GP1
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Deadspin at its best again.
Anyone remember the old X Files show? Fox Mulder always had that sign on his office wall that said, "I Want To Believe". That's what a lot of sports fans do with the people they see on TV. For many PSU fans, Paterno could never be a guy who covered something up because he wanted to continue to coach and wanted to win more games. For OSU fans, Tressel was just a guy protecting his players and not someone who needed those guys to win games so he covered everything up to keep them on the field. It's the either/or high school debate club nature of media and society these days.
Deadspin has a lot on it that is funny. Normally they are at their best when they are taking a crap on someone who deserves it. Every once in a while, they do something serious and it almost is always great. This is a good example. Why? It presents the "and" issue that someone can do good deeds and do something really self serving and just plain wrong. I love a good "and" article.
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Wow, those attendance figures make you look at Akron (and other MAC schools) and shrug your shoulders.
Pretty neat how things work out when you have a plan, eh?
We have had plenty of plans in the MAC. The problem is, the plan is usually as follows:
1. Hold hand grenade with both hands. One hand holding the release handle closed and the other grasping the release pin with one finger.
2. Pull out release pin.
3. Allow the release handle to open.
4. Throw pin.
As an example, the MAC whores itself out to ESPN and plays on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in front of a few hundred people. Leaders of the MAC really believe this is good for the Conference so they throw the pin because they don't know any better. UTSA, App. State, etc. don't care about TV and only desire to put a good product on the field and they play in front of tens of thousands of people. MAC leaders believe in the illusion they might be able to create. App State, UTSA believe in the reality of what they have and maximize their ability the best they can and lots of fans respond to that. The UTSAs of the world are willing to throw the grenade. Even if they don't hit anything, they have tried their best and at least didn't blow themselves up.
The reality is as follows. If the MAC or 90% of their athletic directors believe something will work, the opposite is true. They have so overthought things, they no longer know what a good decision or bad decision is. They only believe more is better. By more, they mean more stadiums and more lines on their resumes saying what they did to build those stadiums. More teams in the conference. More indoor training arenas.
What makes me sad is the MAC can be everything the Southern Conference is and better if they would just put a better product on the field at a time when people can go to the games. They play mostly afternoon games. Every SoCon school is in a state that has at least one BCS team in it just like the MAC. In those states, the fans of the BCS teams are just as passionate about their BCS team as they are in the midwest. Those schools also have alumni that follow both their SoCon school and a BCS school. Many SoCon schools get huge crowds and aren't located anywhere near a major city. Anyone know where App State is or Western Carolina? You damn near need a mule to get you there. We have tons of excuses for why we fall short. They pull up their pants and get to work putting a good Conference together.
I don't hate the MAC. In fact, it could be a much better conference and I wish that was the case. I absolutely can't stand the leadership of the Conference and their self serving ways that are complicating our ability to be a better Conference.
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The newest programs, while concentrated in the south, are also spread around the country somewhat.
People in the south are crazy about college football. I went to a game last year at App State and it was completely sold out. In fact, they sold standing room only tickets. They were playing UTChat that day for first place in their conference. Parking in the town of Boone was $25 and nobody complains because it isn't about the cost of the game, but the game itself. One of the best times I've ever had going to a college football game.
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Would Zeke rise to the occasion in the NBA and be motivated to shut down the opponent's best big every night?
I don't know if this is the question. I think a better question is...Coming off the bench, would Zeke be able to rest the starting center with productive minutes on the defensive end? The answer to that question is yes. However a lot rests on whether or not he can get with the right team. I don't see Zeke as a draft pick. If an NBA team is going to take a chance on a "work in progress", it is usually a player who didn't play four years in college. The NBA draft is very short and it is hard to take a chance with a player with so few choices.
We haven't even scratched the surface of Zeke's NBA prospects. The real questions are centered around which teams need center help because free agents are signed on needs, not the future. I'd look for a team that needs immediate help rather than a team looking for a long term investment. I have no idea who those teams will be in two years because I don't follow the nba.
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UNC-Asheville is their replacement. They dominated their conference last year and nearly upset 'Cuse in the big dance. No idea how good they are this year.
If losing successful seniors matters, and I think it does in mid major basketball, UNCA will be a little down this coming season. Dickey, Primm and Stephenson were 1, 2 and 3 last year in scoring. All three were seniors. These three were in the top four in minutes played. One guy can be replaced....two, maybe....all three is very difficult in the short term.
Still a solid program, but no X. X is a solid program in a very good mid major conference. In fact, the A10 would be a conference I'd like to see the Zips compete in more. Charting our success against programs like X really tells us where we are in realation to other mid major programs. 20 wins is good. 20 wins with wins against programs like X means more.
