30 Games in 30 Days: #20 Akron at Buffalo

Akron	@ Buffalo

Where: Amherst, NY

When: October 17th

All Time Series: Akron 8-2

Date	Buffalo	Akron
November 13, 2008	43	40
October 27, 2007	26	10
November 9, 2006	16	31
October 8, 2005	7	13
October 9, 2004	21	44
September 27, 2003	21	38
November 16, 2002	10	21
November 17, 2001	14	41
November 11, 2000	14	49
September 11, 1999	10	17

Like most teams in the MAC East the Akron Zips spent years as the beneficiary of football futility coming out of Western New York. With the Bulls seemingly righting their ship the potential for a decent divisional rivalry is emerging. During the Football season Buffalo broke Akron's heart, and their back and The Zips returned the favor the following spring when they defeated Buffalo in the championship round of the MAC basketball tournament.

For UB this game is the first at home against an Eastern division team and, probably, the first in conference game Buffalo should be expected to win. If UB falters here they could be looking at an 0-3 to start divisional play with their next two games against the Broncos and the Falcons. In other words a loss to Akron could be the game that, for all intensive purposes, knocks them out of the divisional race.

Akron comes into this game with a bit more breathing room than the Bulls. Of their two divisional games before hand, one is a very winnable home game against Ohio. No game is a throw away but a loss here still give Akron two very winnable games (Kent, EMU) and another two should be able to compete in (home against Temple / away at Bowling Green).

In short should Akron manage to beat Ohio the week before they can lose to Buffalo and still have a very good shot at a 5-3 divisional record where as unless the Bulls shock Central Michigan, Western Michigan, or Temple, a loss at the hands of Akron realistically limits them to a 4-4 divisional mark.

Last year's game between Buffalo and Akron was one of the best games in the Mid American Conference, if not college football. The game sent the two teams on distinctly different trajectories with UB defeating Bowling Green the following week to clinch the MAC East and Akron falling out the the divisional race and bowl contention by dropping their last two games.

Two times in the first half UB went ahead by ten, 10-0 eleven minutes into the first quarter and 17-7 slightly more than ten minutes into the second. Akron would close and tie it at 17-17 early in the third. From that point the two teams just traded punches until Dennis Kennedy's one yard run with 23 seconds left sent the game into overtime. The teams continued to trade punches in overtime until Chris Jacquemain coughed up the ball on the first possession of the fourth overtime. UB would kick a field goal to end the game minutes later.

Its a three and a half hour drive from Akron to Buffalo which, for a Saturday afternoon game, leaves plenty of time to tank up and take 90 into Amherst for some pregame tailgating.

Zips Men's Soccer Ranked No. 1 in Preseason Poll

Well the bar has been set pretty high by the Akron Zips soccer team who, Despite losing the top scorer in the nation and maybe best goal keeper in the Akron history history, are Top Drawer Soccer, which awarded the Zips a No. 1 in their 2009 pre-season poll Tuesday. (from gozips.com)

"Caleb Porter’s program gets the nod as the #1 selection in the TopDrawerSoccer.com Tournament 48 Men’s College Soccer pre-season ranking, continuing the Mid-American Conference school’s rise to nationally-elite status over the past few years. Despite losing all-everything forward Steve Zakuani, standout goalkeeper Evan Bush and others, the Zips continue to bring in top recruiting classes each season and should be able to more than make up for the loss of the departing seniors." -- Top Drawer Soccer

The Zips, who were ranked No. 9 in the final CSN and NSCAA/adidas polls a year ago, return seven of their 11 starters most noteaballyAnthony Ampaipitakwong, Sarkodie and Darlington Nagbe – from a team that recorded the second-highest win total in school history in 2008.

The Full top drawer pre-season rankers are as follows

2009 Top Drawer Soccer Preseason Poll

1. Akron
2. St. John's
3. Creighton
4. California
5. Maryland
6. Indiana
7. Wake Forest
8. Northwestern
9. North Carolina
10. UC Santa Barbara
11. UIC
12. South Florida
13. Notre Dame
14. Connecticut
15. Tulsa
16. Virginia
17. Louisville
18. SMU
19. Dayton
20. UCLA
21. Boston College
22. San Francisco
23. Dartmouth
24. Michigan
25. Denver
26. Duke
27. Michigan State
28. George Mason
29. Ohio State
30. Santa Clara

MAC News 8/10/2009

Dog Days of Summer:

The rather nice mid-western summer has ended just in time for football camps so now, instead of pleasant days in the 70's MAC football players are running their drills in heat indexes of over one hundred degrees.

On Saturday three NIU huskies were treated and released for dehydration after practices ended, there seemed to be no serious threats to health but when temperatures start getting on ninety and the humidity is as high as it has been its best not to take chances.

Akron practiced Sunday in a heat index of 111 degrees, UA head coach J.D. Brookhart.said ""I think we started a little slow due to the heat, However, the team picked up the pace and we had another good practice."

Central Michigan

Central Michigan director of track and field/cross country Willie Randolph today announed the three coaches who will complete his 2009 staff.

Among them are former Olympian Dione Henley, University of Oklahoma coach John Ridgway, and graduate assistant Kristen Paulsen.

30 Games in 30 Days: #29 Morgan State at Akron

Morgan State	@ Akron

Yes I know Morgan State is an FCS school, Yes I know they have never even played Akron, and Yes I know Baltimore and Akron are some distance apart. The game itself ranked as low as any FCS game in the end I decided a MAC house warming party deserves some mention. You can bet the game will be sold out and loud. Given the quality of opponent you can also assume Akron will walk away with a win.

