Zips Scheduling

[Blue & Gold]

Word on one of the University of Tennessee premium sites is that Akron is asking out of it's 2010 game with the Vols. These are my two favorite teams. Akron is where I grew up, and Tennessee is where I now live. Anyone heard anything about this up your way?

TennesseeZippy, your mention of this possible game w/ the Vols is the very first time I have ever heard any mention of this. We've been talking about future schedules for a couple of years now and no one has ever mentioned anything concerning the Vols, and GoZips.com doesn't mention it under the football's future schedules page. So I don't think any of us are going to have any insight into what you read.

[ZachTheZip]

Word on one of the University of Tennessee premium sites is that Akron is asking out of it's 2010 game with the Vols. These are my two favorite teams. Akron is where I grew up, and Tennessee is where I now live. Anyone heard anything about this up your way?

GoZips.com doesn't even have last year's "future schedule" right. The only ones who would know anything would be the Mack Rhoades or someone in his office.

[Zipmeister]

Word on one of the University of Tennessee premium sites is that Akron is asking out of it's 2010 game with the Vols. These are my two favorite teams. Akron is where I grew up, and Tennessee is where I now live. Anyone heard anything about this up your way?

GoZips.com doesn't even have last year's "future schedule" right. The only ones who would know anything would be the Mack Rhoades or someone in his office.

I wouldn't count on that. You know folks in TN have their own way ah speakin. Maybe they meant Alcorn State.

[TennesseeZippy]

Word on one of the University of Tennessee premium sites is that Akron is asking out of it's 2010 game with the Vols. These are my two favorite teams. Akron is where I grew up, and Tennessee is where I now live. Anyone heard anything about this up your way?

GoZips.com doesn't even have last year's "future schedule" right. The only ones who would know anything would be the Mack Rhoades or someone in his office.

I wouldn't count on that. You know folks in TN have their own way ah speakin. Maybe they meant Alcorn State.

I know it's been awhile since this has been posted, but I did see this tonight on the official University of Tennessee site. Apparently, there was an agreement for a 2010 game w/Akron, but the game has been changed to a later year.http://www.utsports.com/football/article.aspx?id=60480

[UA1987]

TZ - I for one do not want anymore series with teams that will not play in Akron (except Ohio State). If TN would play in Akron, then keep the game, else cancel. Year's ago it was fun for Zips fans to see Akron football teams on the same field with national powerhouses. Many here in Akron, as you probably know, said it would never happen.Now that we have a first class facility rising on campus, we have to set our sights on building a winning program, which will come only with home and away series scheduled. Away games are too much of a disadvantage and frequently turn up in the loss column.Our AD has yet to show me anything impressive since he took this position, so he may try to balance the short term budget to look good for his next job and potentially sacrifice our program by playing money games, like TN.Again to me, playing powerhouses only on the road is not the answer for Akron. I'd like to say that we would play anyone, anywhere, but you have to return the favor and play here.Go Zips.

[ZachTheZip]

With the new stadium, we should NEVER have less than 6 home games. You can't expect the stadium to make money if you never have any games there except for the ones against MAC teams. The problem is that a lot of the scheduling is done years in advance. Many of the games we have lined up were made before the stadium was ever planned.We should have a lot more leverage in getting teams from non-BCS conferences to give us 1-for-1 deals. In Football, the easiest schedule is the best, since it helps get you bowl-eligible. No more of these multiple BCS road trips every year, unless they are coming back here in a future season.

[Zipsrifle]

With the new stadium, we should NEVER have less than 6 home games. You can't expect the stadium to make money if you never have any games there except for the ones against MAC teams. The problem is that a lot of the scheduling is done years in advance. Many of the games we have lined up were made before the stadium was ever planned.We should have a lot more leverage in getting teams from non-BCS conferences to give us 1-for-1 deals. In Football, the easiest schedule is the best, since it helps get you bowl-eligible. No more of these multiple BCS road trips every year, unless they are coming back here in a future season.

