ZachTheZip

Our leads down to 35 votes. I just put in 50 more for Zippy, but it won't hold for long. I'm attempting to get at least 200 votes in today, but I really can't do it alone.

Welcome uadrum823.You're right... to a point.Neither "home" game we have played so far has been a good representation of what our attendance will be. The Cleveland game was empty because it was a home game 40 miles away from our actual home, and there were too many excuses not to show up. If this was promoted the same way, but at the Rubber Bowl, we would have had better attendance.The Wagon wheel game will always get far more people to show up to a game than normal because both school's fan bases are in the area we get a lot of fans from the other team, plus it is a rivalry game. But it still counts towards our average attendance.So far, our average attendance is 19866 per game, and we only have 3 home games remaining. Remember last year, our announced attendance was always above 15,000 regardless of the number of people actually in attendance. We'll be fine.Also, the reason people don't go to games isn't because they don't care; (Akron's fan base is a sleeping giant, we've seen glimpses of it at the end of 2005) it's because nobody else goes. Do you know why some mediocre teams have sustained high attendance? It's because people go to the games, which makes it seem like the place to be, so more people go and it sustains itself. The only way to get more people in the stands is to have more people in the stands to begin with. Make it a large social event where people want to be, just to say "Yeah, I was there" and sound cool. It's a difficult process to get started, but once it starts, it is much easier to keep up. We're starting it now with the AK-Rowdies and AK-Oldies, getting people to be part of a group where they belong, with their friends, and we're doing it at a much faster rate than any other team in the MAC.

What time is the game? I want to bring some friends/students that have never gone to a UA sporting event before. What better way to get them started than by kicking OSU's ass?

Here's the thing, though: OSU is bigger in Akron because the media makes it bigger. Then they use that as an excuse to continue covering OSU more, pointing out how many people watch OSU on TV or read about it in the newspapers. It's their cycle, but they won't acknowledge it.

They didn't, and you know damn well that you wouldn't either if you didn't have to honor the contract to broadcast it. How many OSU games have you covered? All of them, right? You didn't even bother to mention Akron except for when the played OSU and this game. You couldn't even mention the scores for the other games for Akron and Can't? That would take up about 10 precious seconds in your sports segment. That's only because you happened to have footage from the game since you broadcast it earlier. You wouldnt even have mentioned it if you weren't there. Plus, your precious Buckeyes didn't make a very interesting story, and the Indians lost. What the hell is that supposed to mean? I get all my important "news" from the internet. Instant reporting and commentary. I see all sorts of "news" hours or even weeks before you ever know of its existance.

Eugene Jarvis sure is a whiny loser.Click to read about him accusing Zips players. (WARNING: this link goes to a Can't State web page. )

We get paid $325,000 to play UConn. That's almost as much as we got for OSU. We only received $150,000 to play Indiana, but we get a home game in return for that one.

DK might be moved to WR. We need a pair of sure hands out there besides Arthur.

I forgot, Here's our OOC opponents Sagarins as well. The better they do, the better we look. 123 Army A = 57.80 1 3 68.07( 71) 0 1 | 0 1 | 53.96 136 | 61.06 105 4 Ohio State A = 93.17 4 0 66.76( 80) 0 0 | 0 0 | 92.01 4 | 93.85 572 Indiana A = 68.81 3 1 54.74( 158) 0 0 | 0 0 | 68.16 72 | 68.88 7031 Connecticut A = 79.26 4 0 58.24( 137) 0 0 | 0 0 | 79.48 29 | 78.45 34Connecticut's ranking suprises me. It seems that the Sagarins favor overall record very heavily this year.Here's all the 1-A conferences: 1 PAC-10 (A) = 80.66 80.83 ( 2) 10 2 SOUTHEASTERN (A) = 80.57 81.07 ( 1) 12 3 BIG EAST (A) = 78.18 77.28 ( 4) 8 4 BIG 12 (A) = 77.27 77.59 ( 3) 12 5 ATLANTIC COAST (A) = 75.81 75.52 ( 6) 12 6 BIG TEN (A) = 75.69 75.99 ( 5) 11 7 MOUNTAIN WEST (A) = 71.20 71.28 ( 7) 9 8 WESTERN ATHLETIC (A) = 62.80 63.96 ( 8) 9 9 I-A INDEPENDENTS (A) = 62.73 62.68 ( 9) 4 10 CONFERENCE USA (A) = 62.33 62.30 ( 10) 12 11 MID-AMERICAN (A) = 61.43 61.12 ( 11) 13 15 SUN BELT (A) = 56.42 56.95 ( 12) 8Big Ten's having a really bad year, and the MAC really needs to step it up. Stop playing so many games against the Big 10 and start playing C-USA teams. I have no doubt that the MAC would beat them head to head, but they always look better on paper because there is not enough matchups for a direct comparison. We should schedule teams just above where we are, and then move up slightly every year and start slowly climbing the ladder.