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Someday someone will do a proper job at running dirt track racing on television, and NASCAR with its four hour freight trains and pack racing demo derbies will be a memory...
They can show dirt track right after the MLS game of the week on CBS when that happens....
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Most of the mock 2013 drafts have Zeke a mid-to-late second-round pick. He really controls his destiny here. If he doesn't show progress for the Zips this season, he could fall out of the draft completely. If he gets it in his head how many more millions he could make in the NBA versus the computer business, and if he wants it bad enough, Zeke has the tools to become a more dominant player and even move up to a first-round NBA draft pick. It's going to come down to desire and motivation.
I agree. There is also some luck hitching on with an NBA team. There are lots of guys not in the NBA who are just as good, if not better, than some guys on NBA rosters. The NBA is hard as heck to make because the number of players is small.
Zeke has a future in professioal basketball, whether it is the NBA or a high level league in Europe. I lean to high level Europe. Either way, he is going to be making some really good cash in the next few years.
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At first the 10 yards per carry cited by GT in the article jumps out at you as impressive, but after watching the film I get a different impression. He appears to play at a small school/low level of high school ball down in FL. Many of his long runs were through such gaping holes that even CK would've taken it to the house. He doesn't appear to have world class speed, and is running away from some pretty slow defenders, which is to be expected at a small school. I wasn't real impressed with his change of direction or his burst when those were required. I don't see much out of him if he ever gets his grades in order. Hope I'm wrong.
He's good enough for the MAC. I too love his first ten yards. The first thing a RB has to do is get through the hole. This guy runs north/south and will get yards for the team with a combination of physical running and vision. Coaches, especially offensive coordinators, love a guy who just gets them yards so they can manage the game better. He appears to be able to do that. Besides, I think our running game will be a sideshow compared to the passing game.
Does he have world class speed? No, but this is the MAC and if he can get yards, his speed is good enough. He may play against a lot of small schools, but he is faster than EVERYONE he plays against so there must be some speed there because everyone can't be slow regardless of the size school they play.
Change of direction? He makes EVERYONE miss. He is able to do this with smart running and not the greatest moves. When there is a defender, he runs at the defender and makes the defender stop. Then he makes his move when the timing is right. Even an average change of direction guy does well when the defender is standing still. Emmitt Smith made a career of this type of smart running.
Do I see a superstar? No. I do see a kid who could get on the field for OU and they are the best program in the league right now. This is the MAC, and not a superstar league (only 8 MAC players drafted this year). Good coaching and smart players go a long way. The superstars in the MAC are usually the QBs because of the way the game is played right now.
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Somebody wanna let the rest of us in on who this character is?
Ambassador to Ireland.
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Operation Perfect Solution: Here's what ya do.
First you get the "top" 36 teams at the end of the season. Just as in b-ball that list is filled with Conference champs and BCS rankings. Of course the power conferences will have several entries and MAC and Sun Belt being one bidders. I can live with that. Sound okay so far?
Next you have a panel of ex-coaches and football expert types in a room. The top 4 teams have a "bye." The Panel studies the seedings (#5 vs. #36, #6 vs. #35 etc) and then discuss who would win in the first round matchups. There will be a "Big Board sponsored by Miller Lite" that will show the consensus winners of the first round. Also, there is an open bar. Of course this is televised. Excitement!
Now, we're now down to 20 teams remaining. The top 4 teams STILL have a bye. So the remaining 16 go at it. And by that, I mean a select group of X-boxers simulate the games. Think of the highlights.
Down to 12. Top 4 still have a bye. They've earned it. This is the "medal round" where we can get rid of 8 schools. Here's where a trained Octopus selects 5-12. It's choices are final and cannot be disputed.
12. Aluminum
11. Regular Steel
10. Stainless Steel
9. Brass
8. Bronze
7. Silver
6. Gold
5. Platinum
Finally, the Top 4 actually face each other on the field, in real life, in a playoff format. The big bowl games rotate the championship game every year.
This solution is so ridiculous and funny, you could be the President of the NCAA some day.
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It is a start.
Then, if UM is able to run the table it may be enough. At seasons end, if the schedule stacks up and they are one of the four best, let em in.
It's a start is right. They actually have to win though and that is the real problem for Big Ten teams against really good teams. PSU played Alabama last year and Alabama could have put 50 on them if their coach didn't show some respect for an old coach. Anyone who watched the game would have seen how outmatched PSU was.
