GP1

Excellent point. Here is what the NCAA should do. 1. Select the 40 best D1A programs over the past 30 years and make them one division.2. They have four conferences that must play each other over an eleven game season meaning 9 conference games.3. Three out of conference games that must be scheduled within this level of football and the NCAA decides who plays whom and the decision is based upon prior season success like the NFL used to do.4. Stop the farce that is the players are amatures and pay them.5. Have a playoff that pays players and coaches extra for advancing.6. You must win your conference to make the playoffs.This scenario would only take two weeks of playoffs. No wild cards or anything else. You either win your conference or you watch the playoffs on TV.

This cracks me up because I have felt the same way for a few years now.Some of the apologists on the board say we are not allowed to comment if we don't see games, but I will comment anyhow. IMHO, huge losses can only be attributed to two issues:1. The team was unprepared for the game.2. The team lacked the basic athletic talent and bb ability to compete against better athletes.Issue 1 can be a result of a total team collapse from everyone on the team including, yes, the coaching staff. Issue 2, you guys do the math.....I hope I didn't hurt the feelings of some of you delicate flowers out there. I hope the rest of you are open minded enough to understand.

This is the funniest thing I've heard on this board in awhile. I doubt OSU could even pound Cincinnati. Infact, Cincinnati is probably the best team in Ohio. You think that Cinci looked bad against Virginia Tech, wait until you see what Texas does. You obviously know nothing about college football. ROFLMAOEnlighten us then. Why is a team like OSU, who has not beaten a team with a decent level of athletic talent in 3 years now, such a great team that Cincy couldn't beat them? What of the three following conferences could OSU win: PAC 10, Big 12 or SEC? How high in the standings would they finish in those three conferences? What is so great about the Big Ten that OSU would wipe the floor with the ACC champion?

If anyone takes an expanded view of college football, they will see what a disaster the playoff system has been for the lower divisions of college football. A playoff has created a situation where there are really only a very small number of good teams that could actually win the championship. For the fourth straight year, Mt. Union and Wis. WW have made it to the finals of DIII. Someone please tell me how that is good for DIII and why the same thing would not happen in D-1. Nearly the same thing can be said for the other divisioins. SW Missour, Montana, App. State, Grand Valley State, etc. are the same teams that make it every year. The only reason the other divisions have a playoff is it is the only thing to get excited about for lower division college football. I would argue that it isn't even that exciting. It certainly is not exciting enough to fill the small stadiums they play the championship games in. I can't stand to watch more than 15 minutes of those games.If crowning a tournament champion is what everyone wants (remember, the NCAA BB tournament only crowns the winner of the tournament that they call National Champion. The best team throughout the year does not always win.), then regular season college football will become irrelevant as the regular season bb schedule. In college football, every game counts. The same can not be said for college basketball.I also think a lot of people who want a playoff have never gone to a really good bowl at a really good place. Last week I went to the Car Care Bowl (an average bowl and in the winter time an average place) and there were 73,000 fans at the game. The night before, the streets of Charlotte were packed with WVU and UNC fans having a great time and spending a lot of money. Win or lose, those players and fans had a great time during what is probably only one or two of the vacations they take all year. In addition, thousands of dollars were raised for local charities including various childrens hospitals and university scholarship funds. Wouldn't it be nice that if at the end of the college football career a player could to say, "I played in a couple of bowls that helped to raise tens of thousands of dollars for medical cures." With a playoff, the player would say, "We lost in the second round of the playoffs." Which of these scenarios creates a better person and fulfills the mission of the NCAA?This year, around 30 schools will go home happy because they made a bowl and won the bowl. Another half will at least be happy they made a bowl and while upset they lost the game, they may have had a really good vacation and rooted on their team. With a playoff, only one school is happy. I don't see how that is good for college football or the member universities.In addition, how much are you guys willing to pay the players who make the playoffs? The NFL pays players additionally for making the playoffs, why wouldn't the NCAA? If the purpose of the playoff is to create excitement that will sell shirts and tickets and make money, why wouldn't the players be allowed to share in the profits. I say pay the players $20,000 per scholarship player per game. A playoff exposes future NFL players to potential career injuries. How much are you guys willing to insure the players for in case they get hurt during the marathon playoff season?For those of you who want a playoff, how would you level the recruiting playing field? There would be a huge recruiting advantage that would upset the talent balance throughout the NCAA. See the other divisions to see how unbalanced they are with the same teams making the playoffs every year. I hope I have made my point about a playoff. It is really not necessary and the playoff will intrude into the greatest playoffs of all, the NFL. The real solution is what Todd Blackledge wants. All college bowl games will be over by January 1 with all BCS games being played on December 31 or January 1. At the end of those two days, two teams are picked to play a week later. That's all we need. Something as rediculous as a 24 team playoff is just stupid. There are only about 4-5 teams right now that could be considered the best. Who in the heck is ranked 24 right now that could beat Texas, OK, USC or even Florida?Lastly, if there was more money in a playoff, don't you think those greedy athletic directors around the country would have one already? Hint, there is more money in bowls than a playoff.

