The final Great Realignment of College Football?

[Falcon Commander]

https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1 ... 41092?s=20

[Flipper]

Go after FIU...an occasional trip to Miami would be nice

[Bgsu2016]

https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1 ... 41092?s=20

Battle of Bowling Green possibly

[Schadenfreude]

https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1 ... 41092?s=20

Middle Tennessee doesn't really move the needle for me. I think I'd rather see Western Kentucky and UMass, or maybe North Dakota State and South Dakota State.

[Tony4BG]

Why UMass? I know they stink in football but not sure how other sports are now and they already were in MAC.

[Schadenfreude]

Why UMass? I know they stink in football but not sure how other sports are now and they already were in MAC.

It's a good university. That matters to me.

[Critical Thinker]

No, not UMess again. They can't compete in football consistently and travel would put an unnecessary strain on the other sports.

[MarkL]

UMass refused to put any sports other than football in and the MAC told them to take a hike. I would only support UMass if they committed all sports and even then I'm not sure.

[Schadenfreude]

No, not UMess again. They can't compete in football consistently and travel would put an unnecessary strain on the other sports.

It's a top 75 national university. We don't get that with Middle Tennessee.

If the MAC wanted to stand pat for now, I'd respect that decision. Mostly, I'm saying I think we can do better than Middle Tennessee.

[BillyLP]

No, not UMess again. They can't compete in football consistently and travel would put an unnecessary strain on the other sports.

It's a top 75 national university. We don't get that with Middle Tennessee.

If the MAC wanted to stand pat for now, I'd respect that decision. Mostly, I'm saying I think we can do better than Middle Tennessee.

MTSU is investing $66 million into athletics upgrades over the next several years, they are in a good market, and would be a good fit competitively. I would support it.

[TommyG]

Middle Tennessee would be 100 times better than UMass. I don’t think they’d have serious interest in the MAC.

Only way UMass would be considered is if they brought basketball too. I still don’t think the MAC would want that extra travel.

[fanatic13]

Mtsu doesn't have any better options than the Mac with the cusa dying plus it gives the Mac some exposure in the nashville market

[BGSU33]

If the MAC expands, it's very likely going to be WKU & Middle Tennessee. But honestly, I don't really see a whole lot of value in adding either one to the conference as a whole. WKU for men's hoops would nice, but what is the MAC really going to gain? And that's not a slight against either school, but my question is, what real value is adding those schools going to bring to the MAC? Don't get me started on "expanding the footprint" of the conference either. That's already shown not to be very effective in much larger markets than these two places. This move would expand the MAC essentially into SEC country, and I just don't really see the logic. And further, what about the MAC's resources, because now instead of dividing things up between 12 schools, now two more would dig into that cut. As for protecting the MAC if it's ever poached upon down the road by another conference, well there are already a number of FCS candidates that are already within the MAC footprint (particularly in Indiana and Illinois) that the MAC could target.

And lastly. and most importantly, how does football divisions get divided up if they come in? Based on geography, someone is going to have to move and I DON'T want that to be BG again. I LOVE being in the East and playing the other Ohio schools. If the expansion happens and the MAC keeps the East/West divisions, then geographically WKU and MTSU would be Western fits, and you'd have to slide Toledo to the East to balance numbers. I would love that because it would put all Ohio schools in the same division. However, if the MAC goes North/South, then BG is going to be sent packing, again, because they aren't going to split up Akron and Kent State.

Here's my projected breakdown (and I hope it's East/West and not North/South)

EAST:
Buffalo
Akron
Kent State
Ohio
Miami
Bowling Green
Toledo

WEST:
Eastern Michigan
Central Michigan
Western Michigan
Northern Illinois
Ball State
Western Kentucky
Middle Tennessee

OR

NORTH:
Eastern Michigan
Central Michigan
Western Michigan
Northern Illinois
Toledo
Bowling Green
Buffalo

SOUTH:
Akron
Kent State
Ohio
Miami
Ball State
Western Kentucky
Middle Tennessee

I really, REALLY prefer the East/West idea with adding the newcomers to the West and Toledo to the East and not North/South whatsoever.

[MarkL]

MAC Ohio vs MAC everyone else. Sure its 6 on 8 but who cares?

[Tony4BG]

Pete Thamel tweeted WKU and MTSU close to getting invite