ZachTheZip

Drive on Route 8 south just past campus. Be sure to do it at night for the full effect. It's on the right.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/17557028.htmIt appears that this is what is what those empty lots that keep appearing along Brown street near the fields will become. I was sort of hoping for tailgate lots for the stadium, but anything is better than the ghetto that was there. This is just phase 1 of the plan, though. The University Alliance, which includes UA, Summa, the City, and a few other big name investors, plan to replace an entire 40 block area across exchange street and build condos, dorms, shops, and stuff like that. It would be about the same size as UA's current campus when complete. This is a massive project. Much bigger than the stadium in scope and scale. It would be the final piece of the plan to shed the commuter-school image.

Given the state of our DL, Lemon will definetly see lots of playing time this year. He may even start if he polishes his technique a bit.

Check this out: Rankings by Conference Division1. SEC East 73.45 2. PAC-10 73.29 3. Big 12 South 73.09 4. Big East 71.24 5. ACC Atlantic 70.69 6. SEC West 70.44 7. Big 10 69.06 8. ACC Coastal 66.17 9. Mountain West 64.30 10. Big 12 North 64.13 11. MAC West 63.04 12. CUSA West 61.85 13. WAC 61.51 14. Independents 61.34 15. CUSA East 59.38 16. Sun Belt 57.96 17. MAC East 55.83Not looking too good, but we should win the East this year. With our schedule, there's no reason why we shouldn't. UA is probably the most talented team in the East, but we still have to see if talent translates into wins.

If we happen to beat OSU, which is very unlikely, the Zips will have a huge target on their backs for years to come. The local fans will be split, unsure who to cheer for. We will make a lot of enemies and gain a lot of new fans under that scenario, there will be cries of cheating (Remember Chuck Amato's "academic non-qualifier" excuse? It will be a thousand times worse), every game would be sold out for the next two years, and those of us who have made it know to friend, family, and the general community that we were Zips fans long before that game will be badgered constantly about how they did it. We'll here remarks like ""Hey, your Zips really took it to them" and the like. It will replace all normal conversation points for at least nine months. It's a mixed bag for the community, but it would be the ultimate way to promote UA Zips "brand awareness".It all comes down to winning the games you should, and pulling off a few upsets every year. Win your bowl games. Recruit better talent. Win more games. Rinse. Repeat.

The final rankings of each conference based on average team ranks. This is how good the "experts" feel the teams in each conference have performed as a whole (from top to bottom) over the last ten years. At least the MAC isn't dead last. SEC - 37.5ACC - 38.25PAC-10 - 40.8Big 10 - 41.18Big 12 - 43.25Big East - 53.25MWC - 63WAC - 74.33C-USA - 78.33MAC - 87.0Sunbelt - 92.75Notice the dropoff from the Big 12 to the Big East, and then to the non-BCS conferences. Funny thing is that the MAC has the second best Bowl record in college football behind... the Big East. There should be a rule that a team can have no more than 6 road games in a season to stop weak teams from feeding the bigger teams. Only 6 Big Ten teams will play at a MAC team's stadium. That's a record, and a sad one at that. If the MAC-Big 10 games were evenly split between home and away there wouldn't be such a huge disparity in the win-loss record against them. The MAC needs to step up. Be more agressive in scheduling home games. Win, don't settle for a loss and a paycheck. Winning makes more long term $$$ than a spanking/quick check to help pay for the upkeep on that nice football stadium you never play in.

Sorry for the double post, but I just remembered that the design we all saw may not be the one that is built. It is one of the designs that will be voted on during the trustees' August 1st Board meeting.I guess that they will announce which design they chose on Wednesday.

Speaking of Wednsday, what time is the announcement and where will it be held? I'm assuming in the fieldhouse but I want to know what time this thing is.

I am working on every home game this season except for the Patriot Bowl. If I call off then I'm fired. See you in Cleveland!

I actually wouldn't mind YSU coming to the new stadium in 2009. It beats having to work out a 3-for-1 deal with some BCS school that doesn't deserve it, and it would be a good early test of local support and hopefully a test of the new stadium's expanded capacity as well. The more home games in the new stadium the better, plus more home games usually work out to more wins than away games. Since there wouldn't be a return game due to MAC policy on scheduling Non-Bowl-Division teams, it frees up a spot for some other team to come to the new stadium in 2010. Just my opinion.For the record, I was against YSU coming to the Rubber Bowl because there are none of the benefits that I mentioned above that would come with them visiting.

http://www.gozips.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPS...0&ATCLID=538215Try here. It's a little outdated, it looks like, but It's the best I've got for now.Next year we play @Syracuse and @Kentucky with Army and Cincy coming to the Rubber Bowl, it looks like.In 2009 in our new stadium (hopefully), we will play @Syracuse again, with Kentucky and Indiana coming to what I hope will be called Summa field at Wingfoot stadium, along with another team TBA and hopefully at home as well.Hopefully we switch the Cincy game to be @Cincy and play them in Akron in 2010, which is out next scheduled meeting.

