AKRON, Ohio – The University of Akron released its 12-game, 2007 football schedule, which includes five home contests, each of which will be highly anticipated, along with non-conference road games at Ohio State, Indiana and Connecticut.

The Zips will open the season on Sept. 1 hosting Army in the inaugural Patriot Bowl, played at the Cleveland Browns Stadium. As mentioned above, the contest will be an Akron home game and be included in the Zips’ season ticket packages. The Patriot Bowl, organized by the Greater Cleveland Sports Council, will be an annual event played at Browns Stadium, featuring a Mid-American Conference team and a representative from one of the service academies.

After the Patriot Bowl, Akron will face a tough stretch, playing four of its next five on the road. First, the Zips will play consecutive contests versus Big 10 members, going to Ohio State on Sept. 8 and to Indiana on Sept. 15.

Akron’s first contest in the Rubber Bowl will be Sept. 22 in the 49th renewal of the Kent State series, playing for bragging rights in the 36th Wagon Wheel Game. Akron will step out of league play the following week (Sept. 29), traveling to Storrs, Conn., to face Big East member Connecticut. The Zips will then play only MAC opponents the remainder of the season, starting with an Oct. 6 contest at Western Michigan.

The University will welcome back its alumni on Oct. 13 as the Zips culminate a week of Homecoming activities by hosting Temple. After a week off, Akron will hit the road for games at Buffalo (Oct. 27) and at Bowling Green (Nov. 2). Five days after playing at BGSU, the Zips will play the first of back-to-back Wednesday night contests on ESPN2, hosting defending MAC East champion Ohio on Nov. 7 and going to Miami (Ohio) on Nov. 14.

Akron will close the 2007 regular-season by honoring its senior class on Friday, Nov. 23, and hosting 2006 MAC champion Central Michigan.

"This year’s schedule will certainly be challenging," said Akron head coach J.D. Brookhart. "However, I am excited to be playing Army at the Cleveland Browns Stadium and our remaining four home games will be exciting events for the fans. We will once again be playing three BCS teams (Ohio State, Indiana and Connecticut), which will obviously add to our challenge. This year’s schedule puts a premium on winning your division games within the conference due to the unbalanced schedule between the East and West Divisions."

For the 2007 season, as was the case in 2000 and 2001 when the MAC was at 13 teams, the league will play an unbalanced conference schedule, with divisional games being the primary factor in determining the divisional champion. Cross over games within the conference will serve as a tie-breaker, in the event that head-to-head results do not determine the divisional championship. The conference schedule meets the NCAA legislation for conference championship games which specifies that a league play a full round-robin divisional schedule.

Each MAC team will play a full schedule within its division. In overall MAC games, five of the six West Division teams will play seven league games with one team (Toledo) playing eight conference games. Six of the seven East Division schools will play eight MAC games with one (Miami) playing seven MAC contests.

The Zips will officially begin preparations for the 2007 season on Thursday (Mar. 29) with the start of spring drills. Akron will host its annual Blue and Gold Game — presented by Sky Bank, on Sunday, April 15, at 4:00 pm in the Athletics Field House. Also on that day, Akron’s baseball team will host Central Michigan at 1:00 pm and the Athletics Department will have a number of activities surrounding the events. (Continue to check GoZips.com for details surrounding events of the day.)

University of Akron Zips

2007 Football Schedule

(As of Mar. 14, 2007 — Times and Dates are Subject to Change)

Date      Day        Opponent

Sept. 1   Saturday   ARMY (at Cleveland Browns Stadium)