GP1

When they hire a real athletic director. They can hire new ADs until the cows come home. Akron does not have the fan base, alumni base, corporate support, national interest necessary to act like a D1 school. Stop pretending. There is always a reason to say no. Ticket prices too high. Parking too expensive. Etc.

It's 2010....Go to ticketmaster before you leave your house, buy tickets so and then you won't have to stand in line. There is no line on the internet. You completely missed the point. This is not the way a professional organization should operate. How about a little customer service. Besides, not that it should make a difference, but my son didn't decide to go until that day. Ticketmaster runs 24/7. You could have spent five minutes on it before leaving for the game. It's 2010.....those who had to stand in line have nobody to blame but themselves.

Nice Job GP1. You've probably found the only thing about Nicely that reminds us of Charlie. Charlie took a way worse beat down his first game against a BCS team as a Senior with a new coach than PN took yesterday as a sophomore. I know you like to bash Charlie, but are you really seriously trying to equate Charlie's 29 of 36 performance for well over 200 yards against Penn State with what we saw from our QB last night against a low-level BCS team? Wow! Less than six yards per attempt. Excuse me while I swoon at the greatness.

19 D-1A wins in four seasons. Enough said....

It's 2010....Go to ticketmaster before you leave your house, buy tickets so and then you won't have to stand in line. There is no line on the internet.

Nice Job GP1. You've probably found the only thing about Nicely that reminds us of Charlie. Charlie took a way worse beat down his first game against a BCS team as a Senior with a new coach than PN took yesterday as a sophomore.

Patch up the Rubber Bowl? With what? The place was literally on the verge of being condemned. They would have spent tens of millions of dollars, which they dont' have, to fix up something they were only going to use for a few more years. I understand the frustration with losing. Please do all of us, and most importantly....me, a favor of not bitching about prices at the new stadium. They can't base their prices upon how good they think the team is going to be and low ball everything jsut in case they suck. Somebody has to pay for Proenza's building spree and football fans are some of those people. If you don't like it, don't go, but please stop bitching about it....that goes for everyone else too.

Agreed. I had my three teenage boys waiting for me in the car, when I found out not only were tickets going to be $20 a piece, but I was also going to be charged for parking. That's $70 before we got in the door (I'm a student). Who do they think they are, the New England Patriots? $10 is not too much to charge to attend a college football game. If you want to park for free, drive up and down the side streets looking for a spot in front of a house. $20 is a reasonable price to pay to attend a college football game and watch a BCS team play. When is the last time you paid to attend an NFL game? GA seats at the Big Dialer are similar to a club level seat at an NFL stadium. Those run in excess of $100ea plus parking. You saved around $400 by going to the Zips game. Like I've said here many times now..... We are a I-AA school for many reasons. Fan attitudes about what prices should be paid to watch a D-1A game are strange at best. When I see a fan say $70 is too much to watch a D-1A football game with four other humans, I know we can never make it in D-1A.

What is his vision? We would have been better off keeping Hunter around. I know people who support CCU and Hunter is well like. He isn't just a Mack 2.0. Mike Waddell hasn't been here for over five years. Since leaving, he has been turned down for several jobs..what do those people know we don't know? All we know is he is really good at playing second fiddle to Mike Thomas. Some of you need to get over him coming back.

Again, I didn't see the game yesterday. When I see this many excuses being made for a QB, it takes me back to the Frye days. Four years of waiting to win something, then nothing happened.

Not an exact quote, but watch Hard Knocks from last week.

