Scheduling Problems? Skip a team!

[Warthog]

I can't disagree with that sentiment. But what if it was a package, say Toledo, BG, and Miami? Would you want to stay in the MAC when our two biggest rivals just jumped ship?

No, I wouldn't. That would be a different situation.

I would like to think those three schools and Ohio could try to find a way to stick together. I also value a couple of other schools in our conference.

With all other things being the same (that is, no other teams jumping from the C-USA to Big East, etc), I would propose BG, UT, Miami, and Ohio jumping to C-USA to form a 16 team league.

IF there is more re-alignments (UCF to Big East for example), I would try to set up a new league with BG, UT, Miami, Ohio, NIU, and Marshall in one division and So Miss, UAB, Memphis, Tulsa, Tulane, and Houston in the other. Or maybe three five team divisions (don't know how that would work for a football championship) with the five Mac schools in one group, So Miss, Tulane, UAB, Memphis, and Marshall in another and then Houston, Tulsa, Rice, UTEP, and So. Meth.

[San Diego Falcon]

I just want us to be in a I-A conference that is run in a competent manner and doesn't screw us, without our operating (e.g., travel) costs going through the roof. Unfortunately, I don't think that is ever going to happen.

I like Warthog's idea. I also would like to see a new conference that takes a splinter group of the current 6 Ohio MAC schools, Buffalo, Ball State, and have YSU go I-A and join. 9 teams that play each other in 8 conference FB games each year. Takes away the dilutive effect of extra teams (3 bowl games for a 9-team conference is better than 4 bowl games for a 13/14-team conference). Increased chances for everyone of winning the BB title and going to the NCAA tourney. Slightly reduces travel costs. Tighter fit. Natural rivalries in almost every game (YSU/Buffalo could naturally form as a big rivalry).

[rocketfootball]

Wow, lots of discussion on here about conferences and so forth. If a MAC team left for C-USA, it would be because C-USA needed to replace Memphis, who left for the BE.

A MAC team could leave for the BE too, by the way.


Don't be surprised to see a MAC team leaving, one way or another. I'm pretty sure it is going to happen within the next year or two.

[WhoDeyBG]

Well at least if UT left for the BE, that would be one less OOC game for BG to worry about scheduling.

[Schadenfreude]

If a MAC team left for C-USA, it would be because C-USA needed to replace Memphis, who left for the BE.

Conference USA's needs are irrelevant until one reaches the point when a MAC program sees Conference USA as a good idea.

It's not a good idea. It's a one-bid league with warmer weather.

[San Diego Falcon]

Well at least if UT left for the BE, that would be one less OOC game for BG to worry about scheduling.

We'd probably only end up playing UT every other year (the years in which they are the home team), as Chryst would replace any game scheduled at BG in the other years with Liberty or Gardner-Webb.

[rocketfootball]

If a MAC team left for C-USA, it would be because C-USA needed to replace Memphis, who left for the BE.

Conference USA's needs are irrelevant until one reaches the point when a MAC program sees Conference USA as a good idea.

It's not a good idea. It's a one-bid league with warmer weather.

It really depends on a few things.........which school we are talking about, what the offer is (just football, all sports, etc), and whether or not this particular school has had enough with the MAC. I know there are a couple of schools that are pretty fed up with the MAC. There are some schools that don't see C-USA as that bad of a thing. They do get 5 bowl bids to our 3 and they would have a slightly better shot at getting an at-large bid than a MAC school in b-ball. Also, they have a little bit better media attention nationally. It also would open up Southern recruiting even more.

Not saying just any MAC school would go, but the MAC is pissing off some of its members.

[1987alum]

Wow, lots of discussion on here about conferences and so forth. If a MAC team left for C-USA, it would be because C-USA needed to replace Memphis, who left for the BE.

A MAC team could leave for the BE too, by the way.


Don't be surprised to see a MAC team leaving, one way or another. I'm pretty sure it is going to happen within the next year or two.

That's what I'm hearing. Although I wouldn't characterize it as leaving, per se, more a part of a much larger overall shakeout that will cut across several conferences.

[Warthog]

That's what I'm hearing.

Care to elaborate more specifically what you are hearing?

[1987alum]

That's what I'm hearing.

Care to elaborate more specifically what you are hearing?

Warthog:

As time allows (which isn't often these days), I've made some calls and dug around on the whole conference thing. All I can really say for sure is that there is another wave of change coming and it's going to be a lot sooner than most folks think. The Big East for sure will have major changes and there are enough whispers about the MAC that make me believe we could see some changes, too.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

That's what I'm hearing.

Care to elaborate more specifically what you are hearing?