When: September 12th, 2009
Where: Akron, Ohio


All Time: 0-0

If you're an athletics department that has secured sixty one million dollars this is not a bad way to spend it. Thirty three thousand people (counting standing only capacity) will be there as Akron brings in their token division FCS team right off the bat. This game will not answer any questions about this season but it be a nice kickoff to the season for Akron.

The Zips Squandered last season away starting with a four overtime loss in the last game played at the Rubber Bowl and on average they are being picked to finish fifth in the east. A win here probabaly gets them to 1-1 and warms the stadium up for their first real home opponent Indiana. A winning record heading into MAC play is possible for the Zips and with Syracuse a 3-1 out of conference record is quite realistic.

There is not allot to say about Morgan state they are a team well past their glory days but whatever you do don't leave senior Edwin Baptiste open.


Count Down:

#30: Temple at Navy

Zips Vollyball gets 9th AVCA Academic Award

The American Volleyball Coaches Association Academic Award was established in 1992/93 so for a team to have won nine of them in 17 years speakes volumes of that programs attention to academic success. The award is presented to collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the school year by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale.

Whats even more impressive than winning it every other year (on average) is the recent performance winning it five out of the past six years (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and now 2009)

Seven of the 71 teams receiving the Team Academic Award this season represent the MAC (Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Toledo and Western Michigan).

Mid American Conference Athletic Department Rankings

Some compare and contrast moments for the Mid American Conference

The Learfield Sports Directors Cup is an given each year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the division I school with the most success in collegiate athletics. Points for the NACDA Directors' Cup are based on order of finish in various NCAA sponsored championships or in the case of Division I Football media base polls.

Rank	School	Points
83	Kent State	239.5
97	Akron	184.5
107	Miami (Ohio)	165
115	Central Michigan	143.25
141	Western Michigan	114
173	Ball State	75
199	Buffalo	50.5
231	Northern Illinois	30.5
235	Ohio	25
235	Toledo	25
265	Eastern Michigan	20.5
DNQ	Bowling Green

Predictably no MAC institution finished anywhere near the top tier universities but given the differences in funding between the top five (Stanford, North Carolina, Florida, USC, Michigan) and the average Mid American Athletic Department budget a more proper measure of success would be one which accounted for the NACDA Directors Cup score and the budget spent by that institution.

Fortunately the folks over at LSIA (Laboratory for the Study of Intercollegiate Athletics) have already provided the numbers for the 25 most efficent schools. Here the MAC does rather well; placing three schools in the top ten. Kent Finished second nationally, Akron placed fourth, and Miami scored the ninth best mark.

Kent should be commended for showing so well in the LSIA rankings right after finishing second in the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators annual awards.

Akron Zips Seen as a test for Indana

Adam Rittenberg over at ESPN has slated the Akron Zips as being one half of a Big 10 fork in the road. Acording to Adam Indiana has allot riding on the September game:

Indiana enters the season with its head coach on the hot seat and serious doubts about the team's ability to get on track again. That's why an early trip to Akron and the new InfoCision Stadium is so critical. Indiana could be 3-0 after a win against Akron, or it could be 1-2 with a loss and starting the death march.

Incidentally MAC Smack has picked this game for Akron, there is no reason the MAC should not have a banner year against the Big-10 with CMU and WMU getting a crack at the wolverines and also at Michigan State. I doubt the MAC can win more than they lose but anywhere between 3-5 wins is very possible.

This will be the Zips second home game at InfoCision and their first against a FBS team.

The last time Akron Played Indiana the zips dropped the game 41-27 back in 2007. The Zips stayed close in that game (tied at the half) and were only behind by three in the fourth but two pass interference calls assisted Indiana in pulling away. Hopefully the zips will walk away with a win this time..

Wanted: Athletic Director; Must like Kangaroos and Spiffy Rubber Shoes..

Mack Rhoades was hired Thursday as the new athletic director at the University of Houston. He had been with the university of Akron for only two years but in that time the Zips have seen improvements both in the teams that they fielded and on the field that they use.

You really can't say enough for what Rhoades (edit: and his predecessor Mike Thomas) did in Akron million dollars stadium, indoor football practice facility. He was also in the beginning process of trying to upgrade Akron's Basketball facilities.

He did this while fighting some loud opposition on Akrons campus who felt like the athletic program which was losing up to three million dollars a year was not worth a thirteen million dollar subsidy.

To his credit in these regards the Zips have been improving in the area of attendance and this improvement was seen even before Akron got a new, and on campus, stadium. If you can tell the caliber of a man by who they beat out consider the other finalist; this USC senior associate AD Brandon Martin.

You can't stress what an accomplishment it was to so quickly leave your mark on a program. A good athletic director, especially in the mid majors, is very hard to come by and so far there have been no names floated for his replacement. But Captain Kangaroo over at Zip's Nation makes the case that Akron will have an esier time replacing someone like Rhoades than they had finding him.

The next 3-4 years at UA are a AD resume' filler's delight. The only tough decision to be made is regarding football. I think JD needs to win 8 games this season to get a contract extension. 7 wins is likely too few in a weak MAC, with a 1-AA school opponent on the schedule. But if the coach is not retained...Proenza didn't authorize a $61.5 million dollar stadium to lose football games. You can guarantee the new AD will be given a nice allowance to hire an attention-getting replacement. [Side note - JD will win 8-games this season. But that is another thread for later this summer]

As long as the next AD doesn't go "Kevin Mackey" (link to wiki for those outside the Cleveland area) and get caught with hookers and crack, he's planted his foot on the biggest, fattest stepping stone in the history of mid-major athletics. If things go as they should, the 3 1/2 year AD turnover cycle will probably be broken. It'll be more like 2 1/2. --Captain Kangaroo

Well so long as they are not caught right, kinda like offensive holding...