Back to the West We Go

[kdog27]

I'm about 8 months behind on this. Why would the MAC allow a brand-new FBS team to join the conference for only football? What's so special about a program that has never done anything at the FBS level that you would accept it without the other sports? This seems ten times more pathetic than the Temple situation.

Word.

Talk about adding a school just to have one more! As far as I know the only claim to fame Umass has was when they had Marcus Camby.

[Lord_Byron]

. . . As far as I know the only claim to fame Umass has was when they had Marcus Camby.

This guy was pretty good too.



But I totally agree on the football thing.

[1987alum]

They also produced one of my all-time favorite Browns.

[kdog27]

OK well maybe I should have thought about that one harder ...but one famous player a generation, big whoop.

[Flipper]

Dr J was a God. I don't collect autographs..think it's stupid. But one of the coolest things I own is a basketball signed by not only Dr J, but Connie Hawkins as well. The only thing that comes close to it is my Joan Jett Barbie

[RobbyFalcon]

Black Francis met Joey Santiago at UMass. The rest is musical history....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDw-hTuwcvA

[h2oville rocket]

Black Francis met Joey Santiago at UMass. The rest is musical history....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDw-hTuwcvA

Im not black like Barry White is, but Im white like Francis Black is.

[FalconTurf]

Didn't we add them to get East Coast exposure plus periodic non-conference basketball games at home vs. UMass just like Temple?

Does anyone else remember the AD mentioning early in the process that there might be rewards such as home basketball games for the school that gets moved (that's us I would assume)?

[Falconfreak90]

Well, after a few days I'm over being pissed. I don't like it but it is what it is.

It's pretty sad, though, that a brand new member to the league seems to get better treatment than a school who's been in the MAC since 1952.

GO FALCONS...kick azz this season.

[sportydude1818]

This is a killer for BG as next year was supposed to be our breakout year. The MAC East is obviously the much weaker division and even weaker with Umass Joining. I along with many others believed that BG had a very good shot at winning the east next year. The east is a toss up with Temple, Oho , Miami and we have shown that we can compete with the best in the east. The west is a whole new ball game and I think even at our best we are a distant 4th behind Northern, Toledo, Western Michigan. Ball State and Eastern Michigan are improving and I think both games will be dog fights as they both have shown explosive offenses. In any event we should be greatly improved so you never know what can happen, but I really thought we could be the East Champ next year

[MarkL]

Nebraska found out moving to the Big Ten this year that you're at a disadvantage as a new member. You're not familiar with the other teams, the other coaches from years of playing. All you've got as a new member is film study. Similar thing this next year. Next year will be the first time Clawson has coached against Lembo as a Ball State coach, English as an EMU coach, Enos as a CMU coach, and Campbell as a UT coach. That's a real disadvantage.

[transfer2BGSU]

Nebraska found out moving to the Big Ten this year that you're at a disadvantage as a new member. You're not familiar with the other teams, the other coaches from years of playing. All you've got as a new member is film study. Similar thing this next year. Next year will be the first time Clawson has coached against Lembo as a Ball State coach, English as an EMU coach, Enos as a CMU coach, and Campbell as a UT coach. That's a real disadvantage.

Hmmmm......so let me get this straight. Next year will be the first year that -

Lembo as the Ball State coach, coaches against Clawson

English as the EMU coach, coaches against Clawson

Enos as the CMU coach, coaches against Clawson

and Campbell as the Rockettes coach, coaches against Clawson

So what advantages are they going to hold over Clawson that Clawson doesn't hold over them?

[BGFalconfromCincy]

Nebraska found out moving to the Big Ten this year that you're at a disadvantage as a new member. You're not familiar with the other teams, the other coaches from years of playing. All you've got as a new member is film study. Similar thing this next year. Next year will be the first time Clawson has coached against Lembo as a Ball State coach, English as an EMU coach, Enos as a CMU coach, and Campbell as a UT coach. That's a real disadvantage.

Hmmmm......so let me get this straight. Next year will be the first year that -

Lembo as the Ball State coach, coaches against Clawson

English as the EMU coach, coaches against Clawson

Enos as the Ball State coach, coaches against Clawson

and Campbell as the Rockettes coach, coaches against Clawson

So what advantages are they going to hold over Clawson that Clawson doesn't hold over them?

Take Enos off the list because BG and Central played in 2010

[MarkL]

My bad, forgot about that. Point is Transfer ... he's got three new conference coaches to go against. Those guys only have to deal with him as a new one. Those guys are in a division with coaches and teams that they're all personally familiar with and Clawson and BG will not have that level of familiarity with all of them.

[BGSU33]

I don't even care about the head-to-head coaches matchups, it's the team/player matchups I'm concerned with. There's no question in recent years that the MAC West has been stronger overall than the MAC East, and next year will be no exception. Next season will be even more so with BG going to the West and UMass added to East. This past season BG went 3-2 vs the East and 0-3 vs the West. Had BG stayed in the East this year, I would have seen us challenging for the top with Ohio. Now being moved in the West, I see us fighting to finish in the middle somewhere again.