GP1

Interleague play has started and so has my yawning about interleague play. Want to make it more exciting? This article gives some good tips on how to improve interleague play. Hint: Making interleague play more exciting by having more of it thus "growing" it isn't the answer.

Fret not, Skip...you are dead wrong. I agree. The kid has too much natural talent to flop in the MAC unless at some point he becomes a compete head case and I don't see that happening either. My only concern was his accuracy, but he has some good coaches around him who can help with that part of his game. If he is willing to listen to his coaches and work hard during the summer, his accuracy should not be a problem. I hope he is working hard this summer. The responsibility for his development falls squarely on his shoulders.

The Chris Henry story this week has opened up a lot of discussion about player safety in the NFL. If you read this story closely, you see he had head injuries as far back as college while playing at WVU. UofA probably has some players playing right now who have experienced the same type of injury and may be in the same condition as Chris Henry was at WVU. Player safety should be a the front of all discussions about college football and you almost never read about it. Instead, we get mostly talk about realignment (realignment is an important issue). The NCAA cares more about money than the NFL does. This article points out two very important changes the NFL should enact. First, no three point stances. Second, weight limits on players need to be a must. There are already rules about hitting with your head so they just need to enforce those rules. The problem is, I don't know how these needed changes would have helped Chris Henry. He played a position that "little" people play. Speed is part of the force equation so it isn't like he was hit by a huge player after catching a pass. He gets hit by extremely fast people. He also never played out of a three point stance. What I do think would happen with the above changes is an even reduced focus on the running game and as a percent of plays. The spread offense would be a permanent fixture in college and NFL. Man-to-man defenses would be forced to be played and the player getting clocked over the middle by a safety would be reduced to next to nothing. We already see football moving in this direction. Any thoughts on player safety?

Why? So you can watch adults bounce the ball off of their heads for two hours?

There is nothing wrong with building this hotel. However, building hotels alone isn't the answer. The City needs to give people a reason to do business downtown in order to make the hotel a business that can survive. I look forward to staying at it myself. As a Platinum Rewards Member at this brand i will get a free room using my points.

When the incident took place, I wasn't thinking that clearly.

I double dog dare you to sit and watch nine innings of an Indians game. Come back and post after. I'm a Pirates fan. I could watch an Indians game standing on my head. It's all about conditioning and 15+ years of watching the Pirates has me in the best "watching bad baseball shape" I have ever been in. I fart in the general direction of this challenge. Get a tape of last nights game and watch it. It took the opposing pitcher 88 pitches to retire 9 innings of Indians batters. You'll get a real good idea of the type of "major league" talent that is on the team from top to bottom. You do have some conditioning being a Pirates fan, they are almost as bad as the Indians. If you have watched 3 full Pirates games this year I would be shocked! MLB is a joke. Wake me up after the strike. I watched some of the interleague between the Pirates and Indians. Pretty brutal to watch, but I survived and have come out the other end in better shape than I was before. Bring on a Baltimore vs Indians series!!!!!!!!

Analysts told Crain's New York Business that James, who becomes a free agent July 1, would have a huge impact on the company's stock price and revenues. A Knicks team featuring James would boost MSG Network's ratings, along with bringing an immediate $10 million to $20 million increase in revenue, Patrick Rishe, a professor of economics at Webster University, told Crain's. If the Knicks start making the playoffs, the annual spike could skyrocket by as much as $50 million. At the same time, Rishe said the value of the franchise, which Forbes put at $586 million last year, to increase by as much as $150 million with James, according to Crain's. LeBron can be cash cow for MSG LBJ impact on Chicago....2.7 BILLION with a B! I believe the NY story. The Chicago story is fantasy with little evidence as to how that will actually happen.

So....Last nigth I am in Poe's on Sullivans Island getting a burger and a couple of beers. About an hour in I have to take a leak. I go to the bathroom and the toilet seat is down. I'm not one to touch a public toilet seat so I stand on my left leg and try to raise the seat like I always do. The worst cramp sets in on my left calf while trying to lift the seat. I can hardly walk today....

