Spin

This will be a night of turmoil on the PSU campus. Riot police are active.

Band on the Run.Sorry, someone had to say it, after the weekend we've had on here.

...besides the fact ESPN shows MAC games nationwide. What other network does that?If it wasn't for that, and STO looking for off-season filler, the MAC couldn't sniff TV.It's all supply and demand.

fixed that.But there's one big difference. The Chipps and the Zips are my schools. They're where I went, my classmates out there.The Browns are an entertainment business, like Tony said. And it hasn't been entertaining in decades. The connection I have with this circus is getting weaker and weaker.

Class of '84. UAkron class of 2012. Yeah, second career guy. I still follow the WCAL of course, I see Smithville lost. I try to make a Chipp game every year, Friday is usually when I get my OT though.I haven't been to Erika's in years. I usually hung out at the Valley with the rest of the firemen when I lived there. Or the Legion with the fire officers if I needed some brownie points for something I f'd up.

I heard that.I feel the same way about my high school team (Doylestown), college (Akron), and favorite pro team (Cleveland). A combined 4-22 record this season.

Very telling is the USA Today realignment plan for Div I BCS. The MAC completely disappears (except for Temple) as does the C-USA (except for four schools).http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/foo...nterstitialskip

A lot of college players already play in the PDL league.Understood, but playing as a unit, with the same coaching staff, would have its advantages. Especially if they can't camp and play exhibitions in the spring.

I've never sat in the stands at a Vikings game, the one basketball game I have been to I was in the floor seats. So I don't know how those first few rows are. The first row or two are at floor level, unlike the JAR where they are elevated and behind the wall. That's one difference I see.

Now you're talking about the SIZE of the arena more than the flooring arrangement. Akron wouldn't need (or could afford) anything NEAR that size, nobody would be that far away because the building would be a lot smaller.The noise level and intimacy would be much better in a smaller arena. Even the CSU Convo (seating 13,000) is bigger than Akron needs. Yet the crowd is right there in basketball configuration.This is a 20 year old system. I've seen other arenas that had stands move out to the court from where CSU's curtain is, out to where the alumni band sits. It's workable.I just think it would be an easier sell, and a much more useful building, if it could also house hockey, indoor soccer, indoor lacrosse, arena football, monster trucks, on and on. And not just for spectator sports, but also intramural sports and just plain fitness/play.And to answer someone else, the hockey ice problem I remember was in an arena built in 1928.

What would keep a college official from forming an independant PDSL league with the coach and players, and using that for player development during the off season?

Hell area Division 3 teams are on TV more than than the Zips are...

Do you have an accompanying list for the Washington Generals? Yeah, just look up Can't State alumni.

+1"I see dead programs. Walking around like regular programs. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're dead."

There are two problems with college giving up scholarships and football and basketball minor leagues.And they both involve MONEY.#1 The handful colleges that make the decisions and the BCS conferences, make money in truckloads. They're not going to give that up.#2 The NFL and NBA would have to spend money on a minor league system, and they don't want to. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? As my girlfriend use to say.Imagine if there were no minor league baseball. No Akron Aeros. No Lake County Captains or Mahoning Valley Scrappers or Lake Erie Crushers. Imagine Akron U getting all of that money and attendance. Canal Park being on campus with Zip games drawing 3300 fans per game. Imagine the talent level of the teams!!!Or all of the people at Lake Erie Monsters games going to CSU and Akron hockey games. Imagine the talent level of college hockey.

Frye's name comes up from time to time when a B goes down. I can't remember who was sniffing him a last week, but apparently they didn't bring him in.

They drive to blossomMonsters of Rock.Ozzfest.

Sort of. You look at the attendance of the Indians since the days of contention, it tells the story. We sold out, what, 5 straight seasons before the season began? Now they can't give them away. Same with the Cavs, sold out every night during the LBJ era. If they play this year yo'll see a huge drop (it was high last year due to season tickets already being sold before LaDecision). Meanwhile there will be some who will go no matter what. It's the major leagues. That's all that matters. That's always possible.

