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Thanks for the additional info., Dave. It's sick. So, it appears that we all chose to be CONTROLLED over being DISCARDED. As if there was a choice. So.....do we even have an option anymore when discussing whether to beat them or join them? I'll go back to my model I have been presenting, which is becoming more of a reality every day.......we have to raise TONS more money to get ourselves into any position where we can be competitive at anything higher than a mid-major level. All along......I have thought the schools who are able to pay the "stipends" to athletes would gain a HUGE edge. That is about to become a reality.

This news from yesterday should make us all sick. http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/12185230/power-5-conferences-pass-cost-attendance-measure-ncaa-autonomy-begins Maybe I have not stayed up on recent changes. But, how did the big conferences get this power to vote on things themselves that affect all of us?

Has me thinking about the Richfield Coliseum. Too bad we still don't have that resource nearby to invite some big names into town. There I go having flashbacks to the game against Pitt in 1987 again.

Dave, Love all of your research, but you are wrong on possibly the most significant recent fact about CMU. They actually beat Toledo in Toledo. And even more shocking to me is that they did it while only scoring in the 60s.

Well, by my count he was here for 9 semesters, or 4-1/2 yrs. Maybe during the summers also. The article could have just said he "graduated", just meaning that he finished his career. Whoever wrote the article probably doesn't know anything about his academic status.

It's hard for me to figure out this CMU team offensively. I know how they play, but I see them scoring 100 or more against some inferior competition, but then score 60 at Toledo. I have a feeling that they are just running up the score on some teams that don't play defense. That won't happen tonight. But, they still beat Toledo on the road and we got spanked. At the very least, I expect some good entertainment. And I really believe that this type of game is the key to getting us to 20 wins. Which will certainly be a great feat after the loss of Treadwell.

Ah..So I AM on to something here. Could this also explain why it was Northwestern who started this? A Big 10 (or 11, or 12 or 13) school who might be tired of getting squashed by the huge public institutions in their own conference? And trust me. I am NOT a union guy at all. And I was never in favor of players being paid. But I might be able to get interested in any situation that might level the playing field.

It's just a discussion. I'm trying to walk myself through this. Hear me out...... This would be unlike any other change. It wouldn't be controlled by a group of powerful schools, who are hell-bent on maintaining power. Unionization of players would be FORCED upon them by a collective group of players from EVERY school. If it happens, and they are permitted to share in school's revenue, I'm just wondering what happens when the player (union member) from Texas feels that he is entitled to $10,000, based on their profits, and the player from Akron (member of the same union) is only going to get a portion of his own school's profits, which is nothing? In this scenario, the players within the Union who are from the low-revenue-generating schools FAR OUTNUMBER those from the big revenue generators. So, wouldn't they push for the profits to be evenly distributed among all of the players in the union? If that was the case, large chunks of money would be taken from the big schools, which eliminates some of their ability to buy championships. Therefore, creating more parity. At the same time, it would also ensure that there is no additional recruiting advantage given to the largest schools, since a student/athlete would not be able to get a bigger payday by going to the largest school possible.

I'm glad this topic came up again, because I was just thinking about how this fits into our recent "leveling the playing field" discussions. So, if players share in the revenue from their schools, wouldn't that take a big chunk of the resources away from the "big" schools? The same resources that they use today to create so much separation from themselves and everyone else in D-1A? Although, that also may also persuade even more great players to go to those select schools, since they have the biggest chunk of profits to distribute to their players. Unless, of course, the total revenue distributed to players would be spread across all of D-1A. Just a thought.

Conclusion: Our own graduates who are OSU Honks far outnumber those who remain Zips sports fans. IF they ever did become a Zips sport fan at all while they were here. The Silver Lining?.....a whopping 92 people from that same Facebook group have LIKED the Akron Pride Day post I could say that this answers a lot of questions, but I think we're all well aware of the challenges we have already.

I hear you Dave. I wonder if it would work? Maybe it could. I wasn't really trying to refute what you were saying in my last post. I just got on a roll and started spitting out my experiences in regards to fans being at our games who are not Akron fans. I hope it was informative

Dave, I was with you on the first couple of sentences, then you lost me. Let me tell you a story. One of my wife's friends came in from out of state last year for our first football game. She's a graduate of a smaller D-1A school down south that lives in the shadow of the "bigger' programs, just like we do. Her dad is a legend at this school. She knows football like no other female I know, and has traveled all of over the country for decades to D-1A college games, both big and small. Anyway...she was ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED that our fans were not color coordinated. It's the very first thing she noticed when she saw the crowd, and she made me stand up and look around. I probably never noticed it before, but she was right !! It's probably been like that for a long time. The crowd truly looked like a container of Crayola crayons. So, I ask myself......is it really asking much for someone to put on a Blue shirt before they come to our game? Even if they don't have any Zips gear? I don't think people need to be heckled or called out for doing otherwise. But when you see those people consciously show up to one of our events, with a red and silver hat, jacket, pants, scarf, etc., I have a hard time believing that these were the only clothes they owned. They may have even actually wanted to antagonize people. My sister and her husband are Akron grads, but they are serious OSU Honks (they live in Cowlumbus). But whenever they come back here for a game to reunite with old sorority and fraternity friends, they ALWAYS wear blue. They would never wear OSU gear into any Akron game. In addition, do you really think blOSU fans even want to go to Akron games? I think 99% of them would stay home and watch the Suckeyes on TV. Most of them think we are high school quality football. In fact, my experiences taking fans of any "big' program to an Akron game involved them spending the entire night telling me how everything we do is "bush league" compared to their school, even if I took them to the Club Level or to the Suites. Just my thoughts.