Here's the MAC Sagarin ratings, for comparison.Mid American: #11 11 MID-AMERICAN (A) = 61.43 61.12 ( 11) TEAMS= 13College Football 2007 through games of September 22 Saturday the BCS uses the ELO_CHESS from hereHOME ADVANTAGE= 2.93 RATING W L SCHEDL(RANK) VS top 10 | VS top 30 | ELO_CHESS | PREDICTOR 69 Bowling Green A = 69.94 2 1 66.04( 84) 0 0 | 0 0 | 71.30 62 | 68.06 74 73 Ball State A = 68.12 2 2 68.52( 65) 0 0 | 0 1 | 64.69 93 | 71.31 64 83 Akron A = 66.09 2 2 71.10( 42) 0 1 | 0 1 | 65.57 87 | 66.03 81 97 Can't State A = 63.17 2 2 65.86( 85) 0 0 | 0 1 | 63.08 99 | 62.67 96 98 Northern Illinois A = 62.81 1 3 63.10( 107) 0 0 | 0 0 | 58.84 121 | 66.43 79 100 Ohio University A = 62.52 2 2 61.92( 114) 0 0 | 0 1 | 61.14 113 | 63.32 93 102 Miami-Ohio A = 62.25 1 3 74.42( 19) 0 0 | 0 1 | 65.94 83 | 58.17 120 113 Central Michigan A = 60.82 1 3 72.20( 32) 0 0 | 0 2 | 66.14 81 | 55.20 138 115 Toledo A = 60.69 1 3 71.92( 34) 0 0 | 0 2 | 64.74 92 | 56.22 126 122 Western Michigan A = 58.49 1 3 68.45( 67) 0 1 | 0 2 | 56.67 128 | 59.72 112 135 Eastern Michigan A = 55.59 2 2 58.54( 134) 0 0 | 0 0 | 57.43 125 | 53.15 144 139 Buffalo A = 54.88 1 3 69.00( 57) 0 0 | 0 1 | 51.29 152 | 57.81 122 161 Temple A = 49.15 0 4 67.83( 72) 0 0 | 0 0 | 42.45 189 | 54.42 140

I really think the new stadium would allow us to join the Big East. It's the main thing holding us back in terms of recruiting, attendance, and campus spirit.

Zippy is up by over 500 votes. Keep voting, guys. We should break 80,000 overall by tomorrow.Remember to vote for Zippy, Seymour, Joe Bruin, Cavman, Cosmo, and Hairy Dawg this week.

That definetly helped, but an interesting side effect of our all-out media campaign is that both Brutus and the Golden flush are in the top 5 write-ins. That tells me that more people are voting in NE Ohio than anywhere else in the country. I think the surge had multiple factors including the mention on channel 3 and the BJ article on the front page of the local section. Plus our dedicated voting base from this website.This is one of the few oppurtunities that we will ever have where the fans control the outcome. Winning this shows the country, the locals, and the local media that we really do care about the Zips and Zippy. Akron's fan base is a potential sleeping giant. Just look at other teams in NE Ohio, when they are average, they get average attendance, but then when they are good, their attendance breaks all kinds of records (Jacobs field's string of sellouts, The Cavs fanbase more than doubling overnight when they made it to the finals, ect.) that just doesn't happen in other cities.

