ctmjbowes@sbcglobal.net

The MAC is the lowest form of life in FBS. The MAC is like eating fiber. It makes me sad. To be a winning program in a solid FCS situation would actually provide merriment, a sense of football belonging. It would be kind of like being an Aeros fan. No, whether the Aeros win is not life or death, but when you go to see an Aeros game on a nice Summer evening the world is right. That's how Saturday games at the Info could be with UA in FCS. No, you aren't going to ever have the chance to see UA in the Gigantor Douchebag Bowl presented by Old Dutch at Tampa Sadness Stadium, but you'll have fans in the seats, you'll have the chance to win games, to get into a playoff and the sun may actually shine in Akron again.

I grew up in Akron. I remember the old Portage Hotel. I remember when the little electric band over the door at Luigi's worked, and the tables had juke box selectors on them. I remember when the towpath was but a dream. I attended Acme Zips games when I was a kid. I graduated from the UofA. I remember eating at the Chuckery. I drank at the Townhouse and the Sun. I have been a member here longer than you have, and I'll be here after you're gone. I'll still be a fan, albeit from afar, when Luis gets his head out of his anus and realizes what folly it is to remain stuck in the mud of the shitty MAC and returns this team to its proper level of play.

All of this talk of FBS structure and the coming 8-team playoff is about as relevant to Akron as Best Buy's last executive restructuring was to its store clerks. It is only meaningful because somehow the shiite from the resulting changes will roll down onto the UA program. In the abstract, yes, such things are part of the UA universe, but in the real world UA maintains no connection to the world of FBS playoffs. Akron is D-1A in name only. That's the fact. Akron is the team that travels to Big Ten and SEC stadiums to be crushed for some extra cash every year. You don't have to maintain the D-1A FBS moniker to play on the killing fields every year. Akron is not, and never will be, the team that is relevant to the larger "bigtime" discussion. None of this should be construed as my non-love for the program. I want UA to succeed. I want this to be a proud and winning program. That is never, ever going to happen at the major college football level. It was worth a shot when they tried, but it is not going to happen and that is clear now to anyone who will open their eyes and use objectivity and examine the facts. It is defeatist and illogical to continue further down this FBS road for Akron. I just wish that the power brokers running the university would realize what a black eye the continued losing and futility, right on the corner of Sicer and Exchange, present on the face of the university. It's way beyond time to regroup and examine where this program belongs. This is an FCS program. A potential FCS powerhouse. That's the slot for this program.

FCS teams are still D-1, just at the FCS level and not the FBS level. If you're an FBS team not in the top several programs, you have the chance to play in the Beef 'O Hunky Nobody GivesAShiite Bowl, played in some decrepit stadium in Tampa with the stands 1/3rd full and the turf in terrible shape. If you are an FCS team, you have the chance to play in an honest to goodness playoff bracket for the national championship. Whether anybody wants to admit it, Akron is already FCS. The players are FCS level (maybe), they win games against FBS opponents at an FCS rate, they play in front of FCS crowds and the level of interest in the local area is that of an inferior FCS program. Let's just call it what it is.

Faust had as good a record at Akron as any of the coaches in the D-1 era. I know we all like to deride the guy, and I wonder, if the interviewer had asked, what he would have to say about his years at Akron.

The rest of the MAC bowl games: 1) Little Caesars Pizza; Central Michigan vs. W. Kentucky 2) Military; Bowling Green vs. San Jose State 3) AdvoCare V100 Independence; Ohio vs. ULM 4) Discover Orange; Florida State vs. Northern Illinois 5) GoDaddy.com; Arkansas State vs. Can't State

Awesome.

Why are you so confident that the quality of recruits will drop? The Zips are already recruiting FCS players, who then lose prodigiously at the low FBS level. Regarding playing Can't State, they've been playing each other every year for, well, forever as far as I'm aware. I would hope that the game pitting the two state schools 7 miles apart would continue, and in fact I'd love to see a renewed emphasis on the game.

If TB took the progrum to the Flag Football level, might the team win some games? Regarding your assertion about the basketball team, the BB program is FAR, FAR ahead of the football program, years ahead, and your assertion is plainly ridiculous. The Zips playing FCS would look exactly like they do now, except with more wins and better competitive balance. You still get loaded in lot 9 before the game, and the Zips still run onto the Big Dialer to play the game. For God's sake man, in your mind is the MAC like playing in the SEC? Or, to compare, does Joe Akron think it's vastly more attractive to play Ball State than Youngstown State? If your answer is yes, you're WAY too close to the forrest or are just deluded.

