Detroit released their OOC schedule

[zippy5]

I'm sure they figure it will be an easy win on the road.

That's long been the supposed reason for why team's WON'T play at UA. "It's a lose-lose coming to the JAR, they're supposed to win"

[UAZip0510]

In plain English, the first post proposes that Detroit has a more desirable OOC than UA not by the common measure of OOC SOS but by the nature of having all mid-ranked opponents rather than a mix of high-, mid- and low-ranked opponents.

"More desirable" and "better" are the same in the context of the debate, at least in my view. Thanks.

[Valpo Zip]

I did. Maybe someone can explain because that seems like the suggestion being made to me.

I'll explain: What is the worst D1 opponent on Detroit's schedule? (It has to be D1, so you can't pick Dearborn or central state).

which ever team you picked, isn't it a better opponent than coppin state and arkansas pine bluff and baltimore county?.

[UAZip0510]

I'll explain: What is the worst D1 opponent on Detroit's schedule? (It has to be D1, so you can't pick Dearborn or central state).

which ever team you picked, isn't it a better opponent than coppin state and arkansas pine bluff and baltimore county?.

Are we playing "who is facing the worst team" or "who has the better schedule"? Two different arguments IMO.

[Valpo Zip]

I don't know what you are playing, I am not playing any thing. I am trying to find out why does KD make us watch those terrible teams year after year after year while similar programs like Detroit can make a schedule without terrible, boring, RPI killing D1 opponents.

[Blue & Gold]

More A-10 opponents, please.

[GJGood]

I am not against playing a few teams from some of the bottom conferences in D1 but I'd rather the teams we play from those conferences be teams that are at least sniffing .500 or above. I am fine with scheduling a few 'not very good' teams but hope we'd keep away from scheduling many RPI killing 'terrible' teams.

I have also always been of the opinion that teams benefit by playing an early season true road game or two against teams they should clearly defeat. I think road wins go a long way in establishing confidence and team chemistry.

[Dr Z]

I am trying to find out why KD make us watch those terrible teams year after year after year while similar programs like Detroit can make a schedule without terrible, boring, RPI killing D1 opponents.

Have you considered asking KD the question? Maybe he will appear on UAtoZ. KD is enlightening & entertaining on the post game radio show. I'm assuming he will repeat the same thing his followers continually post here. But maybe in a different forum he'll be more forthcoming. It will be interesting to see if the new AD shares his scheduling philosophy.

[Dave in Green]

Coach Dambrot will not publicly call out all the good teams he's tried to attract to play at the JAR as he still holds out hope of attracting them in the future and doesn't want to burn any bridges. GoZips spoke the truth earlier in this thread.

As for UDM, the Titans hold a home scheduling advantage over Akron in that the Detroit area is a large, fertile, urban area for HS players being recruited by visiting teams. Yet they still regularly end up with home game D-I cream puffs in addition to D-II and NAIA teams. Last season Detroit hosted 12-21 South Alabama (RPI 296) and 9-23 South Florida (RPI 268). Two seasons ago they hosted 8-22 Florida Atlantic (RPI 272) and 5-25 Bethune-Cookman (RPI 346). This season's home OOC SOS schedule may look a little better on paper right now, but we won't really know how strong all those teams are until this season has played out.

[Valpo Zip]

Have you considered asking KD the question?

I have considered asking KD that question and in fact I did ask it to him in person.

A couple of years back, in the bball tailgating tent before a football game, I did ask him why don't we schedule decent mid-majors in our OOC portion of the schedule. His answer was that they won't play us. At that time I bought it. Since then, I have changed my mind to believe that he schedules that way to tally 20 win seasons.

[Hilltopper]

I have considered asking KD that question and in fact I did ask it to him in person.

A couple of years back, in the bball tailgating tent before a football game, I did ask him why don't we schedule decent mid-majors in our OOC portion of the schedule. His answer was that they won't play us. At that time I bought it. Since then, I have changed my mind to believe that he schedules that way to tally 20 win seasons.

So you think he is a liar?