Yes, the easiest schedule is the best, whether you are just trying to be bowl eligible (like Akron) or trying to ease your kids into the season, minimize injuries, and pump up your win loss record to make a case for a National Championship (like OSU). Unfortunately, we are one of the "easy" teams so we don't have many others to pick on. I would like to think that we can get some of the "Lesser" BCS teams to agree to come to ICS and we ditch the big boys and our "Payday" games, in which we don't seem to get paid as much as other "easy" schools. If we do have to have a "Payday" game, then we should really make those guys pay out the nose. I don't know what the rules are regarding playing non-confrence games, but I for one would favor playing EVERYONE in our division, and some additional crossover games before we go sign up to get our heads kicked in for multiple games. I don't know how much we are getting to play Wiskey, but I think the difficulty of this years schedule is adequate. Wiskey will likely pound us (though we should still play as hard as we can), and the rest of the teams are at, or a notch above Akron.

[Ryno aka Menace]

You guys gotta remember one thing, these "payday" games aren't just about the money they are also about getting recruits. Kids are not gonna want to come here if we don't play any notable teams. Some kids would like to play against team that snubbed them others simply want a chance to prove they can play with the big boys. Take head from Appalachian State, one big win can do wonders for your program. The amount of national exposure they received for beating Michigan, you can't put a price tag on that.

[ZippyRulz]

We won't be nearly as dependent on the payday games with the new stadium. Our home attendance will improve and we'll be able to get bigger programs to come to Akron. We should try to get Pitt and WV here and maybe Cinci on a regular basis. Service Academies would be welcome also and maybe a Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Duke, Northwestern, etc. We should also be able to get some good 1-AA's like JMU, WKU, Appy-Tate, etc. It might also be fun to get a 1-1 deal with Fla. schools like UCF, USF or FAU.

[UAZipster0305]

We won't be nearly as dependent on the payday games with the new stadium. Our home attendance will improve and we'll be able to get bigger programs to come to Akron. We should try to get Pitt and WV here and maybe Cinci on a regular basis. Service Academies would be welcome also and maybe a Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Duke, Northwestern, etc. We should also be able to get some good 1-AA's like JMU, WKU, Appy-Tate, etc. It might also be fun to get a 1-1 deal with Fla. schools like UCF, USF or FAU.

The only I-AA school I would even consider wanting us to schedule is YSU because of the rivalry and potential for a large crowd. Otherwise, it's not worthwhile and would contribute to the stigma that we have a second class program.

[ZachTheZip]

We won't be nearly as dependent on the payday games with the new stadium. Our home attendance will improve and we'll be able to get bigger programs to come to Akron. We should try to get Pitt and WV here and maybe Cinci on a regular basis. Service Academies would be welcome also and maybe a Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Duke, Northwestern, etc. We should also be able to get some good 1-AA's like JMU, WKU, Appy-Tate, etc. It might also be fun to get a 1-1 deal with Fla. schools like UCF, USF or FAU.

The only I-AA school I would even consider wanting us to schedule is YSU because of the rivalry and potential for a large crowd. Otherwise, it's not worthwhile and would contribute to the stigma that we have a second class program.

Almost every BCS team has a 1-AA team on its schedule. The extra win always helps, since people judge football teams by the amount of wins than who it was they won against.

[ziptrumpet87]

You guys gotta remember one thing, these "payday" games aren't just about the money they are also about getting recruits. Kids are not gonna want to come here if we don't play any notable teams. Some kids would like to play against team that snubbed them others simply want a chance to prove they can play with the big boys. Take head from Appalachian State, one big win can do wonders for your program. The amount of national exposure they received for beating Michigan, you can't put a price tag on that.

That goes for the casual fan too. They would rather come to see us play a name team than even the other conference teams (Can't excluded).

[Zipsrifle]

We won't be nearly as dependent on the payday games with the new stadium. Our home attendance will improve and we'll be able to get bigger programs to come to Akron. We should try to get Pitt and WV here and maybe Cinci on a regular basis. Service Academies would be welcome also and maybe a Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Duke, Northwestern, etc. We should also be able to get some good 1-AA's like JMU, WKU, Appy-Tate, etc. It might also be fun to get a 1-1 deal with Fla. schools like UCF, USF or FAU.

