Roo

I am not making any assumption of their 'effort' level, but to say teams won't play us is a cop out. You honestly believe high mid majors are 'scared' to play us, yet they will play other teams? Why? On the national scope, what has Akron done to instill any 'fear' into other programs? We are a very solid program, definitely a very competitive mid major. But again, when you are getting ran off the floor by the top tier teams, you cannot tell me that makes other teams scared to play the Zips. I won't say the discussions haven't happened, but I am sure that Akron could get teams to come to Akron but the program also does not want to bring teams in for a loss, even if it would boost attendance, IN MY OPINION. I find it HARD to believe, you could not convince a team to do a home and home with Akron, at a significantly lower cost, then they spend on buying a straight home win against a lesser team. I understand there are other factors as to why a MSU would go to BGSU, North Carolina to CSU, etc..etc.. but in all of the times I have brought this up, I am going from the point of view that you want to try to get people to come to the games. It would be a lot easier for people to want to see more games like they had vs Princeton, even the Penn States, Boston Colleges, Northwesterns, Miami of Florida, etc. Mid-level BCS teams that are at least a NAME, which gets people to believe they actually accomplished something and have the name to get people to come. Much like the USC win last year, which we all know was not a very good team. But hey....if I am a pessimist and you are an optimist, enjoy watching the game with the 100 other people to show up to play a team nobody knew existed prior to the schedule being released because all the other teams were too 'scared' to play Akron.

Absolutely it is a cop out answer. They could put forth more effort to get decent teams to come to play here and they do not do it. I've said it before, even if said team is just a name team and not a great RPI team, it would at least help people notice the team. You have to give people a reason to want to come watch this team. The MAC is an awful conference full of teams that nobody wants to see outside of Can't and Ohio. Teams are not 'scared' to play Akron. Get real. They have been destroyed in each trip to the NCAAs and have only been competitive against marginal BCS teams in pre-season tournaments. Couple of wins, yes, but at least Akron gives a decent RPI for most high end teams and would certainly save them money for buying a straight home game.

This. I support Akron, I am Joe Akron. I did not attend the school. I'm a rare breed of being a younger fan that dislikes Columbus but these schedules that Akron produces are a bare to deal with. There is zero excitement, outside of rooting for an upset in a pre-season tournament. I played college basketball and when this team plays schools I have never heard of or am not familiar with, I cannot imagine what the average fan to somebody that doesn't support the school thinks. How can Akron expect to get people in the seats with the teams they play? Regular fans don't want to see it, clearly Joe Akron won't care. I know...it's beating a dead horse. But I don't buy that Akron can't get some lower BCS name teams and higher mid majors than what they do. I feel they like their "20 game win" tag line.

Effective against the MAC, yes. Against top tier teams? Not so much.

I couldn't find the tweet, but Pitt lost their starting RT for the season to injury.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/akron-president-says-he-would-not-have-built-football-stadium-141637194.html Not good that it expanded beyond local news. Bad PR for the program, certainly will not help an already struggling recruiting team. Zips need a big year this year, bowl game and good record to get some buy in.

6'9 from 6'6 is a stark difference. If he is anything less than 6'8'', probably threw a scholarship away. It is never a good thing to be the only DI offer for a "big".

Thanks.......I am "shocked" by that as well.

"Recently, he visited the Ohio campus with his father, Norm Turfe (a safety at West Pointe in the late 1980s) and grandfather, Lee Turfe." Impressive.

Is there a real reason why the Info doesn't host more events? They could severely undercut other venues just to get acts to come, I would assume given how the stadium sits, the acoustics would be great for concerts. Turf field, limited damage possibility there. I know they do HS football, but there are other ways that stadium could generate revenue for the University. Beating the dead horse of the Akron fan going is pointless....I don't even think a winner would bring more fans. I do think a better conference would.

Any idea on what our contract with Adidas is? Length? Akron would be smart to dump Adidas as quickly as possible, they are way behind the arms race. UA would be a huge win for Akron.

For those that still want to believe that uniforms do not matter, look at the display of the Toledo commit. Not saying he chose Toledo because of the uni, but their relationship with Under Armor is on full display and is clearly a huge selling point for the Rockets to sell to their recruits. Nice touch.

