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I did just recently acknowledge that there is certainly a Louisville and Kentucky presence in SW Ohio also. That certain ads to the challenge that blOSU faces in gaining support there. But that still didn't prevent Cincinnati's fan base from growing. It's amazing.

Trimmy.....Excellent, excellent post !! I can take this a step further. The people at blOSU admit that they are now the ones who cannot gain support in the SW corner of Ohio. How's that for turning the tables?? People need to start paying attention to what is going on down there. They've done radio ads that mock the Suckeyes when they have been ranked ahead of them in football. They wear shirts that say "bUCkeye State", with the "UC" part being the Cincinnati logo. You HAVE to treat them like competition. I read a post in the Facebook disaster on Monday that said something like, "the person who had fans turning in blOSU t-shirts for Akron t-shirts must have gotten a new job". THAT's the kind of approach we need.

I'm sure the fact that this is being called a pretty even game in Vegas probably has everything to do with our last performance. Actually, I think it's quite fortunate for us to get a road game against maybe the best team in the league out of the way now....and move forward. On a side note....Although I've never been one to compare one game to another to another with common opponents, I felt like the Miami (FL) blowout win over Duke last night took a little bit of the sting out of our worst loss of the season against the Hurricanes.

This was how I saw it too. I don't have a problem with displaying good sportsmanship. But that can easily be accomplished with "congratulations" or "nice game", after the fact. But, telling a competitor that you want them to go out and win a trophy and bring it back for all of us in the same State to enjoy, and indicating that we are "all on the same team"? That's completely unacceptable to me. Especially when it's a competitor that has a great impact on your ability to compete. Let me give you an example in the business world. If you were a medium sized tire manufacturer in Akron, would you tell the much larger tire manufacturer in Akron who you compete against to "go out and sell a HUGE amount of tires today, and when you get recognized for the accomplishment, bring back the award and let us all celebrate together, because we are both in the same city"????? Of course not. Big Zip, there's been a reduction in the D-1A level before, from 95 to 85. It does prevent some of the "stockpiling" of talent at the top end, and does push some better players further back in the pool of schools. Further reductions would also continue to help the teams at the lower end with money issues by having to pay out a lower amount of scholarships. Who knows how much it really has an effect on "leveling the playing field". I don't know how you measure that, but it seems that upsets of non-major conferences vs. power conferences have seemed to increase. I believe all of our wins that fall in that category (NC State, Syracuse and Pitt) have all happened since the reduction also. There's certainly better methods out there to level the playing field. Dave in Green recently made an excellent post about adopting some of the things that the Pro leagues have done to create parity, such as imposing luxury taxes, etc.

I love your post. But Sir, true students athletes "ain't come to play school"....apparently. That's today's acceptable "student athlete" (at least at Team Ohio's central campus location in Cowlumbus), whether we like it or not. At this point, a "level playing field" would force the money machines to adhere to compliance, and also make sacrifices. And as long as those schools are the ones making the money for college athletics as a whole, how can we even imagine a time where anyone in control would ever want to change it?

Come to think of it, maybe you're actually on to a possible solution to create more parity. Less opportunities for the "larger programs" to stockpile money.

I once learned that, outside of Columbus, the Cleveland area has the highest number of blOSU alums of any city in the state. Cincinnati is quite different. Even the OSU folks themselves admit that they have a hard time gaining support in that area. As I've pointed out before, Cincinnati's success in basketball and football surely has a lot to do with it. But, I also think that Dayton and Xavier basketball, and the somewhat-close Kentucky and Louisville affects that too.

First, I am all for whatever gives us a chance as a MAC member to get involved. However.....I don't know how they would make it work. Three or Four rounds of playoffs doesn't work. And the Bowl Games aren't going away because of MONEY, so that would always have the be the initial rounds. Thus, it extends the season to the end of January and makes these kids play a damn NFL season worth of total games. It's not like basketball, where you can play games every night. The "Ain't come to play SCHOOL" would become more of a reality.

Absolutely!! We're all "Team Ohio". Lets celebrate this Championship!!

Trimmy....I've often liked your posts, but I need to interject here for a minute, at the expense of sounding a bit arrogant. If you knew my background over the last several decades, I'm sure you'd find that I'm more than qualified to give my expert opinion about a marketing strategy. It's not some random sports forum rant. Trust me. And No, I don't want ZipsNation to take over running the athletic program either.

It will be longer than a few months. Their basketball team is out of the Top 25 and has a #56 RPI. Thus, the bandwagoners will be in hibernation until September. Thank God.

Thank You. I swear, I don't think anyone outside of those of us on this board GETS IT !! When blOSU is doing well, and all of the bandwagoners are faithfully marching in line with them, we have NO chance of gaining ground with the potential fanbase in this area.

Yes, it takes a very talented, dynamic and creative marketing mind to create the powerful marketing message....."Tickets On Sale Now", which we saw on all of the billboards and newspapers ads.

Yes, this is a good point. In fact, I wish that even the most casual Zips fans understood that life is much more difficult for the Zips in many respects when blOSU's sports programs are doing well.

You're close. They would be Akron shirts, but would probably say, "We Celebrate Your Title With You. We Are All Team OHIO"

We compete against them for students, athletes, faculty, media attention....and maybe most importantly....DONOR CONTRIBUTIONS. You're either unaware of the impact, or just flat-out ignoring it.

I'm an Akron fan, so I couldn't care less about him. But, at least in the NFL it's not against the rules to "just happen to run into" potential recruits while you are at THEIR high school football games, and "inadvertently pocket dial" recruits during a non-contact period.

Of course. And the Nut Head is getting sent up here to cheer us on and yell "Go Zips" as we make a run towards another MAC basketball title. We'll also be getting encouraging tweets and Facebook messages from their President and Athletic Dept. Go Team Ohio !!!!!!!

I was once told that Zippy does not perform and go to events and parties, etc., during breaks because it's too expensive to the U to bring that person back from break, the lack of support staff on campus, etc. Really? Your most visible marketing tool gets sidelines during breaks and during the summer? We should be using that piece of publicity whenever, and wherever we can.

Go back and read my post again. I don't think you caught the part where the Poster thinks Akron plays in another Division.

Here was the post on the FB page that might have caught my attention the most. Some people who claim to support us don't even know that we are a D-1A School !!!!! Here's the post. Did anyone else see this? Funny. Different divisions my friend! Like the Cleveland Indians and the Akron Rubber Ducks... They are both the HOME TEAM!!! Go bucks!!!!

They just made their own jobs of promoting Akron Athletics a whole lot tougher, and they don't even realize it.

I thought that attitude among our players of touting other programs was a problem during the Ianello years, and has since been rectified? Apparently not.

Based on the outcry I am following on social media, I guess we just created a new example of "Something We Can Do". Happy to see the Zips fans out there showing their loyalty.

See my Post #17 above about what people will say who have no idea about our plight, or the history. Maybe some of these people need to take some time to learn before speaking. This is more than just a "good luck".