GP1

I don't think it is a land mine. It really isn't an either/or proposition. They should have both. After 10 years, I can't imagine putting together a golf outing would be all that difficult. At this point, it should fall into place easily. The ladies day is something completely different. Other than getting people there, the rest shouldn't be that difficult. The coaches probably have presentation material from other events so it would take them no time to put together. They could get some players with a little free time on their hands to do some demonstrations. I could be wrong, but it all seems pretty easy to me. Community outreach is important. Golf outings, clinics for the ladies, public speaking stops for Coach I, JK and KD should all be a must do. It's not either/or. Last question. Is there a bigger camera whore on the face of the Earth than Zippy?

Answer 1: Never. In fact, we could add up the wins from the past two seasons and not get there. Answer 2: Long enough to get good, which doesn't take very long if you really want to. Answer 3: Long enough to have given me permanent damage in my esophagus from the acid reflux. Temple did pass up the MAC in a short period of time. Marshall was the on ly team to do it faster because the MAC gave the farm away to get them in the league. It takes more than a new stadium to be good. It takes the will to win. We have never had the will to win. Look at Temple's schedule if you have time to search. Three home games to start out the season and all three can be won (they will lose to UCONN however). They will lose at PSU, but so what...they got a sold out home game against PSU last year. It takes us three home games to draw as many people as they can to one game. Worst case, they will be 3-2 going into the meat of the MAC schedule. Only one time do they play two or more road games in a row (we play three). Temple is focused on winning football games and competing well in a basketball conference that is much better than the MAC. We are focused on "building" things. They are smart, we are stupid. Let's see how next year goes. I'm not even demanding we dominate the league. How about a minimum seven wins a season in a down year? I don't think that is asking too much.

Interesting you bring this up. I have a friend who lives in the Philadelphia area. Temple is selling a "family pack" type deal UofA sells. Four tickets for $100 for the season. He didn't go to Temple but bought them because the team was good and $100 isn't much money. He said that even if he goes to one game it was worth the purchase. Temple could be the next Marshall if they stick around. After they leave the MAC, the could still be the next Marshall....a team that dominates the MAC but flounders outside of the MAC.

This is a link to a final in a series Deadspin has been running with Tim Donaghy, a former ref who went to jail for gambling problems. Read his book. It is an excellent review of what goes on behind closed doors with refs in the NBA and the interpersonal relationships between refs, players and coaches. I find it very believable. One doesn't have to fix calls to do well gambling on sports. All you have to have is knowledge of how refs feel about certain key players and you can accurately predict game outcomes.

I disagree on both counts. The MAC needs to dump Temple at whatever cost (there is no cost, they don't bring in anything that improves the MAC's finances or reputation). They are not worth the money spent feeding another mouth or travelling to and from Philly. They don't help attendance when MAC schools play them at home, they don't get us a better TV contract, and they screw up our scheduling so we can't play rivals that people actually care about seeing us play. And how can they be our best program? They haven't even won their own division, let alone the conference, since joining. They don't even have enough support to have their own football stadium, instead they have to rent one from the NFL. There is so little support for football that their fans are willing to go independant or drop down to 1-AA, or drop football altogether, instead of bringing their hoops program to the MAC. If football was important to them, they would bring hoops instead of risking getting kicked out. Why should the MAC allow them to continue to leech off us with nothing in return but a few token basketball games? Temple football was 9-4 overall last season. They beat Navy. They were 6-1 in the MAC, losing only @ Athens. They were up 21-7 vs UCLA in the 3rd quarter of their bowl game. They ran out of gas, but they had a good showing. The cost to travel to/from Philly vs. any other place the Zips would travel is negligible. No opponent helps the attendance of any MAC program. MAC attendance blows regardless of the opponent. No opponent helps us get a better TV contract... and who the hell wants to watch MAC football on the TV anyhow? The support for Temple football grows at the program experiences success. That's not unique to Temple. You'd see the Zips attendance rise if we'd go 9-4 for a few seasons. What "rivals" do you want to see play in lieu of Temple? Would you have rather watched a crappy Miami OH team play the Zips in 2009 than a quality Temple program? I liked watching Temple kick our ass last year (56-17). They thoroughly out-classed us at every position. It gives me hope that we can do the same (in the MAC) one day soon. Temple was no better than us a couple years ago. It doesn't matter what Temple has done, overall, in MAC football since they became a member. What matters is the direction they are headed. And since they have joined the MAC, they have headed one direction -- up. Playing in an NFL stadium is a plus, not a negative. That stadium is awesome. Didn't they schedule a home game with Penn State? That beats the hell out of Gardner Webb. People on the MACbbs board are, for the most part, idiots. You will figure that out one day. Temple is a top MAC football program. They are talented and fun to watch. They are one of only a thimble full of MAC football programs who can not only escape embarrassment when stepping up in competition, but actually have a shot at winning. And the fact that they give the MAC 5 basketball games per year is a gift from the Gods. It allows MAC fans to see Top 25 programs in their own venue. That would never happen otherwise. I told you guys two years ago Temple was a top MAC team. Everyone laughed. They ARE a top MAC team.

I've never liked Frye and this doesn't change my view. It is also a free country. If he wants to have a camp at Ashland, he is free to do so.

If Akron continues to have things like LBJ Day, everyone will consider it a small time city. In fact, it is a small time city. All the cities you mentioned are small time cities as well. It's OK to be a small city, just don't be pathetic in the process.

It's free entry into the stadium. If all you want to do is see the stadium, then you can see it for free this day. That person won't be buying a ticket to watch the Zips play.