Congratulations to former Zips assistant coach Aaron Alford for being part of the win last night. For those of you who did not know Aaron, you really missed out on knowing a great guy.Watching west coast football is a lot of fun because of the wide open nature of the game. The PAC 10, WAC and Mountain West are excellent conferences with a lot of talented teams. Too bad their league offices signed television contracts with VS and FOX Sports. They need to get with the ESPN family and send the Big Ten off to VS, The Big Ten Network and FOX Sports. The quality of football we would get to watch in the east would be vastly improved by moving a second tier conference like the Big Ten off to second tier networks where they belong. I'm not even trying to be a hater. The Big Ten is awful with little entertaining value and there is no end in sight. I guess after tOSU gets routed by Texas next week, the Big Ten can hang their hat on the big Iowa win over a typically unmotivated South Carolina team. I don't think excluding the Big East from BCS is a good idea. Keeping them and including the Mountain West is the way to go. Bring in Fresno State, Hawai'i and Boise State to the Mountain West and they would have one heck of a conference. It would immediately become the fourth best conference in the country behind (in any order) the PAC 10, Big 12 and SEC.

:blink: god no I-AA teams please!!!I agree. No FCS (or 1-AA) teams! I like the fact while everybody else has been watering down many of their non-conference games that the Zips have not. In addition, it is something that I have been able to hold over the fans of that school down here in Central Ohio the last couple of years and they all say they wish they didn't play 1-AA schools.If playing an FCS school is the only way to get a home game then maybe you have to, BUT I don't think it is the only way to get a home game. I remember schools like North Texas and Middle Tennessee State playing in Akron not that long ago and they all at least carry the same number of scholarship players as the Zips do. The way to get home games is home-and-home contracts with FBS (1-A) schools. I'd like to see some from BCS conferences if possible, but FBS is a necessity for respect reasons.I don't like it either, but there is a reason everyone is doing it now. 6 wins = bowl game. I-AA teams count now toward the total of 6. Everyone else is doing so we need to do it to keep pace with everyone else. It seems as if it is necessary now to schedule at least one guarantee win with a I-AA team.

Yes we would bring in better recruits. Seton Hall and Providence bring in better recruits, but they are still at the bottom of the conference.We have not brought in good enough recruits to win the MAC Tournament. We would get slaughtered in the Big East in every sport with the exception of soccer. There is ZERO evidence that we could win at that level or even support a decent athletic department. There is ZERO evidence the people of NE Ohio would support a program this size. Zeke is going to be here next year and he should be an immediate impact player. Big East teams have two Zekes and they surround them with high school all Americans and future NBA players. I would bet we do not have a single player on our basketball roster that could average more than 8 minutes a game in the Big East.

Interesting reading here from Easterbrook on ESPN.com/Page2. When you link, pan down the page to a topic called "TMQ Achieves Factual Accuracy Rate of 386.95442628".Basically the story is about how the NCAA manipulates academic standards in favor of BCS schools and punishes non-BCS school in a deceptive way. UofA is mentioned in the article. When you read it, you will see that our academic performance in terms of graduation is very good compared to most schools. We lost five scholarships because of how the NCAA measures success. A smart guy once told me, "There are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics." I think that applies here.Happy New Year everyone!

