GP1

I normally find Pluto's articles somewhat overly gushy about games like tonight, but this is actually a good article.Interesting quote by KD about MAC teams "earning" a birth into the NIT. I would agree 100%. They earn their way in by not winning the MAC.

Bingo!!!!

If basketball was a mind game, Can't wouldn't have the right equipment.This topic is "Anyone need a Can't State joke this week?" Aren't they a joke every week?

He will get far more support at UofA than in high school.Florida State graduates players that are learning disabled (the LD classification is actually a scam they run to get the kids more help). If they can do that, one kid who was a little lazy early on in high school can graduate from UofA.I could care less about his grades. All indications show the kid does not really want to go to UofA.

Best idea on this board since the Great GP1 posted on how to reform college football.

Will have my gear on at McHale's Irish Pub....always fun to hear southerners mispronounce the word Akron.Go Zips.

NIT = Fort Worth Bowl

Thanks for the credit where credit is due. The Great GP1 didn't just come up with something similar, the Great GP1 came up with an idea for superior to what this hack at SI offers. The only thing worth quoting in his article is:"The NCAA began with the noblest intentions, but it has grown into a bloated beast of an organization that routinely does harm even when it tries to do good."The NCAA is a complete fraud. The answer is not for a certain number of schools to leave the NCAA. The answer is for those schools is to have their own division. And why does this hack think 64 is the right number? First of all, it is too many. Secondly, what else does the number 64 remind everyone of? SI should stick with photographing half naked girls. At least what they would be printing would be interesting.

Yes, yes and yes. They aren't going to build a fan base by starting out the season 1-3 every year.Our basketball team just got smashed by a mid level mid major and they are a much better program than our football program. That game should have been an awakening for football fans as well. UofA does not have the players to compete against BCS level schools at this stage in college football. BCS schools have gotten better and MAC schools have gotten worse.Let's put the program in a position to succeed in lieu of ongoing failure in the hopes that once every five years, some BCS school in horrible circumstances will fall apart against the Zips. When you start out the year 1-3, casual fans think you are a 4-8 team so why bother?

It was similar, but Faust had an additional problem. Faust had a problem with the number of scholarships he had to offer and the number of partial scholarships being used. Keep in mind Faust took over a I-AA team with I-AA talent. I wasn't quite in school yet, but I believe Dennison had 65 scholarship players and not all of them were full scholarships.The first step Faust took was to dare to have an honest discussion with each player from the Dennison era and tell most of them they were not D-I talent and they would never see the field. A lot of these players were on partials and weren't D-I talent. This pissed off a lot of players and caused it's own problem, but Faust did the right thing. Combining enough partials freed up enough money to start to offer more full scholarships. If anyone can remember, I would like to know the answer to this. When did UofA finally have enough money to field the NCAA limit of scholarship players? If my memory is correct, it was about half way through the Owens era. Reason 287 why this program has done little in the last 20 years.You are correct. The NCAA didn't let the Zips automatically jump from 65 scholarships to 85. We could only offer 25 scholarships per year, working our way up to 85. If 8 kids quit the team...to bad...you got your 25 per season, maximum. It took us forever to get up to 85. It might not have happened until the Owens-era.Nothing like playing against schools like Auburn and Florida with 70 only scholarship players.But when did we finally have 85 endowed scholarships? I know we could have offered them, but I think it took some time before we could actually pay for that many so we in fact did not have 85 scholarship players on the team.Several years ago -- maybe around 2003/2004 era, someone (I think it was the Michiganlive website -- is that the FreePress?), published the actual number of Am. football scholarships provided by MAC schools. Remember, this was a period when the league was more successful than more recently -- the BigBen era. Only one or two schools came close to providing the full number available under NCAA max's, and I recall that EMU then was only giving between 45-50 total, several were around 60-65. I would guess than Akron was in the mid-upper 60s, maybe 70ish. These numbers -- or the lack of NCAA maximums isn't primarily due to players dropping out (although that accounts for a secondary loss), but rather to budgetary restrictions. Based on that I would be surprised if MAC schools are today very close to the 85 scholarships limit. Someone do some research -- Mike Razor, where are you?My understanding is UofA now has 85 endowed scholarships. Could be wrong though.Everyone complains we did not have the facilities to win....Hell, we didn't have the people to win.

