Vegas odds to win the MAC

[TommyG]

I think we're going to be waaaaaay better than most people think. I used to bench 300 for sets of 12...can I be on the bench panel?

Welcome aboard!

[zete]

300:1 seems about right to me.

[zete]

...and what will those odds be on going into "the shoe" and beating the Bucks? or winning the D-1 National Title game?

[2006Grad]

Really interesting article by Briggs
https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/coll ... 0200523086" target="_blank

Speaks to the fact that FCS seems like a no go for BG or UT. Crazy how much more lowly old BGSU makes compared to National Champion North Dakota. I also agree that dropping to FCS would cut down on attendance (not huge to begin with) I know personally I would loss my enthusiasm for tailgating. I also travel to one away game per year and have seen amazing places and meet amazing people, would hate to loss out on that.

[BGSU33]

...and what will those odds be on going into "the shoe" and beating the Bucks? or winning the D-1 National Title game?

About the same odds as it is for any team in the country - next to none. There might not be a team in the country that can beat Ohio State in Columbus. And there will be only 1 team out of the 130 that will win the national title.

[BGSU33]

Really interesting article by Briggs
https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/coll ... 0200523086" target="_blank

Speaks to the fact that FCS seems like a no go for BG or UT. Crazy how much more lowly old BGSU makes compared to National Champion North Dakota. I also agree that dropping to FCS would cut down on attendance (not huge to begin with) I know personally I would loss my enthusiasm for tailgating. I also travel to one away game per year and have seen amazing places and meet amazing people, would hate to loss out on that.

Excellent article and he backs, with facts, many of the same points I've stated myself in another thread. Those who blindly suggest dropping to FCS is the answer are sorely mistaken.

[Flipper]

Most people acknowledge that moving to FCS isn't the answer. I think we need to exit D1 for everything but hoops or hockey on the men's side and basketball on the women's side.

I also think this dscussion will seem quaint when we begin the debate 're the need for two distinct State university's within 25 minutes of each other.

[Schadenfreude]

Most people acknowledge that moving to FCS isn't the answer. I think we need to exit D1 for everything but hoops or hockey on the men's side and basketball on the women's side.

I disagree, obviously, and I doubt Bowling Green will ever leave the MAC in my lifetime. I only chime in to say that a Division II school cannot field Division I football or basketball.

[pdt1081]

I only chime in to say that a Division II school cannot field Division I football or basketball.

Incorrect. A school may "play-up" a division in one men's sport and one women's sport. I believe right now, they are no longer allowed to sponsor scholarships in that sport (many schools were grandfathered in when that rule changed).

[Class of 61]

I can’t access the article ( only allows a couple per month) .. but my son, an OSU grad, keeps saying that BG, in fact the whole MAC should drop to FCS.
Several probs with this.. makes scheduling “ big “ schools with big payouts harder, or at least makes for lesser payouts. And MAC schools DO have a reputation for knocking off P5 s, even “lesser” ones. So it becomes a strength of schedule issue. Can’t think OSU for example would be scheduling MAC schools almost every year if they were FCS (YSU was exception due to Tressel).
OTOH, total costs would def. go down ... 20 less scholarships at $20k per to start..plus fewer coaches just one example.

[hammb]

I can’t access the article ( only allows a couple per month) .. but my son, an OSU grad, keeps saying that BG, in fact the whole MAC should drop to FCS.
Several probs with this.. makes scheduling “ big “ schools with big payouts harder, or at least makes for lesser payouts. And MAC schools DO have a reputation for knocking off P5 s, even “lesser” ones. So it becomes a strength of schedule issue. Can’t think OSU for example would be scheduling MAC schools almost every year if they were FCS (YSU was exception due to Tressel).
OTOH, total costs would def. go down ... 20 less scholarships at $20k per to start..plus fewer coaches just one example.

To access the Blade articles always just copy/paste the link into an incognito Chrome tab. That will allow you to read more of them. That or manually clearing your cookies, which is a bit more cumbersome.

