Motor City Bowl

[GoZips]

Looks like any possibile meeting with a Big Ten opponent is out of the question.

The Big Ten has seven bowl eligible teams this year. Two are definitely headed

to BCS games (Penn State and Columbus State). That leaves five teams to fill

six bowl affiliations. Since the Motor City Bowl would normally get the seventh

rated Big Ten team there is no team available this year.

One web site has a nice tracking of the bowl match ups.

Bowl Predictions - 2005

While they are projecting the Zips playing New Mexico I do not see this as a

likely match up due to the distance for New Mexico fans to travel. Also, New

Mexico is similar to Akron in having a weak fan base.

Before anyone climbs on my back ... yes, we have a weak fan base. Twenty

four thousand students were offered a free bus ride to the MACC game and a

free ticket to the game. Three hundred and ninty actually went. That is pathetic.

Time and wins will cure this ill. My hat is doffed for the AK-Rowdies and others

who were in Detroit. They are showing the way for the future. I was pleased to

be among those in attendance. Akron fans showed there IS a genuine interest

that is growing among Zip fans.

There are currently sixty two bowl eligible teams with the possibility of UConnie

becoming the sixty third if they could upset Louiseville. There are twenty eight

bowls yielding 56 spots for teams.

The MAC has seven bowl eligible teams. This means there is still an outside

possibility of NIU, Miami, Western Michigan or even BGSU getting a call. Even

though the odds are against it the possibility remains.

I was reading the spite on the MACbbs among the NIU fans. For shame that

they feel they do not deserve a bowl bid because they lost to "lowly" Akron.

The game stats prove that Akron is the best defense in the MAC. The three

and out (twice) at the end of the game to give Akron's offense a chance to

win the game reflects how far the Zips have come.

I had the good fortune to sit with Derek Wilborn, a former Zips linebacker,

on the return bus ride. He credits LO with recruiting him to help "build the

foundation" for a winning program. Let us give LO the credit he is due.

Coaches like Gerry Faust and Lee Owens did lay the foundation for a solid I-A

caliber program. They set the table for championship win. JD is proving

himself to be a fantastic up and coming young coach. I agree we need to

induce JD to stay. Unless you are living in a fantasy world, college programs

in trouble are already eyeing JD.

I do not feel bad for NIU. They laid it all out on the field. They played a great

game. Akron won because they played just a bit better than NIU. Luke Getsy

delivered. Give him the credit due. Dominick, baby, you are the greatest.

That game gave ESPN their money's worth. While most sports fans love to

click the remote and scan more than one site, you can rest assured that a large

national audience watched the last several minutes. They saw two worthy

opponents go toe to toe. They saw what Zip fans have known for years. We

can play.

[JP Morgan]

Excellent post!

[Buckzip]

Very well said. I agree 100%

[ZipDude]

Excellent post and well said. I tried to say something similar last night but my friend JP told me i was full of crap about the past. Sure LO and Faust have an impact and so do former players of recent past. Except for the true freshmen all of these kids were here in the Charlie Frey era. They watched how thoese guys handled themselves and filled back up roles, all culminating in the victory last night.

It takes W's and more than just a few to develop a solid program.

[JP Morgan]

Excellent post and well said. I tried to say something similar last night but my friend JP told me i was full of crap about the past. Sure LO and Faust have an impact and so do former players of recent past. Except for the true freshmen all of these kids were here in the Charlie Frey era. They watched how thoese guys handled themselves and filled back up roles, all culminating in the victory last night.

It takes W's and more than just a few to develop a solid program.

I never said you were full of crap.....you did

I did think you were a bit overboard with wanting JD to invite LO on the field and present him with the trophy (OK I exagerated that a little bit)

LO's players had an impact thats for sure....But JD's team won the game.

I think we both agree on that

[zip37]

I RARELY WATCH ESPN FOR ANYTHING BUT THE GAMES. SO IF ANY OF YOU FIND OUT THAT THE GAME WILL BE ON ESPN CLASSIC, MAKE SURE YOU POST IT, PLEASE.

THX

WITH BALL AMMUNITION LOCK AND LOAD.

[Kangaroo Craig]

Just out of curiosity I checked out New Mexico's website. It says there that they have accepted a bid to play in the Fort Worth Bowl.

[bigzipguy]

Excellent post GoZips!!!!

[GP1]

College Football News has Akron playing Memphis.

[Big Zip]

I understood if it wasn't the Big Ten it was going to be a big East team - South Florida?

[Quickzips]

At this point, I don't care who we play. We're in a friggin bowl game.

[NWLB]

I think after proving themselves in the title game specifically, no team is going to be able to take the Zips lightly. Some of the players talked about how they had felt folks never gave them a chance. Alumni players were noted as saying how hard it was to play there in the "dark days." All of that ended this week, regardless of how the bowl game turns out.