The only I-AA school I would even consider wanting us to schedule is YSU because of the rivalry and potential for a large crowd. Otherwise, it's not worthwhile and would contribute to the stigma that we have a second class program.

I would love to see us Play YSU on a semi-regular basis.

[Blue & Gold]

Though there is a lot of disagreement about this on the board, I've thought for years that we should open up each season, AT HOME, against YSU. 1. It gives us another good weather home game - not many of those to be had in Akron, 2. Start the season w/ a W instead of an L. 3. YSU would make a natural rival w/ a good attendance 4. College programs don't get to scrimmage, or have pre-season games, so IMHO going off and playing your 1st game of the year against an elite program is just asking for a loss. Play YSU 1st, get some of the bugs out, and then go on the road to Wisky or OSU.

[ZachTheZip]

Though there is a lot of disagreement about this on the board, I've thought for years that we should open up each season, AT HOME, against YSU. 1. It gives us another good weather home game - not many of those to be had in Akron, 2. Start the season w/ a W instead of an L. 3. YSU would make a natural rival w/ a good attendance 4. College programs don't get to scrimmage, or have pre-season games, so IMHO going off and playing your 1st game of the year against an elite program is just asking for a loss. Play YSU 1st, get some of the bugs out, and then go on the road to Wisky or OSU.

The top programs have had that figured out for years. It worked for us last year, to an extent. We beat Army, which allowed us to work out some problems, and then we give OSU a scare. If the offensive playcalling wasn't so bad, we would've had a chance. But then the season fell apart, because of the QB problems, and the defense getting too tired from being on the field 45 minutes every game.It does work, but you need good coaching to pull it off by looking at and fixing any mistakes before it is too late.

[Buckzip]

We won't be nearly as dependent on the payday games with the new stadium. Our home attendance will improve and we'll be able to get bigger programs to come to Akron. We should try to get Pitt and WV here and maybe Cinci on a regular basis. Service Academies would be welcome also and maybe a Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Duke, Northwestern, etc. We should also be able to get some good 1-AA's like JMU, WKU, Appy-Tate, etc. It might also be fun to get a 1-1 deal with Fla. schools like UCF, USF or FAU.

The only I-AA school I would even consider wanting us to schedule is YSU because of the rivalry and potential for a large crowd. Otherwise, it's not worthwhile and would contribute to the stigma that we have a second class program.

I would love to see us Play YSU on a semi-regular basis.

What makes you think we would beat YSU on a regular basis?

[ZachTheZip]

We won't be nearly as dependent on the payday games with the new stadium. Our home attendance will improve and we'll be able to get bigger programs to come to Akron. We should try to get Pitt and WV here and maybe Cinci on a regular basis. Service Academies would be welcome also and maybe a Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Duke, Northwestern, etc. We should also be able to get some good 1-AA's like JMU, WKU, Appy-Tate, etc. It might also be fun to get a 1-1 deal with Fla. schools like UCF, USF or FAU.

The only I-AA school I would even consider wanting us to schedule is YSU because of the rivalry and potential for a large crowd. Otherwise, it's not worthwhile and would contribute to the stigma that we have a second class program.

I would love to see us Play YSU on a semi-regular basis.

What makes you think we would beat YSU on a regular basis?

What makes you think we wouldn't?

[HOLLYWOODZIPPY]

We won't be nearly as dependent on the payday games with the new stadium. Our home attendance will improve and we'll be able to get bigger programs to come to Akron. We should try to get Pitt and WV here and maybe Cinci on a regular basis. Service Academies would be welcome also and maybe a Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Duke, Northwestern, etc. We should also be able to get some good 1-AA's like JMU, WKU, Appy-Tate, etc. It might also be fun to get a 1-1 deal with Fla. schools like UCF, USF or FAU.

The only I-AA school I would even consider wanting us to schedule is YSU because of the rivalry and potential for a large crowd. Otherwise, it's not worthwhile and would contribute to the stigma that we have a second class program.

I would love to see us Play YSU on a semi-regular basis.