Terrible schedule. At no point do the Zips play two home MAC games in a row until the end of the year. Twice they play two MAC road games in a row.The Zips will start the season 1-3. Let's hope someone shows up for the NIU game.Until we know whether or not Coach I can turn talented kids into players, I'm goin with a five win season.

It was similar, but Faust had an additional problem. Faust had a problem with the number of scholarships he had to offer and the number of partial scholarships being used. Keep in mind Faust took over a I-AA team with I-AA talent. I wasn't quite in school yet, but I believe Dennison had 65 scholarship players and not all of them were full scholarships.The first step Faust took was to dare to have an honest discussion with each player from the Dennison era and tell most of them they were not D-I talent and they would never see the field. A lot of these players were on partials and weren't D-I talent. This pissed off a lot of players and caused it's own problem, but Faust did the right thing. Combining enough partials freed up enough money to start to offer more full scholarships. If anyone can remember, I would like to know the answer to this. When did UofA finally have enough money to field the NCAA limit of scholarship players? If my memory is correct, it was about half way through the Owens era. Reason 287 why this program has done little in the last 20 years.You are correct. The NCAA didn't let the Zips automatically jump from 65 scholarships to 85. We could only offer 25 scholarships per year, working our way up to 85. If 8 kids quit the team...to bad...you got your 25 per season, maximum. It took us forever to get up to 85. It might not have happened until the Owens-era.Nothing like playing against schools like Auburn and Florida with 70 only scholarship players.But when did we finally have 85 endowed scholarships? I know we could have offered them, but I think it took some time before we could actually pay for that many so we in fact did not have 85 scholarship players on the team.

It was similar, but Faust had an additional problem. Faust had a problem with the number of scholarships he had to offer and the number of partial scholarships being used. Keep in mind Faust took over a I-AA team with I-AA talent. I wasn't quite in school yet, but I believe Dennison had 65 scholarship players and not all of them were full scholarships.The first step Faust took was to dare to have an honest discussion with each player from the Dennison era and tell most of them they were not D-I talent and they would never see the field. A lot of these players were on partials and weren't D-I talent. This pissed off a lot of players and caused it's own problem, but Faust did the right thing. Combining enough partials freed up enough money to start to offer more full scholarships. If anyone can remember, I would like to know the answer to this. When did UofA finally have enough money to field the NCAA limit of scholarship players? If my memory is correct, it was about half way through the Owens era. Reason 287 why this program has done little in the last 20 years.

My point always is other than winning one MAC Championship in 20 years, there really isn't much glory here. Hell, Bundy's four touchdowns in a single game at Polk HS is probably more impressive than our last 20 year history.Faust, Owens and JD are like the losers in Al's No Ma'am Club hanging out in his garage.

There will be a group of UofA alumni watching and drinking at McHale's in Tega Cay, SC.Go Zips!

As long as the field is one color with a logo in the middle, I think schools should be able to do whatever they want.Quite frankly, college football is becoming borring. Different fields might be interesting. Basketball courts are very different depending on the school. The Nazis at the NCAA need to loosen up on the rules a little.

Wow, you guys were so important.

