Spin

I am looking at several results from the MAC's creative scheduling this season for a future piece. It's really pretty interesting once you start digging in...

I've always been taught you learn by playing someone better than you. Problem is last season UMess was better than us, and Buffalo and CMU would have been learning experiences. On the other hand we gave Tenn all they could handle for awhile. So were we playing down to our opponents (like Tress' Buckeyes), or were we so banged up we couldn't handle UMass after scaring the hell out of the Volleys earlier in the season?

Fixed that for ya.

It's all about giving the top teams cake schedules like last year. When the strong teams run the table and get national recognition, it's good for the MAC. We saw it play out this season. For the rest of us, "it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll..."

Sorry to see ya go. It is pretty sad that some people who have no interest (or lost interest) in a topic can control what everyone else discusses. Guess we better tow the company line 'round here from now on. Don't nobody mention arena locations...

Or you could look at it that Morgan drew the biggest crowd because it was a winnable game. And it didn't matter that it was a n FCS school, we could be competitive, and people wanted to watch it. But either way you look at it, attendance will increase with more wins. And nobody stays away because the opponent is FCS. Just as they don't stay away from Canal PArk because the opponent is only AA,

I was talking this year's Morgan State game, 9,933 peeps. The Miami game had 8,211, Northern Illinois 7,074, and UMess 7,716. The opener against UCF drew 12,616 and the BGSU game 10,102.

I agree with everything here, except the bolded part. For one, looking at attendance records of the Akron Aeros and Cleveland Force in Summit County, they weren't playing the New York Yankees or Manchester United. Nobody cared, the teams were competitive, and the fans had a great time at the game. #2 I doubt the common football fan knows the difference between Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Michigan. Or which one is at Ohio States level. IN fact, the Morgan State drew more fans than Miami, NIU, and UMess. And #3, bringing in name opponents is pretty much impossible, beating them even more. I'd love to see home and home series against Cincinnati, Pitt, WV. Even Army. But how do we get there? I'd love to win the Daytona 500, but my budget allows me to bracket race at Dragway 42 several times a year. I don't think I'm gonna make the Daytona starting grid anytime soon...

You do realize I never pretended FCS got the same national exposure as even the MAC. Some of you take anything I say as an argument against you, and I am not interested in having that type of discussion, no matter how many times you try to this into a pissing match. The game was on TV. I let everyone know. If you wanted to check it out, you could. If it was beneath you, you didn't have to. Whatever else you read into it, shove it. I'm not here to split hairs and bicker. Heck one poster has the game logo as their Avatar, start shit with them...

Claiming the FCS is on the same network as the MAC "bowls" is hardly an personal insult in my book. Bit it must have struck a nerve, you didn't go vigilante when I said the local D3 teams were on TV more than the Zips.

Maybe, but a winning team would multiply attendance without them. And most of those people would eventually come back, acting like nothing ever happened. If a few elitists stay away, are they really fans? Let them watch tOSU.

I never claimed FCS was as popular as FBS. Stop your personal attacks and we can discuss. I outgrew name calling 35 years ago.

So, you acknowledge Akron and the MAC does not belong where they are, and if they are forced to drop that's OK. But if they do it themselves, you're going to quit watching. BS.

I must have missed the Beef O' Brady Bowl being on CBS primetime...

And Akron got a TON of exposure this year. All of it negative. If we could put together consecutive winning records in the MAC (or a winning record the last 8 GD years), I may be convinced that Akron could compete in a MAC/CUSA/WAC/MWC world, and worthy of praying for a FBS-lite level coming someday.

Only in your mind. FCS is on the four letter network. Just like the Mickey Mouse bowl games the MAC regularly plays in.

As we speak the FCS championship game is on ESPN2.

It would take far less $$$ to be competitive at the I-AA level. You're never going to recruit with the SEC/PAC-10/tOSU's, but with a winning program you CAN compete for the players we are recruiting now. Let's say you're recruiting tOSU scraps at the I-A level, competing against Toledo, Ohio, Can't, Miami, and BGSU with a 3-33 team. I am recruiting them to the same team at I-AA with a 10-2 team that plays in the postseason, draws more fans, and is on TV more often. Same scholarships, same facilities, same campus. These kids realize they're never going to sniff a BCS Title bowl. I like my chances. Let's just look at the team as it was this season. The one direct comparison (I-A and I-AA) that I found is the Sagarins. Akron would be mid-pack in the Colonial, Southland, and OVC, second in the Mid-Eastern and Northeast, and tops in the Patriot, Pioneer, and Southwest. The only conference we wouldn't improve our standing would be the MV. Unless you really want to travel to the Dakota's three times a year, that's not your choice anyway. Want to hear a sobering thought? In I-AA we would have been ranked 47th. Reality.

