GP1

Spring ball? If MAClike conferences had any sense, we would be kicking off our spring/summer season on April 11th. I like real football, not football practice.

I agree that it is going to take flight again. However, when I think of the Browns taking flight again, I think of this video. The only difference is the flight lasts two years and the guy ejecting at the end is the QB if he is lucky.

This is absolutely true. So my question is...What will they see when they tune in?

Just about every year since the Browns came back can be described as one part of the McCoy years. They draft a QB then spend two years ruining him before drafting another and starting the two year building process of destroying him.

I voted for Bortles because I like guys who don't go to the BCS schools and have the world handed to them. It toughens the mind and body. He is also very talented in every way that matters....and he has a really hot girlfriend. Imagine the tail he can pull when he has millions and graduates from that busted Daytona stripper he has been seeing. The other two are very talented in their own way. Manziel is like a Wilson (Seattle) without the challenges of succeeding at two separate colleges and the experience of professional baseball. I like to watch him, but I'd stay away if I was an NFL team. I don't think the fundamentals are there. Bridgewater is also very talented and well coached. Destroyed some bad teams and periodically struggled against good team. Great fundamentals.

Going back to giving $10 away to X number of students. I think I'm really on to something meaningful here. If you want to use a BB game to foster community, I think this idea would work just as well and it could be sponsored by a local drinking establishment. The first (insert number here) of students 21 years of age and older attending the game get $5 cash and a wrist band. If they go to Drinking Establishment X after the game and show their wristband, they will get another $5 cash, or pick another amount. After the game, all of the students who attended could go to the bar and drink and talk about the game. Getting drunk with my fellow classmates and sharing commonalities, like a basketball game, when I was in school made me feel a lot more part of the community than a flag would have.

This is an excellent point. The product of basketball consists of two teams. When one is really good (the Zips) and the other is average at best (the MAC) then the product isn't as good. Since we are Zips fans, we think the Zips being good is good enough. Not everyone thinks like us and people look for different things. The rest of the MAC badly needs to get good or at least play a better brand of basketball. I don't think die hard fans are sick of watching the Zips win. I think they have had a belly full of the rest of the MAC and it makes it hard for them to attend sometimes. There is nothing wrong for fans to seek more substance in their entertainment choices. The question of a marques win generating more attendance is one that I have trouble connecting all of the dots with in terms of believing there is a long term benefit. I think it assumes a lack of sophistication with the basketball consumer. A win is something that happens in the past. Upcoming games happen in the future. Marketing Departments can only attract people to the future. They can attract people to a future game using a past game, but the future game had better have the same quality as the past game. If the Zips beat UNC one week and then play Central Michigan the following week, how is a person who knows anything about basketball supposed to get excited about the CMU game?...The players don't even get as excited. If they go to the CMU game, will the quality of the overall product on the floor be enough to bring them back again? All the Zips can do is keep winning and hope that somehow the rest of the MAC gets more entertaining.

It seems to me that if the students are looking for something of value for going to the game, the school would spend a lot of time thinking about what would be of value to the students and still never be able to make everyone happy. I guess my question would be, how much would the value of the give away need to be to get the students to attend? Would the give away make everyone happy and attract students? Would the time of the employees of the athletic department be better spent trying to attract ticket buying customers? The way I see it is if the students want something of value for going to the games, why wouldn't the University just hand out $10 bills to every student in attendance, or at least the first (insert number here)? It would save them the time of having to think about a give away item and the cost of the give away item. $10 is better than getting stuck with a stupid bobble head doll or something that will collect dust forever. The student can spend the $10 on anything he/she wants. Sports marketing departments at many sporting levels have created a situation where fans buy a ticket, walk through a gate and expect something for free to land in their hands. If they don't get something for free, they will maul the guy next to them trying to catch a stupid $1 t-shirt with the name of a bank or something on it. It's silly on almost every level and is really a reflection of the increasingly silly society we live in. I'm pretty convinced that if cheerleaders threw free half pound cans of cancer cells into the stands at a sporting event, there would be an unusually large number of people fighting over catching one of the free cans. I'm absolutely certain there would be no problem getting 500 people to show up early for a game to get a free bobble head doll made out of cancer cells. I could care less about the 500 mooches. Give me a lot of dedicated fans who want to cheer for their team without the distractions of nonsense happening around them.

I think the program is doing just fine with attendance. They had a nice crowd after a horrible run of games that in years past would have resulted in 2,000 fans at the game. If the students don't want to attend, then they should stay home. If they need a free gift on the way in to get them to go, there is nothing keeping them once they go in so what was the point? I personally think it is idiocy the way people fight over those stupid shirts anyhow. Akron is a large enough city with a major metropolitan area within an hour. Win basketball games and people will show up. Give me 4,500 people who want to be there over 5,500 with 1,000 who don't want to be there any day of the week.