[Dave in Green]

Ada Zip is a passionate Zips basketball fan who's as frustrated with the team's inability to lure more highly rated teams to the JAR as are members of the Zips coaching staff who continue to try to make it happen.

[Roo]

So you think he is a liar?

Absolutely it is a cop out answer.

They could put forth more effort to get decent teams to come to play here and they do not do it. I've said it before, even if said team is just a name team and not a great RPI team, it would at least help people notice the team.

You have to give people a reason to want to come watch this team. The MAC is an awful conference full of teams that nobody wants to see outside of Can't and Ohio.

Teams are not 'scared' to play Akron. Get real. They have been destroyed in each trip to the NCAAs and have only been competitive against marginal BCS teams in pre-season tournaments. Couple of wins, yes, but at least Akron gives a decent RPI for most high end teams and would certainly save them money for buying a straight home game.

[Hilltopper]

Absolutely it is a cop out answer.

They could put forth more effort to get decent teams to come to play here and they do not do it. I've said it before, even if said team is just a name team and not a great RPI team, it would at least help people notice the team.

You have to give people a reason to want to come watch this team. The MAC is an awful conference full of teams that nobody wants to see outside of Can't and Ohio.

Teams are not 'scared' to play Akron. Get real. They have been destroyed in each trip to the NCAAs and have only been competitive against marginal BCS teams in pre-season tournaments. Couple of wins, yes, but at least Akron gives a decent RPI for most high end teams and would certainly save them money for buying a straight home game.

Yeah those high mid majors are just beating down the doors to play the Zips at the JAR. And KD refuses to schedule them so he can pad his record, right? Amazing!

[Dave in Green]

Unless someone has actually been a fly on the wall watching the Zips coaching staff's efforts to schedule higher level opponents to play at the JAR, all the opinions here are based on assumptions. If you assume the best then the coaching staff is working their butts off against really tough odds. If you assume the worst then the coaching staff is either a bunch of lazy, incompetent bums or they're deliberately not trying to schedule tough home opponents to try to fatten up that 20+ win record. The one thing we know for sure is who the optimists and pessimists are.

[Dr Z]

The one thing we know for sure is who the optimists and pessimists are.

Not the distinction I would use. Whatever your opinion, Roo's post does not read like either to me.

[Roo]

I am not making any assumption of their 'effort' level, but to say teams won't play us is a cop out. You honestly believe high mid majors are 'scared' to play us, yet they will play other teams? Why?

On the national scope, what has Akron done to instill any 'fear' into other programs? We are a very solid program, definitely a very competitive mid major. But again, when you are getting ran off the floor by the top tier teams, you cannot tell me that makes other teams scared to play the Zips.

I won't say the discussions haven't happened, but I am sure that Akron could get teams to come to Akron but the program also does not want to bring teams in for a loss, even if it would boost attendance, IN MY OPINION.

I find it HARD to believe, you could not convince a team to do a home and home with Akron, at a significantly lower cost, then they spend on buying a straight home win against a lesser team. I understand there are other factors as to why a MSU would go to BGSU, North Carolina to CSU, etc..etc.. but in all of the times I have brought this up, I am going from the point of view that you want to try to get people to come to the games. It would be a lot easier for people to want to see more games like they had vs Princeton, even the Penn States, Boston Colleges, Northwesterns, Miami of Florida, etc. Mid-level BCS teams that are at least a NAME, which gets people to believe they actually accomplished something and have the name to get people to come. Much like the USC win last year, which we all know was not a very good team.

But hey....if I am a pessimist and you are an optimist, enjoy watching the game with the 100 other people to show up to play a team nobody knew existed prior to the schedule being released because all the other teams were too 'scared' to play Akron.

[GJGood]

Is KD under some quantitative obligation to schedule a certain number of home games? If so, it may be that many other good mid-major teams want home-and-home series or two-for one deals but that adding more away games to future schedules would prohibit KD from meeting his quota of home games. Therefore, the only recourse would be scheduling the types of teams that would not require a return trip.