From the sound of the first article, he has never enrolled into college, so he wouldn't be a transfer. Am I reading that right? Sounds like the kid is getting a raw deal, but I recall reading multiple articles about this incident and it just seems like a bad scenario all the way around for the young man that died but doesn't sound like anybody can tie this kid to the incident.

https://twitter.com/highmajorscoop/status/600694104519942144 Craig Eubanks from Glenville via JUCO to the Zips.

I have a hard time believing, even with Can't at home, that we averaged over 10k per game. Of all the games that I have been too, it rarely looks above 5k. When the stadium first opened, opening game would at least be pretty packed but even the last couple of years, that game has been pretty much zilch. I do recall weather being awful for two games last year, one of which was on ESPN right? Marshall? I think there may have been a couple hundred there due to awful weather.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/12886474/major-college-football-attendance-hits-worst-average-2003 Where in the world did Akron have the capacity to lose 8680 in average attendance?

Jerry didn't go to St V, Josh has been there for like two years.....not exactly like the Williams family goes way back with St V.

He was a walk on at Ohio.

It's real easy......DON'T GRAB THE RIM! If he laid it in, or flushed it, then this is a moot point. There is nothing about dunking that requires one to grab the rim. In all of my years of dunking and playing basketball, never did I grab the rim in that manner. Never in all of my years have I even witnessed somebody swing like that, to that extent, for no reason whatsoever. Im a ref myself. And I call that a T every single time. He chose to grab the rim, which he had no reason doing and by nature, everything after that had nothing to do with safety.

Easy call, that is a T. Had he not grabbed the rim, he would have been fine. But since he grabbed the rim, he allowed himself to get put in that position. That is a clear T. Anybody that knows how to dunk a basketball could tell you he had no reason whatsoever to grab the rim that way, he was asking for it and got it, deservedly so.

There was a pretty impressive article not too long ago in I believe the dealer or scene magazine about the turn around at John Hay HS (I am pretty sure it was this school) and the turn around of the program and the amount of talent that is coming out of that program. Dambrot should take notice, it could be the pipeline from Cleveland to Akron (much like Glenville for OSU football) that could help lift this program. The one thing that Dambrot has never been able to do is to get that one player that strikes fear in an opposing team and that can dominate in a post season game when needed. This has always been the one issue from helping this team get over the top. I have no idea if this player is that kind of player, but it is never a good feeling to lose a local kid to a MAC school with an offer list like that.

A waste for NEOMed??? Do you have any idea what that institution is accomplishing for its size?

Not a prayer that NEOMed merges with Akron.

The thing that Akron needs to do is find that one kid that is a stand out athlete that has the ability to make things happen. We have plenty of schools in our area that can make that happen, but we just cannot seem to land that type of recruit. It blows my mind that we cannot find a kid from Glenville, Akron area, Canton area, that wants to stay closer to home and play right away and be a star rather than go to OSU and be another guy on the bench for a few years and maybe play as a junior and senior.\ What I hate seeing is kids commit to Indiana, Minnesota, etc..etc.. over Akron. Hopefully, with a pretty decent class from all account, a team that can rise to the bowl game and MAC Championship type season, we can start taking kids that would go to those type of schools to stay closer to home. But we invested heavily in Florida and the south. It would be interesting to see how a winning season looks next year. (if it happens)

I am not an alumni, I believe I stated so just saying that I was a fan of the school because it is tied to the area. It is real simple....the JAR is an awful place to watch basketball. But, no matter how terrible a place is, people will go see good basketball. Nobody that is Joe Akron is going to watch Akron play the MAC, sans Ohio and Ken.t. Cleveland St was even a good draw. A couple posts back, somebody mentioned Middle Tennessee, nobody in Akron has ever heard of that school before. I know it is beating a dead horse, but Dambrot has done this to himself. He wants a super soft schedule and play schools like Bluffton and the likes at home, he doesn't deserve attendance. I am never going to pay to see games against schools I have never heard of and I played college basketball. So how on earth do you expect to get the average Joe to come? New arena or not, nobody is coming to watch the awful schedule this school puts out year after year. If we could ever get into the CUSA, those are better name teams with the likes of UTEP, Marshall, Old Dominion, LaTech, Charlotte, etc.. but what it really allows is better competition and the ability to then have a better out of conference schedule with Ohio, Can't added to their new conference slate and hopefully the ability to get higher quality mid majors and low BCS programs to come into town. A better conference schedule at home, better competition, and still draw local crowds.