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Here's a few more details. November 2004 vs. Marshall, Rubber Bowl, In a conference race. ESPN2 46 Degrees Attendance = 29,000 November 2016 vs. Toledo, Infocision Stadium, In a conference race. ESPN2 68 Degrees Attendance = 6,000 It's amazing to look at these two games. The Marshall game even had much colder weather, and was in the crappy stadium that so many people claimed was "keeping fans from going to more games". Yet, it was able to draw a crowd that was FIVE TIMES the size of the Toledo crowd. So, what's changed so dramatically in the last 12 years?

With the weekday home games coming up, I was reminiscing tonight about two of the really successful weeknight games in Akron in the past. The 1986 Murray State game. The 2004 Marshall game. Everyone knows those games drew big crowds, and were memorable. So, what's happened? Did the "novelty" of weeknight games fade away? Are there just too many of them that they aren't special anymore? My recollection is that being on ESPN 1 or 2 was a really, really big deal to our students, fans, and even others looking for something fun to do on an odd game day. And that is going to be the case for the OU game. We'll also be late in the season, just like the 2004 Marshall game. We'll also be in the middle of a division title race, just like the 2004 Marshall game. Very similar circumstance. Yet, I can bet that the actual attendance may not be 1/2 of what we experienced for the 2004 game. Heck, look at the weekday game against Toledo in November last year, when we were 3-2 in conference play, one win away from bowl eligibility, and it was a very warm (68 degree) November night. The "announced" attendance was only 6k.

Ok, you have me beat. If I wasn't a dumb, broke college student, I guess I would have figured that hard liquor would have done me more good than cold beers.

Scott, You're bringing back memories. Going all the way back to my early 80's student days, we were filling our coats with beer to go into Zips games. Nobody cared. On days like that, I'd have a can of beer (probably Old Milwaukee....or something similar) and a cup of hot chocolate sitting in front of me on the concrete, and I'd be switching back and forth. Nobody checked your coats and bags back in those days. We weren't yet worried about illegals infiltrating the country to commit terrorism.

I'd say that's pretty darn low !!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the whole idea of being down low at the snap is to get better leverage to move defenders for power running plays? I agree with you that they should therefore be as low as possible at the goal line. And maybe in plenty of other various instances too. I don't know why they'd ever be standing so much, other than obvious passing situations.

That's what I thought too. But I read 2 conflicting items above.

So, is Alvin in our out?

I think all Akron fans would probably agree with you on 3 of those.

Northern had plenty of chances in this one.

I don't know if anyone has started to share these yet, but this one has us at #198 https://herosports.com/college-basketball/preseason-rankings-2017-18-duke-michigan-state-arizona-ahah

Everyone on this forum (including me) has complained for years that "things never bounce our way". Some of that is clearly happening this year when we really need it. We'll take it. And let me point this out. Injuries are very unfortunate, but they happen to every team. And just stating that they happened to guys that are chosen to represent the team on the field does not mean that they are any more, or any less of an impact on your team. We wouldn't have been any better than 4-1 over the last 5 games without those injuries anyway. So, for both of those reasons, our injuries are really a non-factor to me at this point. I hope I can still say that after 3 more games too. But without having in-depth knowledge of each of our opponents injury situations, it would be impossible to compare whether ours or theirs had greater impact.

Oh, heck no. Let me rephrase that. PLAYING at home vs. PLAYING on the road. "Home Field Advantage" probably made you think I was indicating that Miami will pack their place with a raucous crowd. My bad.

You just proved what UAZipster was illustrating.

Correct. Like I said. I think we learned a lot from going through this 2 years ago. Bahamas just happens to be in the pool of possibilities once again.

Great post. That's exactly my point. We've been very fortunate to be the recipient of opponent mistakes in some key wins this year. I'd like that to continue, but you certainly can't expect it. It's crazy, isn't it? If we were 3-6 (2-3 conference) right now, instead of 5-4 (4-1 conference), the Bowden Bashers would be out in full force. He'd probably be in danger of being fired. Instead, as a result of some fortunate circumstances, we're looking at everything much differently right now. Evaluating everything as successful vs. unsuccessful really can be a very slight difference in the world of sports.

You hate to live and die by the big play. But that's been the key to our offense since Tommy has been the QB. Without those quick strikes last Saturday, we may have gotten manhandled by Buffalo. I'll take points any way we have to get them. If that's over the top, I'll take it.

I feel like we've gone through a couple of recent games where we got victories, and had everything possible fall our way when our defense was on the field. I sure hope that good fortune continues. But, I doubt if it will. Miami certainly doesn't have the swagger they had late last year with their 6 game winning streak, but they might still be better than us. I just hope that their home field advantage is negated a bit by the fact that they just played a rivalry game on the road, and will have a few days shorter rest than the Zips. I think that could be a factor that favors us late in the game when you've reached November.

We're definitely rotating running backs like crazy since Ball went down. Morgan even got the start last week. I have no crystal ball, but I have a feeling that Sands will be the one to emerge as the primary rusher before the end of the year. I think he has a bright future with us too.

Both This part is true. We'd clinch a week earlier if we beat Miami and OU, instead of OU and Kent.

I still don't get why this is a "major problem" in our path to the title. Miami pretty much completely eliminated themselves after last night's loss (their 3rd loss). We won't even need to own a tiebreaker against them. They have no way to win the title now unless some really crazy things happen. And we don't need 3 wins to clinch. I think anyone would feel much more confident in beating Kent at home as the other victory we need to clinch the title.

No, that's OK. That's definitely another scenario that could work. And I agree that Miami is the more winnable game, even though it's on the road. But, I am not yet at the point where I want to hope for 2 other OU losses as any kind of logical scenario to get us the MAC East title. I gave you a scenario that does NOT need help from anyone else, and does NOT even require us to win all of our remaining games. So no, I would not agree that our better odds are to beat Miami on the road, lose to OU, and hope for 2 other OU losses.

No, that's how you officially make it look like impartiality. And I never claimed that the committee is giving in to everything Smith says. Nothing remotely close to that would even be necessary to have influence.

I responded that way because I was watching a game where I see an unbeatable label being put on teams because they were scoring 8 combined touchdowns in a half. The problem was, they were both giving up a lot of touchdowns too.

I love Condi. But, lets say she was in a room of people trying to decide if the Browns should be put in the playoffs. Would you trust her to be completely objective? Oh wait....that's right...they can just ask her to leave the room for a few minutes. That would ensure that she has no influence on them.