Which is better

[Zips fan]

If you could have one or the other-a win over OSU or another MAC title. A win over OSU would do wonders for peoples in state image and would give the Zips some national media exposure, but would not secure a bowl game or anything within the conference. A MAC title gives the team a bowl game and continues to build our tradition within the conference. It also gives us two nationally televised games (MACC and bowl game).

[Class of 82]

If you could have one or the other-a win over OSU or another MAC title.

Beating Ohio State... hands down. You beat them and the MAC titles will take care of themselves.As far as team goals, though, I think a conference title and bowl appearance should be the ultimate goal every season. Beating NC State was great last year, but that achievement was severely diminished, IMO, by the Zips' play in conference.

[Ryno aka Menace]

I want a win over OSU, the amount of TV time we would get could not be measured. And most importantly 3 MAC teams get bowl bids, if we beat them I am positive we would finish in the top of the MAC and get an invite to a bowl.

[scottditzen]

Wow, tough one....at first I would say take the big upset. But then I remembered how cool it was heading out to Detroit with thousands of Zip fans for the MAC Championship....I'll go with the upset. We just won the MAC, while we haven't beaten OSU in over 100 years.

[blueandgold]

A win over OSU definitely. You can't get more media attention than that! Seven wins including a win over OSU would put us in a Bowl game whether we win the MAC or not.

[johnnyzip84]

A win over the Red and Silver for sure!! I want Ryno to get the $46 from his boss

[Zipgrad01]

Honestly...I would rather just play OSU tough and win the MAC. Do you really think it helps our recruiting that much if we beat OSU, but then lose to teams like Buffalo, Temple, etc... and not win the conference or possibly make a bowl game? We need to be a consistent winner to get recruits. Being a 5-7 team that gets a big upset every year doesn't help. Right now we need to win MAC titles and go to bowl games every year while adding an upset here and there. Indiana would do just fine in that regard. If we win the MAC on a regular basis then we need to start popping one of the big boys to take the program to another level.

[Buckzip]

Honestly...I would rather just play OSU tough and win the MAC. Do you really think it helps our recruiting that much if we beat OSU, but then lose to teams like Buffalo, Temple, etc... and not win the conference or possibly make a bowl game? We need to be a consistent winner to get recruits. Being a 5-7 team that gets a big upset every year doesn't help. Right now we need to win MAC titles and go to bowl games every year while adding an upset here and there. Indiana would do just fine in that regard. If we win the MAC on a regular basis then we need to start popping one of the big boys to take the program to another level.

I agree. If we beat a big time team and then lose to crap, it does nothing for us.Last year we beat NCSU and then played like crap after that.I would rather be 11-1 with the loss being to OSU than be 1-11 with the win being against OSU.

[Zips fan]

If we beat a big time team and then lose to crap, it does nothing for us.

I don't agree with this statement. Who ever heard of App State before Saturday? They were a blip on the screen with back to back national titles. If App State goes .500 for the rest of the year no one will know, if they win another national title I will see it scroll along the bottom of my screen on the ESPN ticker. That win will help them out more than another national title. With this in mind, I still would take a MAC title over the upset. It is two nationally televised games and the last title was awesome. I would love to go up to Detroit again!

[Captain Kangaroo]

I believe the question was "Would you rather beat OSU and not win the MACC, or lose to OSU and win the MACC?" No one said anything about beating OSU and going "1994 Faust" on the remainder of the season.If we somehow beat OSU, the chances are pretty good that we'd finish the season bowl-eligible. If we tripped up in the conference, yet still had a respectable season, we'd go bowling. I would take a win over OSU and the MAC's 2nd or 3rd bowl over the MAC championship and the MCB any day.Someone told me once that "You can't place a value on playing in front of 105,000 people in Columbus." Logically then, the value of a win in front of those 105,000 should dwarf anything the Universtiy of Akron could ever fathom.

[Buckzip]

I would love to go up to Detroit again!

Wow, I don't think anyone has ever said that before

[Zipgrad01]

I knew who App State was. I watched them play twice last year on tv including a beat down of YSU. Those boys can play with just about anyone and they proved it Saturday. Honestly, I thought they would play Michigan to within 10-14, but I never thought they would win.Still....they are 1-AA, so that win helps them gain respect, but people aren't going to be passing up scholarships at Michigan to play at Appy State.

[ZachTheZip]

A win over OSU would dwarf winning the MACC, without a doubt. Akron would get far more TV time, mentions all over the news both nationally and locally. All those idiots that live within five minutes of campus that have their houses decked out in OSU crap and all of our students that are rooting for their own school to lose on saturday would be forced to shut up. If we can beat OSU , then we most certainly can beat Indiana and UConn. Then we only need to win 3 MAC games to get ourselves to a bowl. The Rubber Bowl would sell out for all four home games, and would likely collapse at the end of the season from all the use it's getting, forcing Akron to play at Browns stadium all next year.Best of all, the ABJ will have to finally acknowledge that there is, in fact, a D-IA football school located across the street from them.

