GP1

I don't base my opinion of a league on the number of players drafted into a professional league. The Big Ten gets lots of guys drafted and it is a crappy league. On some level it matters, but I think the quality of play matters more than anything. I trust my eyes in determining the quality of play. The quality of play of MAC football has been good the past 2-3 years. There weren't any NFL players on the field for the Akron vs. Toledo game last year, yet it was a very good football game and as entertaining as any game played Thanksgiving weekend last year. MAC basketball is on a 8-10 year slump of just crappy basketball. If the Zips didn't have a good team, they would be lucky to get 1,500 people per game. History tells us 2-3 years is about the limit for really good MAC football so I anticipate the quality of the league to decline in coming years. 8-10 years is about the limit for basketball to be bad and I anticipate somewhat of a turnaround in quality of play in coming years. Unfortunately, it may come from other teams, but that's the way sports are.

In four years, will they receive an actual certificate that proves they are certifiable, or will it just be a general consensus among the basketball viewing world? People really don't understand the Cleveland curse. Winning or losing the lottery is not a sign of it. It's the outcome. The Cleveland curse makes the impossible, possible. The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot and can we now call this The Lottery. There are probably ten other The (fill in the blank) outcomes. They will do nothing with these draft picks making what would seem impossible, possible. One should step back and appreciate Cleveland sports teams like a great painting. They have made art of losing.

Talent isn't declining. It's being used differently. The types of offenses run now can neutralized talent in a way that has never been seen before in the history of the game.

Confidence and momentum...If the Zips can capture some and take advantage of it, they could go on a run of consecutive wins and 8 would be possible.

I think your win total is a little high. 6-7 with a possibility of winning the MAC. Last time we won the MAC the league was on a down swing. The timing is right. Timing may not be everything, but it's very important.

It has been a good couple of years. Best ever?....I'm skeptical. Periodically, the league goes through a good 2-3 year period in spite of the league's leadership. Somehow it is able to transcend the incompetents who run the league and become entertaining. My point is, the league tops out every 8-10 years and if it was a stock, you would sell your shares right now. I think the MAC is at a high point and will begin a decline in coming years if not next year. The leadership of the league is pushing as hard as it can for the fall. Think of it this way. The MAC basketball teams are not performing the way they were a few years ago. From top to bottom, the league isn't as good. It is going through the low point when the football side of the league is going through a high point. The league goes through odd cycles like this more than most in my opinion.

I get similar arguments from ACC fans about what a great football conference it is. ACC fans say it is a great conference and I ask them how Wake, NC State and Virginia play into the greatness. You can find little insignificant points anywhere. An Orange Bowl bid in which NIU proved every doubter right by laying an egg and proving how little rankings mean. Rankings...they mean nothing and people don't remember them unless they are reminded. Heisman ceremony....nobody remembers the losers. Draft picks...What about the rest of the league? Don't get me wrong. I like the MAC. It isn't the league it was in the Roethlisberger, Pennington and Leftwich years. The quality of a league depends on the quality of all of it's teams. Is the league better or worse now than it was in the Soph and JR seasons of Roethlisberger? In both 2002 and 2003, the MAC had six teams exceed .500 records. It had seven teams below .500. ..........In 2013, the MAC had five finish above .500 and SEVEN teams finish equal to or below .500. ......In 2012, the MAC had six teams with greater than .500 records and seven teams finish less than or equal to .500. If you take the actual thing that means anything, winning, the MAC was worse last year than in 2012. If you compare either 2012 or 2013 to a decade before, it is not as better in the areas that matter. Do I need to get into the seemingly endless list of early season embarrassing losses the league suffers at the hands of the BCS teams each season? The MAC isn't getting better. I would argue the League reached one of it's high marks in 2012 and will begin to decline only to reach another high mark equal to 2012 in about 8-10 years.It has set itself up to get worse and it seems to be the one thing the leadership of the League and schools can get right.

The NCAA is a mess because the member institutions made it a mess. I don't the bcs level conference chasing the money as a bad thing. In many ways, they have to because they piled up long term costs to support the "building process". Has anyone ever been to Columbus to see how much they have in the way of athletic facilities? Supporting those facilities doesn't come cheap. It does create a whole world of problems for us though because our types of conferences, in particular the MAC, responds so poorly to the changes that take place. We have to go in a different direction than they are going in order to support our own "building process". It isn't sustainable at our level.