Love the link Dave. Thanks for posting. College basketball games are perfect for the college age students of today. The games last two hours and they are in a climate controlled building. Reminds me of one of my all time favorite sayings, "No matter how hot it is out. No matter how cold it is out. It's always 72 degrees on a bar stool." Two hours of "entertainment" is about all the college age kid today can stand before they need another form of entertainment. College football on the other hand has big problems.25% of the games at BCS schools are designed to be almost guaranteed wins for the home team. The games last in excess of three hours. There are entirely too many TV time outs and replays. As football consumers, we are having a lot of absolute crap thrown in our direction with a little football being played in between the handfuls of crap. College students of today cannot tolerate that amount of nothingness being thrown at them for 3+ hours. They have too many choices for how they spend their time and money now. In addition to the crap throwing, the message being sent to football consumers is the only thing that matters is winning the national championship. In college basketball, making the NCAA Tournament, and for a lot of schools going to at least the Sweet 16, has become all that matters. If a school is not in the running for these events, they don't make any news. If they don't make news, they don't make the i Phones the students spend their lives looking at. If they don't make the i Phones, they don't matter. Why attend an event that doesn't matter? College basketball is still in a good position. College football schools need to get control over how their events are covered and insist on proposals from the networks outlining how they are going to maximize the amount of time the telecast is actually showing actual football being played. I understand that hurts the "building process", but that process is nothing but a money sink anyhow so why not at least make the games more entertaining for those attending and watching at home. Hint: Replays automatically get some form of the upcoming TV time out squeezed in and the excitement of watching a middle aged referee talking into a headset squeezed out. More football and less contrived excitement.

The Zips badly needed a cupcake. A little confidence and momentum is needed right now.

How about a score for a guy 36,000 feet in the air.

Sinatra at Encore in Las Vegas is excellent. Sat at the bar last night, listened to Sinatra music, watched a Sinatra/Dean Martin movie that had the Three Stooges in it and ate some pasta with a great bottle of Italian wine. Does it get any better than that?

ESPN, and most of the athletic directors in the MAC for that matter, are more interested in themselves than the MAC schools. It makes no sense to me for us to participate in something that does not serve our best interests. The next deal the MAC makes with ESPN will probably be worse than the current. There are now plenty of national sports networks on the air. The MAC should be looking for another network or a deal with a regional network I could watch at home on Direct TV. Our thinking is completely in the past. We have met the enemy and we are us.

Agreed. On the day of a college football game, one shouldn't have the stress of thinking about getting work done before leaving work early. One shouldn't be thinking during the game about how tired they are going to be the next day. A college football game should be an event of complete freedom. The MAC is a shockingly stupid league. Just shocking.

I haven't seen a backhand hit this hard since the Australian Open.

Is/was the former player in question a member of this well known and often in trouble fraternity?

Just had a late breakfast at Tableau at the Wynn in Las Vegas. Traditional eggs Benedict were awesome. Business partner had duck hash and eggs and they looked great.

The Zips need a cure for what is bothering them. Confidence and momentum is good medicine for a struggling team. Two bad teams in the next three games provides some opportunities, but Buffalo in the middle can dampen any confidence and momentum unless the Zips play lights out. What do the Zips need to do to capture confidence and momentum?

Keith has been doing this for a long time now and knows what words make the paper and which don't. I don't think he used that word by accident. Nobody questions his commitment to the kids. Some of us are questioning his lack of accountability in his public comments when things go bad.

I don't know if it will work or not either. What I do know is playing Miami will sure make it look like it worked.

I expect better leadership out of the guy making more than anyone else in the Athletic Department than a general statement about guys "quitting". That's a horrible thing to call a college athlete for lots of reasons and can lead to revolts. Mostly, it is the kind of thing fans say when they don't know what else to say and they think they know what is in the heads of the players. I hate to think that the only thing Keith had to say after that game last night was a statement directed at his players and not his preparation, motivation or game strategy. It's easy to pile on guys when they are down. It's the ultimate cheap shot. Friends, family, classmates, the media, etc. pile on when things aren't going well. That's when a really good leader takes a beating for the people below him. It's the point when you give guys a hand up, not another cheap shot. It's also easy to be another person patting guys on the back when things are going well. Friends, family, classmates, the media, etc. pat you on the back when things are going well. When things are going well, that's when a good leader treats his players the worst and pushes them to be better. Kick a guy when he is up, not when he is down. This isn't the first time I've posted about Keith throwing his players under the bus when things haven't gone well. I'm sure it won't be the last. Maybe after the next victory, he can entertain the fans with one of his famous, "When I coached Lebron..." stories.

Dambrot throws players under the bus...again. Nice job kicking them when they are down. You're the highest paid employee in the Athletic Department Keith. Take some responsibility when things go bad.

They can worry about next year after this year. Games still to be won.

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