AAC expansion

[Tony4BG]

The six teams to AAC official now

[Schadenfreude]

The more I think about adding Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee, the more I dislike it.

How would divisions work? We could put them in the West and bring Toledo to the East, except that the Michigan schools might not having to go down there all the time and Miami and Ohio might dislike not being in the same division with the new additions.

[MarkL]

Here's how I'd do divisions. Floating divisions. If you're unfamiliar this is how it works. You start with having an exact way to rank the order of each division. For 2020 it may look like this ...
West
1. Ball State
2. WMU
3. UT
4. CMU
5. EMU
6. NIU

East
1. Buffalo
2. Kent State
3. Ohio
4. Miami
5. Akron
6. BG

Then in 2021, the winners of each division get to nickname the new divisions they lead, which are the every other of each divison. I'm just using school colors for now but let the ADs be creative and you'll get something fun for the prior winner to shove down the throat of all the other teams in the division.
Red
Ball State
Kent State
UT
Miami
EMU
BG

Blue
Buffalo
WMU
Ohio
CMU
Akron
NIU

This year in the plausible scenario where Kent and WMU win their divisions, next year it happens again with a blue and a brown division or whatever creative name.

Then as for scheduling, each team gets two guaranteed games. Like rivals, or desired closer drives. Such as ...
BG: Miami and UT
WMU: CMU and EMU
EMU: CMU and WMU
CMU: WMU and EMU
UT: BG and NIU
NIU: UT and Ball State
Miami: BG and Ohio
etc ...

Then you draw up a schedule where you play all your division teams. Then if your guaranteed opponents are in the other division, you guaranteed get them. Otherwise you get teams from the other divison based on who you've not played recently.

The schedulers make sure each team gets 4 homes and roads, and does their best to not have two straight matchups at the same place (ie BG does not play at NIU two straight times be it two straight years or a gap in between)

What this scheduling system does is ensure randomness. BG went from 2010 to 2019 without playing Central Michigan. That should never happen. With floating the odds of that happening are effectively zero. Every player in a team for four years will play every other team at least once, statistically near guaranteed. It also prevents one division from consistently being the clear better one.

Add MTSU and WKU to the mix and this division scheme ensures some fairness in terms of long drives. Or even plane rides between Nashville and Buffalo.

Honestly I think the Big Ten should have gone this way. Michigan has far more history with, say, Iowa than they ever will with Rutgers.

[Schadenfreude]

I like Bowling Green in the East and I don't want to change it. I like playing the other Ohio schools every year. It doesn't bother me that we went a few years without playing Central Michigan.

[Rightupinthere]

I like Bowling Green in the East and I don't want to change it. I like playing the other Ohio schools every year. It doesn't bother me that we went a few years without playing Central Michigan.

Agreed. I like the east. There was a time when BG was switching divisions I felt a little like Istanbul.

[BillyLP]

I really like the idea of adding WKU and MTSU. WKU is a good fit geographically and would bring really nice facilities to the conference. No drawbacks there. MTSU would provide a fun trip through Nashville. Their facilities are outdated but they have a solid fanbase and put together strong teams on occasion. Would be harder to develop rivalries with the old MAC schools, but a natural one would be created between WKU and MTSU as the two "southern" schools.

I would hate to lose BG in the East, too. I'd think with that expansion that we'd maybe see a North and South division that would look something like:

North:

EMU
CMU
WMU
Buffalo
NIU
BSU
Toledo

South:

Akron
Kent
BGSU
Miami
Ohio
WKU
MTSU

[Schadenfreude]

I would hate to lose BG in the East, too. I'd think with that expansion that we'd maybe see a North and South division that would look something like:

North:

EMU
CMU
WMU
Buffalo
NIU
BSU
Toledo

South:

Akron
Kent
BGSU
Miami
Ohio
WKU
MTSU

Buffalo would *hate* that.

Perhaps this is how it would go:
Southwest Division: Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Ohio, Miami, Ball State, Northern Illinois and either Toledo or Bowling Green
Northeast Division: Buffalo, Kent, Akron, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, and either Toledo or Bowling Green

[BGSU33]

I like Bowling Green in the East and I don't want to change it. I like playing the other Ohio schools every year.

100% THIS!!!!

[footballguy51]

I was thinking North and South, but I had it paired up slightly different.

North:

NIU
WMU
CMU
EMU
UT
BG
UB

South:

WKU
MTSU
MU
OU
AU
KSU
BSU

[Schadenfreude]

The best play might be to stick one of the new schools in the East and one in the West. The new schools could have protected cross division rivalry game, just as Bowling Green and Toledo do now. In football, everyone makes a trip south of the Ohio River once every two years.

[MarkL]

The mayors of Bowling Green, OH and Bowling Green, KY had a fun thing going for our past football games where the losing mayor flew the winning team's flag the next day. Should WKU join the MAC that should definitely continue.

[Flipper]

Re the whole East/West issue....we had some VERY good teams and an amazing rivalry with NIU when we were in the West.

[jpfalcon09]

After some thought I'd structure it this way based on geography:

East

Buffalo
Kent
Akron
BG
Toledo
Ohio
MTSU

West

NIU
CMU
WMU
EMU
Miami
BSU
WKU

This keeps Buffalo from traveling no further west than NW Ohio for divisional games, and everyone has to make at least a long trek to WKU/MTSU every other year. Have one fixed cross-divisional game and one which rotates annually.

Fixed games:

Miami-Ohio (this is more of a rivalry than Miami-BG)
UT-NIU (obvious reasons)
BG-WMU (you could tie this into an annual non-conference hockey series)
Buffalo-EMU (closest West based team)
Kent-BSU
Akron-CMU
WKU-MTSU

[jpfalcon09]

Latest update - So. Miss, Marshall, JMU, and ODU to the Sun Belt will be announced early next week. That would leave Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, LA Tech, UTEP, and Liberty in CUSA. CUSA's only options then would be to bring in independents like UConn and UMass, poach from other conferences, or fold.

[BillyLP]

Maybe it's that App State and Coastal Carolina provide strong competition, but I don't see Marshall and the Sun Belt being a great match.