GP1

I dont' have it figured out, but I'm confident that if we take the thinking away from the bureaucrats at the ncaa, we will have a better product in the end. Many ideas are better than one. The ncaa creates a singular idea pool full of people looking not to offend anyone because they are looking at their next job. I agree the ncaa football ship isn't going down soon. The non-bcs ship (which we live on) is taking on water faster than the pumps can bail it out and the ncaa is in no interest to bail us out. College football is a cash cow alright..... for the bcs conferences. The cash cow for the ncaa is the MBB Tournament. If the bcs schools are smart, they leave the ncaa, start their own league with a basketball tournament CBS will be more than willing to pay an arm and a leg to broadcast, combine that with the money they will make off of a football playoff and television rights to the regular season and really break the bank. It makes no sense for BCS level schools to stay in the ncaa. If the ncaa rules are so important to the bcs schools, all they have to do is kill a few thousand trees, copy the ncaa handbook, put a new cover on it with the new league name and hand it out to "student-athletes". The ncaa is just a set of rules and regulations...anyone can do that.

Ditching it is the better option. It is broken beyond repair. A new set of individuals with a new set of conflicting agendas is exactly what the ncaa needs. There are no new ideas and bringing in new people is the answer. Everyone at the ncaa headquarters should be dismissed from their jobs and the windows boarded shut because they won't listen to new ideas. A couple of weeks ago, I spent some time with a D-1 athletic director. I ran my idea of a new division and this person told me it would never happen because the I-AA schools would never go for it. They don't want to appear second class. The real concern for all non-bcs teams is the day the bcs schools leave the ncaa. It is getting a lot of attention right now and may be closer than anyone wants to admit. The writing is on the walls at the ncaa and the Titanic is taking on water. When that happens, there is no basketball tournament. When there is no basketball tournament, there is no ncaa as it is 75%+ of their revenues. The ncaa is a dying institution. It's dying because it isn't needed. Again Dave, we can stay on the Titanic and wait for another boat to come by or we can get on a lifeboat. Which do you want? You are welcome on my lifeboat if you wish...don't stay too long though as the Titanic is taking on water quickly.

On many levels, the BCS schools have done everything right. They have won, organized great conferences, started their own TV networks, established huge alumni support, sell out 60,000+ seat stadiums, etc. No organization should come down on them for doing things righ. If they spread all the money around college athletics, the same large schools will still have an advantage and they will find other advantages. tosu is getting hammered? That's news to me. The money they have to pay back is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall money they made. How is turning wins into loses on paper a punishment? Every coach is replaceable and Tressel can be replaced. What tosu has done is write the book for other schools coming into the same situation (Oregon and LSU are having the same problems) on how to get away with breaking the rules. USC could have done this years ago, but they decided to tell the ncaa to f-off.

Because there's a proven path to the top for non-BCS schools in the NCAA. Boise State has done it in football. Butler has done it in basketball. The Zips have done it in soccer. How does the path to the top for non-BCS midmajors compare in your hypothetical system? If the ncaa went away tomorrow, within five years, a better organization could be established where teams can more fairly compete. Like others, I see a 4 conference/16 team league forming and we will be stuck on the outside...again... I wasn't clear enough in my original post. We'll never be able to compete even in a future league with the highest level. We could compete if we banded in with like schools (Sunbelt, CUSA, MAC, etc) and had our own league.

Because there's a proven path to the top for non-BCS schools in the NCAA. Boise State has done it in football. Butler has done it in basketball. The Zips have done it in soccer. How does the path to the top for non-BCS midmajors compare in your hypothetical system? What is this path to the top the ncaa creates for non-bcs schools? Why is the ncaa the only organization that can create a path to the top? If the ncaa went away tomorrow, within five years, a better organization could be established where teams can more fairly compete. The Titanic is going down for non-bcs schools Dave, you stay on board and hope another boat comes along. I'd like to get on a lifeboat. Think of that analogy when you are sitting at The Big Dialer the last game of the season with 1,000 people in the stands. For every Boise State, there are 50 schools who don't have a shot and can't compete against bcs schools in a meaningful way. The ones that can are jumping to BCS conferences. Basketball is different as it doesn't take as many players to be successful as football does. Soccer is like college hockey. There are only about 8-10 schools with decent programs. Akron and Miami (hockey) are good examples of how non-major schools can get good at these sports easily by putting some focus on them.