It has nothing to do with learning to win games and everything to do with using a defense that is too small. At the heart of the matter is the players wearing down over the course of the season. The solution to this trend is very simple in my estimation. Use a defense that deploys a larger group of players that wear better against bigger players.

I went to the Car Care Bowl yesterday. BTW, it was one of the best college football games I have ever sat through in person.Anyhow, here is an idea for tickets for next year. The ticket I had yesterday was shaped like a helmet and was pretty cool. Certainly it was something I have never seen before. UofA should look into that next year.

I have yet to miss a chance to watch this program blow one MAC Championship game after another. Maybe some of you guys could save us all some time and tell us what we are allowed to be critical about without hurting any of your feelinigs. I really don't want anyone to feel bad around here. Life is too short. Are there ways we should be starting a sentence? Are there problems we should not point out? Are there some ideas some of you have invested so much time into believing that it is really off base at this point? Are we or aren't we allowed to have fun at the expense of some public employees people pay to go watch them work? Are we allowed to point out when a player who stinks, stinks? Are we allowed to make fun of the fact that the endless "building" we are doing is actually not building at all? Are we allowed to expect winning against really bad competition? Are we allowed to point out that with the ooc schedule we play, 20 wins a year should be easy? I'm just looking for some guidance here. Again pumpkins, we don't want any feelings hurt around here and we all need to think exactly the same way. Cults of personality have worked well throughout history; we need one here. Once we get the cult of personality going, we can then read really interesting comments on the board such as.... That 52-50 win against Garbage School A&T was excitiing and I can't wait for the Walsh game next week...... Losing against good teams is really the type of building experience we need.... I love watching defense..... I'm interested to see how history will compare KD to John Wooden...... Nate Linhart is my idea of the perfect athlete...... Man, this ooc home schedule is really money well spent on my season tickets and I can't believe more people aren't willing to spend their hard earned money to watch the same thing...... I don't care that he is so lacking in athletic talent that he can't bring the ball up the floor against a good team, Player X is the best point guard ever..... And the always exciting, "we are building a progam we can all be proud of"....

Be cautious of what you wish for. Waters is the best college coach in NE Ohio and he can recruit better players at CSU because of their laughable academic standards.....and when I say laughable, I mean side splitting laughter or even liquid shooting out of your nose laughter. We may want to duck them while he is there. After all, we are "building" a program here (for how long now? will we beat the completion of the bridge to China?) through beating teams we should easily beat and losing to good teams. I'm not sure how all of that works, but I read on the board we are "building" it. Now that CSU is good, we may not want to break that formula. Keep the cupcakes coming....I guess. For those of you who have season tickets, I'll say it for you...... Let's see some results from all of this "building".....this year.Congratulations. A garbage post from one of ZN.O's top contributors.KD is every bit the coach Waters is. No one in their right mind would swap rosters with CSU right now. It is WATERS who's running scared here. KD would play every year. CSU ended this. Not UA.Building for "how long" now? This is year 5 of KD's tenure. He's won nearly 100 games (WAY ahead of the pace set by Huggins over the same period). He's won 2 postseason games .. that's more than Waters @ CSU. The Zips have been in the title game the last 2 years. Averaging 22 wins / season and improving every year.If you can't see progress here .. you're not watching the Zips .. oh I forgot .. you don't watch them.You can do better than that .. you usually do.Go Zips!There's nothing garbage about the post...GP1 and CK are right on the money on this one. Waters is indeed the premiere DI hoops coach in NE OH. And this is no discrespect to any of the other coaches.What he did at Can't will probably never be matched. And now you are also bringing down Huggins in this thread. Good grief....The next time I walk into the JAR and see a MAC championship banner hanging, then we can talk. Until then, there is no argument.Interesting thoughts by all. I didn't realize a post bashing the low academic standards of CSU was going to take this route, but you never know on a fan board.

Be cautious of what you wish for. Waters is the best college coach in NE Ohio and he can recruit better players at CSU because of their laughable academic standards.....and when I say laughable, I mean side splitting laughter or even liquid shooting out of your nose laughter. We may want to duck them while he is there. After all, we are "building" a program here (for how long now? will we beat the completion of the bridge to China?) through beating teams we should easily beat and losing to good teams. I'm not sure how all of that works, but I read on the board we are "building" it. Now that CSU is good, we may not want to break that formula. Keep the cupcakes coming....I guess. For those of you who have season tickets, I'll say it for you...... Let's see some results from all of this "building".....this year.

