A Critical Analysis

[zippy5]

Didn't Temple do that?

[ZIPSMOM2]

I believe someone had said ask Cincinnati about their conference. Well I had a son who played 4 years of football with Cincinnati, won 3 Big East Championship rings and went to 3 bowl games. He chose Cincinnati because he wanted to be apart of something great. But, he said he was glad to be leaving at the right time, because going to the AAC was not good for them. That conference is so weak. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Akron Basketball has something good and they can become GREAT in the future. IMO, I think they just need to continue to win BIG games especially when they are playing in the BIG ESPN tournments. Continue to dominate in the conference.I feel more talented players will chose schools like Akron because they can impact early and play more. I believe Mid-Major schools are coming up. They have players who stay and developed to be special players and win BIG in those BIG tournments. I'm very happy my son chose Akron to take him to another level. Coach D and his staff are awesome and we looking forward to his career at Akron.

[Dave in Green]

When Temple was in the A-10, Temple football was allowed to play in another conference only because the A-10 didn't support FBS football.

[zippy5]

Right, so theoretically, we could join the A-10, and keep football in the MAC.

[Dave in Green]

I'll try to be clearer. I don't believe that a conference like the MAC that supports both FBS football and D-I basketball will allow a conference member like Akron to split off the basketball (or football) program and move it to another conference. That's very much different from Temple, UMass and all the other examples that keep coming up. The difference is that those schools belonged to conferences that did not support both FBS football and D-I basketball. So if one of their conference members had an FBS football program, they were allowed to play football in an FBS conference. Do you get the difference?

[zippy5]

Right I didn't say they'd accept us. But if we moved (everything) to the A-10, we would need a home for football, is what I'm getting at. In all likelihood, the MAC would tell us to screw off.

[Zips Win!]

Or, we can keep both football and basketball in the MAC where we belong.

[Dave in Green]

@zippy5, got it now. I thought you were talking about just moving basketball, not everything. Addressing that, what level conference do you think would be interested in having UA only for football? Most of the good FBS conferences are looking for quality members in all sports. The UA football program by itself doesn't have a stellar history of performance or attendance. A few more years of Coach Bowden might start moving the needle a little.

[K92]

Let's just get down to it. What conferences do you think the Zips should aspire to join? Would any of these conferences want the Zips? Can't wait to see your answers.

[GJGood]

_{The only conference I can think of that might show some interest is CUSA if they would be looking to create a presence in the northeast Ohio media market. The question, though, would be is following Marshall's lead worth it? How big of a step up is CUSA in basketball over the MAC? How much in football? We're still not talking a Big Six conference but is it a move you'd like to see if the opportunity were to arise?}

_{I really don't know where I would stand if the choice was CUSA or MAC.}

[K92]

UAB

FAU

FIU

Marshall

MTSU

Southern Mississippi

Louisiana Tech

North Texas

Rice

UT

UTSA

Old Dominion

UNC Charlotte

This would be the C-USA lineup the Zips would join. This list of schools does not move the needle for me. You?

[zippy5]

@zippy5, got it now. I thought you were talking about just moving basketball, not everything. Addressing that, what level conference do you think would be interested in having UA only for football? Most of the good FBS conferences are looking for quality members in all sports. The UA football program by itself doesn't have a stellar history of performance or attendance. A few more years of Coach Bowden might start moving the needle a little.

I wouldn't think about it for a few years. Who knows, a couple winning seasons, bowl games... The rest of our sports do really well within the MAC. With the Cleveland/Akron/Canton market we might be attractive. But we aren't yet, I know that. I'd love an A-10 move with football in the MAC but I don't think they'd let it happen. I would also love the AAC but that's more of a pipe dream. Our most likely option at this point is improving the MAC.

[K92]

Our best option at this point is improving the MAC.

FIFY.

[zippy5]

I'd be all for strong-arming UMass into an all-sports member, and bringin Temple in. We're a couple solid programs away from being a decent conference. But if nothing happens in a few years, and TB has a few bowl games under his belt, I think we should look elsewhere. It's all a moot point until the football program is turned around.

[GP1]

Or, we can keep both football and basketball in the MAC where we belong.

Exactly. There is nothing wrong with where we are. We just need to make the best of it.

Sort of reminds me of the industry I work in. A medium sized commercial roofing company sells around $3 million worth of business a year. With the right mix of maintenance and reroofing, an owner can make a really good living. Lots of guys get it in their heads that they need to be a $6 million a year company so they take more projects at lower margin and make less net profit than the $3 million a year guy for many, many, many reasons. All the $6 million a year guy did was buy himself $3 million worth of headaches, but his ego wouldn't allow him to resist the try at $6 million.

The MAC is a nice medium sized company. No reason to increase every problem under the sun just to feed egos. There is nothing wrong with being in the MAC.