Warthog:

As time allows (which isn't often these days), I've made some calls and dug around on the whole conference thing. All I can really say for sure is that there is another wave of change coming and it's going to be a lot sooner than most folks think. The Big East for sure will have major changes and there are enough whispers about the MAC that make me believe we could see some changes, too.

Which is why I felt it was important for our AD to install a new HC this offseason. I don't like the idea of us languishing for two more years under a poor head coach and being left behind when the shakeout happens.

Considering our school's combined men's failures the last few years, we're not in the best of positions right now. The Sebo helps, but the rest of our facilities most certainly do not.

Me scared.

[rocketfootball]

Wow, lots of discussion on here about conferences and so forth. If a MAC team left for C-USA, it would be because C-USA needed to replace Memphis, who left for the BE.

A MAC team could leave for the BE too, by the way.


Don't be surprised to see a MAC team leaving, one way or another. I'm pretty sure it is going to happen within the next year or two.

That's what I'm hearing. Although I wouldn't characterize it as leaving, per se, more a part of a much larger overall shakeout that will cut across several conferences.

I personally see it affecting the MAC big time. The ramifications could be huge, IMO. Others think the MAC will only lose one or two schools. I think two schools are all but gone, and their effect on the remaining MAC members will cause some serious issues for the MAC that will need to be figured out.

[orangeandbrown]

I don't believe the MAC survives another conference shakeout in any meaningful form. Or am I a pessimist?

[rocketfootball]

I don't believe the MAC survives another conference shakeout in any meaningful form. Or am I a pessimist?

While many I have talked to disagree with me, I don't think you are a pessimist.

[Schadenfreude]

Me scared.

Yeah. When '87 and O&B and RocketFootball are all being coy, that's just unsettling.

I'm just going to state some hunches and intiutition here. Hopefully, '87 or someone will come out of their shell a bit more.

First, if the Big East's football teams are beckoning, I think it's obvious any member of the MAC would have to jump at that opportunity and hope they can make the numbers work.

Also, it makes sense to me that the Big East's football teams may go after one new member or four new members at some point. The scheduling sweet spots are 9 and 12.

It seems to me their strongest candidates would be Central Florida, Memphis and East Carolina -- maybe in that order -- and I guess when we get down to that fourth spot, maybe that's the point at which a MAC program could come under consideration.

One also might be able to make the case for two MAC members and two of those three Conference USA programs.

I'm not going to dwell on which potential members of the MAC, but Temple (all sports) comes to mind, Toledo comes to mind, and one could make a case for Miami, Ohio or (stretching) Northern Illinois, I suppose.

Is this the scenario you guys are all alluding to?

Now, on Conference USA for a moment:

I continue to believe that Marshall's decision to join was a style choice, that
in financial terms they do not truly come out ahead (more revenue but more travel) and that, for them, the choice came down to picking a set of friends they wanted to hang out with.

As of today, here is the simple way to think of the choice. It's:

Memphis
Marshall
East Carolina
Central Florida
Southern Mississippi
Alabama-Birmingham

Versus your favorite six MAC teams.

In my view, Miami, Ohio and Toledo (and, pushing it to six, personally speaking: Northern Illinois, Western Michigan and Buffalo) are more important to me as league mates.

I respect those Conference USA programs -- Memphis has a killer hoops program and most of the rest are role models in terms of where we want to go in football. But they are also a long freakin' way away.

And let's keep in mind, one or several of those programs needs to disappear for there to be an opening.

Take one of those out -- Central Florida or Memphis -- and do we want to be in that bunch? If Bowling Green could be in that division, sans Central Florida or Memphis, would we want to?

I say no. No way, in fact.

I sense a vague frustration among fans at many MAC schools at how big the conference has gotten and with certain laggard members.

For instance, I personally hate it whenever we have to play Eastern Michigan in anything. It brings me down. I don't respect Eastern Michigan. I think it's silly to think Eastern Michigan is ever going to be a program most of the rest of us look up to. I believe admitting them to the MAC was a mistake 31 years ago, and it remains a mistake today.

One thought I've had is addition by subtraction. What if the ADs and/or presidents at Miami, Ohio, Bowling Green and Toledo could sit in a room and figure out which other five programs they want to be associated with? Go into a room, redesign the MAC -- and work out a nine school all-sports league that would stand the test of time, much as the MAC has for the past 60 years.

Part of me wonders if it would be presumputious to put Bowling Green in that room. History says we belong in that room, with that group, but does the present? Yikes, that's a scary thing to think about.

I also wonder how you really figure out the other five.

And I wonder if the MAC really is too big? Is that really the problem? Are the strong programs in this league giving up too much by associating themselves with some of the others?

Is there any way to save this collection of universities that have historically hung together and get it to a point where members won't want to jump just for the sake of jumping?

I do agree with '87 and O&B this far: You start peeling off some of the MAC's best programs and we will be in a world of hurt if left behind.