GP1

That's the rub for me. I don't think we have done nothing in the post season. To me, the MAC Championship is a pretty good accomplishment. There is another side to this. What about the team that gets in the ncaa tournament on a fluke and wins a game or two? Does that make that program great or does it make it a program that went on a nice run. I would love to have VCUs Final Four run, but that doesn't make them a great program. They weren't even a great team that season. Here is an article on their run. A lot of things went their way. Again, I'd love to win an NCAA game or two. However, I also like to look at their body of work throughout the season. We are less than a handful of games into this season and there is no reason for fans to be talking in cliches about the "program taking a step backward", etc. Now isn't the time for overreaction. I prefer to take the season as it comes and make a decision about the condition of the program after completion of the season.

Interesting use of the word "growth" as it relates to fan expectation towards the program. The Zips lost to CCU last year and it didn't signify a downward trend in the program. In fact, they had a great year last year. I prefer the word condition. What is the condition of the program? For example, the condition of our football program has gone from terrible to bad by breaking the four win barrier. The condition of our basketball program is still very good. We are attractive to recruits. We have a good coach. We get good press as it relates to games. We have a good and growing fan base. UofA is an attractive campus for athlete-students. Etc.... There is a lot to work with so the team needs to take the available tools and make improvement upon it. The foundation of the program is very strong. It wouldn't take much to change the condition of the MBB team from very good to excellent. A win in the NCAA tournament would do that. So would going undefeated in the MAC. I don't understand the fascination everyone has with an NCAA tournament win being the sole source of success or failure of any basketball programs. There are a lot of ways to establish greatness.

Then this needs to change. ADs are at the center of the sleaziness of college athletics. Cross divisional games should be schedules in one of three ways. First, an established rotation without any concern for tradition. Second, a lottery.This would be extremely hard to match up schedules and I don't see how it would work. Third and my favorite. Do it the old NFL way. If you come in first place one year, you have to play the top team from the other division the next year. If there are two cross divisional games, the first place teams have to play the #1 and #2 finishers. If you come in last place, you play the last place team from the other division. If there are an odd number of teams in the league, figure it out, but don't give the top finishing teams cupcakes the following year. This method attempts to creates necessary parity that college athletics has never tried to achieve. I don't care how they do it, they need to get the politics out of the scheduling process.

"The most dangerous team is a team with confidence and momentum." - Bill Cowher I think we have some momentum. The Zips are 3-1 in their last four games so there is some momentum there. Confidence? This is the wild card for the Zips right now in the Cowher Theory. Do they feel good about themselves after their wins or do they look at their wins as something the squeaked by with against bad teams. Can they draw any confidence from the loses to Michigan and NIU...tall order. The words of Master Yoda come to mind going into this game. "Do, or do not. There is no try." If they go into the game with a good plan and play well and lose, so be it. If they don't have that confidence, Master Yoda would say to them as he said to young Skywaker after Luke tells him he couldn't believe he got his spaceship out of the swamp, "and that is why you fail". I see this game as a Zips victory, or one in which they get blown out. Not much middle ground for me.

Huge, huge, huge win for the Zips yesterday. The margin didn't matter. This is all about recruiting as we badly need to increase our overall talent. Four wins says we are no longer a horrible MAC program kids should shy away from. We may still be bad, but we are moving in the right direction with four wins and that is something more meaningful to sell to kids. Nobody wants to play for a terrible program and a kid can now be sold the idea that we won four this year and six or seven wins next year shouldn't be unrealistic. "Mr. Recruit, how would you like to play in a bowl game next year?"...sounds pretty good to me.

@Dave. No, I was in a hurry so I skimmed. Anyhow, conference structures to rotate cross divisional games is great. My question is, if the conferences were doing such a great, ethical and non-favoritism job of scheduling, why all of the sudden are they discussion structured rotation? Wasn't the old way of ADs working through these problems working great for everyone?

I would like to ask permission from the moderators to be the first in the 2013-2014 MBB season to make a comment about the Zips not getting an at large bid to the NCAAs this year.

The sec doesn't have a true rotation as some traditional rival games are still being held. Also, my post above about South Carolina still holds true. This sec schedule doesn't take place until 2014. OH, speaking of South Carolina football, I have a tailgate to get to in Columbia (The Screen Door To Hell). See everyone tomorrow.

If one Googles fixed schedules, there IS little out there because there is only one conference doing it as well as the ACC is. The ACC is a horrible football league, but the conference in general is pretty well run. The ACC has it right and every other conference should follow along with what they are doing. The SEC has tried to maintain traditional rivalries, but that has proven to be unfair. Tradition is overrated in college football and rotating schedules are the best way to go. Until every conference adopts this institutional control, tweaking of schedules will continue and it undermines the integrity of the game.

