Scheduling

[GJGood]

What do you all think the hiring of Coach Ianello will do to our scheduling for future years?I think it will be interesting to see what happens there simply because he has never even been a position coach at a non-BCS school. I wonder if he is the type that will try to load up the schedule every year like a Fresno State or Southern Miss or if he's the type that likes to go for early season easy wins.

[GP1]

What do you all think the hiring of Coach Ianello will do to our scheduling for future years?I think it will be interesting to see what happens there simply because he has never even been a position coach at a non-BCS school. I wonder if he is the type that will try to load up the schedule every year like a Fresno State or Southern Miss or if he's the type that likes to go for early season easy wins.

The decision shouldn't be left up to him.If we have a schedule like Fresno St., we can suffer through five more years of losing seasons. If we schedule sanely, we can enjoy some winning.

[Zipmeister]

I'm not one to say I told you so, but if you check other threads you will see that the Zipmeister predicted ND would be coming to Info in the not too distant future. With this coaching hire we are one step closer to that prediction coming true (Please, let's not get into that ugly Mayan - Aztec - Incan controversy again).

[johnnyzip84]

I'm not one to say I told you so, but if you check other threads you will see that the Zipmeister predicted ND would be coming to Info in the not too distant future. With this coaching hire we are one step closer to that prediction coming true (Please, let's not get into that ugly Mayan - Aztec - Incan controversy again).

For chichen itza's sake, no!

[indiandad4]

2010 @ Indiana and Kentucky, Syracuse at home. 2011 @ Ohio State and Cincinnati, so first couple of years non-confence is pretty much set. Might be able to mix a sub team in 2011, but will be at least 2012 til they can change things up.

[GJGood]

Didn't I hear that Michigan State was at least a possibilty sometime in the future?

[indiandad4]

Didn't I hear that Michigan State was at least a possibilty sometime in the future?

was suppopsed to first game next year but was dropped prior to the start of last season

[ctmjbowes@sbcglobal.net]

I hope we move toward more home games, more of them on Saturdays in the couple of months before the weather turns to poo (although this year we were particularly lucky with weather), a mix of cupcakes and low-end brand-name teams. I will happily pay to watch Indiana, Army, Navy, any of the MWC or WAC teams play some mix of home and away. I'm also intrigued by the higher-end FCS schools, although I'm very aware that the better ones would have beaten us handily this year, so there is always the "Michigan-App State" risk inherent to playing such teams. I'm NOT particularly in favor of continuing to be crushed a couple times every year by PSU, OSU, VaTech, etc. Those games just suck. We should never, ever play the top-echelon teams until we can compete. The day we become Utah or Boise State we can jump in the mix with the biggies. Until then schools like Indiana should be the upper end of the teams we play. BUT, they should still be schools Joe Average recognizes.

[GP1]

I hope we move toward more home games, more of them on Saturdays in the couple of months before the weather turns to poo (although this year we were particularly lucky with weather), a mix of cupcakes and low-end brand-name teams. I will happily pay to watch Indiana, Army, Navy, any of the MWC or WAC teams play some mix of home and away. I'm also intrigued by the higher-end FCS schools, although I'm very aware that the better ones would have beaten us handily this year, so there is always the "Michigan-App State" risk inherent to playing such teams. I'm NOT particularly in favor of continuing to be crushed a couple times every year by PSU, OSU, VaTech, etc. Those games just suck. We should never, ever play the top-echelon teams until we can compete. The day we become Utah or Boise State we can jump in the mix with the biggies. Until then schools like Indiana should be the upper end of the teams we play. BUT, they should still be schools Joe Average recognizes.

SeeTeeZip is on fire with good posts today. We didn't build a new stadium to play PSU and tOSU on the road. Lets get some low end CUSA and Sun Belt teams to play us home and home.Play on freaking Saturday when the sun is up and people can enjoy a nice afternoon outside. Maybe someone like me who has to drive 7 hours might have more options as to when I go watch the Zips.Ignore when tOSU is playing.Right now, TW has to be thinking about how to get some of the BCS teams we have on our schedule for next year off of the schedule and get more I-AA teams. The same goes for the following year.