More over, people who have been watching the MAC all these years have now seen two teams they don't see as much of as they do Miami, BG, UT, or even NIU. Those TV viewers will now know another MAC team. Akron winning might well help the MAC more than if NIU had won.

[JP Morgan]

This game has moved this program leaps and bounds in the minds of the average college football viewer. Plus I think the days of media pot shot jokes about Akron may be over (well witht he exception of the Beacon!)

Better days are a comin'

[Professional UA Student]

Twenty

four thousand students were offered a free bus ride to the MACC game and a

free ticket to the game. Three hundred and ninty actually went. That is pathetic.

Before you jump on us students, you should look at the timeframe a little bit here.

The last day of regular classes for us students is December 9th. That means that on the night of Thursday, December 1st, we had 6 days of classes remaining. This is a pretty hectic time for us right now, and traveling 200 miles away on a school night to watch a football game is pretty much out of the question for many of us.

I know it would be great for us to show our support out there, but with the way classes are scheduled at akron most students have thursday off and a ton of classes on friday.

Football games last a few hours, Education lasts a lifetime.

I'm a big fan of the Football team and have been to numerous games, but sometimes we all have to put things into perspective and do the less fun thing (like study).

I know for sure that I'm not going to pass up a free bus ride or ticket to the Motor City Bowl. In fact, I'll still be there without any sort of free passes. Heck, I'll even talk a few guys from work into going with me!

[ToledoRockets]

You guys are getting waaaay ahead of yourselves and this is the problem that has plagued programs like BG. You have still not really accomplished anything. You backed into a Championship game and beat a decent team. Granted, NIU did win the West, but I do not think you can find more than five people outside of Akron that really believes that Akron is a good program.

There is a huge difference between playing one good game and having a great program. You need to keep yourselves grounded because the entire MAC conference, in all sports (except men's soccer) thinks that your school is a joke and should be axed from the MAC.

Including a football program that is only 13-10 in the last two years and averages about 8,000 fans a game.

[Zip Watcher]

.....because the entire MAC conference, in all sports (except men's soccer) thinks that your school is a joke and should be axed from the MAC.

These are pretty silly words from a fan of a MAC school who has been in the league for probably 4 times as long as UA. Just guessing, but hasn't Toledo been in the league for 50 years?

How many Reese Trophy's does UT have? How many Jacoby?

Guess what friends, the answer is pretty simple: ZERO REESE TROPHIES

Same number as Akron has. Perhaps the rest of the teams in the league would also like to move the league upstream and rid themselves of a bottom feeder athletic program like UT.

I'm pretty sure you speak only for yourself Rocket fan .. just in case you missed it, here are the standings from last year's Reese trophy .. be sure to look FAR down the list, you'll find your UT down there. Congrats on cracking the top 10 in a 13 team league.

The following taken from this page at the Official MAC site.

2004-05 Reese Award Standings

School - Avg. (points/sports)

1. Miami-9.54 (66.83/7)

2. Central Michigan-9.25 (55.5/6)

3. Can't State-8.57 (60/7)

4. Akron-8.00 (56/7)

5. Eastern Michigan-7.37 (59/8)

6. Western Michigan-7.35 (36.75/5)

7. Northern Illinois-7.11 (49.83/7)

8. Ohio-6.50 (52/8)

9. Toledo-6.30 (37.83/6)

10. Ball State-6.18 (49.5/8)

11. Bowling Green-5.25 (31.5/6)

12. Marshall-4.58 (27.5/6)

13. Buffalo-4.5 (40.5/9)

[zipper]

Oh this is too much fun. Wait, I've got one, too:

http://mac-sports.collegesports.com/genrel/082505aad.html

In this competition, the Zips are second in the conference (second year running). Toledo is NINTH.

Toledo's campus also has not undergone the transformation of ours. This guy sounds jealous.

[Buckzip]

This Rocket guy sounds like a very bitter, jealous loser.

That about sums him/her up.

[Zip Watcher]

Toledo's campus also has not undergone the transformation of ours. This guy sounds jealous.

I'll actually have to disagree a bit with this .. UT's campus was redone in the '80's and isn't the eyesore that we'd like to believe it is. It's generally pretty residential in nature.

[RocketRobert]

This Rocket guy sounds like a very bitter, jealous loser.

That about sums him/her up.

Yes, pay no attention to the sour grapes served up by that supposed Rocket fan. You guys won it all. We didn't even win our division. No more to be said.