I disagree on both counts. The MAC needs to dump Temple at whatever cost (there is no cost, they don't bring in anything that improves the MAC's finances or reputation). They are not worth the money spent feeding another mouth or travelling to and from Philly. They don't help attendance when MAC schools play them at home, they don't get us a better TV contract, and they screw up our scheduling so we can't play rivals that people actually care about seeing us play. And how can they be our best program? They haven't even won their own division, let alone the conference, since joining. They don't even have enough support to have their own football stadium, instead they have to rent one from the NFL. There is so little support for football that their fans are willing to go independant or drop down to 1-AA, or drop football altogether, instead of bringing their hoops program to the MAC. If football was important to them, they would bring hoops instead of risking getting kicked out. Why should the MAC allow them to continue to leech off us with nothing in return but a few token basketball games? I remember Temple was one of the few "bigger time" schools that would come to the Rubber Bowl as Akron was transitioning to Division I. I always appreciated that and, therefore, have no problem assisting them in keeping their football program going until they can get into a better conference. They helped us and we help them? I say, thanks for nothing. 20+ years and this program is still a disaster.

After watching...actually, trying to desperately trying to not watch it but having to suffer through it at some point, I can only say that anything soccer does, we should not do. It is the only sport that can be made worse by a plastic horn.

Who is paying for this nonsense?.....and nobody send a note back saying Captain Kangaroo owns the board....I'm not talking abotu that. Who is paying for LBJ day?

If your gonna post this crap, at least post it in the correct forum. http://zipsnation.org/forums//index.php?showforum=7 It's not IF, but WHEN. The truth is, I think LBJ is great. They way he gets treated makes me sick, but that isn't his fault.

Sort of sums it up well......

If you knew a trainwreck was going to happen later today, would you go watch? I would. I hope it is a huge failure and if I still lived in Ohio, I would go to watch....then I would go get drunk at BW3. What they should really do, since LBJ isn't going to be there, is have sort of a Mardi Gras parade across the field at The Big Dialer. The Grand Marshal could be the last living Cleveland fan who actually remembers the last time a Cleveland team won a championship. Floats of all sorts could be made. One could be of Mayor Don kissing LBJ's butt. One could be of the mayor of Cleveland kissing LBJ's butt. Another could be an economic impact calculator of LBJ leaving the Cavs. A missing entry would be the float of LBJ's NBA Championship ring. All the while, The Pretenders song Back to Ohio would be playing over the speakers.

It just depends on the guy. I played with guys who tore their ACL and were never the same, and I also saw guys come back from it as good as new. A lot of it depends on how hard the guy is willing to work in rehab. For a recent Zips example, Alex Allen blew out his knee and came back fine. He seems like the kind of guy who probably worked his tail off in rehab. Hix is the same kind of guy. His career isn't over, IMO. Hix is a five year veteran who played on a Super Bowl winning team. He has been a solid producer and will play again for someone.

The ABJ runs a story like this for LeAppreciation Day and you know nobody is going to show up. This is a joke and everyone involved should be ashamed. Bush League.

Get well soon. The NFL is brutal. A guy gets hurt and the last two paragraphs about the story are about his replacement. Ouch!

I've always believed the MAC would be better if it was a smaller league. We have something to look at now to see how contraction could make the MAC better. The question is this, Is the Big 12 better off without Colorado and Nebraska or worse off? I think they are better off. The OK vs. TX game has become bigger than the NE vs. OK game. NE has become a middle of the road team. CO....well, need we say more. Just a bad program. The PAC10 has been made worse by adding CO. The Big Ten may have been improved, but I think the winner in the whole thing is NE. NE will immediately compete for the conference championship. In the whole shake-up, NE is the one program that is much better off than before.

There are now two people who have voted for losing.

I like watching winners. Who in the heck voted for losing?

I don't know if I root for it or not, but I do think it is inevitable and probably good for UofA. In fact, I believe what we are seeing with Texas staying in the Big Whatever because of a huge amout of money is just a bump in the road on the way to realignment. If realignment means more money than what they are currently making, the landscape will change in the near future. If the PAC 10 says next year that a team can have their own TV network, this will all start up again. Realignment has slowed down, it will not stop. Slowing down realignment allows MAC-type schools more time to think about the future, where they want to be and what they want their part of college football to look like.

I think Texas and everyone else is at the point where they don't really care what anyone thinks.

Looks like Texas may be staying in the Big 12....Big 10..whatever, to get their $20 million in TV revenue.....errrrr, I mean, to preserve the integrity of college football. The NCAA is absolutely laughable. How much is that MAC TV contract worth again? How do we compete at the BCS level again?

The author is not looking long term. He had a UN analogy. Fine, here it goes. If everyone on the UN Security Council left the UN (the first five are permanent members): China, France, Russia, UK, US, Austria, Bosnia, Brazil, Gabon, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Turkey and Uganda, what would the UN then do. There are 192 members. The UN needs the permanent members and the rest of the SC members more than they need the UN. The mega conference schools can leave the NCAA whenever they want and there is nothing the NCAA can do about it. The NCAA is run by the mega conference Security Council as it is.

They can do this now within the NCAA. All the NCAA has to do is create another division and those schools go into that division. The schools joining the mega conferences have all of the power right now. If the NCAA complains, then they can say sayonara to the NCAA and start their own association. If the non mega conference schools complain, that's fine but nobody is listening. If this mega conference plan takes off (it will, because the TV networks will make sure of it), then in 10 years, those schools should leave the NCAA and really make some money under their own rules...or lack of rules. For those of you who want it to be the 1950s, I can only say to you that your dreams are over. College football has forever changed in the past couple of weeks and they aren't ever going back to the way things were before. It may not seem like it now, but the MAC will be better off because of these changes. UofA will be better off because of these changes.