[MaxZIP]

I hope we move toward more home games, more of them on Saturdays in the couple of months before the weather turns to poo (although this year we were particularly lucky with weather), a mix of cupcakes and low-end brand-name teams. I will happily pay to watch Indiana, Army, Navy, any of the MWC or WAC teams play some mix of home and away. I'm also intrigued by the higher-end FCS schools, although I'm very aware that the better ones would have beaten us handily this year, so there is always the "Michigan-App State" risk inherent to playing such teams. I'm NOT particularly in favor of continuing to be crushed a couple times every year by PSU, OSU, VaTech, etc. Those games just suck. We should never, ever play the top-echelon teams until we can compete. The day we become Utah or Boise State we can jump in the mix with the biggies. Until then schools like Indiana should be the upper end of the teams we play. BUT, they should still be schools Joe Average recognizes.

SeeTeeZip is on fire with good posts today. We didn't build a new stadium to play PSU and tOSU on the road. Lets get some low end CUSA and Sun Belt teams to play us home and home.Play on freaking Saturday when the sun is up and people can enjoy a nice afternoon outside. Maybe someone like me who has to drive 7 hours might have more options as to when I go watch the Zips.Ignore when tOSU is playing.Right now, TW has to be thinking about how to get some of the BCS teams we have on our schedule for next year off of the schedule and get more I-AA teams. The same goes for the following year.

I bet the zips could generate comparable revenue to a cash game/sure loss with a home game early in the year against a CUSA, MWC, or Sunbelt team. It will be interesting to see of TW can leverage thenew stadium to bring some mid level terams north. I bet Akron could haul in nearly a million dollars for a sold out home game. When will the athletic department publish their financials for the 2009/10 season?

[ziptrumpet87]

I hope we move toward more home games, more of them on Saturdays in the couple of months before the weather turns to poo (although this year we were particularly lucky with weather), a mix of cupcakes and low-end brand-name teams. I will happily pay to watch Indiana, Army, Navy, any of the MWC or WAC teams play some mix of home and away. I'm also intrigued by the higher-end FCS schools, although I'm very aware that the better ones would have beaten us handily this year, so there is always the "Michigan-App State" risk inherent to playing such teams. I'm NOT particularly in favor of continuing to be crushed a couple times every year by PSU, OSU, VaTech, etc. Those games just suck. We should never, ever play the top-echelon teams until we can compete. The day we become Utah or Boise State we can jump in the mix with the biggies. Until then schools like Indiana should be the upper end of the teams we play. BUT, they should still be schools Joe Average recognizes.

Amen!

[Captain Kangaroo]

Right now, TW has to be thinking about how to get some of the BCS teams we have on our schedule for next year off of the schedule and get more I-AA teams. The same goes for the following year.

No he doesn't.You play one, 1-AA school per season. That's it.If TW schedules two 1-AA schools he can have my season tickets. If I want to watch multiple 1-AA games, I'll go to a 1-AA stadium like Youngstown.Beyond that, only one 1-AA win counts towards bowl eligibility.Next season we play BCS Syracuse, Indiana and Cincinnati(?).So we should back out of our contracted game with Indiana? A bottom-rung Big 10 team? No way.Back out of our home game with Syracuse? Great idea....Stiff Cincinnati after they honored their game in Akron? That would be a classy move..."You want it to be one way....but it's the other."

[GP1]

Right now, TW has to be thinking about how to get some of the BCS teams we have on our schedule for next year off of the schedule and get more I-AA teams. The same goes for the following year.

No he doesn't.You play one, 1-AA school per season. That's it.If TW schedules two 1-AA schools he can have my season tickets. If I want to watch multiple 1-AA games, I'll go to a 1-AA stadium like Youngstown.Beyond that, only one 1-AA win counts towards bowl eligibility.Next season we play BCS Syracuse, Indiana and Cincinnati(?).So we should back out of our contracted game with Indiana? A bottom-rung Big 10 team? No way.Back out of our home game with Syracuse? Great idea....Stiff Cincinnati after they honored their game in Akron? That would be a classy move..."You want it to be one way....but it's the other."