Alright. Here's who we need to vote for this week so that Zippy becomes the only undefeated mascot.ZIPPY vs. OttoSEYMOUR vs. Big RedJOE BRUIN vs. CockyCAVMAN vs. HokieBirdCOSMO vs. Goldy GopherHAIRY DAWG vs. MonteThose choices should give us the best chance to win. Goldy and Big Red are the only other undefeateds at this point. What ever you do, vote against them.

Absolutely. Whenever they aren't playing each other. It makes the rivalry that much better. It's good for the conference, which happens to include both you and your rival. I root for MAC teams to win every game we don't play them in. I also root for our non-conference opponents to win when we aren't playing them, too. Everything is connected. If Army wins the rest of their games, it makes us look better, and the same goes with Can't State. When it comes down to one our conference teams playing somebody who happens to be on our schedule as an OOC game, I root for the MAC team. Winning cures all ailments, and the MAC has a whole hell of a lot of ailments which reflects badly on us since we are associated with them.

Just put in another 20 votes. Zippy is now behind by 150+ votes. Come on guys, let's do this.

Here is another way the station may have looking at it. It's actually more reasonable than what you presented.The Big Ten sucks and a game between OSU and NW is a pointless excercise. Since there are so many idiots stupid enough to center their Saturday afternoon around watching this stupidity, they had better get the first five minutes on before the blowout takes place and everyone turns their TV off.There is absolutely no excuse for the station turning off what was a great game for a meaningless game. While I like your enthusiasm, I hate to say that YOU are the one that is off. If you polled the state of Ohio, 90% of the population would say "Turn off the meaningless Akron-Can't game that nobody cares about so we can watch the pre-game for OSU's Big Ten opener."Seriously, Akron was 1-2 and Can't was 2-2. How can you possibly come up with the notion that game was more meaningful than a team ranked in the top 8 in the country opening conference play? While I whole heartedly agree that the Northwestern game would render to be worthless, most Buckeye fans really don't care. When OSU is undefeated and ranked in the top 10 their games will ALWAYS be the priority on television no matter who they play.Put the shoe on the other foot. Say Akron was ranked #8 in the country and opening conference play with Buffalo. OSU was 1-2 and playing Illinois. Would you be upset if they kept the OSU game on instead of switching to the Akron game?Saying all this.....I think it was absolutely rotten what channel 5 did. If you decide to put a game on television you show it until completion and I don't care who comes on after the fact. If it is that big of a deal, run the entire OSU game on tape delay so nobody misses EITHER game. Maybe somebody misses a late evening re-run, but Akron and OSU fans would BOTH be happy.I am not defending Akron or OSU on this. Honestly, I 100% blame channel 5. However, to say that people are idiots to plan their day around a Buckeye game because you consider it meaningless is rather elitist of you. Who are you to say who the public should want to watch? Obviously, you are upset that 90% of the state chooses to believe the Buckeyes are their priority and not the Zips. Akron couldn't even get a sell out on an 80 degree day against their rival that is 20 minutes away with a small stadium that had 6 sections tarped off. Yet YOU think they should be the priority in the publics eyes. lolI think the public speaks volumes about which team is the priority. Just look at ticket sales, merchandise sales, etc...Before you start ripping on me I want you to know. I was AT the Rubber Bowl watching the Zips. I chose my #1 priority. I just dvr'ed the Buckeyes game to watch later. I blame Chanel 5 for this disaster, unless it was a decision made higher up somewhere, but seeing how the game was shown in its entirety on the COLUMBUS station that was carrying it, I doubt that is the case.Here's my beef: This is a Cleveland station, and Akron and Can't State have fanbases contained almost entirely within it's broadcast range. People in Columbus don't get this channel. The most exciting time in the game that concerned many thousands of people totally contained in thier viewing area was cut off to show a bunch of idiot talking heads talk about a game that wasn't even being played at the time. In fact, our game ended before the OSU game ever kicked off.People wonder why UA is viewed as "second-fiddle", it's because of decisions like this made by the media, not just chanel 5 but also the ABJ, all the other TV news stations, and the radio news/sports guys to completely ignore us. Clevelanders root for OSU because that is what is on TV. They look down upon Akron because TV stations pre-empt our games to talk about an OSU game that isn't even being played yet, so they get the ideas that they have about us.Sorry guys, but there is a lot of frustration I am harboring over the idiot media. The only thing we can do to change it is to STAND UP and be counted. STAND UP for our school, and for it's fans. They can't do it themselves either because they are too apathetic to care, or because they have been subjected to this sh*t for so long that they just shrug their shoulders and accept it.

