GP1

It was one of the best documentaries ever made.

Good fan smack. It's one thing to insult your rival, but taking it to a higher level by completely dismissing them as a tune up game is excellent fan smack. Well done CK.

In all seriousness guys...Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Of course not. The Zips need to lay waste to the MAC and Can't tonight like the Delta house destroyed Faber. Just like is says on the Faber College logo, "Knowledge is Good", we need to remember that winning is good and do some winning the next few days. Our best days are ahead of us.

Good point. All along, I thought it was over consumption of paella.

Well said. We aren't far away from pot being legalized in all 50 states. Sure, he broke the law, but to lock a kid up and throw away the keys for this is short sighted. He is done as a Zip, but he shouldn't be done for life.

I bet you weren't getting those calls when the Indians were a better team. Anyhow, they only need eight suites (four per side) in the design I described some pages ago....Just along the sidelines on both sides. It is important for the President to have a suite to entertain outsiders. There can also be suites for the Development offices. These high ticket items are critical to the financial stability of the program. I don't think it is too much to ask a marketing department to sell 6-8 suites. The suites can have ten seats in the last row of the lower bowl and they can be blocked off by some type of railing system. The real money maker could be the club above the suites I described earlier. Charge extra for the private club and collect on an overpriced pre-game buffet and cocktails. Would The Great GP1 pay extra for tickets on a club level with a great view, free of a large part of the unwashed masses, easy access to food, easy access to restrooms (think of the benefits alone of having to take an in game dump in a semi-private bathroom if the moment hit) and most importantly easy access to in game cocktails? Your darn right he would and pays extra all the time to sit on club levels when possible.

I'm looking forward to the Atlantic 10 Tournament. It could be the most competitive mid major conference tournament this year with up to 5 teams that could win it all if things go their way.

Eliminate full contact spring and summer drills at the professional, college and high school level and there will be less head trauma.

Other than the long term success of Zips soccer, I believe this is the most remarkable success in the history of Zips sports. The women's program Kest took over was a complete disaster and she turned it around. No coach at our school has taken a worse program, including Bowden, and turned it around like this. Does anyone have any further questions about Kest's methods in weeding out malcontents and players whose #1 priority isn't winning? Kest is here to win, not hold hands and sing "We are the World". Job well done Coach Kest.

Oh no is right...

I'm glad they are going to continue to do this. There is no reason they can't have this event AND a golf outing. Women are the fastest growing fan base for football. Why not capture this growing demographic if you can? I'm all for it.

"There are lies, damn lies and statistics." One can paint all sorts of pictures with statistics. Not only is Dave our resident statistical expert, but he has taken to decide when a post should be started or not without understanding why a post was started. Is he a moderator?

There is actually building code written around things like this. Somewhere in the IBC, there is written the minimum size for a stadium seat. This is a true story. Some years ago now, Auburn made some changes to their football stadium and part of that was repainting the numbers on the benches. As code had changed, they were required to paint to code. The American ass had gotten so big since the previous painting they had to make the numbers further apart costing them seats in their stadium. Another meaningless fact brought to you by The Great GP1.

I think that one of the landmines in trying to analyze the MAC is looking at the past year to predict the future. Teams go from hot to cold very quickly and that can happen to the likes of NIU and especially Can't. Can't could easily be back to being their horrible self again next year after losing players and their head coach. While we don't get Buffalo, we get Ball State, which could be just as good. Playing OU, Can't and Toledo at home is just about as good as a fan could ask for.

I respectfully, somewhat disagree. The biggest splash a mid major program can make is winning games in the NCAA. Nobody remembers December games. I think we have a good enough team this year to make that happen. In fact, I think the only MAC team that went on an NCAA run and was better than the Zips team right now was the Can't Elite 8 team. Maybe I'm wrong, but this team is better than OU's from last year and the Miami team that had Wally on it. The parts are all there and the team just needs to execute when the make the NCAA Tournament this year.

This would make it the perfect storm of stupidity.

Option one fits best. If it pays off, it could be huge if the league is purchased by the NFL. I still believe there is a market for spring football in the US. If you can test that market with limited financial output, it is worth it. Failure would result in a pretty good tax write off if the failure happens. Doubters will point to the folding of the USFL years ago. This is a short sighted way of looking at it and an example of why the past does not always predict the future. Football is far more popular today than it was back then. Hell, ESPN televises spring football practices and people actually watch it. If people will watch something as boring as a spring football practice, they will watch a real football game in the spring. In the end, I don't think this league will work and it won't be because there isn't a market for spring football. It will be because there isn't a market for a league with no affiliation to something bigger such as the NFL. There is a name for leagues that call themselves minor league with no major league affiliation...Bush League. Americans like minor league...they don't like Bush League. If there was going to be a national football league played in the spring with regional affiliation/interest, a built in fan base, ready made stadiums, opportunity for TV network broadcasting and quality football, it would be a national league of college football. The non-BCS conferences aren't smart enough to make this work though.