How depressing......

We are in the middle of the worst case scenario right now. Nobody recognizes it. Maybe that isn't all together true. Things could always get worse. I'm just trying to think of some ways in which the MAClike conferences could become even less relevant. Here are some ideas. 1. If the bcs conferences go out and devise a plan to have their own television networks where they can rake in even more money and separate themselves financially from the MAClike conferences....What? This is already happening....Never mind. 2. If the MAClike conferences became so irrelevant that they had to prostitute themselves to a major network and have a significant number of their games played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights starting at 8 PM in front of empty stadiums because nobody wants to go out in October and November to freeze their asses off early week to watch a football game. The commissioners and ADs would never be this self serving...... What? This is happening already....Never mind. 3. Here is a scenario that I think would really hurt MAClike conferences. It's actually a really funny one and one that I think even MAClike schools wouldn't be stupid enough to fall for. It's called the oldest trick in the Athletic Directors playbook. They dupe the taxpayers of their states to put up the funds to build them new stadiums that sit empty, even on game day, and tell them it is/was part of a "building process" that is going to pay off some day. One would have to believe in magic for this to work. What would make this even more funny is if the same schools bankrupted future generations of Americans to pay for this "building process" through inflated student fees the kids had to attach to their student loans. To double down on this, the taxpayers of the states they are in will have to pick up the gap between the spending and the student fees. To triple down, what would be even more insidious is of the leaders of the universities have to cut education programs, thus cutting into the core mission of the universities, which is research and education. No way would any school fall for something so stupid..... What? This is already.....Never mind. I could go on all day, but it would be too depressing. These are the discussions schools should be having in private. How it is spun in a positive manner so it is more tasteful to the public is another issue.

I can't disagree with this. I'd love the MAClike conferences to be able to survive in the fall and follow the flow of the seasons like you do. I'd much rather the fall than the spring. My idea has never been one of desire, but of need and relieving the burden of taxpayers. Unfortunately, this needs to be a financial decision because many schools are over extended on the "building process". Between Americans' love of football and gambling degenerates, good football would do well in the spring.

The league should only make decisions on this matter based upon what is good for the league and not a small fraction of the number of players who will play in the NFL. Most MAC players don't arrive at a MAC school as an NFL talent and they know it. It's why they sign with a MAC school and not a BCS school. MAC players develop into NFL players over time. If a guy is an NFL player, he is an NFL player regardless of the time of year he plays in college. If the NFL wants a player and sees his talent, that player will be on an NFL team. Will it be as easy as getting drafted or playing in the fall? Of course not. It never is, but the one thing about guys who go from the MAC to the NFL is, they do it the hard way. In fact, they have a lot more hurdles placed in front of them playing at a MAC school than when they finish their last year in the MAC and enter the NFL. "But GP1, if they can't make it to the NFL, they will go to another school.".....OK, where? There are a limited number of scholarships at BCS schools, so check that off your list of worries. The D-1A, non-BCS schools are the second best avenue to the NFL. In general, it offers better coaching, financing and player development than the lower leagues. Any guy who has going to the NFL in the back of his mind coming out of high school and can't get a BCS scholarship has no better. The NFL is an extremely, extremely smart run league. Somehow, I think they would be able to adjust to this change in the dynamics of college football. In fact, I think it would take little adjustment at all.

I know what you are trying to say Dave and it is misleading. I've always said this type of a minor league football league, or whatever it is, is a non starter. Nobody is going to go watch this junk. I wouldn't spend a nickle to go watch it. People will go watch good football in the spring. College football at the MAC level is good football and people would go watch games. It could easily take the place of softball and college baseball on ESPN. If not that, there are now plenty of sports networks hungry and willing to pay for content and it would be a perfect fit for someone. Please don't lie about my position again.

You'd stumble too if you were blazing all day....

For me, it was playing quarters in the basement of The Townhouse.

