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Paul called in for about five minutes, and discussed the OSU job, how well BGSU was doing, and who would take the opportunity to take the job at OSU (just about anyone). According to Herbstreit and several others, Krebs is on the inside track for the AD position.

Krebs did say glowing things about the top of the MAC: Northern, BG, UT, and Miami, then again, he also trashed those who refuse to step their game up. He said the top three schools in the MAC are legit top 25 football teams, maybe not top 5, but they can play anyone. Krebs also discussed how no one, and he has talked with almost all of the BCS schools will come to BG for any amount of money. Schools fear BG, and now OOC games are even difficult to schedule.

4ever: Thanks for the update!

Interesting how our success has become a Catch-22.

Though you guys may not like it, getting a guy like him at OSU may benefit the MAC if he keeps that attitude. He probably won't though, and would look down his nose at the MAC once comfortable at OSU. You never know though. Imagine OSU scheduling a 2 for 1 at a BG, UT, or Miami. I guess it wouldn't happen because you'd have to add about 50 000 more seats just to accommodate 1/2 of the OSU game attending base.

Let's look at the long term implications of what Krebs said. The upper echelon of the MAC is being held back by the bottom feeders who don't wish to make a serious committment to building their programs.

Will this result in those upper echelon schools breaking off from the MAC in search of greener pastures or will the "competitiveness commitee" being formed actually have the teeth to set some standards?

Flipper, I hear what you are saying, but I think most others would disagree. I know there is some bitterness about the so-called quality of C-USA, but I really think, at least from a football perspective, it would be proactive for UT, BG, NIU, Miami, to form some kind of association with Memphis, Marshall, Southern Miss, and some others to form a football conference that is loaded from top to bottom and could produce a serious team for the BCS bowls. Just my opinion. 8)

Flipper wrote:Let's look at the long term implications of what Krebs said. The upper echelon of the MAC is being held back by the bottom feeders who don't wish to make a serious committment to building their programs.

Will this result in those upper echelon schools breaking off from the MAC in search of greener pastures or will the "competitiveness commitee" being formed actually have the teeth to set some standards?

Flipper,

It wasn't that long ago that we and NIU were among those bottom feeders. WMU was an elite team in the MAC at the time in our place. Now they're on hard times but a lot of these things are cyclical in the mid-majors, especially if a major part of the wheel like a head coach or great recruiter bolts. I think we MACers need to stick together. Some of us old timers remember that CMU and even EMU have had some great teams in the past and both programs appear to be on the upswing. Buffalo is the only team in the league right now that I would say needs a dramatic stepup and I'm not sure they will. Just my 2 cents.

I understand the cyclical nature of sports. Having been a follower of MAC football since the days of Chuck Ealey and MeL Long, I have a pretty good idea of which programs are capable of being competitive and which ones aren't.

The MAC's credibility is greatly damaged by the bottom third of the conference. They don't play well, they don't draw well (not that we do a spectacular job on that count) and they probably won't anytimne soon.

Flipper wrote:I understand the cyclical nature of sports. Having been a follower of MAC football since the days of Chuck Ealey and MeL Long, I have a pretty good idea of which programs are capable of being competitive and which ones aren't.

The MAC's credibility is greatly damaged by the bottom third of the conference. They don't play well, they don't draw well (not that we do a spectacular job on that count) and they probably won't anytimne soon.

You could easily say that the five worst teams in the country are all in our conference. At least last season anyway. They really bring down the credibility of programs like ours, and a few others.

Touchdown Rockets wrote:I guess it wouldn't happen because you'd have to add about 50 000 more seats just to accommodate 1/2 of the OSU game attending base.

Cheerleader pyramids is the answer. You can easily triple the attendance if all the fans make cheerleader pyramids all over the stadium. It's genius I tell you!

kdog27 wrote:

Flipper wrote:I understand the cyclical nature of sports. Having been a follower of MAC football since the days of Chuck Ealey and MeL Long, I have a pretty good idea of which programs are capable of being competitive and which ones aren't.

The MAC's credibility is greatly damaged by the bottom third of the conference. They don't play well, they don't draw well (not that we do a spectacular job on that count) and they probably won't anytimne soon.

You could easily say that the five worst teams in the country are all in our conference. At least last season anyway. They really bring down the credibility of programs like ours, and a few others.

Well, at least one of them is leaving.

1987alum wrote:4ever: Thanks for the update!

Interesting how our success has become a Catch-22.

One of the surprises many people have when they begin to have success is when they find out that staying on top of the mountain is as hard--or probably harder--than climbing the mountain was in the first place.

Warthog wrote:Flipper, I hear what you are saying, but I think most others would disagree. I know there is some bitterness about the so-called quality of C-USA, but I really think, at least from a football perspective, it would be proactive for UT, BG, NIU, Miami, to form some kind of association with Memphis, Marshall, Southern Miss, and some others to form a football conference that is loaded from top to bottom and could produce a serious team for the BCS bowls. Just my opinion. 8)

Warthog, its as I proposed here months ago. A football only conference of the midmajors that have proven a willingness to devote money to their football program. The ones that are consistently at the top, and competing. This group of midmajors would, in the end, become a major conference, IMO. Of course this is for football only, but I think it could be done.

Hammb, that is exactly what I would like to see. My twelve teams (so you could have a televised championship game) would be BG, UT, NIU, Miami, Marshall, Memphis, Southern Miss, Central Florida, South Florida (those last two just because they are in Florida!), Navy, Tulane, and one other MAC school to balance it out. North and South divisions: BG, UT, Miami, NIU, Navy and the one other MAC school in the North. Maybe alternate the championship game between Detroit, New Orleans, and Orlando.


Never happen though.

Two issues here that I'd deal with separately.

1) The bottom tier football teams. The MAC simply must start to be pressure on those schools to upgrade their programs.

2) Right now, I'm against splitting up the MAC. As noted, the cyclical nature of sports could easily find us on the outside looking in with little warning. That being said, I think the mid-majors need to work together more closely on OOC games. What would it take to force the BCS conferences' hands?

1987alum wrote:Two issues here that I'd deal with separately.

1) The bottom tier football teams. The MAC simply must start to be pressure on those schools to upgrade their programs.

2) Right now, I'm against splitting up the MAC. As noted, the cyclical nature of sports could easily find us on the outside looking in with little warning. That being said, I think the mid-majors need to work together more closely on OOC games. What would it take to force the BCS conferences' hands?

I agree that there are cycles to succes in the Mac football arena, but there are schools in which the down cycle is much shorter than the others and the up cycle is much longer. You cannot deny that UT and Miami pretty consistently have a successful football teams. At the other side, Buffalo, Ohio, Eastern, and Kent produce a quality squad once about every 12-15 years. BG and NIU I feel like have built up to be closer to the UT, Miami side of the spectrum while Central, Western, Ball St, and Akron are more in the middle. I think it behooves the better teams to do something to improve their standing in the eyes of the rest of the college football world to show that we are on par with the BCS schools.