I agree that five years ago the stadium was chosen do exactly what you say. The problem is college football is changing faster than anyone thought. Soon there will be no more FBS or FCS. It will be different levels in college football named whatever they name it. If the super conferences force the creation of a division between FBS and FCS, so be it. I would love for the Zips to be part of it. We could compete well at that level with what we have. We'll never be able to compete with the super conference schools with what we currently have. I disagree. If we get a new arena built soon for basketball at 9-11,000 capacity (and I'm all for working with the city and putting it downtown, which is pretty much campus anyways), then our facilities will be on par or superior to many BCS schools (who'd have ever thought we'd be able to say THAT ten years ago?). All we need is a winner in football and the fan support will come. I agree and disagree. It depends on the sport. If we had a BB arena as you describe, then I would agree we would be on par with a lot of BCS level BB programs. As great as our football stadium is, it is still years behind some of the 60K-100K stadiums out there that BCS schools play in. The school has no money, the Athletic Department spends more than it makes every year and the State of Ohio is broke. The Big Dialer looks today exactly as it is going to look 25 years from now and not a single seat will be added. Facilities don't make you a winner, winning makes you a winner. I hope we have all learned that after the football season we had last year. If facilities are the end all, be all, how come our BB team has been to the MAC Championship the last four years and our football team stunk as of late? I really think that if the super conference scenario takes place, we are in a great position to be in a middle level the NCAA could create between D-1A and I-AA. If there are 130 (appx) teams in D-1A and half went to the super conference (they should only take 40 IMNHO) and half went to a new level, that would still be pretty good football at the new level. With our current facilities, we could compete there all day long. We are never going to compete at the BCS level, or at the high level college football is going. MAC ADs really need to think about the direction of the league in the next couple of years. I never get the feeling they are looking at the landscape of college sports (where it is and where it is going) and making decisions based upon that. I know a lot of us wish it was different, but wishing makes me think about one of my mother's favorite sayings. "Make a wish or $h!+ in your hat. See which one fills up first." Our hats are getting pretty full at UofA.

Give it some time. I'm sure the "organizers" of the event are using photoshop to fill in hillside as we type.

Crowd estimation based upon t-shirts handed out...it only gets worse. I'll take the word of the "university officials" over the guys with egg on their faces.

I agree that five years ago the stadium was chosen do exactly what you say. The problem is college football is changing faster than anyone thought. Soon there will be no more FBS or FCS. It will be different levels in college football named whatever they name it. If the super conferences force the creation of a division between FBS and FCS, so be it. I would love for the Zips to be part of it. We could compete well at that level with what we have. We'll never be able to compete with the super conference schools with what we currently have.

Other than Temple, there is not a single team in the MAC a BCS level conference would want. In all the talk about realignment, there has not been a single peep about a MAC school going anywhere. The Big East may not want to take Temple back in a couple of years, but they may have to take them back out of necessity. Everyone, please listen to me and listen good. The MAC is a I-AA league. Any move the league makes should be with both eyes on I-AA and forgetting the fantasy that somehow we are going to "grow" into something different. The MAC is being crushed under the weight of the BCS conferences and we need to move and move quickly so we can do it on our terms and not in a panic. The league has one year to figure out what to do and they had better think fast. We could still be D-I in every other sport, we just need to free ourselves from the clutches of the BCS. Much of what you say about the MAC may have its merits, but we didn't build a $61M stadium to be FCS. Not happening @ UA. One of the major reasons the stadium was built was because the NEEDED one. The last one was falling down...literally falling down. I don't think we are going to have anything to say about realignment and may be forced out of our current position along with other MAClike schools. I dont' think the BCS schools want anything to do with schools like UofA and as soon as they can separate themselves, they will. We really need to plan for when that happens. I actually disagree with you. The common theme for you is that BCS schools are different. Well the BCS is made up of all 120 FBS schools. The difference lies in bowl qualification status. There are 65 automatic qualifiers and 55 non-automatic. The AQ's actually need the Non-AQ's to survive. You will ask "why?" or "how?", for the most part up to 25% of every AQ schedule is made up of Non-AQ from their region. Travel is consistantly more expensive and traveling a great distance and losing is even more expensive. Keeping region D-1 schools (even if inferior) allows you the ability to fill out your schedule with opponents that provide a healthy test/warm up. Additionally, those 55 Non-AQ's have huge pull in many of the states. You have no idea what you are talking about...again. You need to expand your thinking beyond the existing structure of the NCAA because it is changing rapidly. MAC schools need to be thinking about it because whether or not they like it, things are going to change again next year. If there is a movement to super conferences, the bowls are finished. I feel bad about that because I like bowls. A playoff system will take the place of bowls. The teams that don't make the super conferences should have their own division so they can have a playoff as well. Most bowls lose money for the schools that attend. College football will change very quickly in the near future. Super conferences will eliminate warm up games. It should be in their charter to not play out of the super conferences. They could even have a preseason game or two as long as it is going to be a quasi professional league. TV revenue and the additional price fans would pay to attend super conference games would more than make up for the revenue generated from BCS schools playing non-BCS schools.