I have no personal knowledge on this subject. It is all speculation on my part. I have just always thought there was pressure to get a certain number of home games because of how many people it effects. Not only do the hardcore fans want to attend a certain number of games but there are also all the people who work in and around the arena on game nights that need to be taken into consideration

I could be way off base but I've always thought that a minimum number of home games was probably part of the scheduling equation and I do honestly believe no power conference schools want to come to the JAR even if it is a home-and-home deal. That was why I always had hoped they would keep an event like Bracketbusters around but tweak it so that bubble teams from power conferences played a game (sometimes on the road) against bubble teams from non-power conferences somehow. Of course that would never happen because the upside is not really there for the power conference school.

[zippy5]

I'm not claiming power schools are ever going to come to the JAR. Maybe once in a blue moon. But go somewhere. Play at a top 15 school. They're playing at Nova and Arkansas this year which is a step in the right direction. I'd rather see a loss at Nova than a 30 point win over Coppin State.

[Dave in Green]

The original point of this thread was home OOC scheduling. Road OOC scheduling is a separate issue. There's not nearly as big a problem scheduling tougher road games as there is attracting better opponents to the JAR.

The Zips coaching staff was delighted to find a quality mid-major willing to sign up for a home-away series when they inked the 4-year deal with Tennessee State. They would like to find more similar teams willing to do that but continue to be turned down. All the people I know who are closer to the team than me believe that is true. But if some folks on here refuse to believe that and continue to believe that the Zips either aren't trying hard enough or aren't trying at all, then there's really no need to try to have a conversation about it. If you don't trust anyone on the Zips coaching staff to tell the truth, there's no way to prove it and it becomes pure speculative opinion that can never be resolved.

Merriam-Webster definitions:

pessimism -- an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities

optimism -- an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events

[Dr Z]

I'm not claiming power schools are ever going to come to the JAR. Maybe once in a blue moon. But go somewhere. Play at a top 15 school. They're playing at Nova and Arkansas this year which is a step in the right direction. I'd rather see a loss at Nova than a 30 point win over Coppin State.

This would take a "W" out of the win column at the risk of making the team better.

[zippy5]

The original point of this thread was home OOC scheduling. Road OOC scheduling is a separate issue. There's not nearly as big a problem scheduling tougher road games as there is attracting better opponents to the JAR.

The Zips coaching staff was delighted to find a quality mid-major willing to sign up for a home-away series when they inked the 4-year deal with Tennessee State. They would like to find more similar teams willing to do that but continue to be turned down. All the people I know who are closer to the team than me believe that is true. But if some folks on here refuse to believe that and continue to believe that the Zips either aren't trying hard enough or aren't trying at all, then there's really no need to try to have a conversation about it. If you don't trust anyone on the Zips coaching staff to tell the truth, there's no way to prove it and it becomes pure speculative opinion that can never be resolved.

Merriam-Webster definitions:

pessimism -- an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities

optimism -- an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events

You're missing the point that they're related. Each home game vs. Coppin State or Arkansas Pine Bluff is a spot on the schedule that we can't go out and play someone.

[Dave in Green]

You're missing the point that they're related. Each home game vs. Coppin State or Arkansas Pine Bluff is a spot on the schedule that we can't go out and play someone.

When I tried to introduce OOC SOS into the conversation the OP told me I was off topic. So I'm just trying to stay within the narrow topic defined in the first post as best I understand it. I've said in the past that I would be in favor of trading a couple of the easier home games for a couple of tougher road games as that would give the Zips a chance to build a better overall SOS and RPI.

[UAZip0510]

Schedule debate is getting right up there with the inbound-play debates and my personal favorite, the "we need a go-to scorer" debate.

[GJGood]

You're missing the point that they're related. Each home game vs. Coppin State or Arkansas Pine Bluff is a spot on the schedule that we can't go out and play someone.

I understand and believe that scheduling teams from perceived lesser leagues like the MEAC and SWAC is probably going to happen. I just would rather that the Zips schedule an 18-14 Maryland-Eastern Shore over an 8-23 Coppin State and a 19-10 Alabama State over a 12-20 UAPB. At least play teams in the top three or four in those conferences that are not as strong. I would think this would have to help RPI and SoS somewhat while still providing opponents in the JAR that Akron should be able to get victories over.