Big Ten fans have a desperate way of taking one fact and applying it to everything around them. IE: Michigan plays Alabama; therefore, the Big Ten schedules are difficult. We have the same discussion about Ohio HS football....Ohio produces X number of NFL players; therefore, it is great HS football. I prefer the eye test myself. It isn't about what teams are going to do or have done, it's about what they do. Big Ten teams aren't very good and you can see it when you watch it and you can see it when they play OOC.
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Only one person left to catch on. High school football destroys his field every year.
As soon as he can find a way to get the field shipped to Pittsburgh without the trucks having to pay turnpike fees, he'll do it.
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Read this and try not to
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Since they are prepared to spend "more than seven figures", all I can say is $10,000,000 still buys a lot of concrete.
It might by a lot of concrete restoration (It will cost much more than $10 million to repair the RB), but the issue of the stadium purchase is still out there. If this team wants that dump that badly, make them pay as much as possible to get that hole.
The people who run the league have no idea as to the history of failed events at the RB. It will become a money sink for them trying to have concerts, etc to make up the operating costs. They won't even own the parking rights so there is no source of revenue there.
A couple of things could be going on here. First, UofA really doesn't want this team playing at The Big Dialer and is seeing what they can really get out of that dump by the airport. I sure as heck wouldn't give it away if they wanted it that badly...Remember The Odd Corner?
Second, maybe this team wants to play at The Big Dialer, but doesn't like the asking price for rent. They are floating this RB idea to get UofA to lower their price. If they can get supported by the NFL and TV money at a rate to pay the rent at The Big Dialer, then it is just a matter of lowering the rent to help turn the profit quicker. The construction group toured the RB last Wednesday...they have no idea what the costs will be at this point because there wasn't enough time between the tour and the article to properly put even a budget number together. The also said they don't want to disclose potential investors or repair costs...of course not...they just looked at it Wednesday and don't know the costs....If they don't know the costs, nobody is going to invest without knowing if that seven figure cost is $10,000,000 or $60,000,000. If memory serves me right, the cost of repair of the RB at the time The Big Dialer was built was around half the cost of construction of The Big Dialer. That makes that number around $32 million. If the budget number is $32 million on a concrete repair, the actual price will come in around double that. The Big Dialer is the best place for them to play if the price is right. My guess is they are trying to get the price right.
This team will be DOA if they buy the RB.
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Yes, the M10 is more balanced all right. They are more balanced with crappy teams. THe SEC would blow the M10 away...No contest...
If the four best teams come from the same conference, let them in.
This goes to the point of creating a national division. Here is how we would know the Big Ten is average at best. If they created a national division and split up the teams in a way the conferences were split. Put tosu in a division with Alabama, LSU and a couple of top teams from other conferences and the would cry like children about "maintaining traditional rivalries". tosu can't compete against an average team like Miami...they would get killed in a national division. The Big Ten is closer to the ACC than the SEC.
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Your right, they should sell it for $3.
That way the BJ headline can read UA Triples Their Money on Rubber Bowl Investment
I don't know about the ABJ, but someone in the Athletic Department will have something similar on their resume if this goes through.
If the Don wants to partner with this group and fix up the RB, go ahead. I don't live in the City anymore and if he wants to flush money down the toilet like this, then go ahead. Concrete repairs almost always cost twice the original estimation because you never really know what you are getting into. This case will be no different. If UofA can't find a way to make some money with the USFL, they should not deal with them.
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It actually sounds like they are serious about using the Rubber Bowl, and even possibly selling the naming rights....
If they want it, they can have it.
A league with management this stupid will never make it.
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Pitt doesn't win with their kids because nobody wants to play for Pitt. They don't win with anybody. Look at PSU,OSU, most B1G teams, and other big name programs around the country and you will find programs winning with WPIAL talent.
You are largely correct. Pitt is rarely anything better than average. Link Western PA high school football sheltered itself for many years in the WPIAL believing they were only worthy of playing each other. Few of them could win the Ohio high school championship and you all know how I feel about Ohio high school football right now.
PSU hid for years playing a cake schedule and once they got in the Big Ten, which isn't a very good conference in itself, they were exposed for not having much talent. I can't believe it is taking people this long to figure all of this out.
I still don't understand how people use the number of NFL players in a region as proof that the high school football in that region is really good. How do I know the "talent" in western PA doesn't make for very good college football? I watch football games that Penn State and Pitt play in. They are mostly full of average talent. Every once in a while, they get a run of a couple of good players that play in the NFL, but for the most part they are average. Terrible teams have great players sometimes...Remember Jason Taylor?
I'll say it for the 100th time this week. The beauty of Bowden is he understands just getting players from a region isn't enough. They have to be the best of those players if a team wants to be elite. Pitt and PSU aren't elite programs because they can't get the best of the best in PA, in large enough numbers, to go to their schools. It's either that or there aren't that many good players...or both.