Long, long ago people believed people working in college athletics worked for the interest of the schools and everything was fair and these hard working people had the best interests of everyone involved in college athletics in mind. It was common sense at the time.

Or an ounce of common sense.

And it shouldn't. I also think there is some good logic in doing it periodically. Making NIU's schedule favorable in order to get them to a BCS game is good business for the MAC. It isn't a widespread problem, but tweaking of schedules can happen in order to make it favorable for one team. It doesn't guarantee winning or losing, but it makes it more favorable. Besides, who is going to complain. NIU? When they looked at their schedule, does anyone think they said, "This isn't fair. We shouldn't be playing Akron four out of five years." Of course they keep their mouths shut. The only time they open their mouths at that point is when they are laughing all the way to the bank. As the Zips get better, this needs to become a negotiating point for future schedules. If we get to the point we win seven games and are on the verge of great things, we need to be able to look at the scheduling body and say, "Remember when you guys were screwing us left a right a few years ago making us play NIU when we stunk? It's our turn now." We need an AD who can have these conversations with the rest of the league and land us in more favorable positions. Not guaranteed wins, but more favorable positions. It's what ADs are supposed to do and need to be good at doing. When they can't get this job done, it makes them ineffective at their jobs and they don't serve their schools well. They have to be good at the politics.

It will be hard to. His stench will be around long after he is gone. When is his contract up anyhow?

I wouldn't use the word conspiracy. It is a pattern of behavior that has been more revealed recently as conference have grown into multiple divisions and a small number of games between divisions have to be played annually. Do they meet in darkened rooms? No, they do it completely in the open and few question it. The strong schools pick on the weak and the weak can't effectively fight back for a number of reasons. One is ADs who aren't effective at their jobs and not taken seriously by their peers in the conference. Do you think a guy like Tom Wistrcill is going to complain? The guy is probably a laughing stock among mac ADs because he ran an entire football program into the ground in less than 12 months hiring an unqualified buddy at a point when the school had just built a $65 million stadium. You guys have to understand what a horrible position we are in with TW as AD. There is no way he can effectively lobby for the interests of UofA. One day the guy is no longer going to be working at Akron and the best he will be able to do is work for a minor league baseball team. Member institutions? The assumption is every school is equal in the membership. Every institution is not equal. We are not on the same footing as an Alabama so let's not pretend they are all the same. In the world of college athletics, there are two types of people running athletic departments. Queen Bees and Wanna Bees. The people who work in athletics at UofA are Wanna Bees so they aren't going to do too much to upset the Queen Bees and that is how we get screwed. Since the Wanna Bees want to work for the Queen Bees, or at least the Queen Bee schools one day, they don't like to upset them or they never make it to the top of their profession. The first concern of athletic directors is their career. Somewhere down the list from there is the school they are working for. Article The media doesn't pretend it doesn't exist. They just don't report on it enough. Actually, there are ways to manipulate schedules to make seasons more interesting. More interesting seasons make for more compelling articles about the season. More compelling articles and seasons make for more readers. More readers make for more money. Steve French has been talking about it. The media isn't ignorant to what is going on. The time to complain about scheduling isn't when the team is 3-7. We need an AD who can complain about it effectively while scheduling meetings are taking place. Manipulating schedules to make it favorable for one team to do well could also make good business sense and should not be looked at as a total negative. I think the treatment we are getting from the MAC is bad for UofA, but it could be good for the league to take a crap on us. It could also be good for us to get crapped on if one looks at it from another angle. It is good business for the MAC to make NIU a team that can make a BCS game. In the end, there is more money for everyone. Again, this isn't about conspiracy as much as it is about patterns of behavior. Why is the MAC taking the action to have UofA play NIU four of five years when they are a good program and UofA is bad? Couldn't that answer be to keep NIU good so they can make a BCS game and everyone benefits? This answer shouldn't be dismissed as an impossibility.

I think I know the truth (see post above in regards to the amount of times UofA has had to play one of the best teams in the league in recent years when we were down). I'd like the pattern of behavior on the part of the league as directed towards UofA to change. Actually, it isn't to screw with Akron as much as it is to put what has become a league darling in a favorable position. Is the pattern of behavior deliberate on the part of the mac? Yes, see post above. It shouldn't be shocking when a league does this. They do it all the time. Prior to having so many injuries, it was assumed that Georgia would be the class of the sec east. If one looks at the Georgia schedule, it is difficult, but it never puts them in a position where they have to play two road games in a row (the Florida game is neutral in Jacksonville). The amount of road games in a row is a key indicator when betting on games so there is substance to screwing teams with road games. The schedule sets up real nice for them just in case they have an early season loss to South Carolina, which they didn't. All of the sudden they get injuries and things fall apart. The people who run the sec have to be having fits that Missouri is atop the sec east. They don't like anyone other than the old guard teams having success. Case in point, South Carolina. USC is the red headed stepchild of the sec. They like having them around, but they don't like them having any real success as they aren't part of the old guard. If one looks at the South Carolina schedule one sees three freaking road games in a row. It guarantees at least one loss just in case they accidentally beat Georgia early in the season. They lost one of the games and should have lost to Missouri had they not crapped their pants. USC was put in a position to fail by the league. Three road games in a row is not an accident. So, this isn't really about Akron. It is about how leagues make favorable schedules for darlings. NIU is the darling of the league right now and the league is taking care of them. We shouldn't pretend these things don't happen. They happen repeatedly every year in a number of leagues because leagues have an interest in presenting their league in a favorable way.

