ZachTheZip

That's something I've been wondering about. Rutgers is leading the charge for splitting the Big East. Perhaps it's all some type of master plan.

Devoe has incredible potential. I believe that if he didn't get into that trouble in high school, he would be OSU's starting RB now that Wells has left.Alex Allen will be our featured back, should he stay healthy. Then there's Dale Martin, the transfer from Louisville. I have no worries about our running game dropping off.

this is what I find most upsetting. It makes me feel like a fool to have believed him. Then again, why would I do otherwise. I don't know, I still need to process this situation...Mack is using Akron to get to his dream job. I don't want people who view us like that, because that means they view us as being "too small" or "not enough" and "not worth sticking around" and it will eventually be reflected in their work. I want a person who sees Akron for what it is and what it is capable of being, and wants to be the one to guide us through that transformation. We need an AD and coaches who share Proenza's vision.

I happen to agree with Waddell, but only partly. Mack came here in 2005-2006, which we can say the best year overall in Zips sports history. Football won the MAC, Basketball went to the NIT and won a post-season game for the first time in twenty years, and soccer was #1 for most of the season before getting screwed in the NCAA seeding (our first indication of what was to come), which prompted our coach to bolt. What happened since then? 2006-2007 saw the football team take a step back, which is understandable since the MAC is incredibly unpredictable in football. Basketball had its most painful moment in history, and we all sat watching helplessly. No fault of our own there. Soccer would be hard-pressed to repeat the previous season, but they weren't exactly bad.2007-2008 is where things should have picked back up. Instead, football goes 4-8, basketball doesn't win the MAC but does beat FSU in the NIT, and soccer wins the MAC as usual, but gets home-field stripped thanks to some idiot calling the NCAA a full week before the game was to be played saying our field was muddy.We're just now picking up where 2005 left off. Fan growth stagnated, and the magic wore off. If there would ever be a time to regain that magic, it would be next year. New football stadium, Zeke + JAR renovations, #1 soccer recruiting class. Waddell would be stepping into an ideal situation, and it's too bad he can't see that.

Spring practice starts next week. I'm excited to see how the offense turns out in the spring game on April 4th. The potential at running back, and the improvement of the passing game should be great to watch.Here's hoping the defense sorts itself out, since JD can be freed up to focus on it more.

I would like to see Mack at least stick around to see his work come to fruition.

It's a process. Recruits want to play for winners. If we win the MAC more often than not, that means that we're winners. We get better recruits, compete better outside of the MAC while continuing to win in the MAC, and it snowballs. In basketball, you can see that beginning to happen. All it took was something to get it started. That something was LeBron James. He brought Keith Dambrot up to the point where we hired him, and he was surrounded by great talent like Dru Joyce and Romeo Travis where his idea of giving back to their hometown was planted. They came here to transform Akron basketball into something great and that's what I can feel happening, even if it is happening a bit slower than expected.

Akron desperately needs to win. They need to win the MAC in basketball, and they need to win against "name" programs in football. And a national championship in soccer. These are what you could say are the "next step" for our programs. Akron basketball has been consistently in the "good" category in the MAC, and the next step is to consistently win it, and then we can focus on improving outside the MAC. In football the opposite is true. We won the MAC four years ago and we saw what that can get us, but there is so little consistency in that sport that we're better off trying to get that one elusive marquee win that gets us national press and opens up eyes locally. Then we can parlay that into winning the MAC.In soccer, we destroy the MAC every year and win against the best teams in the country. Almost every non-conference win comes against a "marquee" opponent. We're like the Memphis of soccer. There is only one step left to take, and that's a NCAA title.

As for what I want toe new commisioner to do, here's a quick list off the top of my head.1. Grow some balls and tell Temple to join for all sports or get the hell out. If they join, immediately start looking for a 14th team to balance out the nightmare of a schedule you've just created. If there is no 14th team to be found, lobby the MAC presidents (they have all the real power, remember) to dump one of the small-minded schools who wants to regress in football (I'm looking at you, EMU).2. Dump ESPN. 8 more years of weeknight games for the additional "benefit" of being seen by 500 people on ESPN360. Join up with CBS like the MWC.3. Stop "helping" teams schedule for football. We were forced to drop Kentucky thanks to the MAC office and had to keep Wisconsin, and I'll never forgive them. If you want to do something constructive, strike up a deal with one of the other conferences like C-USA for a "challenge" where teams get a home-and-home with a somewhat equal team.4. Enforce a rule that MAC teams must have at least 6 non-conference home games in basketball, and that they must join a pre-season tournament. The MAC has an incredible home-court advantage, and some of the west teams could really benefit from playing weaker teams at home instead of getting beat on all season before conference play. Their improved record would help the East in the RPI instead of being so much of a SOS anchor.5. Stop adding crappy teams in Soccer. FAU? Hartwick? Please. We all know that Akron has all the power there, and as soon as we leave (please, Mack, get us out of there) you'll drop the sport all together.