UT's campus has undergone some significant changes just within the past year or two. A big dorm section was added to the east of campus and they did it up right. Nice looking buildings that complement the architecture of the campus, as opposed to going the low budget "barracks" route. There were residential buildings erected on the south side of the campus as well. Last year, I believe, someone made a big donation to upgrade the center mall area of the campus. (I forget what its called..) There are additional plans for further expansion and upgrades in the near future. I think the biggest negatives are on the south side where there is a railroad track and an electrical substation that probably will not go away for a very long time, if ever. I also have a concern about a parking garage that is soon to be erected on the SW corner of the campus. While parking is very badly needed, that corner is kind of a main route to the campus and it would be a shame to forever destroy the aesthetics of that intersection. (Not that it's particularly pleasing now, but it could be.)

Enough about Toledo. What do you guys care, right? It sounds like there are some great things happening in Akron. Hopefully your success in football this season will give you an additional boost!

[Quickzips]

You guys are getting waaaay ahead of yourselves and this is the problem that has plagued programs like BG. You have still not really accomplished anything. You backed into a Championship game and beat a decent team. Granted, NIU did win the West, but I do not think you can find more than five people outside of Akron that really believes that Akron is a good program.

There is a huge difference between playing one good game and having a great program. You need to keep yourselves grounded because the entire MAC conference, in all sports (except men's soccer) thinks that your school is a joke and should be axed from the MAC.

Including a football program that is only 13-10 in the last two years and averages about 8,000 fans a game.

So what do you want to see us do to build this program up? Lose? Yeah, that makes sense. Let's lose all of our games, never make it to MACC games, never win them if we ever do, and let our entire athletic program regress. That will put butts into seats. Hey it's working at Can't. I mean when they started losing their crowds got HUGE. They could have filled up an entire elevator all by themselves.

Ok, now getting a little serious. I agree that the talk of switching to the Big Least is a pipedream and I hope we NEVER again become what Syracuse is now (at least in football). To say we haven't won anything those is a slap in the face to all of us. I've made the point numerous times that it really doesn't matter how we got there. Sure if BG has Omar maybe things are diffrent. Ya know what, that is what they get for basing their entire season on one player. Sure we got our asses handed to us by Army, but ya know what, we could have tanked it then and went home. But we didn't and we made it to the MACC. Ever since I've become a Akron and MAC fan all I've heard out of Toledo, BG, Miami, and even NIU is that the bottom feeders need to get better overall if the MAC ever wants to go anywhere. Guess what, some of the bottom feeders are doing that and it isn't just Akron. Its WMU, CMU, Ball State, and maybe even Ohio too. The problem with the MAC right now is that the top tier teams aren't holding up their end of the bargain. Instead of continuing to strive for future success teams like BG and Miami are content to rest on their laurels. This brings them down while other teams are going up. Toledo really hasn't suffered from this that much, but they could always be better.

To sum it all up if you don't want to read all of that. The only way Akron (and other MAC teams) gets better is to win. The traditional powers must decide what they want. To continue their domination, or to build a more respectable conference. If you choose the former then you have every right to be pissed w/ this season. If you choose the latter then be happy and enjoy the MAC.

[ToledoRockets]

Akron is a flush in the pan, similar to WMU back in the late 90's. They backed into the MACC game.

You guys are MAC Champions this year but in order to have a great program, you have to be consistently good over time, like Toledo.

Akron will be, at best, 6-5 again next year. I would give my left nut for a cross over game, at Toledo of course because we do not like playing in front of high school crowds.

Like I said, enjoy your 15-minutes of fame and your 7-6 record.

[Quickzips]

Ok Rockets what do you suggest we do then? What will get us out of the cellars? You can bitch, moan and complain about how bad Akron is all day long but until you offer solutions all of it means nothing. Whats the answer? I'm waiting to hear it.

[zipsbandman]

Akron is a flush in the pan, similar to WMU back in the late 90's. They backed into the MACC game.

You guys are MAC Champions this year but in order to have a great program, you have to be consistently good over time, like Toledo.

Akron will be, at best, 6-5 again next year. I would give my left nut for a cross over game, at Toledo of course because we do not like playing in front of high school crowds.

Like I said, enjoy your 15-minutes of fame and your 7-6 record.

*TROLL ALERT, TROLL ALERT*

moderators take note.

[perception]

Akron will be, at best, 6-5 again next year. I would give my left nut for a cross over game, at Toledo of course because we do not like playing in front of high school crowds.

If you did any research, or were knowledgeable in general (wishful thinking i know), then you would be aware that this was really supposed to be Akron's down year, with lot's of transfers and such becoming eligible next year.

And as far as this year goes...well guess what...we beat the top team from your side of things....twice. Had Toledo played a little better this year then you would have gotten to play Akron not in Akron, not in Toledo, but in Detroit.

Your bitterness is amusing.