[Dave in Green]

The AAC would be a great conference for men's soccer. The AAC would welcome UA with open arms if our football and basketball programs had the same reputation as Zips soccer. Pieces of the puzzle fit in different places, but when you try to fit them all into one conference it starts falling apart. It all points back to first trying to do everything within reason to be best in the MAC in as many sports as possible.

[Zipmeister]

From a football perspective, the obvious conference for us to join is the Big Ten, but we don't want to do that right now because we would be the 15th member. This could leave us in the same unbalanced scheduling dilemma that we are in now. So I say wait until we can become the 16th member.

The second best solution would be to go independent. That way we could be just like BYU and Notre Dame and we wouldn't have to share our television revenue with other conference members.

[johnnyzip84]

I believe someone had said ask Cincinnati about their conference. Well I had a son who played 4 years of football with Cincinnati, won 3 Big East Championship rings and went to 3 bowl games. He chose Cincinnati because he wanted to be apart of something great. But, he said he was glad to be leaving at the right time, because going to the AAC was not good for them. That conference is so weak. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Akron Basketball has something good and they can become GREAT in the future. IMO, I think they just need to continue to win BIG games especially when they are playing in the BIG ESPN tournments. Continue to dominate in the conference.I feel more talented players will chose schools like Akron because they can impact early and play more. I believe Mid-Major schools are coming up. They have players who stay and developed to be special players and win BIG in those BIG tournments. I'm very happy my son chose Akron to take him to another level. Coach D and his staff are awesome and we looking forward to his career at Akron.

Welcome to Zipsnation, ZIPSMOM2! I'm really looking forward to seeing Kwan and the rest of the young players develop over the next few years

[skip-zip]

IMO, I think they just need to continue to win BIG games especially when they are playing in the BIG ESPN tournments.

They have players who stay and developed to be special players and win BIG in those BIG tournments.

Have there been some games that I've missed?

[GJGood]

So the real question is not "Where do we belong?" but rather "What can be done to make where we belong a better place to be?"

[ZIPSMOM2]

So the real question is not "Where do we belong?" but rather "What can be done to make where we belong a better place to be?"

@GJGood you said it ...Akron needs to figure out how to take this team to another level. We just have a bump in the road and I truly believe Coach D and his staff can make it happen. Despite the ups and downs we have alot to look forward. Great things are still to come. I can remember my son freshman year at UC we won the Big East Championship and we were on our way to the Sugar Bowl. Then Coach Kelly quit and went to Notre Dame. Next season we went through so much adversity with having a totally new coach. Well that year we didnt do so good and we didn't even make it to a bowl game. So, the next year they told themselves they weren't going to be home sitting on the couch watching the bowl games. Instead they work their butts off and won the BE Championship and appear in a bowl game. To make a long story short I believe these young men will do all it can to be in the NCAA tournment next year. All they can do is look forward and strived to accomplish those goals as a TEAM....

[Zipmeister]

So the real question is not "Where do we belong?" but rather "What can be done to make where we belong a better place to be?"

Ask not what your conference can do for you, ask what you can do for your conference.

[Zipgrad01]

I'm really confused why you're confused @Zipgrad...or @Z.I.P... Yes I am serious about that comment. You don't financially tie up $62 million dollars in a new football stadium and NOT call that a commitment to Football. Last time I checked, UA is barely staying afloat financially, so any talk of moving to another conference is simply wishful thinking IMO. Or axing football (getting rid of the program...or moving it down to a lower level of football) also isn't likely. We can't even fill BOTH stadiums...we can't fill the lowely JAR (5500) for more than 2-3 games a year. We never fill the Big-Dialer (27,000), however it's average attendance is double the capacity of the JAR. It just doesn't seem like a realistic conversation talking about moving to a "Bigger" conference, when we can't even fill a stadium.

I enjoy the conversation as well, but it seems like it's 99.9% wishful thinking and 0.1% reality based feasibility.

My response was to you saying that we are unfortunately stuck with football.

[Blue & Gold]

I believe someone had said ask Cincinnati about their conference. Well I had a son who played 4 years of football with Cincinnati, won 3 Big East Championship rings and went to 3 bowl games. He chose Cincinnati because he wanted to be apart of something great. But, he said he was glad to be leaving at the right time, because going to the AAC was not good for them. That conference is so weak. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Akron Basketball has something good and they can become GREAT in the future. IMO, I think they just need to continue to win BIG games especially when they are playing in the BIG ESPN tournments. Continue to dominate in the conference.I feel more talented players will chose schools like Akron because they can impact early and play more. I believe Mid-Major schools are coming up. They have players who stay and developed to be special players and win BIG in those BIG tournments. I'm very happy my son chose Akron to take him to another level. Coach D and his staff are awesome and we looking forward to his career at Akron.

Welcome to ZipsNation, ZIPSMOM2!

[Zipmeister]

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