Lots of panic today on the board. Can't fault that. I'd be pissed as Hell is I wasted three hours plus tailgating for that mess. All I have to go by are the numbers. If the actual game was a reflection of the statistics, it was a disaster. Three statistics stick out to me. Four actually. 1. Big Zip was right when he said some of his worst concerns came true. All I have been asking for this season is for Nicely to improve his accuracy. Accuracy is what makes a good QB. He completed 33% of his passes. That's terrible. I don't care how hard you throw it, it doesn't matter if you can't throw it close to someone. Nicely needs to stop talking about being a leader and lead with his performance. 2. 8 minute time of posession difference. Over a half quarter. Not bad actually. The game should have been closer. What you do on special teams matters. Special teams can kill you in terms of how you execute and decisions you make. Blocked kick for TD is a killer because it feels like a 10 point swing to the players. They get seven and you lose the three you believe you would have had. I read that we also deployed the pop-up kick. Pop-up kicks hand away field position in chunks. All the other team has to do is fair catch it and they get the ball around the 35. 3. Nicely had 111 yards passing. The scary number is he only had 55 net passing yards. If you can polish that turd of a statistic, then you are the best writer on the board. 4. Seven procedure penalties? Blame the coach and players for this one. Coaches get blamed because the players are stupid. They have been going over where to line up since spring practice. The players need to get their heads out of their asses and line up in the right place. Some of you wanted smashmouth football. Well, you got it. Three freaking points. The concern here is I think Toledo was the only MAC school to score less points than us this weekend in a home beat down by Arizona. I'm not so concerned we go our ass kicked by a bcs school. That is the norm for the MAC. My concern is the lack of offensive production. Who in the Hell are we going to beat if we can't score at least 21 points per game? The MAC is a scoring league and teams find a way to score. At some point we are going to have to match it. If you think yesterday was bad, wait until Kentucky and Indiana get their hands on us after they have a couple of games under their belts. It is going to be freaking ugly. If you thought the stadium wasn't full enough yesterday, wait until they start 1-3 with three of those games being the Zips getting destroyed by BCS teams. Let's not change the way we schedule though....this is a great way to start the year and build momentum every season. I'll reserve any final judgement until the end of the season. After all, we do play in the MAC and there are just as many teams willing to suck as bad as us on any given day as you will find in any other conference. My prediction was 4-6 wins. I'll stand by that. Closer to four than six. From reading the statistics, there is just nothing going on with this team. Now let's go eat a f-ing snack.

For those who think the Zips are a future Big East team, this number is a disaster. Syracuse has to be pissed off to no end today about the small number. There is no way on God's green Earth that any respectable conference will allow us in.

It is our fault. We spent years blaming the local media. Give the Cleveland media something worth covering and they will cover it. They need to draw and audience just like we do. They aren't going to draw an audience covering losers and we aren't going to draw an audience until we win. It's simple.

What marketing effort?

Bob Barker is great. He used to have sex with the girls who display the products. That's freaking awesome.

Your summarization of what I said is accurate. In defense of the University, I do believe UofA has balanced out filling the stadium and making some money. It is actually dirt cheap to go to a UofA football game compared to what it costs to go to other schools. Market to those who can. Win some freaking games and those who can will show up. It is also dirt cheap to purchase season tickets. I pay over $700 a year for two Wake Forest tickets and I gave the tickets away for the game last night because I didn't want to watch them destroy Presby and I had sixth row seats, 30 yard line for the USC vs S. Miss game a friend gave to me for free (yes, he paid for the tickets). 9,000 freeloaders is unacceptable to me. That's roughly 33% of the stadium. A couple thousand free tickets to people who may not be able to afford tickets is OK with me. People who can afford to pay should pay. I understand the desire for fun, but let's not subsidize the fun to the tune of 33% of the stadium. 10% maybe, 33% no.

Simplicity is important. In the 1980s when "personal mission statements" were all the rage, mine was "Don't be stupid". I figured that if I could just not make big mistakes in a world full of idiots, I could do well. I've done well. I continue to do even better because over time, our country is producing an increasing number of idiots. Want some evidence as to how stupid we are getting? In the 1980s, Tip O'Neill was the Speaker of the House......today, it is Nancy Peolosi. The Senate President was Geogre Mitchell in 1988 and the minority leader was Bob Dole......today, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell. Democrats were never very smart. Republicans went from having Ronald R and an intellectual leader such as William F. Buckley to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and the liberal neo conservatives on FOX News/Weekly Standard as their intellectual leaders. The Republican party has actually embraced stupidity.....it's amazing. Democrats are unknowingly stupid. Republicans are willing to become stupid. We are doomed.

Did you factor in GA? UofA has always done pretty well with walk up sales as well. Another factor playing into good ticket sales is tOSU played last night. Like it or not, it does impact attendance. I went to a football game myself (USC vs S. Miss) and it really got me in the mood to go to another game. I'm already looking forward to going to the Duke vs. Wake game next Satruday just to watch another game. Watching football makes a fan want to go to a game or go to another game. Without a tOSU game Saturday, I believe there will be a lot of people who reengergized their football spirit last night and will be looking to go to a game. It's Lab Day weekend. No NFL. No tOSU. School has statred so there are no trips to the beach. It's Saturday night and HS games are over including JV games. There are no interesting college games on TV Saturday (evidence....Arizona vs. Toledo is the ESPN prime time game). There is really nothing of note going on in NE Ohio. 20,000 minimum should be expected. I don't expect the Zips to win, but if they did in front of a big crowd over a Big East team, it would do wonders. Heck, just play well and be entertaining and a loss wouldn't kill the interest in the season. Don't suck!!!