It's not as much of a debate or conversation as some of us taking one of our fellow alumns (you), lovingly putting our arms around you and saying, "It's ok that you guys sucked. You don't have to make up fiction about what really happed during the Owens years. We still love you anyhow."This coming from a Faust guy??? The entire era you were involved in was nothing but a black mark and embarrassment to this University on all accords. My coach went out on a 7-5 record, in the upper echelon of the MAC at its height, and with enough talent left on the team for his successor to go win a championship. Your coach went out with one win, a bunch of disgraceful thugs populating the team, and a gigantic mess for his successor to clean up. Faust and his teams are an embarrassment that most involved in UA athletics would like to forget ever happened.In the 4 years that I played, we won 17 MAC games. All that impressive? No. Best in school history? Yes. So don't come at me talking about how "you guys sucked" when my teams won more MAC games than any class in your embarrassment of an era even thought about.7-5 with two I-AA teams. How impressive.... You guys sucked. I could sit here and cry and bitch and moan about how bad we had it with our facilities, weight room in the jar, zero academic support, etc., but it would just make me look like a whining bitch....like, well, you know.

It all starts with talent. Miami had a ton of talent around the campus, they picked up the talent and put it to good use. Bernis Kosar had a lot to do with it as well. Bernie was a smart guy who could spread the field out and run a pro style offense. The story of the Cotton Bowl win against Texas was funny as well. They hated the city of Dallas, they hated the people of Texas and they set out to humiliate them on national TV....and they did. One Miami player told his teammates before the opening kickoff he was going to knock out the return man....and he did. Miami had 195 yards of penalties and still destroyed Texas.The interviews with Coach Johnson were great as well. He grew up dirt poor like a lot of the kids at Miami and they all related to each other. One guy said he coached with his middle finger in the air. College football seems so phony today compared to what it was then. The players hate each other, but they have to pretend they don't. The players are wildly excited when they do something good, but they can't celebrate.

The Zips put up a solid win last night. They need to keep that momentum going for not just the Tournament, but they badly need to beat Can't for more than just pride. Losing twice to them create a recruiting advantage for Can't that I don't want to give up.The best thing they can do now is go on a winning streak going into the Tournament. KD will play to win.

It's not as much of a debate or conversation as some of us taking one of our fellow alumns (you), lovingly putting our arms around you and saying, "It's ok that you guys sucked. You don't have to make up fiction about what really happed during the Owens years. We still love you anyhow."

That 17% was for a single season.I thought the 17% number seemed strange. I know too many guys who graduated for it to be true.Once again, Faust reigns as the tallest midget. You guys have no idea how strange it is to type those words or even to take the thought serioiusly.Speaking of Faust, did anyone see the absolutely great 30-30 on ESPN about Miami FL football? It's amazing to me Faust actually coached on the same field against J. Johnson. That 30-30 was great in so many ways. Miami really changed college football in many good and bad ways.My favorite part was when the media complained about Miami destroying other teams and they never once complained when Oklahoma, Texas, Notre Dame were beating teams 50-0.

Understood... however, the question was brought up about how RP would have dealt with slavery, and that was to buy out slave contracts and then make slavery illegal. However, my (quite limited recollection and) assumption was that the civil war was really fought to keep the southern states from succeeding. The reason they wanted succession was to force their right to keep slaves. So, simply declaring slavery illegal would not necessarily have stopped the war (and all the lives and expenses incurred). That was my only point.I love Civil War history and could talk about it all day. Southerners saw slaves as property and not people. Most slaves served as farm hands. Property can be sold for the right price and most historians believe the price for purchase would have been much less than the war price. The purchase of the slaves in an agreement to end slavery would have eliminated the cause for succeeding.The really interesting thing about slavery is it still exists. Many countries have sex slaves. In fact, there have been stories in recent years about eastern European girls being brought to the US to serve as sex slaves right under our noses. Some countries around the world even today have slaves similar to what the US used them for in past centuries, as a source of farm labor. In WWII, the Germans used Jews as slaves and forced them to work in factories. It's all very strange.

Church gossip is something even the Great GP1 can not explain.

Whatever floats your boat dude.... We have a former football coach at our school who bought himself and his coaches MAC East Championship rings when they didn't even make the MAC Championship.