Apparently not DIG, although nobody who has participated in the discussion, on the side of staying in the 25 year drought, has brought facts or logic to the discussion. It seems an article of faith that Akron should remain D-1, and that TB is guaranteed to turn the program into a consistent winner. There is zero information available to anyone to support such assertions, and in fact the available data contradict the notion that UA will ever succeed at the FBS level. I truly do not understand why Zips fans get so butt hurt about the topic. It's not like anyone would advocate closing down the program. Lot 9 will still be there on Saturdays fellas, and we may actually WIN some games for once. What I'm trying to figure out is why the majority of fans are so married to LOSING FBS football. It defies logic. I am starting to wonder whether many "die hard" Zips fans are...no, I don't want to go there. I'm thinking it though.

I would. I truly do not believe that UA can achieve and maintain success at the FBS level, even low FBS level. I also find that low level FBS is tough to watch because of its crappy, second-rate vibe. Lower level FBS looks a LOT like little programs trying to be big, without succeeding in any way that works, at least for my eyes. I feel like conferences like the MAC are trying to con me. We all know what big time football looks and feels like, and there is little resemblence between a MAC game, any MAC game, to what we all know to be big time football. Why continue to chase that paradigm? I also believe that programs that are true to their nature give themselves the best chance to shine. The move to D1-AA (FCS) would allow UA to emerge from its funk and malaise and get away from the MAC. For anyone who has doubts about whether this program can succeed at the level they're at now, the logical move is to seek a different level of play. For anyone who has no doubt and is sure that this program wil succeed at the highest level of play, you have nothing but faith guiding you at this point. For Dr Z would you be excited to be part of exciting football, winning some games?

So, because it doesn't cost all that much more to be horrible, moribund, among the very worst programs in the country in FBS, we should remain there?

As things stand currently, UA would "drop" to FCS, perhaps in football only, and would have to find a conference or go independent, as was described by JZ84. However, what happens when the obvious bifercation of the college football scene arrives (The Giganticon Mega Legacy Prestige League versus The All Loser You Suck League), then where will that leave ALL of the rest of the current FBS programs? Who knows? I would rather be proactive and find a good spot and level than wait for this continuous reshuffling that we've watched for the last year+. UA should just become what it is already and yes, if that means chasing the FCS championship in the good years, then that's what it is. If they can cobble something together with the castoffs that are coming very soon, so much the better.

Baloney. Discussion forums are for discussion. UA football is what it is, which is to say that the program has obviously failed to make the jump to D-1 football. You think that posters on other boards need these discussions to realize that fact? Do you think that the HS coaches who want to send their kids anywhere but UA are influenced by what the fans on a board have to say? No way man. Kids who are recruited to Akron know the deal. You and I know the deal. Posters on other boards do too. It's the truth.

LOVE the discussion! First to GoZips, any university insiders who believe that UA is attractive to a conference more substantial than the MAC, when we are talking football, are nuts. There is no measure which supports that this football program would appeal, well, to anyone. I could see UA ending in some tweener conference, but find it very interesting, if illogical, that one of the main arguments against dropping down is that the Zips might be no more competitive in, say, the MVC, than they are in the MAC. There is no logic in that assertion. If the Zips couldn't compete successfully in the MVC, then there can be no reasonable argument that they should remain in FBS. UA is, at its core, a community asset, a long-time commuter school. I fully understand, and embrace, the vision of UA as a major state university. However, when it comes to football, the program just hasn't held up its part of the bargain. Most of the other athletic programs have at least pulled their weight when it comes to being solid citizens, and a couple of them are over achievers. Football, on the other hand, for reasons we'll argue forever, has never been able to "actually" become a true D-1/FBS program. Look at the recruiting classes, look at the schools that players pass UA up for, look at the crowds at the stadium, look at revenue (not) generated, look at respect garnered by other programs and UA's ability to attract home and aways. There is absolutely no measure that shows UA to be an "actual" FBS program. Now, to toss some salt into the wound, consider the present recruiting situation. If TB cannot recruit at UA, turn the lights off. I realize it's still early, but show me the beef. Where are "steals"? Where are the players who are saying they're looking seriously at Akron this off season? Where are JUCO players lining up to join the progrum? There's no more buzz this offseason than any other at Akron. Recruits see UA for what it is: the place to go when all other options are off the table, for whatever reason. They, and their coaches, know that it's not a genuine FBS program, and if they have any other viable options they aren't joining the Akron program. I would love to see UA become FCS and prepare for the next jumble of college football. Become what you really already are UA. You currently recruit tweeners, guys who aren't genuine D-1 prospects, and then they get beaten and demoralized until they either become injured, leave the program or "make it" to graduation. How about recruiting those same players, tell them the truth, which is that they are FCS players and they are going to play an FCS schedule and win some damned games and have a blast. Embrace the community like the old days of Acme Zip. Bring in the locals who will pay to watch an FCS team that knows how to win and how to entertain. Another point about Joe Akron. The very casual fan only knows what they see on TV. I think that for many, likely most, locals, there is no "attendance premium" placed on, say, any MAC school over, say, an MVC or other FCS program. No matter what football nerds think, Joe Akron, fan of the Big Ten, doesn't think of Northern Illinois as "high quality" football. Tell him that he can choose to watch Ball State or Illinois State, he'll shrug his shoulders and wonder whether there's a Big Ten game he can catch on the tube instead. It's time to become the Akron Aeros. Don't continue the con any longer. This was NEVER really an FBS program.

