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Our local newspaper here in Charlottesville, Virginia had a column the other day about MTSU and the MAC. It said that Virginia had agreed to play at Middle Tennessee State in the next year or two for a return of four home games against MAC teams. I found it rather curious since MTSU is currently in the Sun Belt. This year, Western Michigan and Temple are both coming to UVa for return games that Virginia made with them in the last two years. Just one more rumor to pay attention to.

I knew about that deal UVa signed, but I didn't think MTSU would move to the MAC...I just thought it was some odd deal. But I don't see what they would add to the MAC.

Without seeing the specific article, I would speculate that it is nothing but recycled rumors at this point about MTSU. We did a thread a little while back discussing MTSU's entry into the MAC in fairly great detail if anyone is interested in reviewing it.

http://www.ay-ziggy-zoomba.com/phpBB2/v ... php?t=5261

In terms of athlete graduations and academic standards, MTSU likely shot themselves in the foot when it comes to joining the MAC in the short-term with their dead last ranking among all NCAA football programs.

Frankly, I think Western Kentucky is a more intriguing candidate than Middle Tenneesee. WKU brings more basketball tradition to the table than any MAC school. They've got work to do in football, but a big expansion of their stadium is planned.

MTSU already has the stadium, but it isn't as if they are setting the world afire in either sport.

I just want to make the record clear that this isn't something I'm saying, it's just what a reporter wrote about in his column last week and I wanted to share it with all of you. To be honest, I'm not very found of his outlook on the MAC in the first place. Secondly, it wouldn't at all surprise me if he actually thought MTSU was currently in the MAC! I just found it curious because he actually mentioned it in two separate articles. I know him well enough to talk with him, maybe I'll ask him what he "knows" about this topic. But for now, it's still all just hearsay. Personally, if I had to choose between MTSU and WKU, I'd pick Western Kentucky.

I'd take them both, and kick out Temple...

Thats the best thing said on this thread all day!

I don't know why we feel like we have to get more teams. What is/was wrong with 12 teams? More teams does not make us better. I like the idea of WKU but that is it.

There is nothing wrong with a 12 team league, but there is something wrong with a 13 team league. And that is what we will have in 2007. I want balanced divisions. It just makes more sence to have an even number of teams in the MAC. So if the conference is hell bent on Temple then a 14th team needs to be announced soon.

kdog27 wrote:I don't know why we feel like we have to get more teams. What is/was wrong with 12 teams? More teams does not make us better. I like the idea of WKU but that is it.

There is nothing wrong with a 12 team conference. There is something wrong with a 12 team conference that includes Buffalo, Eastern, Ball State and Kent.

Have you ever noticed how no one ever bitches when we dog those teams? Yeah, thats because no one gives a sh*t.

We need these other teams in the conference to make up for the dead weight, in my opinion.

And how does adding Temple, WKU, and MTSU pickup the deadweight of emu, ball st. etc? They are not any better in terms of football. None of those three teams helps our conference in football. Temple is located in a city of 1.5 million people and they got something 11,000 at our game with them in 2004. There will be absolutey no interest in philly that Temple is in the MAC. Their attendence will be even worse.

kdog27 wrote:And how does adding Temple, WKU, and MTSU pickup the deadweight of emu, ball st. etc? They are not any better in terms of football. None of those three teams helps our conference in football. Temple is located in a city of 1.5 million people and they got something 11,000 at our game with them in 2004. There will be absolutey no interest in philly that Temple is in the MAC. Their attendence will be even worse.

I forgot to add Temple to my "dead weight" list. Sorry. That is going to suck.

The allure for me regarding teams like MTSU and WKU is that at least their administrations are willing to make a commitment to strive towards excellence -- something that Ball State, Eastern and Kent have totally failed to do for a long time and something that I'm still waiting for Buffalo to do in something other than basketball.

Say what you will about Rick Christ, but he has done a crappy job of motivating programs like these. It is the job of a commissioner in a conference like the MAC to convince adiminstrators that athletics is a worthwhile investment. Ricky has done a lot of good things for this conference, but this is his biggest weakness, in my opinion.

kdog27 wrote:And how does adding Temple, WKU, and MTSU pickup the deadweight of emu, ball st. etc? They are not any better in terms of football. None of those three teams helps our conference in football.

Careful now!

I am in no way advocating MTSU's entry into the MAC or trying to say they are a powerhouse. But I have to point out that MTSU did beat Akron last season in Akron's house. MTSU is a respectable program and would at the very least add a new team to the middle tier mix. We may not want to be so quick in discounting them in terms of being able to strengthen the MAC.

Two words about all those deadweight programs: basket ball.

Each of them is either good or sweet 16 or better in the past 10-15 years.

Besides - Let's keep the patsies around. It will help pad Omar's stats.