ZachTheZip

I don't know. What I do know is that we're starting to see the general form of the stadium begin to take shape. The above-ground base of the eastern stands is almost fully enclosed, and the below-surface-level parts are beginning to show up.

NIU?Or Buffalo, same difference.

What were his rankings before this update? Don't tell me they actually went UP after verballing to a MAC school. I was under the assumption that going to a MAC school automatically reduced your ranking simply by virtue of going to a MAC school. :blink:

Waaaaay ahead of you there. At this rate, I won't graduate until we've taken over all of downtown Akron!

About the weeknight games: If they're going to be on TV, great! I'm all for them.If not, then that's stupid. We're playing two weeknight games at the end of the season that aren't even going to be on a local chanel like FSN Ohio, let alone an ESPN channel.I really hate that the MAC is making us play our last game at the Rubber Bowl on a thursday in November, against NIU where you can expect hardly anyone to show up. I guess it's fitting, in a way: a crappy end to a crappy stadium.

Shhhh!

The main goals of all this construction are to increase attendance and attract more businesses to invest in the University. It's a gamble, but the thinking is that this is an investment that will pay for itself in the future.

Wow. :blink:

Well, for starters, there could be something to help attract NEOUCOM, like a joint building between UA and Summa, that would serve as a new College of Nursing building, since the current one is one of the most outdated, depressing buildings on campus. This is unlikely since there are no current plans that are drawn up, but it is a huge need.We could also see the start of the gated Fraternity/Sorority community on Spicer across from where the stadium and dorms will sit. This has already seen plans drawn up, and was announced even before the stadium complex.You might also see UA take over Central Hower after the APS has finished its high school renovations, and we could tear it down and replace it with a nice, new building. This could actually tie in perfectly with a new Nursing school building.The point is, we have many options available for expanding campus right now.I would prefer to see a new arena, but I wouldn't complain if any of the above scenarios happened first.

Whatever it is, it's going to be huge. $150 million is almost 3x the size of out new FB stadium! The University can't afford it on its own. The only way we could be involved in such a project would be if it were a joint operation. A city-backed arena with a strong investment from both LeBron and Nike would be perfect, but I can also think of a few more things that it could be.

We'll see what happens when we play them at the RB. I'm willing to bet that a whole bunch of Cinci fans will fall off the bandwagon and go back to being Buckeye fans, if only for one week, should we happen to beat them. Fans are fickle.It shows that winning breeds success. If we went 10-3, I guarantee you that you would suddenly see a whole bunch more Zips fans in NE Ohio. Keep it up for a few years, and you might even see more people rooting against OSU.

Seems like a really good place to put a new arena someday ...try a block north of there...I'm thinking the Mayflower block would be the best place for an arena. It's across the street from Canal park, which would help create a sports district, like how Cleveland has the Prog and the Q next to each other. It's also across the street from the Polsky parking deck, so parking wouldn't be too much of a problem. I think this should be th next big project at UA, but we have to focus on the Info first, plus the surrounding dorms/shops.

Jillians has been closed for at least a year now. I think a good chunk of the properties on the East side of Main Street in downtown are either gone or ready for demolition. I know that the bloks that contains the Hous of Hunan will be a spicer-village type apartment complex. The city seems committed to creating residential areas downtown to help spark some growth, and the University is the perfect candidate to provide the residents, with our housing being nearly full and demand for more growing constantly.

A whole lot has changed since yesterday!The Odd Corner is gone on Cam 1. On Cam 2 they are now building the inner part of the stands. On Cam 3, you can see the sloping of the stands down into the hole.

I've been waiting for this for quite a while.

I've been lurking on the Pitt message boards for the last few days. It really does hurt, but these guys are trying to rationalize how "such a wonderful world-class athletic program with the best academics/campus in the eastern US" could possible lose a recruit to Akron. To them, Akron is a small community college in Cleveland that plays D-II ball. They'll come up with all sorts of excuses, many of them based on ill-informed conjecture. The funny thing is, reading some of those comments shows that the fans still think that Pitt has a great chance to land Zeke if they really wanted him, while at the same time completely bashing him on every perceived shortcoming they can. That's more of the rationalization process.The best advice is not to worry about it. Focus on Zeke's senior year; it should be a special time for you and your son. Verballing should help everyone relax a bit, since you guys should stop being constantly harassed by some of the recruiters.

Zeke made the top story on Scout's BB recruiting page!http://scouthoops.scout.com/

Those guys moved incredibly fast. It only took 1 month to get from a large concrete building to a smooth patch of fresh dirt.Let's get those guys to help work on the stadium site.

Have to wait until November for the LOI. Still, this is HUGE! Zeke, You're gonna love it here.