Enjoy the losing. Take a recliner to the game, there will be plenty of room. This team needs to get some wins under its belt and then we can beef up the schedule.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Right now, TW has to be thinking about how to get some of the BCS teams we have on our schedule for next year off of the schedule and get more I-AA teams. The same goes for the following year.

No he doesn't.You play one, 1-AA school per season. That's it.If TW schedules two 1-AA schools he can have my season tickets. If I want to watch multiple 1-AA games, I'll go to a 1-AA stadium like Youngstown.Beyond that, only one 1-AA win counts towards bowl eligibility.Next season we play BCS Syracuse, Indiana and Cincinnati(?).So we should back out of our contracted game with Indiana? A bottom-rung Big 10 team? No way.Back out of our home game with Syracuse? Great idea....Stiff Cincinnati after they honored their game in Akron? That would be a classy move..."You want it to be one way....but it's the other."

Enjoy the losing. Take a recliner to the game, there will be plenty of room. This team needs to get some wins under its belt and then we can beef up the schedule.

One 1-AA game + a MAC East schedule is soft enough. Any softer and we should drop to 1-AA. If we do that, then your plan makes sense.

[Zipgrad01]

Right now, TW has to be thinking about how to get some of the BCS teams we have on our schedule for next year off of the schedule and get more I-AA teams. The same goes for the following year.

No he doesn't.You play one, 1-AA school per season. That's it.If TW schedules two 1-AA schools he can have my season tickets. If I want to watch multiple 1-AA games, I'll go to a 1-AA stadium like Youngstown.Beyond that, only one 1-AA win counts towards bowl eligibility.Next season we play BCS Syracuse, Indiana and Cincinnati(?).So we should back out of our contracted game with Indiana? A bottom-rung Big 10 team? No way.Back out of our home game with Syracuse? Great idea....Stiff Cincinnati after they honored their game in Akron? That would be a classy move..."You want it to be one way....but it's the other."

Enjoy the losing. Take a recliner to the game, there will be plenty of room. This team needs to get some wins under its belt and then we can beef up the schedule.

One 1-AA game + a MAC East schedule is soft enough. Any softer and we should drop to 1-AA. If we do that, then your plan makes sense.

I dont even like the 1 game against a 1-AA. I have a hard enough time getting people to go to the MAC games with me, let alone those games. If we can't compete in our conference and be willing to at least play some decent non conference teams, then we should drop down. You dont get recruits to come here by playing and beating a bunch on 1-AA teams.

[GP1]

Any softer and we should drop to 1-AA.

Now you're talking! However, we need to stay in the MAC so unless we can get the rest of the league to follow, we need to stay in the worst D-1A conference.Quite frankly, I could care less if it looks "classy" to the folks at Cincinnati. I realize the obsession on this board with bowing to MT and UAM, but I could care less what anyone thinks of us...including them. You guys can set up a time to go slobber kisses all over each other in a season other than football. It's time for this AD to make some difficult decisions that might upset some people outside of UofA. I don't care if it upsets future job networking opportunities for TW, it needs to be done. The cycle of losing needs to stop next year, not two years from now. If this AD can't make a difficult decision other than throwing an innocent assistant football coach under the bus, then we have hired just another paper pusher in an industry full of paper pushers.Next year, the Zips have three guaranteed l's to KY (I believe), Syracuse and Indiana. I don't see how starting out the year with three guaranteed l's is good for the program. Syracuse will be better next year than this year because they couldn't get any worse. Indiana is a BCS program and though they are bad, they can field better talent than us and will beat us in Indiana. KY is SEC and we aren't...enough said. Losing to these schools gets us no closer to a bowl game than a second I-AA team. At least with the I-AA team we get to see the Zips win. If playing two MAC schools a year is OK for a BCS team, why is it wrong for a MAC team to play two I-AA teams? Is a home game in September better than a road game in September? I just don't think the one win against a BCS team every four years is worth the overall cost to the program.