I think it is a crying shame that an assistant basketball coach has to put this together. It makes us look small time. Other schools have a clinic for ladies as well. It isn't on their press page, but I have gotten invitations the past three years for their golf outing as well. Like I said, it isn't either/or. They should be doing things like this. Does anyone think for one second that an assistant coach at even a little school like Wake Forest has to organize golf outings? It's insane. There are plenty of people in the Athletic Department to do this. Gary Bogue used to do it and it was a great event when he did. He wasn't a coach, just a guy working in Athletics. He could have easily done both because he was organized. I could go on about what a poor job UofA does with alumni relations. Miami has an alumni events 2-3 per year in the Charlotte area...my wife makes me go. There is a young woman who organizes them and she lives locally. Miami gives her mailing lists/e-mail lists and give away items. She does the rest. She even has the phone numbers of Carolina Panthers who went to Miami and they show up. It isn't hard to send an e-mail, reserve a room at a local bar and have an outing with 40 people. I know people who graduated from UofA who would love to have socials, but there is no way of organizing them. I brought this up to someone at UofA one time and they looked at me like I was speaking another language. I would do it myself with a little support. It is not the job of coaches to organize golf outings. That is small time if they do. The University needs to take charge and people in the bloated Athletic Department's staff need to put this together. Have you reached out to the alumni office? I seriously doubt they'd turn down someone willing to help get alumni re-connected with their alma mater. I did. No luck.

Other than Temple, there is not a single team in the MAC a BCS level conference would want. In all the talk about realignment, there has not been a single peep about a MAC school going anywhere. The Big East may not want to take Temple back in a couple of years, but they may have to take them back out of necessity. Everyone, please listen to me and listen good. The MAC is a I-AA league. Any move the league makes should be with both eyes on I-AA and forgetting the fantasy that somehow we are going to "grow" into something different. The MAC is being crushed under the weight of the BCS conferences and we need to move and move quickly so we can do it on our terms and not in a panic. The league has one year to figure out what to do and they had better think fast. We could still be D-I in every other sport, we just need to free ourselves from the clutches of the BCS. Much of what you say about the MAC may have its merits, but we didn't build a $61M stadium to be FCS. Not happening @ UA. One of the major reasons the stadium was built was because the NEEDED one. The last one was falling down...literally falling down. I don't think we are going to have anything to say about realignment and may be forced out of our current position along with other MAClike schools. I dont' think the BCS schools want anything to do with schools like UofA and as soon as they can separate themselves, they will. We really need to plan for when that happens.