The MAC stinks. What can be done about it? Absolutely nothing. The MAC is controlled by the university presidents who, besides Proenza and one or two others, are content to be where they are at. Some even want to drop to 1-AA or ignore sports all together. You can't do anything to change that.The only thing Akron can do is focus on improving its own athletics both in the actual quality and in the public perception. One leads to the other.As for GP1's original list:1. What does this tell us? That the NCAA likes money? Well, duh. The best way to gain the favor of the NCAA is to have money. The best way to have money is to have a large and active alumni base. The best way to have that is to create pride among the students that sticks with them after they graduate. It's an ongoing issue, but I feel that it has improved since I started going here.2. See #1. We can't worry about how crappy the other MAC schools are. The only thing we can do is try to nurture a relationship with the few other MAC schools who are striving to become something more, and leave the rest in the dust. In fact, when you look at other conferences that are consideres "successful", you'll see that they have a well-defined hierarchy of talent. Look at the A-10 for example: Xavier, one or two others, and then the rest are purely mid-major type schools. The Big Ten has OSU, Penn State, and then crap in football. That's how the MAC needs to be. Our parity works against us because we have no "face of the conference" schools.3. This is a problem that we will see until we can afford to keep the talent. Or unless we find somebody with vision who wants to transform UA into a place where people want to end up, not use as a stepping stone. We are incredibly lucky to have a guy like KD in charge of men's basketball. Same goes for Proenza as our president. He's worlking maniacally to transform UA into what he envisions as his dream job. We need coaches that want to turn their job into what they want it to be, not use it to find somewhere else.4. This is only true for football. Basketball doesn't have anything to do with the weather. Soccer, despite being outdoors, is consistently getting the most talented players in the country, not to mention the guys from overseas.5. The older population is shifting southward. I'm guessing around 90% of the "growth" comes from retirement-age people. How does that affect college-age recruits? Their grandma lives in Florida next door to a half-million other grandmas, so they would rather go to FIU? It doesn't affect us nearly as much as you would think.

Plain Dealer article on Mack being named a finalist.There's really nothing we can do but wait and see. I trust Dr. Proenza to make a good hire if it comes to that.I found it interesting that they mentioned "plans for basketball arena improvements to begin in the spring" in his accomplishments along with the football stadium and fieldhouse/Rec.

Going over their message boards, not a single one of them wants Mack. It was the same way with Cinci but look how that turned out.

They only thing they can take from this game is that the only way to win in the MAC is to shoot (and hit) more free throws. Over 60 fouls called. I think that Crawford guy was one of the officials. At least he looked like him.

This game is unwatchable. Fouls being called at a rate of more than 1 per minute.

Humpty makes a stupid foul at the half to let Valpo get back within 5.Valpo with 20 FT attempts in the 1st half, compared to Akron's 10. Valpo with 9 fouls to Akron's 9. I hate MAC refs. They're the #1 reason I hate this conference, followed closely by the people in charge in Cleveland (or the MAC presidents who want to drop to 1-AA, whoever has more control).

Is the camera guy drunk?

Our defense is terrible. They're shooting 64%, and are 4-5 on 3s.

Nice to see Conyers get a dunk.

Still got nothing, but ESPN gametracker has us already playing, up 6-4

McManamon on how Harris ended up at AkronSome good quotes in there. I can't wait to see what he can do. It looks like he will be working with Jacq on reducing those game-killing turnovers.

This should end up being the last true "road" game of the season. There will be a substantial Zips fan presence at every game remaining on the schedule.

i'd say talk to the athletic department and see if they can't do something to gauge interest conference wide. if it's a popular idea, then take it to the commissioner's office and see if they can't do something about it.We don't have a commissioner. He quit after screwing up too much.We used to have our home games available on our athletic website last year, but now they only have audio.

I have heard significant chatter from IU fans about the Hoosers trying to get us to play the game at their place this year.There's absolutely no way we can let that happen. We already had Kentucky back out thanks to the screwups in charge of the MAC.

Those stats are a little misleading because Valpo has a much higher strength of schedule than the Zips. This is likely to be a close game unless one team catches fire or the refs really stink.Since the game is at Valpo, dont we get our MAC refs....... (I thought that's the way the Bracketbuster handled assigning referees for these games. It's supposed to be an equalizer to home court advantage!!! )More like the kiss of death. I've never seen another league officiated like the MAC. It's odd, because refs are regionalized. These same refs don't pull that crap when they're doing Horizon league games or the Big Ten games. It's a huge disadvantage, because we have to force our teams to play according to the style that the refs dictate, where when you breath on certain players (never the "star" players, either. It's always some guy who averages 4ppg) you will be called for an offensive foul while others can get punched below the belt and then get called for fouling the puncher.Then, when we go out and play a team who doesn't have to worry about that bullcrap, teams who simply play the games and the refs go along with the flow of the game instead of creating their own, it appears that the refs favor them because we're so used to wildly inconsistant no-calls and touch-fouls.

This is a game that we should use to build a bit more depth going into the last stretch of tough games and the tournament.They had better take this game seriously, though. Not because because of who we're playing, but because of who we play after them. This team needs to have confidence going to Buffalo.