Well that changes the whole mid-major landscape... So is the MAC screwed? If it wants to form a superconference, what's that leave? The WAC,and the Sunbelt. That's a spread out mess. Not much chance of anyone getting poached from thpse two conferences, maybe Nevada by the C-USA/MW to replace whoever gets poached by a legacy conference. Here's who we're looking at, with Sagarin rankings: SUN BELT 71 Louisiana-Lafayette 80 Arkansas State 86 Fla. International 93 Troy 124 North Texas 146 Middle Tennessee 151 Louisiana-Monroe 167 Florida Atlantic 172 Western Kentucky WESTERN ATHLETIC 48 Nevada 70 Hawaii 84 Utah State 94 Fresno State 101 Louisiana Tech 110 San Jose State 135 Idaho 142 New Mexico State Then there's the MAC. Would those two even seek to include the midwestern MAC? MID-AMERICAN 49 Temple (to the Big Easy? ACC?) 50 Western Michigan 56 Toledo 77 Ohio University 85 Northern Illinois 107 Bowling Green 111 Central Michigan 112 Ball State 117 Buffalo 132 Eastern Michigan 138 Miami-Ohio 139 Can't State 182 Akron On the other hand, wasn't Middle Tennessee our rival in the OVC?

Why do you think I'm bitter? I simply made some observations. Just like I said, if you disagreed with an ICoach move, should I call you a football hater? And why do you have to get all personal? You know nothing about me. It is true not many 45 year old grandfathers earn athletic scholarships, so that has nothing to do with my opinions (I do receive several program-related scholies). And you think you can look down on me because I watch a club sport (along with a half dozen sanctioned sports)??? You think you're better than I am because you couldn't possibly lower yourself to watch it? Who the hell do you think you are? Look at him.

You guys are driving this completely off the cliff. This crap is like someone saying they don't think Icoach is doing a good job and everyone else jumping on their ass for hating football. Crimony... Let's all hold hands and sing the Barney theme, and burn anyone at the stake who says anything negative.

Apparently you guys missed te point of my first sentence. Just because I have comments about how something is funded, and how much is funded to it, doesn't mean I don't like sports. I think the U, like a lot of them, spends wayyyyyy too much money trying to play at a level they can't be competitive at. They wind up dumping a bunch of money trying to reach an attendance figure, to stay at a level your 1-5 in. Same with Can't. Same with OU (cept they're 1-4). 1-5 isn't going to inspire anybody to spend a Saturday afternoon there, no matter how much money they put into advertising. They're not inspiring students to go to games as part of their college experience while playing this kind of football. I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said on here before. Like I said, I have more fun at a hockey game, or a baseball game (a program that apparently makes up a spec on the athletic budget) than at the Info. I had fun at Wayne College games when I attended there.

To.......... ? Can't State? Cleveland State? Same situation. Heck at CSU I would be paying fees and not watching football or baseball or hockey. A two year school? I'm in the fourth year of a Bachelor program. The issue isn't with Akron, per se.

Temple seems to be doing a nice job. True. I was talking Ohio, but yeah Temple looks to be moving up on the food chain soon,

Personally, I get as much enjoyment out of watching the pay-to-play Zips hockey club as I do any other sport. Maybe more, it's an exciting sport. As someone who pays for their own tuition (with 20 hours of overtime a week), I could sure do without that annual athletic fee. I really see NO REASON to pay part of a scholarship for softball players. I don't go to the games, and from the looks of it neither does anybody else but family and friends. And they pay nothing to watch. That's because I already paid for them. The schools try to hide all these programs because of "student life". Well how many of these sports do students actually GO WATCH? They spend lots of money marketing these teams to the students, money we paid, and nobody goes. They spend more money to market to the general public in a desperate drive to keep the football team above the NCAA I-A requirements. It's not like students are chosing Akron (or Can't) because of the great legacy they have in football... What do I care if the football team is Division I-A? And by what definition are they? Because they beat a team from a BCS conference every few years? Because they're paid big money to be warm-up fodder to a REAL I-A program every year? None of these schools (besides maybe Toledo) have any business pretending to be I-A.