year. I like this schedule. It's pretty average in terms of RPI and record. The real trick to getting an at-large bid is to play in a good conference. Unless the MAC steps up we could run the non-conference table and still be on the bubble.

So 9 out of 14 OOC games are home games? Plus a Bracketbuster which I am guessing is on the road.

Rasor's post today laid out the marketing plan specifically for students. It's the exact same thing they've been doing the past few years. Passive marketing like easily-overlooked banners in the student union and a few signs placed on the sidewalks around campus. What I want to see is the university playing up the fact that the students get in FOR FREE. I'm certain that at least 15,000 students at UA have no idea that this is the case. Play up the FREE aspect until it gets beat into their heads.

UIC makes 14 games, which is it. There's your Zips schedule. Now, are we doing a 2-for-1 with A&M? Who's home and who's a road game?