Somehow I think Charlie Coles would find a way to keep the score at 43-42 even with a 20 second clock.

Unless of course he gets Turner Gilled by a bunch of good old boy boosters who don't like the way he looks. If a coach can win at a MAC school, they can win anywhere. Saban wins everywhere he goes.....The guy at Missouri wins, Urban M. wins at Florida and won at Utah, Hoepner was about to turn around the program at IU and Kelly is winning huge at UC. It is almost a crime what they did to Turner Gill at Auburn. The only explanations are they are truly ignorant of how hard it is to win in the MAC and they do not understand what he accomplished at UB; or, they are a bunch of racists who did not want to hire a black guy. If someone has another answer, I'd be willing to listen.The new guy at Auburn will last two-three years and they had better hope at that point Gill would still be available.The problem English has is he is from the east and known in the east. Two of the top three conferences (SEC, Big 12 and PAC 10) are in the south/southeast and in a part of the country where he would not be welcomed. He would be unknown in the PAC 10 part of the world where he would be more welcomed but since he is unknown he would not get a job. Even if he has some success, the best he can hope for is a job at a second tier conference like the Big Ten or Big East or ACC or WAC or something like that. The premier confereces will be out of his reach for all the wrong reasons.

Congratulations to all of the student athletes and non-student athletes for graduating.One reason for posting this in the football section is Mike Johnson graduated after 19 years of being away from school. I'm glad to see that.Would those of you who are much better with a computer than I am see where Mike is employed now. I'm not sure it is anywhere. After the coaching change in Baltimore he was out of a job. Maybe getting a degree is a way of opening up opportunities for employment at the college level. I do not think a D-1A school would ever hire a head coach without a degree. Maybe if JD does not get it turned around next year, there might be a Coach Johnson walking around campus the following year....... You never know........

This is probably the biggest "name" to be hired in the MAC since Solich.

Always a bridesmaid and never a bride. This is basically the third AD job Mike has been passed over for (Akron, SE MO and that place in Iowa or wherever). Mike needs to be careful how much more he gets passed over because getting passed over again and again would raise a red flag for me if I was hiring. He really needs to think through his next move. Maybe he should stay with MT for MT's next move. MT will continue to move up to potentially some really big opportunities. After that, Mike W. could make his move.

A country music writer once wrote about Faith Hill, "She ain't country, but she'll do." I feel the same way about the Arena Football League. It ain't football, but in the summer it will do.

THE ONLY TIME RUMPLEMINTZ EVER REPLIES TO ONE OF YOUR JACKASS POSTS IS WHEN THE IGNORANT PIECES OF CRAP THAT YOU ARE NEED TO BE SET FREE WITH THE TRUTH............FLEMING IS NOT THE GUY THAT BROUGHT THE 3-3 IN....IF YOU HAD THE SLIGHTEST CLUE YOU WOULD KNOW THAT FLEMING NEVER RAN THE STACK IN HIS PREVIOUS YEARS AS A DC OR A HEAD COACH.....MY ONLY PRAYER IS THAT THE POOR PEOPLE OF ZIPS NATION LEARN TO SEEK THE TRUTH AND AVOID ASSUMPTIONS, IT WOULD TRULY LEAD TO A BETTER NATION!!!!!! HOW SOON WE FORGET HOW IT WAS THE DEFENSE IN THE PREVIOUS YEARS THAT KEPT THE AKRON ZIPS FOOTBALL TEAM A HALF WAY RESPECTABLE OPPONENT IN THE PAST WHEN THERE WAS NO OFFENSIVE OUTPUT!!!!!!!HAPPY HOLIDAYS ZIPS NATION AND HAVE A RUMPLEMINTZ ON ME!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!! We are seeing history here. I think this is the first time a person has ever been called a jackass for posting a link to a newspaper article on a web board.