Seriously? Jesus H Christ, anyone can dig up something from 4 years ago. I could so the same but I don't. What's relevant is what's happening now, not lampooning someone with the benefit of hindsight. Really now... That was before Ianello, before three one-win seasons, before the UA stadium was soiled by a dirty, scamming company which has embarrassed the university with its name on the stadium, before it became clear that this program, or progrum, cannot recruit solid D-1 players no matter who the coach is and no matter the facilities. That's when I still held hope that Akron football and the MAC might become interesting and/or relevant. The new stadium was being built and it looked like Akron football was on its way to something better. If only that money could have been invested into soccer and basketball! Of course Hoke made the right move to get out of the MAC. Get good enough to get the hell out of football purgatory (the MAC) or drop down to your natural level. But hey, Toledo just played in the Idaho Potato Bowl and Ball State is prepping to play in the Beef O'Brady Bowl. Awesome. If Akron really, really achieves maybe they'll make the Super Duper Nobody Cares Bowl next year. Actually, come to think of it, that old post reinforces my point. Hoke had a decent year at Ball State and got the hell out of the MAC as quickly as he possibly could. It was a great move even though I hated to think of it in that way when it happened. I've seen the light.

My issues with with the whole shootin' match also include the ridiculous bowl system, although I hate to include that here. The Onion could scarcely devise a more silly, ridiculous and watered down mess than a "bowl system" wherein 70 teams out of 119 make it to a bowl. Did you watch that horrible, nasty and depressing "game" at the blue turf in Boise last weekend? I can't even remember which essentially anonymous teams played in that one, but one of them was a MAC team (Toledo maybe) that got beaten by a bunch. The stands 1/3rd full. I love football, but not ANY football. Watching Toledo play in that game further reinforced the folly of Akron's 25-year struggle. Any poster on this board would be very happy to have Toledo's football program, but here's the thing: Toledo football is just as crappy, lousy and irrelevant as all of the other crappy programs subsisting in the bottom third of FBS. Being an FBS bottom dweller is the worst option I can imagine in college football. When I picture the winning, smaller, programs in the midwest (yes, including Mount Union), I picture the sun shining, fans and the team on a Saturday morning having a great time, winning some games and loving their coach and program. When I picture the MAC, or really any of the bottom third of FBS, I picture grey, rain, a few thousand lonely fans in too-large stadiums and everything uninspired and mediocre. And fans aspire to become Toledo, or some similar program? Akron is a small fish in a very big pond when it comes to college football. Let's just go to our smaller pond and have a blast.

LOL indeed. You're alright LZip. We're both Zips fans, different opinions. It's all good. See you at the FCS Championship game a few years from now.

OK, so we have established that I am gainfully employed as a productive member of society. You are, most likely, a drug dealer.

Yeah, but I'm actually employed.

Touche! It's still only 7:15P here. And, I'm on vacation time tomorrow. I'll play for hours to come. You guys need to run off to bed very soon, and go to work tomorrow. Ouch. That stung a little didn't it?

It will pain LZip to know that on this post I agree with him 100%.

Hmmm. Tempting, although like you, I'm not a personal acquaintance of Terry, Tom nor Louis, so I doubt that I'll garner an audience with any of them any time soon. I do, however, post on ZN, just like anyone else. As far as imagery goes, when it comes to beating the dead horse, I guess you're the idiot who is beating the guy beating the dead horse. Offer actual opinions, arguments, logic, anything other than bashing posters like me, or piss off. I have no respect for those who piss and moan about people who post in forums. You are a mindless pom pom shaker. Lastly, I'm on the West Coast. I can stay up for hours and hours and still get the last word in. You'll be putting on your jammies long before I'm even on my second beer!