How is the big government ncaa treating non-bcs schools and why would we (non-bcs schools) want to continue to be part of that organization?

So let me get this straight. The nfl is now going to punish players for breaking the moronic ncaa rules. Doesn't that make the nfl as stupid as the ncaa?

Maybe, maybe not. Are we going to suspend every player coming out of college this season for five games who might have some relationship with a drug dealer? 80% of the rookies wouldn't be on the field for the first five games. The NFL/NCAA agreement is that the NFL will match any NCAA punishment for a player who leaves the NCAA for the NFL to escape NCAA punishment. It only affects players found guilty of violating rules, not players only suspected of violating rules. Kind of fits in with the American system of jurisprudence that one is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, don't you think? I've never heard of this agreement. There is a lot more justice in the American system of jurisprudence than in the NCAA system.

Very well done. See, in the hands of the right designer, it can all come together. Think about it, we already have the Z-Fund. We could have the Z-Town Dance Team dance during timeouts at BB games. We could have Z-Town Kids Fest before football games with things for kids to play on. One letter, so many possibilities. If we are going to be the Zips, let's do the best with what we have. Get away from Akron and stick with a nickname. I don't see anything on the Boise State uniform that says "Boise State" except for the back where the names will be an not Boise State...it says Broncos. The helmet has a bronco on it. The pants say broncos.

I like animal nicknames. When I worked at Georgia Pacific, we rebranded our drywall brand to ToughRock and when we came out with our mold resistant campaign with Dens products, we branded the line DensGuard. Rebranding is a good marketing tool. Like I said above, I'm not officially saying it. Lots of MAC schools have rebranded...some good like EMU and some terrible like Miamioh. I'm not sure what our brand says about us. I'm not saying it though. Wake Forest is called the Demon Deacons. After years of going to games, I don't understand the mascot or name. The mascot looks more like an Angry Minister and is waaaaaaaay overdressed, with the top hat, cane and tuxedo, for sporting events. If they were trying to convey a real southern religious service, it would show 500 Baptists trying to squeeze into the last row of pews at the church. That wouldn't fit on a t-shirt very well though. I'm not saying anything though....

I don't disagee with any of this with the exception I'm not in either of their corners and not against one of them either. I just wanted the best man to win. Let's hope it works out that way. There is a flip side to all of this though. Sometimes (not everytime extreme thinkers) when a player, especially QBs, experiences a great deal of losing, he never recovers. Two years is a heck of a long time to take a beating and it wears on the mind. I know players like to talk about confidence, but none of us really know what he thinks when he is laying in bed at night alone. Many of these players become, for the lack of a better analogy, like shell shock victims from WW I. It's always on their mind and it makes them nervous.

I wonder what Joe Paterno thinks of all these new unis.

His resume? I'd love to hear the interview... HR Department: "So Jim, tell me why you are looking for a new job." Tressel: "I had to resign in disgrace from my previous employer. I'm laughing all the way to the bank though." HR Department: "Tell me about a time when you had a difficult decision to make and how you handled it." Tressel: "I was well aware some of my players were breaking NCAA rules with a drug dealer under investigation by the Federal Government. I had to decide whether it was more important to win games or tell the University compliance officer about it and having my key player suspended. After a lot of praying, I decided to pretend like I didn't know about it and lied to my employer about it. It was a very tough decision. Did I tell you we won the Sugar Bowl?" I could go on all day..... The strange thing is, in every business under the sun, with the exception of athletics, a guy like Tressel would never get another job. In the world of athletics, he will have his pick of scouting and coaching jobs in the NFL.

I know what you want, change the z and p to t's. Pure Genius. Easy to market. An even better idea from Dr Z!!! Now, if we could just get those boobs in marketing to do something, we could sell some tickets. Talk about a great game day experience!!!!