Actually, the years of being good impacts the quality of player a team can bring in. Couple that with paying a guy $10 million a year for only averaging 17 TDs a year puts a limit on how creative a team can be. After six seasons, Bill Cowher, between 1998 and 2000 went 7-9, 6-10 and 9-7 missing the playoffs all three seasons. I remember people saying similar things about him being overrated. They rebounded in 2001. After six seasons, Tomlin has gone 8-8 and 8-8 missing the playoffs both seasons in the last two. Not nearly the decline Cowher experienced. Going into next season, the Steelers are better at every position where they were lacking. Expect a playoff season. The divisions isn't good enough for them to miss three years in a row. The were bad last year and were one missed FG by the KC kicker from making the playoffs. They will at least be good next year and sadly, that's enough in the NFL to make the playoffs. Cowher and Tomlin are both excellent coaches. However, I'm old enough to remember when Chuck Noll was the coach and the Steelers played in a great division that included what used to be a great Browns franchise, a very good Houston franchise and Cincinnati team that used to have a pulse. Cowher and Tomlin may be good, but they are not The Emperor.

They were very complimentary of the quality of education I received from UofA and how it prepared me for my professional life. At the core of it all, I believe UofA has excellent professors who are doing some really good research and doing a good job of preparing students for their professional life. Akron should be striving to keep the core mission of the University in tact so that it remains a great place to get an education and advance scientific discovery. Everything else is secondary. I left out the parts about the campus being turned into a playground for over indulged kids and the crippling financial debt many are going to take on while in college, which typically leads to additional debt beyond student load decreasing their net worth significantly. We have to actually get them in the door before we bankrupt them.

Terrible draft for the Steelers. They break Rule 1 of the NFL draft...Never draft an OSU player in the first round. Couple that with drafting a second round player (the OSU player) in the first round, that's bad. Drafted a DLineman with a reputation for laziness in the second round and then a MAC player in the third.

Preliminary, 10% sounds like a good number. Makes me glad I spent the time to write letters for the Roo Crew. It's less than 400 students. It's $4 million extra in tuition. UofA is $26.7 million in the hole. Wouldn't want to be a marginal UofA employee right now. The ax is going to start swinging. Akron wont be able to stay ahead of the national trend for long.

It's part of the "building process" that is bankrupting American universities. Since American universities are largely public, it is safe to say it is contributing to the daily bankrupting of American society as well. Is our society so weak now that we need "encouragers" to babysit and beg young adults to try harder? What are these young adults going to do when they leave school and find out there are no babysitters, only people who really don't care about you making you do something called "work". Does anyone think for a second that the Indian and Asian kids going to school in this country need an "encourager"? Their encouragement is the thought of having to go back to whatever crap hole of a country they came over from without a degree and going to work in some sweatshop where if they are lucky they will die before their 40th birthday.

There won't be much to see. Sam is an NFL player, but a marginal player. The media and fans will grow tired of stories relating to a back up player and worry more about why they are in last place...again. The drafting of any seventh round player isn't going to change the problems the Rams have. I hope players and coaches are watching every move. The video every practice and grade out every play. The players need to worry more about how they individually look on those films and not worry about how Sam looks on film. Those discussion will be made between him and his position coach. I really don't think this is going to be an issue for the Rams. They have bigger problems.

I think Sam will make the NFL because he is good enough to be at least a special teams player for the length of a rookie contract. Every team needs special teams guys. He performed great in the SEC. That tells me he can play at a professional level even if it is as a marginal player. Once he establishes himself for a couple of years, learns to be a pro, then the last couple years of a rookie contract are a given if you show some progress. I don't see him playing any more than a year or two past a rookie contract.

Exploiting a situation is a time honored tradition of making money in this country. The Sam story provides a profitable result for the Rams and the NFL in many areas. First, there is the obvious story about him playing for Missouri so he is playing for the hometown team on which he won the SEC Defensive Player of the Year in a year when the Tigers came in second in the league. Everyone likes a winner. There is also the second story if him growing up poor and that is always a good seller and can make a player's jersey more popular. Lastly, the homosexual story will make it a big seller among some people who may not have had much of an interest in the NFL let alone a single players. Sam is good for the NFL because he makes it money and he expands the customer base. Good business is good business.

I work in the construction industry and the term "grin f@#ked" is used quite a bit. I don't think I need to go into detail about what it is. Over the years, I've become pretty good at spotting a person who is doing this. I have a feeling Tressel left a sloppy mess on our Board of Trustees.

Me too. I guess I would have a couple of questions that I'm not sure I could ever get a straight answer too. 1. Was the search process designed to give Tressel an easy run at the Presidency? 2. How surprised were they when Tressel didn't get the support of the students and faculty? 3. How surprised were they when Tressel started to look at YSU? Word on the streets is Tressel is a charming guy. I wonder if his charm caused them to think his commitment to UofA was greater than his commitment to his own ego.