Good Call. Our connection to Heisman is really our greatest link to fame and football history. Tressel? As always, I don't really want anything to do with being connected to someone like that. But since this would be used to attract fans in this area, and so many of them are blOSU honks who still think the guy is a saint, it might actually be worthwhile to put him in there.

Frankly, I used to be very annoyed when the OU fans did that chant 50 times a game during those MAC championship games in Cleveland. But after I learned more about the history, and how it belongs to them and actually describes them, I actually started to appreciate their unity and their tradition....but only just a little bit I mean, when have we ever been able to get our fans in unison for anything like that? As a fan of a fellow MAC school, I'm actually a bit jealous that they can do such a thing. They clearly have a collective pride in their school.

I got two things out of this... 1) This is your classic example of a young kid being molded to believe that there is only ONE college in Ohio. This is why I have such a great appreciation for the UA alums who bring their kids to games dressed in their alma mater's clothing. 2) We're not alone. I enjoy seeing how much OU fans badger their own people for simultaneously rooting for blOSU. After all, they have the biggest reason to be mad. Ohio State claims to BE THEM, and even stole their OHIO chant.

Ha Ha....I'm glad I got that "2 Stander" term to catch on. But with the blowout win last night, it was truly just a "1 Stander" night for the blue hairs. Although, occasionally they do stand momentarily for the free balls and shirts. And to JohnnyZip......another -P-S

Deji started 20 of the 29 games last year. He played 15 min. p/game. He shot almost 40% from 3 point land. This Year: He's playing 5 more min. per game, and scoring 4 more ppg than last year. I don't see why some people are viewing his performance as some kind of miraculous transformation. He's playing a few more minutes and scoring a few more points. It's not a shocker. He's a great athlete, and simply continues to get better. The only thing that should shock anyone is that he dramatically improved his FT shooting.

Interesting. We shoot 54% from the field, despite missing 17 3-point shots. I think that tells you how well we played in the paint tonight. And 8 blocked shots. Who thought this group would ever be recording blocks like this. Right now, I guess we have to be fine with playing well at home. Hopefully the rest takes care of itself soon. I think if we win on Sat. at home, we have a great shot to get to 20 wins. Who would have thought that after we lost Tree?

Unless he was playing that Snoopy song at our golf outing and chanting Z-I-P-S, then he's a butt-munch in my book too. My wife and I do the Z-I-P-S to that song every time we go to a bar and someone decides to play it. Plus, I thought the guy went to blOSU? Why was he singing a song about OHIO University? I'm confused.

Sadly, this would probably draw more for a regular season game than a MAC Championship game. And Sadly again, I think more "casual" Akron fans would go to this, rather than a MAC Championship game. I really think many of us on this board seriously overestimate how people feel about winning a MAC title.

The friggin HONKS would certainly be there, but so would the Zips. If we could get anywhere near 10k in the Q, it would be "mission accomplished". Besides an opportunity for a quality win, this could also be a perfect opportunity to show NE Ohio that ZIPS FANS ARE OUT HERE !!! We should be begging for those kinds of opportunities.

I love your thinking, Trimmy !! This reminds me of the TCU team a few years ago that won a BCS bowl game over Wisconsin, and blOSU's former President called them out and said they played a "Sister's of the Poor" schedule (actually, their SOS that year was similar to blOSU's). This is what the idiots in Columbus got to see on their highway billboards afterwards.

You have the right thought process. There are many things we have that are superior to them, and we need to talk about them. For instance, their 50 or so NCAA violations per year ABSOLUTELY BLOWS US OUT OF THE WATER!!! The Honks will all go away now until August. Their basketball team already has 4 losses, and an RPI in the 50s. They won't latch onto that. In fact, this could possibly be a start of a bad basketball run for them in the coming years, with 3 Senior starters on a team that's already struggling a bit. This could soon present another opportunity for us.

I knew that those Cincinnati ads were on youtube somewhere, and I've listened to them before. But the video of Zippy beating up the Nut Head? I hadn't seen that in years!! That was my morning entertainment.

Keener. I'm sure that UC was paying the radio station to run those ads, just like we'd be paying for our ads to promote our games. I can't see another scenario, and it might be a part of the game package. But directly or indirectly, UC has to be paying for that airtime.