What makes you think we would beat YSU on a regular basis?

What makes you think we wouldn't?

Bet Michigan said that last year about App. St.

[scottditzen]

YSU/AKRONToo much risk, too little reward for the Zippers!!!(Sorry eGuins)

You guys gotta remember one thing, these "payday" games aren't just about the money they are also about getting recruits. Kids are not gonna want to come here if we don't play any notable teams. Some kids would like to play against team that snubbed them others simply want a chance to prove they can play with the big boys. Take head from Appalachian State, one big win can do wonders for your program. The amount of national exposure they received for beating Michigan, you can't put a price tag on that.

That goes for the casual fan too. They would rather come to see us play a name team than even the other conference teams (Can't excluded).

[ZachTheZip]

Bet Michigan said that last year about App. St.

App State was the favorite to win the D1-AA championship before the season. They were fired up to play one of the best teams in the Big 10. YSU is an average D-1AA team, and I can't see them looking at a game with Akron as a chance to prove something.

[UA1987]

The YSU rivalry should be restarted (and continued as long as attendance is high), but never played in Youngstown. This is their price that they have pay until they reach Division IA. We'll play anyone, anywhere in Divsion IA (only home and away series signed - do you hear me Rhodes!, and Division IAA teams must play here in Akron only).

[Blue & Gold]

I think the Akron/YSU rivalry would be a good thing. A great way to start the year. I'd be more excited over that rivalry game than just hoping we can keep it close w/ Wisky for 3 quarters. We'd probably win 8 out of 10 games w/ YSU. They'd win once in a while, which would be a good thing for the interest of the rivalry.

[Captain Kangaroo]

The YSU rivalry should be restarted (and continued as long as attendance is high), but never played in Youngstown. This is their price that they have pay until they reach Division IA. We'll play anyone, anywhere in Divsion IA (only home and away series signed - do you hear me Rhodes!, and Division IAA teams must play here in Akron only).

I believe it is a MAC rule that MAC teams will not play 1-AA teams at the 1-AA's stadium. I also believe that YSU can play at OSU or Penn State every year for around $700,000 per game. UA could only offer about 1/3 of that. Thus YSU would be stupid for ever playing the Zips. It would be a half-a-million dollar hit to their budget.Beyond that -- The Zips aren't 1-AA anymore. They don't need to be playing 1-AA teams. YSU is a 1-AA team that refuses to elevate to 1-A. Once they move to 1-A, we can schedule them.FURTHER Beyond that -- We will have a brand new stadium in 2009. We no longer need "gimmicks" to draw fans. Getting 10,000 Penguin fans to drive up to Akron for a game is now officially worthless. There will be 10,000 Zips fans that will be occupying those seats. Go Penguins. Beat Northwest Central Missouri State!

[UA1987]

I'd like to see how we stack-up against this team that cut off our jewells in the late 80's and early 90's. Maybe we could snatch them back and have them re-attached. Much of our failure and their success during this era seemed to result from our rivalry games.I don't think we should be too snobbish. Yes, we have a new staduim, but we had a great rivalry with an in-state program. We really should beat YSU, consistantly, and if not, we are doing something wrong as a program. This could be a nice tune-up game as was mentioned in prior posts. Not to be played every year, but enough to keep up the interest.Additionally, 5 or 6 years down the road when these games would be scheduled, we might need the YSU butts in the seats as some casual fans drift off after the initial excitement of Infocision is gone.What will put fans in the seats and recruits on the team in the future is a winning football tradition. Games againts YSU should help us with part of the formula for this tradition (more home games - only schedule IA teams away that will play here too as part of the contract - except for OSU, selectively play IAA teams from time to time only in Infocision - per our current conference rules).Lastly, YSU would jump at the chance to play us again as the big boys will not be playing these IAA teams every year or they risk upsetting their fan base.

[ditchrider1]

Does anyone think it is a bad decision that the first Zips home game vs Ball State is slated for 6pm when Ohio State plays USC at 8pm?They could have made it a noon or 3pm game and made one hell of a day for football!Why do they constantly do things like this?