[g-mann17]

Right now, TW has to be thinking about how to get some of the BCS teams we have on our schedule for next year off of the schedule and get more I-AA teams. The same goes for the following year.

No he doesn't.You play one, 1-AA school per season. That's it.If TW schedules two 1-AA schools he can have my season tickets. If I want to watch multiple 1-AA games, I'll go to a 1-AA stadium like Youngstown.Beyond that, only one 1-AA win counts towards bowl eligibility.Next season we play BCS Syracuse, Indiana and Cincinnati(?).So we should back out of our contracted game with Indiana? A bottom-rung Big 10 team? No way.Back out of our home game with Syracuse? Great idea....Stiff Cincinnati after they honored their game in Akron? That would be a classy move..."You want it to be one way....but it's the other."

Enjoy the losing. Take a recliner to the game, there will be plenty of room. This team needs to get some wins under its belt and then we can beef up the schedule.

One 1-AA game + a MAC East schedule is soft enough. Any softer and we should drop to 1-AA. If we do that, then your plan makes sense.

I dont even like the 1 game against a 1-AA. I have a hard enough time getting people to go to the MAC games with me, let alone those games. If we can't compete in our conference and be willing to at least play some decent non conference teams, then we should drop down. You dont get recruits to come here by playing and beating a bunch on 1-AA teams.

Florida and USF would disagree (sorry not on you, just a good chance to take a pot shot at the week scheduling Florida universities do)Seriously though, the schedule should be geared toward building confidence (winning) and that means having a 1-AA school early on. Getting that first win early helps the team. But on that note, scheduling more than 1 FCS school is stupid because you throw a game away. The bottom line is winning, competing in (and winning) the MAC and making Bowl games to earn cash. Doing anything GP1 says is great for YSU but stupid for the University.

[GP1]

The bottom line is winning

You should have ended the sentence there. If we crowds show because of winning, let's win as much as possible.I don't see a problem with an OOC schedule that might look like this:1. Indiana State at home2. EKU at home3. Bottom feeder CUSA on the road and then at home next year.4. Bottom feeder Sun Belt at home and then on the road next year.That's one extra home game and two extra wins. How is that negative?We can't do anything about the MAC schedule, so let's not shoot ourselves in the foot with the OOC schedule.

[jaycevs]

I don't see ever playing 2 FCS schools, unless one is Youngstown and the other is Can't State someday. I understand the confidence aspect, but players are not all stupid either and realize they are playing teams they should destroy. A mid level BCS still lets you do things on offense and defense to improve and be ready for conference play, and the potential bonus of a win and the ability to let it all out playing a BCS school is big also, thinking about NC state or Central Michigan vs MSU,etc. Besides that, when TW, RI, etc talk about a program, or a brand, and selling this to people, no one is going to come watch Akron play the Morgan States of College football every season, and it wont attract players or new fans, so it wont ultimately make us better.

[GP1]

making Bowl games to earn cash.

How many on this board know that when a MAC schools makes their bowl game, they actually lose money?The Motor City Bowl pays $750,000. Over one half of that has to be given back to the bowl as a conference tie-in. The other half consists of a lump number of tickets given to the school valued at the remaining value after the buy-in. Face value of MCB tickets is pretty high. The school can sell the tickets at whatever price they wish. They couldn't sell all of the tickets at face value so they sell them at a deflated price. I'd bet UofA actually lost money in our last trip to the MCB and we had a GREAT turnout.

[GP1]

Besides that, when TW, RI, etc talk about a program, or a brand, and selling this to people, no one is going to come watch Akron play the Morgan States of College football every season, and it wont attract players or new fans, so it wont ultimately make us better.

There is actually no evidence that the people of Akron will pay to do much more than sit in a new stadium. That won't last for long. There is no evidence they will pay to see a team win because that hasn't happened. Let's see if it works.