The biggest issue I have with the whole argument about FBS vs FCS is our expenses. MOST of the expenses that we have are self induced. Yes, being FBS we have 85 scholarships instead of 65. But the rest of it is all our own doing. WE chose to ridiculously escalate our coaching expenses despite not having the revenue to justify it. WE choose to keep spending on things like national recruiting, keeping players in hotels (thankfully now less), etc.

Just because revenue at OSU at P5 conferences over the past 20 years did NOT mean we needed to keep raising our expenses along with them. The only part of our revenue that has gone up is our guarantee paydays and it hasn't gone up nearly as quickly as we've increased our expenditures.

Brigg's cited that our football expenses were $7.8m, almost doubling the $4.1m we spent in 2009. This is the same rate of growth at OSU, Michigan, and UT...everybody has spent twice as much on football as they did 11 years ago. But WHY? At OSU & UM they increase expenses because revenues have skyrocketed with massive payouts from Big10 network and playoff revenues. Our revenues have probably not even gone up by 25% in that same 11 year period, so why have we also doubled our expenses?

FCS is likely not the panacea, although reading an article posted on Twitter it's noteworthy that YSU has almost exactly half of the football expenses we do. I am very curious where we're spending that extra $4m, as they still report $1.3m on coaches, so not much behind us, most likely. But going to FCS will cost (most likely) more in lost revenue than you'll save in expenses.

TO me the solution is simple, and it involves everybody in the MAC. You commit to staying FBS, but you commit to being the worst conf in the Division (we pretty much already are anyhow). You trim expenses back to as close to 2009 levels as you can, and you do so by instituting a conference wide salary cap. MAC teams don't need to be paying $500k-1m a year on a head coach. No revenue stream to justify it. Don't need to be spending millions on recruiting Florida/California/Texas either. Screw it. We'll still get slaughtered by OSU, and most likely no longer be able to compete and beat Purdue/Northwestern, but we may actually still be able to justify football 20 years from now.

As thing stand now the choice is very quickly going to be getting rid of football entirely or getting rid of the entire rest of the Athletic Department to keep throwing wasted money at D1 football. I'm sorry, but it's time for us all to admit that the current landscape of FBS football passed BG by a LONG time ago. IT's stupid to keep throwing money at it because it feels good to say we're in the same division as OSU.

[hammb]

Most people acknowledge that moving to FCS isn't the answer. I think we need to exit D1 for everything but hoops or hockey on the men's side and basketball on the women's side.

I also think this dscussion will seem quaint when we begin the debate 're the need for two distinct State university's within 25 minutes of each other.

Some of the sports funding issues fit right in with that as well. BG's fanbase is almost entirely composed of alumni (and I think we all know we haven't done a stellar job of even recruiting/holding onto THAT section of fans). We have no major metro area in our footprint other than Toledo, and they have their own FBS football program.

There just isn't a local fanbase following of BG sports. I grew up in rural wood county (the best bet for a non-affiliated fanbase), and there was very little following. I knew quite a few people who were BG hoops fans, but very few that were football fans. We just don't have a pool of people to draw into fandom.

[MarkL]

Yes. I fully agree we pay coaches too much in the MAC. Keeping with with the Jones's is not a game this conference can or should be playing. Sadly the Fleck and Candle raises raised the bar for everyone.

Our previous coach was paid 400k because that's what Babers was paid. A ridiculous decision considering the background and experience of each. Loeffler is paid more but I'm not sure how much.

[BillyLP]

Yes. I fully agree we pay coaches too much in the MAC. Keeping with with the Jones's is not a game this conference can or should be playing. Sadly the Fleck and Candle raises raised the bar for everyone.

Six of the bottom ten in reported head coach salaries are in the MAC. Only two are in the top 100 out of 122 reported. In my opinion, the issue isn't that coaches are paid too much, it's that the athletic departments aren't funded well enough to pay an adequate salary. I can't remember which article it was, but I saw where BG only gets about $1.9M in private donations annually. I have worked at much smaller athletic departments that get that with their annual fund alone, not even counting the major gift donors. I think the issue across the MAC is that they haven't done well enough with private support.

[Class of 61]

Got a call from one our football players today thanking me for my Falcon Club membership. I didn’t recognize the Columbus # but he left a voicemail. Nice to hear.