We're a day late and a dollar short for that...

I took a couple days to think this over, while waiting for a new keyboard. So how would the split work, would they take apart the conferences and put, say, the top 64 in the top tier and the rest in the next tier? Meaning the Minnesotas, Iowas, and Indianas would drop down. Or would they keep the elitist conferences (and the crappy teams in them) and boot the rest into the second tier? Say, the B12, SEC, B10, Pac12, and ACC/Lil East? That would leave the MAC, WAC, CUSA, Sunbelt, and MW. In the first scenario you're looking at a conference with Toledo, BG, Indiana, OU, Purdue, Illinois, Iowa, BallSt, Minn, the directionals, and let's face it, without HAzell, Can't State. In the second scenario you're butting heads with the UCF's, Tulsas, Ark States, Utah States, SJStates, LaTechs. at the top of the heap. Either way, we STILL have to step up our budget, our recruiting, and everything else I talked about. Otherwise we're going to be in the same shitter we are now. There's two hypotheticals here, #1 that this fantasy comes true, and #2 that Akron steps up its program big time. Two humongous IF's in my book. I'm less than convinced either of those will come true, let alone both. But I don't make that decision, so y'all shouldn't be threatened that I'm not convinced yet.

AND a shot at the national title, something we will N E V E R have in the I-A boys club. Soccer and basktball don't have I-A and I-AA genius. There's several reasons they have them in football, reasons you should take a close look at our program. And you're comparing apples to oranges. There are schools (one a few miles to the north) that have made runs in the NCAA tournament and did not have I-A football (or any football at all). Football is a much much more expensive. Agree completely, and we understand HOW MUCH you need to invest to play with the big boys... ...nor the resources. I can also see schools better heeled than us struggling to be relevant in I-A, and the way the NCAA boys club is set up. So save your rah rah bullshit for someone else. If you REALLY want to be more than an antagonist in this discussion, explain to us the University's plan to fund such a huge upgrade. Where is this money going to come from? How are the Zips going to enter into the boys club that is I-A football, when 90% of the programs out there (including Boise and TCU) can't. And if not, how is winning the Bob's Bail Bonds Bowl going to be as much fun, and as much money and exposure as winning a national championship? How are we going to entice 5 star recruits to play for Akron? Take a look at the REAL issues we are. Just once???

That makes about as much sense as claiming I'm a Massillon fan because I want Doylestown to stay in Division IV. Is that the only way you could figure out to skate around the attendance issue? The legacy school issue? The budget issue? You guys got NOTHING on any of that, so you start personal attacks. And don't forget all the notoriety the University gets for being one of the worst football teams in history. Real positive shit there... "I don't like minor league baseball, so I want the Aeros to struggle against major league teams forever and draw a couple thousand people to appease my infatuation with being 'Big Time'.".

And those facilities have boosted attendance to minimum D1-A standards, right?

And the MAC belongs in the I-AA. On every level. Right down to the NCAA attendance requirements How long are you guys going to skate around that basic fact???

Not having credibility with you is a plus in my book. Anyway you're the one who said "YSU won a championship because they hired the right coach, not because they played in the FCS. Here'sa news flash for you: all the factors that lead to success in the FCS also work at the FBS level." So, they would have won at any level? The same "right coach" won in FBS. All the same factors are the same, according to you. You don't acknowledge BUDGET or AVAILABLE TALENT LEVEL has anything to do with it. So if you can win an FCS title, you can also win an FBS title too, right? Bottom line: I'm looking at this as a FAN. I want to win. I want a chance at the whole thing. You're looking at this as if winning the Mickey Mouse Bowl has all of these benefits to the university somehow. We'll never agree. I see FCS as a league we could never afford to build in, and even if we did, would never be invited to the title game. You see FCS as a way to gain exposure (whatever that's worth) by playing in a junior bowl game that nobody watches. Because the majority of college football fans want to see the best, the top 25, not 106th playing 202nd.