exit322

And now we're suspended. Do we get MAC after dark again?

The rare Zips game where the defense is the side failing more.

Only on poorly coached teams.

Goodness they keep fighting. Only took four years.

Well they scored points on multiple drives, and even against a solid 2-4 MAC school! That's clearly a major moral victory based on what we've previously discussed, so this team is obviously well on its way to great things.

Well, they're well on their way to losing today. You forget the minor detail that they're still not well coached.

Good answer. Only 3, but still they got points.

By some margin the best of the season.

Yes. What's fair is fair

I think it's an internet thing. I'm listening on the WHLO site and it's all CB Distillery and random non-local ads That was a good drive for a touchdown to get the lead late

That referee deserves a promotion to the ACC or B1G for (accurately) saying that with a straight face.

What a wonderful fourth down play by Finley.

Favors Ball State heavily, they can run the ball better. Should favor Akron more than it does but no one respects Finley and the pass game, so they're guarding much more against the run. Good defensive takeaway, offense better do something with it.

Hey the Zips scored and had a lead, everything is perfect here.

Offense had a good start. Now do it again because Ball State is going to score plenty.

With how the CFP is now, I'd really like to see a G5 playoffs. I mean, Akron isn't getting within screaming distance unless they go 68 teams like March Madness. But it'd be more fun than the Who Gives a Crap Bowl

Why would I give up? Clearly everything is going great around InfoCision.

Perhaps my phrasing was off, but we agree.

Between that and the fact blowouts are much rarer than in college.

Your point is not wrong. But - NIU only cares about the football, and they're going to a better league (even after the changes). And their average road trip in-conference in all the other sports drops from 419 miles to 330 miles. The longest in-league road trip drops from 978 to Amherst to 516 for Robert Morris. It's not huge - this is admittedly no $10,000,000 savings, but with all the other sports, it's going to be a greater savings than the cost for extra travel in the MWC. It will be interesting to see how attendance changes for all their sports...it's possible they also see a little bump in basketball (in addition to the likely notable football attendance bump) because the team will have a better record (as noted, the Horizon League's bottom is definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel). It's not a life-changing travel savings, but it more makes up for the MWC football travel when aggregated across the other 12 sports.

The question really isn't whether or not they can compete, because we're long past the Zips trying to do that - the question is...is the cost savings of dropping to FCS worth the loss in revenues from TV and such, since the beatings are going to happen either way?

They don't really have any natural rivals of any sort, and they're going to likely get more money (and less travel in the Horizon League) with overall increased attendance (likely no real change in other sports, and no Tuesday games for football). It just wasn't a dumb decision by any stretch of the imagination.

We're special. Can't do it here.

I'm sure they'll have fun

Eh, nope, you get told you're an idiot and to pony up the money if you want anything to be better. So, better to just be 2-10 every year and not have expectations that a team in Ohio could win football games.