I'm pretty sure the answer will be that as well. It's the answer a weakling like our AD would give. Is it that though?

Please note the word "was".

We have played NIU in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013. Two of those seasons were bowl seasons. One of those seasons included a BCS bowl. This year looks to perhaps be a BCS bowl team. I'd sure like to get out of this rotation. The MAC absolutely knows how down the program was and fed us NIU in 2012 and 2013...actually, I might also say we were fed to NIU. In any event, the MAC sees us as a weak program that will give NIU easy wins and a better chance for a BCS game. The MAC is making it easy for NIU to stay at the top and hard for schools like Akron to get out of the basement. Nobody in the mac knew Ball State was going to be good this year? I find that impossible to believe. The NFL was made great partly through easy schedules for bad teams and difficult schedules for good teams based upon previous season results. The mac should take previous seasons results in schedule design.

Here is my take on recruiting. We went through the Ianello dark days when we couldn't win a MAC game. In order to lose every MAC game, your school must have zero talent (did anyone see Miami play last night...zero talent). We have two MAC wins this season and should have a third after the next game. That tells me the talent is better. It's visibly better when we watch games. We will get some good kids from Ohio next season. How do I know that? Well, Zach thinks nobody in Ohio wants to play for Akron. That's enough evidence for me to know we will have a good recruiting class from Ohio. I don't know how much the person who told me this really knows, but he lives in Florida and says Bowden has been seen around Florida high schools and has a great list of contacts he can draw from. Maybe he can pluck a couple of good players from there. After this season, the talent level on the team will be good enough to expect six wins next season. No excuses next year. Six wins and a bowl. The base talent will be there. Execution on the part of the players and coaches will be critical.

French is absolutely right. Many conferences screw with teams for any number of reasons.

Absolutely fantastic college football game. Not the runaway the score makes it look. NIU beat a really good team and is clearly the class of the league.

Has KD earned the money UofA pays him?...Maybe. I think I could make a good case for KD getting paid what he was before his raise and there would be no flight risk. Raises are not given for what people have done. They are given to keep people who you think can do better. Are the Zips getting better?...We'll find out this year and the next. I don't think any fan feels they are entitled to anything and I don't get that feeling from the Board members. The expectations are higher and they should be higher. I don't know what the costs are to go to a Zips BB game, but I would bet those costs have gone up (my bet is the food in the JAR is not better though). If that is the case, why wouldn't the expectations go up? There is nothing wrong with high expectations. There is nothing wrong with asking a program to do better than it has in the past because there are MAC schools that have had better success than us during the season and post season...in very recent years. If other schools can do it, why shouldn't we expect the same out of this basketball program? Why shouldn't we expect that out of the highest paid employee of the Athletic Department?

If I'm not mistaken, KD is the highest paid employee in the Athletic Department. His salary has gone up in recent years. He has been given plenty as well. "To whom much has is given, much is expected." - JFK. Getting better and proving that improvement on the court should be expected of him. As far as working hard, that's what everyone is expected to do. With that said, I'm willing to write off the other night until I see more. The Zips had a horrible early season loss at CCU last year and shook it off pretty quickly. They traveled out west and played in the middle of the night. Odd circumstances can produce odd results. I'm going with that until we see more.

Dr Z deploys some Faustian logic.

There are some great places to stay in Charleston. For your brand, stick with the Doubletree on Church St. or the Hampton on Meeting St. Still a long way away, but as we get closer, I will make some recommendations to the Board as to where to stay/eat and why to stay/eat there. Charleston is a fantastic place. Personally, I don't like to stay in Charleston unless my wife gets us a room at Market Pavilion which has the best rooftop bar I have ever been to. Rooftop bars are real popular in the south. When we stay, we like to go to the Comfort Inn and Suites in Mt. Pleasant or Wild Dunes. Since we limit our trips to Charleston to the nine month off season we get real good deals at all of these places. My recommendation is to travel in and out of the City for the games. Do some sightseeing around the city right before and after the games. Spend your nights in Mt. Pleasant/Isle of Palm/Sullivans Island area. You won't regret it. Probably get a better deal on rooms. Play some golf at Wild Dunes if you like to golf.