Four thousand people AND LeBron show up. "Akron is my home, it's my life. Everything I do is for this city. I'm going to continue to do great things. I love every last one of you all. Akron is home." --LBJ Good job ignoring the entire story. They expected 10,000 and got 4,000 to a FREE event to listen to the Mayor, Jim Tressel and sniff jock for a couple of hours. Most had left by the time LBJ arrived. This event was a silly disaster. I wish I could have been there to see it in person....I love a good trainwreck. A good poster on this board used to say about Zips football games, "It is Bush League all the way." This ass kissing fest was Bush League. The really stupid thing about all of this is LBJ stands a good chance of resigning with Cleveland without all of this nonsense. The ass kissing is just too much for me. I don't even think LBJ likes all of the ass kissing and probably wishes it would all just stop once and for all. A part of me feels bad that LBJ has to put up with this nonsense. LBJ needs to make a professional decision about what is best for his brand. My belief is his brand works anywhere and Cleveland is just as good of a city as the next. I hope he stays. I hope that when he does stay, nobody believes LBJ Appreciation Day had anything to do with it. LBJ is a business and will make a business decision. Everyone knows LBJ loves Akron. Is everyone around Akron so insecure they need a professional basketball player to tell them he loves their city for them to feel good about it? It is all so small time.

Other than Temple, there is not a single team in the MAC a BCS level conference would want. In all the talk about realignment, there has not been a single peep about a MAC school going anywhere. The Big East may not want to take Temple back in a couple of years, but they may have to take them back out of necessity. Everyone, please listen to me and listen good. The MAC is a I-AA league. Any move the league makes should be with both eyes on I-AA and forgetting the fantasy that somehow we are going to "grow" into something different. The MAC is being crushed under the weight of the BCS conferences and we need to move and move quickly so we can do it on our terms and not in a panic. The league has one year to figure out what to do and they had better think fast. We could still be D-I in every other sport, we just need to free ourselves from the clutches of the BCS.

I think it is a crying shame that an assistant basketball coach has to put this together. It makes us look small time. Other schools have a clinic for ladies as well. It isn't on their press page, but I have gotten invitations the past three years for their golf outing as well. Like I said, it isn't either/or. They should be doing things like this. Does anyone think for one second that an assistant coach at even a little school like Wake Forest has to organize golf outings? It's insane. There are plenty of people in the Athletic Department to do this. Gary Bogue used to do it and it was a great event when he did. He wasn't a coach, just a guy working in Athletics. He could have easily done both because he was organized. I could go on about what a poor job UofA does with alumni relations. Miami has an alumni events 2-3 per year in the Charlotte area...my wife makes me go. There is a young woman who organizes them and she lives locally. Miami gives her mailing lists/e-mail lists and give away items. She does the rest. She even has the phone numbers of Carolina Panthers who went to Miami and they show up. It isn't hard to send an e-mail, reserve a room at a local bar and have an outing with 40 people. I know people who graduated from UofA who would love to have socials, but there is no way of organizing them. I brought this up to someone at UofA one time and they looked at me like I was speaking another language. I would do it myself with a little support. It is not the job of coaches to organize golf outings. That is small time if they do. The University needs to take charge and people in the bloated Athletic Department's staff need to put this together.

To me there is a big difference between "fixing" a game and setting a tone that would influence certain styles of play. For example, the NFL cracked down on touching WRs past 5 yards which changed the game. That isn't fixing games, it is just changing the tone. At no point did this guy fix games. All he knew was certain refs like certain players and focused on certain calls. Knowing that allowed him to very closely predict games. His crime was getting involved with organized crime and letting them know what he knew went on around the NBA.

Was it the football staff or the athletic department? I hope it wasn't the staff. The Athletic Department has had nothing to do with the outing recently. It's all organized by the football office, and Ianello said the hell with it. If this is true, I have different thoughts. First, on some level I don't blame the coach. Look at GoZips.com and look at the amount of staff sitting around the Athletic Department. Surely a couple of them would have time to do something like this. The coaching staff shouldn't have to do it. This is the kind of support an AD should give to one of his new employees. CoachI is new at the school and his staff is new (six months). Give these guys some help getting to know the alumni/donors and organize an outing for them for crying out loud. I've said it before and I'll say it again. We have a very lazy AD on our hands and I am worried about that.

What if he is right? Does the messenger matter at that point? There is a big difference between Jeffrey Dahmer and a guy with a gambling problem. Try some perspective.

Was it as pathetic as the AP story makes it seem? Who among you puckered up today?

Sounds like a well organized event.

Was it the football staff or the athletic department? I hope it wasn't the staff.