No. I'm saying I want to be good program in the context of being a MAC school and all of the challenges that go along with it. I don't want to have an athletic department that is a one trick pony. Where I would like to be like them is in their post season success. Lots of MAC schools have responded to the challenge of making a big splash in the NCAA tournament (Miami, OU and Can't) and we fail to capture that success when presented with the opportunity. Gonzaga's success can be credited to a lot more than an arena. They have the whole package.

One thing articles like this never point out is there are two ways for a little known university to get good at a sport. 1. A sport that does not require a lot of players and is the primary focus of an athletic department in terms of interest and funding. We have a football program that has 80+ scholarship players and everything that goes along with the cost of those players from feeding them to the number of coaches it takes to coach them. Equipment costs for football are huge. A basketball program, on the other hand, requires fewer players and fewer coaches. 2. Get good at a sport other than football, basketball or baseball. Soccer at UofA is a good example of that. It isn't one of the big three American sports so with some good coaching and a pipeline of foreign players you can get good. Hockey is the same way. Miamioh has had good teams recently and has good coaching and good Canadian players playing for them. In closing, I'm not interested in being Gonzaga. I like who we are and we have a damn good basketball team with a lot stacked against us. The major difference between us and them is when they are presented with an opportunity to make a huge splash nationally, they perform and take advantage of that opportunity. We need to do the same thing.

Minor bump.

I like the schedule as it gives the Zips difficulty, but is not brutal. In addition, it is entertaining for the fans. I'm glad we aren't playing too many back-to-back road games early in the season. Those games make it difficult to gain momentum and confidence. Also glad OOC games are over mid September and there is a clear line between conference play and OOC play. OOC...JMU has had good teams in recent history so the Zips can't take them lightly. CFU is what it is and Michigan is what it is. One of the nice things about the trip to Michigan will be seeing the stupidity of what has become of college athletics in person. If memory serves me correct, they will still be working on their quarter of a billion dollar renovation to their stadium financed by a taxpayer backed bond which will drive up the final cost of the renovations well above a quarter of a million dollars. I really envy some of you for getting to see this level of stupidity in person. The LA Lafayette game will be a blast and I actually have this game circled as one I might come back for. They play an exciting style of football and the fans should have a fun day at the Big Dialer watching the two teams. MAC play...Everyone has to play two road games in a row. If you have to do it, I like where it falls in the schedule as it is on the back nine. I'll take two road games in a row followed by two home games in a row with Can't being the second of the two. I checked Can't's schedule and they have two road games in a row, then UB, then UofA. It will be interesting to see their performance in the third road game in four games. I also like the week off after two home games to tune up for a weak umass and then another week off to tune up for a strong Toledo program. I would much rather have a bye week late in the season rather than early. Two is even better with one being before playing a strong program.

Can we let KD and the players worry about the next game and we start the "Where is the pregame party going to be before the MAC Championship game going to be?" thread?

You're probably right. Would it be too early to start the, "Who will we beat in the MAC Championship?" thread?

Is it too early to start the thread where we discuss the location of the Zips first round NCAA game after they win the MAC?

TD Arena - College of Charleston Add 2,500 seats to this. 75% of those added seats in the lower level...25% in the upper level. All seats, no benches. All assigned seating, no general admission. Make the upper level some sort of club level with pre-game meals, cocktails, couches, etc. Allow single game purchases for those games not sold out. For those of you who were at Winthrop few years ago now you might remember, when you walk into the arena, you are at the top of the seating area...this would be the top of the lower bowl in my new Zips arena. You walk into suites at that level and down into the lower seating bowl like Winthrop. The upper club level would be glazing so you could see out to the nice winter days of Akron in the winter and the gray, overcast days of summer. You could also see down into the concourse area as the unwashed masses enter the arena. The fans would enter the club level seating from the top of the balcony and walk down to their seats. Only one side would have food and drink. In order to allow late arriving fans to see the game while they walk to their seats, there would be a small walkway behind the last row of seats in the balcony. The side without the food and drinks would have the minimum required by code...fountain, restrooms and fire escape.