Updated Conference rankings.MWC - 60.33WAC - 77.22C-USA - 78.33MAC - 87.0SBC - 103.38I'm sure that the adition of Temple will not help the MAC's situation much, but it does provide an extra win for many MAC East teams' records, possibly getting more of them bowl eligible. Let's hope that was the plan.

Here are the average rankings of some conferences so far. I will try to update them again tomorrow after the next set of rankings come out. I will also add the BCS conferences for comparison once all the rankings are out. Remember, though, that there will be a bias towards upper BCS teams, as always.MWC - 47WAC - 73C-USA - 79.17MAC - 82.58Sunbelt - 92.75I averaged the ranks of the teams they have done so far against the total teams in each conference to get those scores. Once all the teams in the conferences are ranked it may look different.

After looking at those maps, I don't think that Spicertown will happen for a while. It is supposed to be a 40 block area. That's a massive project. If they do it by sections, people that live in areas that have not yet been developed will demand more than the people who were caught off guard when they first start it. Every block becomes more and more expensive. I am sure the city wants to help as much as possible, because this basically means tearing down an entire high-crime neighborhood and turning it into the type of "young professional" living environment the city is so desparetly hoping for.

http://cfn.scout.com/2/659398.htmlThey have us losing to Buffalo and we are their only win of the season. They say we beat Can't State, Army, Temple, and Ohio, but that's it. 4-8. As a side note, they don't have a single MAC team beating a BCS team this year. We all know that there will be MAC "upsets" against teams like Indiana, Kansas, UConn, etc. It just shows the lack of respect for the MAC.

That's some early tailgating, there.Channel 5 is possibly the best thing we could hope for locally. Better than FSN because its broadcast over the air and everyone gets it. It means more respect (its on a news channel instead just a sports channel). Local channels picking up our games is one of the remedies that I think we need to solve our attendance problem, the others being winning and a new stadium (both coming soon, hopefully).

Rank #90. Our 10 year record of 52-64 had a lot to do with that. It's easy to forget how we were before JD came here. No bowl wins, only 1 MAC title in the last 10 years, and not being a BCS school all factored into these rankings.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/17534046.htmNot that we didn't expect it to happen, but the holdouts along exchange street have pretty much declared themselves as staying put with this story.On the bright side, the stadium drawing was the centerpiece of the front page.

http://www.wkyc.com/video/player.aspx?aid=39260&bw=We made the news. There needs to be an all out media blitz by UA when the groundbreaking happens. They had better pimp the last couple of games in the Rubber Bowl, too.

Hey, I just realised, that rendering has no light poles. I hope they are behind the stands and not on the field like at the RB.

Maybe we can gather in some of the restaurants that will open up downtown and along Exchange due to the BEAUTIFUL new stadium!!! I had a blast in Detroit for the Motor City Bowl a few years back, what was the sportsbar where everyone gathered called, Hockeytown? I think the new tailgate spot might end up being across exchange at the old baseball fields. I noticed the U buying and tearing down tons of homes along Brown St. Could it be a tailgate lot in the making?

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/sports/17508833.htmI don't know if you knew this already, but the Can't State game has been changed to 3:00 so it can be broadcast on FSN. I have a funny feeling that Can't sponsored the article...

I'm wondering, what is Vince Hill rated? What about Mondo Sewell? And Estrada? Some of our new recriuts promise (if you believe the hype) to have more talent than those in any class before them. How the much freshmen step up can make or break any season.Side note: I really really need to get a PS3 or Xbox360. Then I would pwn you all! The Wii is fun, but it sucks when EA is lazy and won't support it...

and just for good measure... This sounds like Browns stadium's design. They left all four corners completely open to allow pylons to support a dome if neccessary. We could host a Goodyear-sponsored bowl game. The only problem is that we would have to choose between a dome and a new basketball arena, given budget concerns, and I would give my support to a new BB place before a dome, but would love both.