2019 MAC Preseason Poll

[Falconfreak90]

Football is a losing proposition long-term for all the mid-majors as long as there's no access to the playoff. The MAC and Sun Belt have sold their souls to ESPN for such a small piece of the revenue pie just to try and stay afloat. The bubble is going to burst at some point in the future, especially as the same 8-10 programs begin to have an autonomy on the sport.

I'd argue that is already happening The P5 greed knows no bounds....

[Flipper]

It will probably be Clemson, Alabama and Georgia with a group of teams like Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma and Notre Dame battling for the 4th playoff spot.

Everyone else will be fighting for...whatever. Our season is defined by four things. Beat Toledo, win the east, win the MACC and win our bowl game. In 2003, we won the east, beat Toledo and won our bowl game...but lost in the MACC. in 1992, we won the MAC title, beat Toledo and won our bowl game. So, while it may not seem like much...we've never won all four and it's been a really long time since we could claim victory in the main three.

[Bghockey05]

In 2003 we were in the west due to central Florida. Kind of obvious since we played Miami for the championship.

[Flipper]

Congrats...you get a cookie for my faulty quotation of an event that occurred during the first GWB administration...

[zete]

A run of 10-2 11-1 12-0 9-3 11-1 12-0 9-3 10-2 10-2 12-0 over a ten year period would solve most/all problems.

[hammb]

A run of 10-2 11-1 12-0 9-3 11-1 12-0 9-3 10-2 10-2 12-0 over a ten year period would solve most/all problems.

Perhaps I'm cynical or pessimistic, but I think this is actually a very outdated take that couldn't be less true.

Obviously it'd be a historically unprecedented run of MAC greatness. But I don't think it would solve the long term financial issues faced by BG, the MAC, and the rest of the G5.

Actually heard Phil Steele on radio this morning saying something similar to this conversation...he thinks the P5 (driven by the biggest behemoths in it) are going to continue pulling further and further away from the G5.

[Flipper]

Because their programs generate wealth through multiple channels to a degree we can never hope to

[hammb]

Because their programs generate wealth through multiple channels to a degree we can never hope to

Yeah...the Big10 payout alone is more than double our entire Athletic Dept budget.

Means the bottom rung of the Big 10 in football/basketball (Iowa? Northwestern? Doesn't really matter) gets a fat check for more than double our entire athletic budget before they sell a single ticket, sell a single t-shirt, or accept a single donation.

Obviously their sponsorships are also bringing in real revenue as opposed to merely underwriting tickets that don't get sold. They're also likely NOT self-funding their own productions.

Of course they have a billion other revenue streams that bring in major dollars that we quite simply cannot dip into because of scale.

[hammb]

On top of the obvious revenue issues, the on field product will continue to be watered down at the lower levels because of the drop in HS Football participation. The elite athletes are still playing football so it's not really affecting the top tier of colleges yet (and football is still the #1 male participation sport), but I have to think the lower levels will feel these affects first. Maybe we're not feeling it yet, but if participation continues to drop at the same rate it has the past 10 years, we certainly could start to feel it.