Et tu, Miami?

Rightupinthere · Post by **Rightupinthere** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:47 pm

http://www.miamihawktalk.com/discussion ... hp?t=20915

Why is it when the NCAA or BCS sh!ts on a school's Wheaties, the spurned fans begin the talk of bolting the MAC?

I doubt this is a popular opinion of Miami fans, but there is some consistency in their arguments.

Tricky_Falcon · Post by **Tricky_Falcon** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:51 pm

Probably because they're tired of getting their wheaties shat in.

SaxyIrishTenor · Post by **SaxyIrishTenor** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:08 pm

Tricky_Falcon wrote:Probably because they're tired of getting their wheaties shat in.

Aren't we? Aren't most MAC teams?

redskins4ever · Post by **redskins4ever** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 9:07 pm

I dont think our intention is to leave schools like BG, UT, and OU behind, rather take our best core schools and find some others to form a better overall conference which be more condusive for football and basketball. With the demise of CUSA in basketball this would be a great opportunity to bring in a Southern Illinois and a WKU to strengthen Basketball and make a new conference a 3+ bid conference every year instead of a single bid. I think that BG has had its cheerios peed in enough over the last 10 years that its time to pack up and move on. Its a shame that AD, Anthony Stacey, Shane Kline Ruminski, and several other talented BG players never saw the NCAA tournament. I think that once BG gets in, that they could actually make a deep run. You may not like Dakich every day of the week, but I love his old school hard nose defense, and his motion offense is just outstanding. BG is one Breakout freshmen away from controlling the MAC. Although OU's pair of freshmen are NBA quality kids.

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:02 pm

Leaving the MAC is a bad idea for us. You'll get little sympathy here.

The best thing for Bowling Green is for the MAC to get better.

The good news is that the MAC seems to have the means at its disposal to do this.

If Marshall was already out of the league -- and no longer dragging down MAC East schedules -- that may very well have been enough to get Buffalo or Miami the NCAA nod.

If we add Western Kentucky, that makes MAC basketball better. If we get Temple in the fold, MAC basketball definitely gets better.

Rick Chryst seems focused on improving basketball. He is not a man to take lightly.

I guess the bottom line is I think Miami fans are overreacting a bit.

I absolutely agree the MAC did deserve a second bid. But it was very close.

One argument I'm tired of seeing is that we were the tenth best conference in America and we only got one bid!

The reality is that all of our teams were a lot closer to the conference mean than other top leagues. The standings were an absolute cluster****** this year.

Averages are a funny thing. When Bill Gates walks into a bar, the patrons are, suddenly, per capita, the wealthiest boozers in America. But it doesn't make 'em rich.

The other top leagues had millionaires in their campus. We're just a bunch of hard drinkin' average Joes, and we couldn't get off the bubble.

It's hard for me to look at the strides the MAC has taken in both major sports and not think it could still get better.

Dayons_Den · Post by **Dayons_Den** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:05 pm

Schadenfreude wrote:Rick Chryst seems focused on improving basketball.

What gives you this impression?

Dakich would certainly disagree with that statement and I am not sure if I would agree or not either. . .

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:39 am

Dayons_Den wrote:
Schadenfreude wrote:Rick Chryst seems focused on improving basketball.
What gives you this impression?

The impression one gets from all the bbs rumors is that Chryst wants to add Western Kentucky. Also, it appears the league is trying to hold out for Temple in all sports.

This is an interesting snippet from the MAC board. I don't have a link off hand, but it strikes me as legit:

"I was in a box at Gund Arena on Saturday night and Rick Chryst came into the box to talk to the corporate chief who was hosting. He thanked all of the First Energy folks for coming to the game and for the company's support of the MAC. One of the other guests in the box asked him specifically about expansion and his answer was very direct. He said expansion had no timetable, but would be a priority in the next 12-18 months. He said that this expansion would be targeted to help bring up the level of basketball in the league and that he felt that football had recahed a level of success, now it is time for basketball to follow suit. The guy followed up with a question about WKU and Temple and Chryst would not talk further, but had a big grin on his fac and said "I would not be surprised to see a 14-team tournament in 2007 and those are two great basketball schools that you mentioned"

Rightupinthere · Post by **Rightupinthere** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:05 am

redskins4ever wrote:I dont think our intention is to leave schools like BG, UT, and OU behind, rather take our best core schools and find some others to form a better overall conference which be more condusive for football and basketball. With the demise of CUSA in basketball this would be a great opportunity to bring in a Southern Illinois and a WKU to strengthen Basketball and make a new conference a 3+ bid conference every year instead of a single bid. I think that BG has had its cheerios peed in enough over the last 10 years that its time to pack up and move on. Its a shame that AD, Anthony Stacey, Shane Kline Ruminski, and several other talented BG players never saw the NCAA tournament. I think that once BG gets in, that they could actually make a deep run. You may not like Dakich every day of the week, but I love his old school hard nose defense, and his motion offense is just outstanding. BG is one Breakout freshmen away from controlling the MAC. Although OU's pair of freshmen are NBA quality kids.

I understand the sentiment and completely agree with keeping a core of schools together. Where we may disagree is that I don't believe our improvement in perception lies outside of the MAC.
The problem with the MAC is that it has a great deal of history. It becomes problematic to select WHICH teams should be considered "core." WMU won't come along w/o EMU or CMU. MU won't come along without UT, BG, OU, and perhaps BSU. BG won't make a move w/o UT or MU. Kent may want to keep its cross town rivalry with Akron (who is improving).

So, I believe that we keep the MAC together as is and continue to improve the conference.