Is it me or is our conference talent down?

[Ryno aka Menace]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/...ferences/midam/I guess I shouldn't say talent cause there is talent on every team...I just think the MAC hasn't been as competitive as before. Some say it's the changing of the guards with the rise of OU, Central, NIU and Akron but man the conference didn't do so hot in bowl games last year. And if my memory serves correctly, were we the only MAC school to beat a BCS team? I remember that Central was close against Boston College (which was a great game for those that missed it). This conference as a whole needs to step it up...adding teams like Temple ain't gonna get it either.Why don't we schedule the bottom feeders of big conferences? It might not be as much money but it is more money. I think a win against an Indiana, Illinois, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Stanford, Washington, Syracuse etc. I would rather watch a competitive game we have a chance of winning than a blow out! I know it's all about the money but we all agree winning games puts butts in the seats.We all would like to see ourselves in a bigger conference. But it would make a better case if we consistently beat the conferences worst...i don't know maybe I am reaching just curious on what some of you think about that approach to building a winning program.There has got to be other ways of achieving success like Boise or Louisville. I refuse to believe the only way is to hope we get a great coach that just wants to stay in Akron.Realistically we may beat a BCS school out for 1 - 3 recruits but that just isn't enough to put you over that hump. I know some of you are probably sick of talking about this but I love my Zips and I pimp them every chance I get. When people ask me what hat I am wearing I look at them like they are crazy for not knowing.

[blueandgold]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/...ferences/midam/I guess I shouldn't say talent cause there is talent on every team...I just think the MAC hasn't been as competitive as before. Some say it's the changing of the guards with the rise of OU, Central, NIU and Akron but man the conference didn't do so hot in bowl games last year. And if my memory serves correctly, were we the only MAC school to beat a BCS team? I remember that Central was close against Boston College (which was a great game for those that missed it). This conference as a whole needs to step it up...adding teams like Temple ain't gonna get it either.Why don't we schedule the bottom feeders of big conferences? It might not be as much money but it is more money. I think a win against an Indiana, Illinois, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Stanford, Washington, Syracuse etc. I would rather watch a competitive game we have a chance of winning than a blow out! I know it's all about the money but we all agree winning games puts butts in the seats.We all would like to see ourselves in a bigger conference. But it would make a better case if we consistently beat the conferences worst...i don't know maybe I am reaching just curious on what some of you think about that approach to building a winning program.There has got to be other ways of achieving success like Boise or Louisville. I refuse to believe the only way is to hope we get a great coach that just wants to stay in Akron.Realistically we may beat a BCS school out for 1 - 3 recruits but that just isn't enough to put you over that hump. I know some of you are probably sick of talking about this but I love my Zips and I pimp them every chance I get. When people ask me what hat I am wearing I look at them like they are crazy for not knowing.

I agree with what you are saying. I think we are doing that to some extent with us having Indiana, Kentucky, Syracuse and U Conn on the schedule over the next few seasons. We need to do more of it though.

[skip-zip]

I agree that playing the lesser schools from the big conferences could be the right strategy.That NC State win last year could have been HUGE if we had carried that momentum through the rest of the season.

[you am i]

in 2006: ou defeated illinois; wmu defeated virginia; ut defeated kansas; ua defeated n.c. state.

[mcperp]

Power changes in the NCAA are normally glacial. Top recruits are always going to gravitate to the winning programs, and as long as you're playing 11 on 11 with the big boys, MAC teams just aren't going to win very many games because of talent and especially depth.I think the best way the Zips can make the quantum leap to a Boise or Louisville is to find an offensive coordinator or coach willing to eschew conventional offense for something completely original. If you look at some of the recent quantum leaps by previously moribund programs, they nearly always involve some sort of new scheme which serves to counter superior talent with creativeness and execution.A few examples include the run and shoot, run by U of Houston in early 90's as well as Hawaii, the early west coast offenses run by a number of teams with great success (Kentucky w/ Tim Couch, Utah, Boise State (prior to the last few years where Boise was physically capable of beating big teams, they used to just bury the other team in points with precise unusual offensive sets). A basketball analogy was Loyola Marymount 15 or so years ago when they had some sort of run and stun offense that launched a shot within 8-10 seconds per possession; they'd routinely score 100-120 points a game; the flip side of that was Princeton with their half court pick and rolls and high post offense, they would routinely score 40-50 points a game and still win most of the time.We need to have some cache in order to draw better athletes, and if you can't beat em with brawn, beat em with brains. I don't have any idea what that offense might be, but surely a new generation of offensive manuverings are around the corner, I just hope the Zips can get to the corner the fastest.