Great job CB!This story gives me a chance to make fun of myself so I will take it..... Blackburn's last year at Akron I went to the OU game with my brother. He coached in college for a lot of years and even coached at the BCS level. He is really a good guy to watch and talk about football with. The defense Akron played was not really a fit for Blackburn so he really did not standout that much. My brother told me during the game, "That #44 is the best player on Akron's team" and "He is going to be in the NFL some day." I immediately began to laugh and tell him Blackburn doesn't do anything good enough to make the NFL. Believe it or not, I said Frye would make a better NFL player than Blackburn. My brother said something like, "No, that kid has the speed and build for an NFL LB. You watch, he will be on an NFL team next year. He's just playing in a defense that does not fit his ability. He is made for the NFL" That was the only time my brother saw him play in college and figured it out in one hour.

I agree. They are a threat, but not an immediate threat.I worry that Waters will duck UofA for a few years and then when his team gets built at CSU he will put us back on the schedule. It always worries me when the Zips have to play against more talent and a better coach. I don't worry much about the recruits as we play a different style of BB than Waters and each school recruits for that style.I don't worry much about media attention because that is hard to control and quite frankly, the media attention the two schools get isn't much to worry about even if I had to worry about it.

I know that Waters had his troubles at Rutgers, but I think John Wooden would have had trouble at Rutgers. Coach Waters is the IMHO the second best college basketball coach in Ohio behind Miller at Xavier (Miller has much more to work with though). He is a perfect fit for CSU as he does well taking a few at risk kids and turning them into a good team....he probably tried the same thing at Rutgers, but was crushed by the talet of some of the long time Big East powers (the last I checked, the Big East has seven teams in the top twenty-five...amazing). I think CSU has a good future in front of them with him running the show.

You're right in one sense GP1. It says what a chickensh__ idiot Hoke really is. I lived on the West Coast for many of the last 20 years, and yes the weather can be wonderful. Before I move on to Hoke though, for those of you who have never lived in a "one season" place, it can be great, but can also get tedious, boring, oppressive. I missed the seasons terribly while I lived out west, and other than February and March here, don't miss west coast weather at all.Now back to Hoke. There is no trading up in going to SDSU to be the head football coach. Of all of the college programs that came to mind for most football fans in that part of the country, SDSU is never mentioned, nobody cares about the program, it's a doormat, a running joke. Let's talk $$$ too. That 700K salary may not even buy him much of an increase in quality of life. It won't buy him much of an increase in exposure, it won't buy relevance to college football. Unless he's from California and just wanted to get closer to home, taking the "step up" (???) to SDSU is not a step up at all.Lastly, coaching is not a profession wherein the weather should dominate your decision-making. Many of the best coaching jobs in the country are in terrible places for weather. You tell me about a football coach who would run to a SDSU to take over the program because the weather is so beautiful, and I'll tell you about a complete d-bag. GO ZIPS!SeeTeeZipInteresting note. I live in a state where I get 2 months of winter, 2 months of fall, 2 months of spring and 6 months of summer. The sun is out almost every day. Everyone is in a constantly good mood for the most part. Ohio is full of good people who are driven insane by the gloomy weather. When the Vitamin D level drops, so does the good mood.$700K is a ton of money anywhere. The guy is going to have a good living in a great place. I'm sure the weekend trips to the beach are probably going to be much more fun than the trips to the corn maze in Muncie during the county wide 4-H championships.Buying relevance in college football? What could be more irrelevant than coaching in the MAC? Could the media in California really pay less attention to SDSU than local media reports on MAC schools? He needs to leave now while the iron is hot.I don't know about "many of the best coaching jobs" being in cold weather states. It seems to me that the SEC, Big 12 and PAC 10 have the best coaching opportunities and almost off of the good schools in those conferences are in warm states like Florida, Texas, California, Georgia, Alabama, etc.This guy is making the right move. San Diego presents an opportunity that the Muncie does not. Kids want to play in warm weather. California is crawling full of good QBs that will fit well into his system. He really found a diamond in the rough with Davis. The midwest really does not product the type of throwing QBs that you see out west. With around 1 in 10 Americans living in California, he stands a better chance of finding another Davis than he does in Muncie."The sun is out almost every day. Everyone is in a constantly good mood for the most part. Ohio is full of good people who are driven insane by the gloomy weather. When the Vitamin D level drops, so does the good mood."Uh, yeah, sure. OK. Not that your assertion is anything more than an extremely GROSS generalization, like much of the rest of your post."Kids want to play in warm weather. California is crawling full of good QBs that will fit well into his system. He really found a diamond in the rough with Davis. The midwest really does not product the type of throwing QBs that you see out west."Wow. So I guess that all of those kids, and professionals, playing anywhere other than the Southwest and the South are deficient, as are those of us who love living in these parts of the country. Another GROSS generalization not backed up by ANY facts presented by you.Sorry fellas, but unless you've lived in California for any length of time (I have, in Northern Cali AND Southern Cali for many years) you just can't appreciate what a joke SDSU is to people out there. It's considered to be nothing more than a not-very-good party school. It's a classic "Surfer U" where parents dread that their kids will go there and become 50-year-old pot-smoking, pot-bellied surfer bums. Their football program is a door mat, and will continue to be. Hoke may get a little more sunshine in his eyes, but he sure as hell hasn't made the type of Urban Myer move many otherwise expected. And lastly, I get a little touchy about the loser mentality that we so often see and hear here. I made the very conscious decision a few years ago to move back here, from the West Coast by way of WDC. This area is hard hit economically. However, this region takes a back seat to nowhere else, in any substantive way. The not-so-subtle suggestion that a guy like Hoke has done well to essentially escape this part of the country, regardless of the details of the actual program he's headed for, simply does not ring true to anybody of any substance, and certainly not to people who love it here.GO ZIPS!SeeTeeZipDid you come back to live in a mental institution? Get some sun and you won't be so angry.