In the hands of the right artist, a white helmet with a blue and gold design might look really good. Personally, I think a change in the kangaroo head is needed in order to freshen things up. There is one change I would make to our branding, but I'm not going to say it here because it might cause a firestorm (Hint: It involves what we call ourselves).

Boise has given us a new look. I don't know how you remember all of those things.

Link I'd like to see the Zips change up their uniforms to something more 21st Century. I love blue and gold, but would like to see a more creative uniform like Boise State has moved to. Any thoughts?

Maybe....maybe not. It isn't a good idea because we have a stadium on campus we are trying to draw people to and going somewhere else sends the message we are drawing people somewhere other than The Bid Dialer. It creates a loss of focus. It costs money to bus a team somewhere, run a high school stadium, clean up a high school stadium, etc. In addition to a lack of focus, there would have to be a return on the investment of the travel. The scrimmage we are going to play at tosu next weekend is at least paid for by the $1 million check we will get from them.

If you are inviting someone named Anthony DiFino, you had better make sure whatever you serve has garlic in it....with some red wine.

I'm not in favor of things like this because college footballl practices are extremely boring and you don't want to show a boring product to fans. Not sure how many people would shold up at 8 AM for a college football practice. If they did hold it, the ONLY place to have it would be The Bid Dialer. There is really nothing to see the first few days.

If they are using Ad Words, great. It seems a little more random to me. I just clicked on four ABJ stories to see what would happen and onlyh on the Federal Judge story did the ad come up. I saw a bunch of ads for things I haven't been looking for.

I was on the internet just now and clicked on a story in the ABJ about bedbugs in OU dorm rooms. When the story came up, there was an advertisement for Akron football tickets around the border of the story. This is a very good and modern strategy using the best player on the Zips team, Wagner. My wife works for a guy named Ric Elias (he has a widely viewed video on the internet right now as he was one of the passengers on the plane that went down in the Hudson) who owns a company named Red Ventures here in Charlotte. They do internet marketing for companies like DTV (they are the #1 distributor of DTV in the US), Miracle ear and some other really well known companies. They also take the inbound calls for those companies as the 800 numbers on the advertisements direct them to their company. It is really cutting edge stuff they are doing and if you are a good web developer, you can write your ticket at this place. It isn't a sleazy telemarketing company like folks around Akron would normally think of (I won't say the name) that calls people to hoodwink them out of their Social Security check in the name of God or politics, sell them a crappy product or anything like that. It is a comprehensive marketing program they design from start to finish. That's not the point though. The point is, this marketing strategy works for a lot of people. UNCC did it in the Charlotte Business Journal website and they have almost sold every PSL for their new stadium. It wasn't the only reason for the sales, but it helped market directly to those with money who could afford the tickets. Let's hope we have a good team and down the road we can take advantage of these strategies. Things like radio ads and TV ads aren't very effective anymore as people change the channel when one comes on. Nobody looks at billboards and is really not in a position to immediately do anything about a billboard advertisement when they see one as they are probably driving and will forget by the time they get home. Americans have a very short attention span. The same goes for bus ads as well. They aren't 100% ineffective, but pretty close. Should they do them? Only if they have extra money to spend and then yes. We give the Athletic Department a hard time a lot on this board and we should pat them on the back as well when they do something right. This is the right thing to do and we should pat them on the back for it. So to the folks in the Marketing Department I'd say, well done. You did the best you could with what you have.

Actually, we are coming into a political season and they do Republican fundraising. You make hay when the sun is up. They also do Evangelical Christian fundraising, which is the same as doing Republican fundraising since the Republican Party is the party of Evangelical Christians, so they will be busy.

He could probably start, but leaving now would result in him having to pay for his own tuition. His best move is to stay at Akron and graduate. Injuries, Moore becoming a head case, etc. could result in PN starting again down the road. I'd like to see him stick around just in case....

He is one missed block, one twisted leg, etc. away from being the starting QB again. I don't want to see anyone hurt, but football is a game where anyone can get hurt at any time. He needs to be prepared to play if he is called upon.