[Zipgrad01]

I love how you pick at everything I say. You want to pick so badly that your criticism is invalid. I can in fact read what he said and my answer states that. I said and I quote "Right now we need to win MAC titles." Read my answer again and you will see that I fully understood the question and answered it. What don't you understand about "I would rather win the MAC?"1. You can't replace the value of playing in the Shoe. You are correct that I said that. However, we don't have to beat OSU to earn respect. If we give them a hell of a tussle people will take notice.2. Beating OSU does not get us in a bowl game or assure us of winning another game.3. You can't assume us beating OSU means we have a successful season. Remember NC State? We beat them and then tanked.4. BG beat Minnesota, Can't beat ISU, etc...MAC teams have won some games against bigger opponents already this year, so they will be in the running for those "2nd and 3rd" bowl games as well. If we get beat by BG or Can't, etc...we aren't going bowling.5. We shouldn't be happy going 6-5 and getting the International Bowl. We want to win ALL our conference games and win a MAC title so we can "hopefully" play another Big Ten team in the Motor City Bowl. If we play OSU tough, beat Indiana, win a MAC title and then beat another Big Ten team in a bowl game it would do far more for our program that beating OSU and going 6-5 while playing South Florida in the International Bowl.

[g-mann17]

Best of all, the ABJ will have to finally acknowledge that there is, in fact, a D-IA football school located across the street from them.

The Beacon would probably still screw that up, and the headline would be something like...Buckeyes Lose!I would take a nice showing against the Buckeyes and a MAC championship. Shows that our recruiting is paying off. Yeah sure they would talk about us beating OSU if we do pull it off but for how long? It's Thursday and Appy St still beat Michigan but now the talk is on Lloyd Car and what happens if The Blue beat the Ducks.

[johnnyzip84]

I, for one, do not think that if we were to win Saturday that it would necessarily mean wins over IU and UConn. College football can be hard to figure from week to week, so I'd be careful about those kind of assumptions. That being said, I believe a win on Sat would MORE THAN LIKELY mean a bowl game even if we come up short in the MAC. And, once again, I'd take that trade-off (as opposed to losing Saturday and winning the MAC).

[Zipgrad01]

g-mann, for once you took the words right out of my mouth. If we beat OSU the wave of public appeal will only last for a few weeks. If we tank the season the OSU game is quickly forgotten as a fluke. However, if we win the MAC title we get a year of publicity, plus another shot at a decent team (possibly a Big Ten team) in the Motor City Bowl. I would take the year long pub like Miami (Oh) got a few years ago when they only lost one game (to Iowa I believe). That would help the program more. They gave Iowa a tussle, so they got respect from that. People could say "they can't play with the big boys" because they did.

[Dr Z]

Good question. I would pick beating OSU. Hands down.I doubt many people outside of the core Zip fan remember winning the MAC around the area.I bet a LOT of people in this area, and nationally will remember the Zips if we beat OSU.Great recruiting tool also.

[Zipgrad01]

They remember us winning the MAC. They also remember us tanking last year with probably the most talented team Akron has put on the field possibly ever. We need to win titles every year, not a big game and then fall down to a 2nd or 3rd choice bowl for a MAC school.If you don't follow up a huge win with success it earns the term "fluke".

[zip81]

If you don't follow up a huge win with success it earns the term "fluke".

Exactly...remember NC State?

[johnnyzip84]

I'm not sure that I'd characterize anything short of a MAC title as a lack of success. Winning the East division, in and of itself, would be an accomplishment, particulary after seeing last week's results. Going, say 8-4 with a bowl bid would be a success in my book, even if we don't win Saturday.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Seriously -- Do you really think there's any similarity between a school from Akron beating Ohio State -- local media darling, national marketing machine, year-in-year-out National Championship contender, BCS Championship finalist...and beating lowly NC State? There's only a handful of wins that would fall under within an OSU category - USC, Texas, Michigan (as witnessed last weekend), Florida...that's about it. Beating NC State is like beating Vanderbilt. Maybe lower.NC State, by the way, lost to Central Florida last Saturday. Did you hear everyone talking about the big Central Florida win over NC State? I didn't.A 2-9, or 5-6, or even an 8-4 MAC team doesn't beat Ohio State. An Akron team that finishes 9-3, at worst, is the only caliber of team capable of winning that game. If an Akron team travels to Columbus and wins, that team doesn't lose to Temple and Buffalo. Even crappy Akron teams don't lose to Temple or Buffalo.Beating OSU would dwarf anything ever accomplished by the University of Akron football program. It would make a bigger media splash than winning 10 consecutive Motor City Bowls.

[Z-P]

OSU..................nm

[Zipgrad01]

That is because Central Florida is expected to play with or beat NC State. It really wasn't a big deal for them or their program.That isn't necessarily true that a 5-6 or even 8-4 MAC school doesn't beat OSU. Right now....a 12-0 MAC school doesn't beat OSU, so a 7-5 team is just as capable of doing the job as any MAC team. Beating OSU doesn't guarantee or deny success. Saying that, I will take the guaranteed success of winning the MAC title. Beating OSU would be a HUGE notch on the belt of the program, but it seriously loses it's luster if the win doesn't go along with a MAC title. If this team beats OSU and doesn't win a MAC title it means it has underachieved for the remainder of the year. Once the underachieving starts (which means we have multiple losses to teams like Can't, Buffalo, Temple, Miami (oh), etc...) the media attention goes away. We would be the one game wonder. MAC titles endure better recruiting, selling championship t-shirts, hats, etc... Plus, we would get to hang that neat banner somewhere. Are we going to sell "We beat OSU and then lost to Can't" shirts?

[ZippyRulz]

Beating osu would garner national attention & respect (and maybe a few congratulatory poll votes?) whereas winning the MACC...not so much. I also would love to see the ABJ, PD & CD front-page treatments of a Buckeye meltdown at the hands of the Zips. By the premise of the question we could still win the MAC East, lose the MACC by a whisker in Detroit and go to our 2nd bowl game...that would be a nice rebound from 5-7.