Zippy's down by 104 votes! We need a last-second surge to win. I just put in my 30 votes, and I'll be going back for more later. Everyone needs to get this done.

Honestly, I couldn't care less about overall attendance numbers. UA could sell a block of 15,000 season tickets to a company on the west coast knowing that nobody would show up, but signaficantly boost our numbers and revenue.There are only two numbers I care about: How many students were actually there, and how many alumni were actually there?Those two groups comprise the majority of most school's fan bases, with a few exceptions generated from sustained success or being adopted by the community.The Student attendance is growing yearly at a tremendous rate. They comprised about 15% or more of the total butts in (or standing on) seats. That's a pretty good ratio for most schools. Another 60% should be alumni, and that is usually the case, but the numbers were always skewed by low student numbers causing a higher ratio of alumni-to-students than what it should have been. The rest should be visiting fans or community support. We should forget about community support for the next two years until the stadium is completed and it becomes a symbol to rally the city around. Visiting fans are completely beyond our influence. That just leaves alumni and students, where the AK-Rowdies and AK-Oldies are just starting to organize the key components of our fanbase into something that should have happened long ago, and been started by the university, not as a product of the fans trying to fill the void.It's up to us. Get people involved in their university. The students are, for the most part, apathetic. The Alumni are disconnected from their roots. We have to bring them back. Yesterday's game was a good showing, but it should be just the beginning.

Yesterday saw the biggest home attendance for UA since the Marshall game. That's not bad at all if you ask me.

Heh. I saw that whole debacle. The seating chart clearly shows the 4 southeast sections are designated at student seating. I understand if they were late to the game and those are the only seats available, but those people staked out those seats very early. I made sure none of the GA people decided to sit in the front row of the section I was seating in. Thank God the ushers and cops agreed with us on where people should sit.

I just want to say how proud I am to see the student cheering section at today's game.Very, very impressive.The whole atmosphere was outstanding....from tailgate city to the cheering section in the Bowl.Outstanding!!The thunder sticks were "thundering."A good day to be a Zip! I mentioned it in another thread already, but it was embarrassing listening to the Fuck Can't State chants all game long. We've complained and complained about that coming from Can't for years. There is no reason that we should have been doing that. I was impressed with the quantity of the student section today, but the quality was severly lacking. I know it's a rivalry game, but come on now. I was sitting on the press box side and, fortunately, couldn't hear any of that.You are correct. There's no place for that in the Rubber Bowl. Many of the students that started those stupid chants were not AK-Rowdies. They were the same students that wanted to storm the field, and the same ones who printed up the "golden f.lashers" signs (If you saw those, I'm so, so, very sorry), and the ones who were stealing the "Roo Zoo" signs from the railings, and the ones who were intentionally destroying the bleachers for amusement. The Wagon Wheel games bring out the best in some, and the worst in others, and that goes for both schools.

I put my votes in. Zippy is still down 30371 - 30296.We need to beat Hokiebird badly.

Heard on the radio that they don't expect him to play again for the rest of the season, if ever.

I joined that group a month ago. The only way to get it moved is to boycott and protest it. The boycotting is easy, but the protesting is not something people are willing to do, because they are too afraid to march around the place with signs and such with all the druggies around.