skip-zip

I like the ratings simply because it gives some kind of indication of where we stand on a National level. Unfortunately, we don't play enough upper tier programs on any kind of continual basis to get that gauge. This is all we have.

He's a man in his 40s who is still outwardly showing his spoiled child past. It's amazing what college athletics programs will put up with if they can win more games. We see it everywhere. They certainly knew what they were getting before they hired him, just like Tressel, Myer, Harbaugh, etc.

I'm just glad that this is the final act at the end of the Cupcake Parade.

I think you two needed to read my post more carefully. It's a missed OPPORTUNITY. We were #46 yesterday. Two wins against any kind of real opponents this week would have moved us forward. Instead, we'll win, but will continue to drop backwards. In years past, we've had similar opportunities. We keep winning, but we drop during this period. The schedules have pretty much been the same for the first 15 games of the season for quite a few years now.

Obviously, 2 more wins this week is far outweighed by the SOS drop. That sucks, but we should have learned that long ago. Nearly every year we get to this point in Nov. and Dec., to creep into the national conversation, a we blow it by scheduling a few too many cupcakes for anyone to take us seriously.

Ok, my bad. I've been looking at this Pomeroy a few times over the last couple of weeks, and I never looked high enough to see Xavier. I guess that also demonstrates that I don't look at who's at the top of the national rankings this early in the season either. Because, that's a pretty impressive start for the Musketeers. OK...I'll take #4 for now, especially since were ahead of all of the MAC teams and the Suckeyes.

National Rating Update: Going into this game, Pomeroy has us moved up slightly to #46 That only a few spots lower than Dayton, and about a dozen spots lower than Cincy (after their loss yesterday) as the only schools in Ohio ahead of us. It's interesting to think that we could post two more wins over the next few days, and if things fall right, AKRON could be the highest rated team in the State of Ohio by the end of the weekend.

I kept saying all along that I would have loved the opportunity to knock off a Big 10 team in Detroit. CMU got that chance, and now leads in the 4th Quarter.

I really like the APR qualifier, although, I am sure there are many of us on here who have experienced the reality of what is often done to award "grades" to star athletes. It's hard to compare school's player achievement entirely accurately, based on that. But, what I like about it most is that it's a little bit of a reward for STUDENT/Athletes at a particular school who may not have done well enough on the field to warrant a bid, but clearly understand the meaning of being a COLLEGE student. I'm guessing none of the kids at these schools were proclaiming that "We ain't come to play school" on their twitter accounts.

I know I am jumping in on this one a little late, but before anyone starts putting too much stock in bowl games, and starts putting Appalachian State and Georgia Southern on some pedestal, know that they finished behind Arkansas State in the Sun Belt. And Arkansas State just got annihilated by Louisiana Tech about a week ago. These might be bowl games on neutral fields. But, that's the only difference between these games, and one extra week of OOC play. Please, temper the idea that this is some kind of grand indicator, or you might start sounding like the OSWho fans who spent last January yelling on rooftops that they had suddenly buried the SEC in a grave because they had won one game in 14 tries against the conference.

I noticed that at least one poster brought up the 26-7 team from 2007, and how they didn't get an at large bid. Look at it in a little more detail. Most of the OOC games will seem similar, with the exception of the return bracket-buster game against #25 Nevada. Maybe pulling out that win could have had a greater impact. But, the losses to Illinois-Chicago and Arkansas-Little Rock were surely the nail in the coffin. I think there is enough of a correlation with today's schedule to tell us that 26 wins still isn't enough. I'd say that the target, with this schedule, should be about 28 wins. That should put us in the mix. At 29 or 30, it would seem that we'd be very hard to pass up.

Kreed....Do you really have to start the chatter about "the MAC will not get an at-large" and "the regular season is just practice for the MAC tournament" in December? The MAC hasn't gotten an At-Large because nobody who's outside of the Tournament Champ has compiled a good enough resume for years. There's no way to know if anyone is worthy when there's almost 3 months left in the season. The only thing we know about Akron right now is that the Green Bay loss will not be looked upon very favorably if we end up with enough wins to be a serious contender. Enjoy the REGULAR season.

Good find, Zach. So basically, 50 to 1 chance that we lose only one more game, and 300 to 1 that we win out. Makes sense. I think maybe the toughest part of all of this is that we're talking about the possibility of winning 30 games when we've already maxed out the number of losses we can take in that scenario. Maybe it would get more serious consideration if we were sitting at 11-0 right now.

If College of Charleston won 30 games and was an 8 seed, that means they were regarded much higher by the committee than the last of the At-Large teams they would have admitted. So, 30 wins, even with the schedule they play, easily put them in the field, even if they were not a conference champ. This is simple: 1) 30 wins would ABSOLUTELY put us in the field. 2) Winning every remaining game is unbelievably improbable. If we're still winning in about mid-February, the odds of it happening probably become remotely possible enough to warrant a discussion.

This got very little mention at all on Sportscenter last night and this morning. The Toledo game stole the headlines. I was surprised since there was only 2 games last night.

My glass was full all day today, and it wasn't Hemlock. One of my most exciting days as a Zips fan.

Ada....That was a 5-7 season. Please don't sell us short Play Of The Game Today: The runback after the fumble by the Utah State QB right before halftime. We ended up needing those 3 points, or we would have lost.

Don't forget about Jim McMahon either. He was quite the BYU anomaly.

I don't think this has been mentioned, but I found it rather interesting. I didn't realize that Logan, Utah (Where Utah State is located) is way up in Northern Utah. So, it's actually only 4-5 hours from Boise. I'm not sure how good of a following they have for football, but it would seem like they have the potential to turn this game today into a Home game. I'm thinking that this would at least be comparable to our ability to get people to Detroit for a Bowl Game, in terms of distance. If there's 15-20 thousand Utah State fans, and only a handful of Akron fans in that stadium today, it could have an impact on the game.

:)Is the heat in the arena any worse than it is in the JAR? Even in the middle of winter, I find relief going back out into the cold after one of our home basketball games.

Anyone would be a fool if they didn't use whichever method allowable to report the HIGHEST number, right?

The only real noticeable thing I took out of this game was how much UCSB's players got to the hoop. I'm sure Keith won't be happy with giving up 70 points and so many layups to a team like that.

I'm getting tired of the ROBO-THOM pronunciation.

I'll be interested to find out tomorrow if things might start to trend in the other direction, to any extent. Will the students be filtering to the bars around campus to watch the Bowl Game? How many will be huddled around their TVs in the dorms and apartments? Does "just winning" change everything? Or, are we still a "small" program, who's conference is insignificant and their bowl game is meaningless, in the eyes of our very own students.

Keener. The sad thing about your post is that our STUDENTS should also be FANS. It's ridiculous that we have to separate them. I bet if you polled our own student population, especially the ones who are avid sports fans, they have far more interest in the success of their favorite "big programs" than the school which they attend.