[MaxZIP]

making Bowl games to earn cash.

How many on this board know that when a MAC schools makes their bowl game, they actually lose money?The Motor City Bowl pays $750,000. Over one half of that has to be given back to the bowl as a conference tie-in. The other half consists of a lump number of tickets given to the school valued at the remaining value after the buy-in. Face value of MCB tickets is pretty high. The school can sell the tickets at whatever price they wish. They couldn't sell all of the tickets at face value so they sell them at a deflated price. I'd bet UofA actually lost money in our last trip to the MCB and we had a GREAT turnout.

Does the athletic department publish their financial info like other departments do? It would be interesting to see what exactly goes on behind the scenes. Why certain decisions were made and what drives the program's engine.

[Captain Kangaroo]

making Bowl games to earn cash.

How many on this board know that when a MAC schools makes their bowl game, they actually lose money?The Motor City Bowl pays $750,000. Over one half of that has to be given back to the bowl as a conference tie-in. The other half consists of a lump number of tickets given to the school valued at the remaining value after the buy-in. Face value of MCB tickets is pretty high. The school can sell the tickets at whatever price they wish. They couldn't sell all of the tickets at face value so they sell them at a deflated price. I'd bet UofA actually lost money in our last trip to the MCB and we had a GREAT turnout.

Does the athletic department publish their financial info like other departments do? It would be interesting to see what exactly goes on behind the scenes. Why certain decisions were made and what drives the program's engine.

How much money did the University make in the 2005 MAC Championship game. Nothing.How much mileage did the University get out of the Getsy-to-Hixon catch? How much national exposure was garnered form winning that game (ie. Chris Berman's "It's a great time to be a Zip"), and subsequently getting to the MCB?Only the smallest of the small minds looks at getting to the Motor City (or Pizza...or whatever it is) Bowl strictly from a dollar-cost point of view. It is huge for the program's credibility. It legitimizes the program as a contender. It gives Akron-area fans a reason to follow, and get excited about the team. It is a free month of practice time that non-bowl teams don't get.So the bean counters say we lost $100,000 on the Motor City Bowl. How much would a 3 1/2 hour commercial for UA football on ESPN cost?

[MaxZIP]

making Bowl games to earn cash.

How many on this board know that when a MAC schools makes their bowl game, they actually lose money?The Motor City Bowl pays $750,000. Over one half of that has to be given back to the bowl as a conference tie-in. The other half consists of a lump number of tickets given to the school valued at the remaining value after the buy-in. Face value of MCB tickets is pretty high. The school can sell the tickets at whatever price they wish. They couldn't sell all of the tickets at face value so they sell them at a deflated price. I'd bet UofA actually lost money in our last trip to the MCB and we had a GREAT turnout.

Does the athletic department publish their financial info like other departments do? It would be interesting to see what exactly goes on behind the scenes. Why certain decisions were made and what drives the program's engine.

How much money did the University make in the 2005 MAC Championship game. Nothing.How much mileage did the University get out of the Getsy-to-Hixon catch? How much national exposure was garnered form winning that game (ie. Chris Berman's "It's a great time to be a Zip"), and subsequently getting to the MCB?Only the smallest of the small minds looks at getting to the Motor City (or Pizza...or whatever it is) Bowl strictly from a dollar-cost point of view. It is huge for the program's credibility. It legitimizes the program as a contender. It gives Akron-area fans a reason to follow, and get excited about the team. It is a free month of practice time that non-bowl teams don't get.So the bean counters say we lost $100,000 on the Motor City Bowl. How much would a 3 1/2 hour commercial for UA football on ESPN cost?

You are 100% correct. College Football is a potential goldmine in terms of exposure on a grand scale. Expenditures for football must be weighed with potential gains in areas that are difficult to quantify through traditional accounting methods.

[akronad]

Capt.-I agree. In fact that is what one person told me from the Athletic Dept. Tehy were losing money on the bowl game, but the natinal exposeure was basically a 3 1/2 commercial. They thought it was great.