You're right in one sense GP1. It says what a chickensh__ idiot Hoke really is. I lived on the West Coast for many of the last 20 years, and yes the weather can be wonderful. Before I move on to Hoke though, for those of you who have never lived in a "one season" place, it can be great, but can also get tedious, boring, oppressive. I missed the seasons terribly while I lived out west, and other than February and March here, don't miss west coast weather at all.Now back to Hoke. There is no trading up in going to SDSU to be the head football coach. Of all of the college programs that came to mind for most football fans in that part of the country, SDSU is never mentioned, nobody cares about the program, it's a doormat, a running joke. Let's talk $$$ too. That 700K salary may not even buy him much of an increase in quality of life. It won't buy him much of an increase in exposure, it won't buy relevance to college football. Unless he's from California and just wanted to get closer to home, taking the "step up" (???) to SDSU is not a step up at all.Lastly, coaching is not a profession wherein the weather should dominate your decision-making. Many of the best coaching jobs in the country are in terrible places for weather. You tell me about a football coach who would run to a SDSU to take over the program because the weather is so beautiful, and I'll tell you about a complete d-bag. GO ZIPS!SeeTeeZipInteresting note. I live in a state where I get 2 months of winter, 2 months of fall, 2 months of spring and 6 months of summer. The sun is out almost every day. Everyone is in a constantly good mood for the most part. Ohio is full of good people who are driven insane by the gloomy weather. When the Vitamin D level drops, so does the good mood.$700K is a ton of money anywhere. The guy is going to have a good living in a great place. I'm sure the weekend trips to the beach are probably going to be much more fun than the trips to the corn maze in Muncie during the county wide 4-H championships.Buying relevance in college football? What could be more irrelevant than coaching in the MAC? Could the media in California really pay less attention to SDSU than local media reports on MAC schools? He needs to leave now while the iron is hot.I don't know about "many of the best coaching jobs" being in cold weather states. It seems to me that the SEC, Big 12 and PAC 10 have the best coaching opportunities and almost off of the good schools in those conferences are in warm states like Florida, Texas, California, Georgia, Alabama, etc.This guy is making the right move. San Diego presents an opportunity that the Muncie does not. Kids want to play in warm weather. California is crawling full of good QBs that will fit well into his system. He really found a diamond in the rough with Davis. The midwest really does not product the type of throwing QBs that you see out west. With around 1 in 10 Americans living in California, he stands a better chance of finding another Davis than he does in Muncie.