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What I'm saying is that the Zips didn't have the same kind of talent, yet, were so close that year to having a very good year
You just described 2-4 MAC teams a year. Talent is the difference in the MAC. The MAC is littered with second place coaches. Coaching is an extremely close second. We now have the best coach in the MAC and one who knows how to bring in talent. Our future is bright.
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Again, disagree.
The second best SEC team will be better than a big ten champion team 8 out of 10 years.
Now, make every team play a real non-conference schedule and earn the right to the top 4, OK... Even if you are 3rd best in a confernce...(highly unlikely, I know)
The Medium Ten beating up on the MAC will automatically disqualify them from the playoffs.
What if......The Vest had to play real schedules.
OOC schedules are terrible. The only way to have teams play real nonconference schedules is to rework how college football is organized. As long as BCS schools play in the same division as MAClike confernces, they will play those schools and call it "competition". It's competition like me playing the five year old next door in a game of basketball. I'll win every game, but he will try really hard to beat me in the process. I could give hime $5.00 per game and since he doesn't have a job he'll think he is rich since he has enough money to buy himself cookies for the week.
They can have computer schedules to calculate SOS...there will always be flaws. They can get the smartest minds in football to assign a four team playoff...there will always be flaws. I think you are alluding to this not really being about a playoff system but about what goes on from August through mid December. That's the real issue, not playoffs. If the ncaa could get rid of the bullcrap OOC schedules teams play by creating a national division where those schools are required to play each other every week, then the problem is solved and playoff teams are created as a result of the body of work they produced over a 12 week season on the field. Until that day happens, all of us can continue to throw out flawed ideas as to how to solve the problem and the Zips will head to Columbus every for year for cookie money.
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Part of the solution, IMO, would be to wait until week 5 or 6 before you start ranking teams.
I agree 100% on this point.
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Don’t wait around too long for a computer-based, four-team playoff. I think it’s obvious why the selection committee approach won out. It is merely a way to placate the Big 10, who no doubt feared getting left out of the playoff far too often under an unbiased selection procedure.
It's funny, after many years, the ncaa successfully made conference tournaments irrelevant for big time college basketball conferences. The 64 team field and the selection committee were huge helps.
Now, they are on the verge of makeing conference championship games irrrelevant for college football in a much shorter time period. It should be REQUIRED that a team win their conference to make any type of ncaa football playoff.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the time when the BCS schools have their own Division so we don't have to talk about selection committess or anything else related to how their champion is decided. Meaning will then be given to the season starting in late August and ending whenever they want it to end.
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Only playing devil's advocate here...
6 winning season, 3 under Owens (7 total)... Owens didn't get to a bowl, didn't get to a championship game, and those winning seasons in D1/FBS go count how many wins are against D1A/FCS schools.
I think GP1's point stands.
Agreed.
Owens was a second place coach at best. He is still a second place coach. He recruited second place talent. He still recruits second place talent. He has tons of second place trophys at Ashland to prove it....what?...They don't give trophys for second place and that's why he didn't leave anything behind. There is an old saying, "Always a bridesmaid and never a bride" comes to mind when I think of him....followed closely by a vision of him and Terry Pluto walking arm-in-arm down a beach together...sick, I know, but I keep seeing it over and over again.
If we want to be an elite MAC school, we can't let kids like Mr. Hicks get away or we fall into the Owens trap. One game can be the difference between first and second place. How many times did we lose key games to Marshall when Owens was the coach? How many times did we lose a game by a play or two to them because they had better talent or our talent couldn't make the plays. They had first place talent and we had second place talent...nice local players, but the real talent had already gone to other D1A schools. A great player here or there is all the difference between first and second place in the MAC. Some of you may be happy with second place, but I demand first place.
TB knows this and has made it a goal of his to get elite players. That's why I'm excited he is the coach. He isn't just saying we can win with local players. It's much deeper and intelligent than that. He is clearly saying we need the best of local talent in order to be an elite MAC school. What he isn't saying, but if one is smart enough to read between the lines, is there isn't enough depth of talent in NE Ohio to have an elite team if you lose out on too many like Mr. Hicks. He is 100% correct.
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Are you implying TB doesn't know what he is doing?
No. I'm stating his idea that we can't let NE Ohio kids who don't go to OSU land at another school is absolutely the correct idea because if we want to be an elite MAC school for many years, they can't get away. So in reality, I'm saying TB knows exactly what he needs to do to be successful.
Transfer from WVU -- Pat Forsythe
in Akron Zips Basketball
Posted
Agreed on all counts. Size matters....I've been saying it for years.