This story has interested me since I saw it reported. I'm not sure what BYU is doing. Three outcomes seem possible. First, BYU is committing suicide as it relates to their football program. Being independent has been killing Notre Dame for over a decade now and has turned them into a solid 6-6 team against the weakest schedules they have ever played. It's much more for ND, but not being in a conference is not helping at all. I'm not sure if BYU takes this direction long term if it will come to any good for them. In fact, I predict disaster if this direction is taken for any more than four years. Second, they see the future and know there is another division of college football about to happen and they don't think they can compete at the BCS level. In my brilliant scenario I posted about a new division in college football, I had BYU as one of the top 40 teams of the past 40 years (I think). If not, they should at least be considered in the mix. BYU could be waiting out the conference shake ups and make a move to a division just below the BCS level. BYU has a long history of good football. I don't see this as a possibility, but everything is up in the air. Maybe BYU doesn't agree with my assessment of their ability to compete at the BCS level. Third, BYU wants to get into a BCS conference, but isn't quite sure how to do it yet or which one to jump to. They do know the ship they are on is taking on water fast and they will need to get off sooner rather than later. This move buys them some time and keeps their national exposure up with an ESPN contract. BYU is dictating the terms of their move with this decision. I like the move for BYU as long as it is temporary. I don't think anyone knows what the outcome of the conference shake up is going to be over the next few year. BYU has the name and is keeping their name in front of everyone with the ESPN deal. It is also a very conservative school so they are not going to make changes without really putting some thought into it, but they know changes are coming. Whatever decision BYU makes they will have to live with it for the next 40 years...maybe they don't see a reason to jump into something they aren't certain they are ready for. On the surface, this move by BYU may not seem like a big dea, but it is. Here is a name program in college football making an unusual move during a period when everyone is positioning themselves for the future. This is a bigger move than Colorado going to the PAC10. Just because their move is unusual, doesn't make it wrong. This unique direction may be what schools like Nebraska and Colorado wish they would have done five years from now. It says a lot about the future of college football and upcoming change. Hold on, a lot of changes will be coming this off season and over the next three years. College football is changing rapidly. In no way should UofA do what BYU is doing.

Don't you guys understand?........This is a freaking building process for crying out loud. Get with the freaking program already. Miliken is a freaking great addition...they will try to cover us with denim, but we will prevail with our table cloths.

ITZ....Did you graduate from the GP1 School of Spelling?

You don't know unless you try. It's like asking a good looking girl out for a date. If she says yes, you win. If she says no, you've lost nothing.

Guest Coach Experience (Men's Soccer) Join two-time National Head Coach of the Year Jay Vidovich as the men's soccer guest coach for the Virginia Tech game on Friday, October 1. Take advantage of this great opportunity for you and a guest to get an up-close and personal look at Wake Forest soccer! I received the above marketing e-mail from Wake Forest. It is something one can bid on. Marketing college athletics should be so easy and we do such a bad job of it. They have a link that allows you to submit your bid electronically. They get people to PAY to do these things. This couldn't have taken an intern more than 30 minutes to put together. Step 1: Tell the soccer coach a strange guy and probably his young son will be in the lockerroom and on the field during warm-ups and maybe during the game. Tell coach why. Step 2: Set up basic program to track bids. Web page that allows the information to flow to an Excel spreadsheet when someone presses ENTER. Step 3: Write a paragraph with a basic design (see above) and send it out to all athletic donors and season ticket holders via e-mail. Step 4: On day of bid close, call the person with the highest bid, get their money and tell them where/when to show up for the game. Give them a couple of cheap t-shirts when they get to the game or give them an autographed soccer ball. Ok, that may take 60 minutes.

I tend to agree. However, I would like to come to the defense of Jones Jr High. I'm sure that every once in a while, the administrator at JJH makes a good decision. I'm still waiting for a good decision by TW. I still have not forgotten the Reno disaster that basically ruined the career of a good guy. If Karma does exist, TW will get fired and never come close to having a good job again. A friend told me that Reno is putting his West Point Engineering degree to use, and is working in Louisiana/Alabama area (subcontracted by BP to work with them on the oil spill clean up). He's doing well. Great news! Maybe TW could go to work for him bagging tar balls.