The real question is whether we have five scholarships to give. If not, we may lose some recruits or players.Also, only four MAC teams will be penalized. Akron, Buffalo (loses 2), CMU (loses 2), and Toledo (loses 6). The rest that were under the threshold got some kind of waiver.Also of note, the BCS teams that are under the limit managed to get out of it with some APR Improvement Plan crap.

Yeah. Guess what? The NCAA's APR report came out.We're getting penalized FIVE scholarships by the NCAA for not meeting academic requirements.This is bad.Heads should roll. It's not like we have had a whole bunch of players drafted as juniors so that they never graduate.http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/apr2007/5_2007_apr.pdf The penalty is on page 4.This should send up all kinds of warning flags to the athletic department. It's time to re-invest in the acedemic support system for the student athletes. What we have is apparently inadequate.This may be because of all the academically questionable recruits that JD was bringing in a few years ago, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't put more into the whole support system.

Nothing will be even unless we get another football-only school or Temple joins for all sports.

http://www.gozips.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_...;ATCLID=1457479Looks like we got two JUCOs and one from high school.

It's getting to be that time of year where there is absolutely nothing going on in the college sports world. School is out, classes are over. What's a Zips fan to do? Why, speculate this year's results based on incomplete knowlege and an overflowing sense of optimism, of course!I'm going to break down the schedule game by game and give some possible scenarios. The trouble being which QB will be starting for us.Week 1 (Saturday, Aug. 30) - @Wisconsin: Yeah, we're not going to win this one. Jacq will likely be the starting QB in this game. I'll be satisfied with a close, competitive game.Week 2 (Saturday, Sep. 6) - @Syracuse: I think we can win this one. Syracuse is a terrible football team, and we could even be favored if we have a nice showing in Madison the week before.Week 3 (Saturday, Sep. 13) - Ball State: This one is at home, but Ball State is a tough team. It's a toss-up at this point.Week 4 (Saturday, Sep. 20) - @Army: This had better be a win. Losing this one means that it could be time for us to start looking for a new coach to open the new stadium.Week 5 (Saturday, Sep. 27) - Cincinnati: This is the biggest game on the schedule, and our best chance for a near sellout. Cinci wasn't able to get their QB a 6th year of eligibility, so that works in our favor. A good crowd will get us a win. A bad crowd, and the whole sports marketing department should be fired.Week 6 (Saturday, Oct, 4) - @Can't State: This depends entirely on whether we can figure out how to stop a running QB. It was our biggest achilles' heel on defense last year, and it was caused by our stupid 3-3-5 scheme. I think we can win, though, since Ryan Bain can finally get us some pressure on their QB.Week 7 (Saturday, Oct. 11) - Bowling Green: BG is another high-powered offense that we have to handle. I say we will win this since it is at home.Week 8 (Saturday, Oct. 18) - @Eastern Michigan: EMU has improved, and are no longer the basement dweller of the MAC West. This is a likely loss.Week 9 (Saturday, Oct. 25) - Bye WeekWeek 10 (Saturday, Nov. 1) - Second Bye Week. This is stupid. I hope they don't get rusty. After starting the first eight weeks getting into a rythm of playing saturday games, the final four games are completely scrambled. We play weekday games that aren't even on TV. There is no point to scheduling this way. It offers us nothing but crappy attendance and a terrible way to close out our stay in a terrible stadium.Week 11 (Wednesday, Nov. 5) - Toledo: Toledo is a semi-rivalry game. It is on ESPN2/ESPNU, which means that attendance will be low. We can win this one, after resting for two and a half weeks, and the Rockets aren't as good as they used to be.Week 12 (Thursday, Nov. 12) - Buffalo: This is the final game at the Rubber Bowl, and the MAC gives us Buffalo on a Thursday night, on ESPNU. This is another should-win. The RB should be sold out, and if not, then the marketing team that we hired to replace the ones that will screw up the Cinci game will also have to be fired. Find a way to sell it out. Give away tickets for free, profits and NCAA attendance reporting protocols be damned.Week 13 (Saturday, Nov. 22) - @Ohio: I don't think we will win this one. Ohio should be the East favorite this year. They will be wanting revenge after we destroyed their bowl hopes last year.Week 14 (Friday, Nov. 28) - @Temple: Temple is getting tougher. I don't think they lost a single player from last year's team. We should be hungry for revenge after last year's debacle, and we should still be in the hunt for the East title, since all MAC games count the same now. I'll put this down as a win.Our record could realistically range anywhere from 4-8 (3-5) to 9-3 (6-2) this year. I think that Akron is the dark horse in the MAC East. There are too many unknowns. The media has us ranging all over the place, from first to last in the MAC. Nobody can put their finger on where we should end up. I think we will suprise some people this year. We desperately need a good, winning season so we can generate interest for our new stadium.So, what do you guys predict will happen this year?

The plasma center doesn't use the "donated" blood for medical purposes... they use it to make shampoo.