UMass

[Tony4BG]

All sports addition to MAC

[Tony4BG]

Also reading, interest in Western Kentucky again

[Flipper]

Good news...add a little new life to the conference.

[mbenecke]

Welp, there go the pods.

[BillyLP]

Strong addition. Definitely makes us a better basketball conference.

[Falconwriter]

Well, at least they are bringing all sports this time -- and not just football.

[jpfalcon09]

Well, at least they are bringing all sports this time -- and not just football.

All sports except hockey.

[Globetrotter]

This is great IMO. Need new life.

[hammb]

As a school that has let a once quality basketball program flounder in the name of spending millions on a crap football program I'd say they fit in perfectly in the MAC.

I have no issues with adding them as the conference, as they seem like a good fit, but I'm not in love with any conference additions that just add to the divisor when it comes to disbursing conference TV revenue/NCAA tourney revenue, etc.

[Flipper]

Well, at least they are bringing all sports this time -- and not just football.

All sports except hockey.

MAC doesn't have hockey

[fanatic13]

I guess I'm in the minority by not liking this. Umass doesn't move the needle for me or the conference. Football hasn't had more than 4 wins in 12 fbs seasons. Basketball has history and would be a top talent mac team but I'm skeptical they maintain that in the Mac vs the a10. Playing dayton, vcu, and st Louis is a bigger draw. Not sure if frank Martin stays for them with the current success. Baseball is bad, women's basketball is completely awful, and surprisingly no volleyball team. Media markets aren't the goal anymore so not sure what they bring

We do have 4 mac hockey teams now so if ohio actually made a team and the 14th conference member has hockey we have 6. That would be a game changer although extremely unlikely

Football schedules should be reevaluated or put back in divisions for the year. Playing this one year is silly

I'm happy the conference is being proactive. If we're sticking with fbs teams wku would be a strong add since their usually pretty good in big sports

[BGSU33]

Welp, there go the pods.

Yep. Those pods, and the next three years of scheduling in those pods, were just announced only weeks ago too. The big emphasis was that every team in the MAC would now play each other at minimum once every three years. And then this happens. I have to believe more teams are coming. I fully expect to see 1-3 other schools coming in now as well. I’d be very surprised if this was a one-add and done. Oh, and this will also wipe out two of BG’s future football schedule games too as BG and UMass had a home-and-home scheduled for 2025 and 2026.

[mbenecke]

I feel pretty indifferent about it. It’s kind of a lateral move, in that it doesn’t bother me much but also doesn’t really move the needle in any significant way. It’s basically like adding another Miami (has hockey, decent basketball), but if they had Akron or Kent’s football program. Lol. Good academic school, lots of money, etc.

Guess we’ll see. I wouldn’t mind seeing them as the homecoming game every time they come to the Doyt. Lol

We’ll see what happens with the previously scheduled 2025 and 2026 non-conference home and home. My assumption is that they will get canceled and replaced, which might be difficult.

[hammb]

I feel pretty indifferent about it. It’s kind of a lateral move, in that it doesn’t bother me much but also doesn’t really move the needle in any significant way. It’s basically like adding another Miami (has hockey, decent basketball), but if they had Akron or Kent’s football program. Lol. Good academic school, lots of money, etc.

Guess we’ll see. I wouldn’t mind seeing them as the homecoming game every time they come to the Doyt. Lol

We’ll see what happens with the previously scheduled 2025 and 2026 non-conference home and home. My assumption is that they will get canceled and replaced, which might be difficult.

As I alluded to in my previous post any additions like this without a reasonable expectation of increasing the numerator on our ESPN contracts, NCAA payouts, etc, are just BAD for the conference.

Each school currently gets about $1m from ESPN/yr. Adding another school, without a requisite increase on ESPN's part lowers that number. We currently get $X from our bowl tie-ins. Without adding more bowl tie-ins this means each school's cut will be lowered. We have been a 1 bid league for the NCAA tournament since Wally Sczerbiak got the last at large bid...that tourney share is now going to get divided up by an additional school.

IT's easy to applaud the MAC for wanting to add members in a time where it is clear conference consolidation is happening, but unless they have a firm plan to increase overall revenues (I'm skeptical, ESPECIALLY on the ESPN side) this does nothing but financially hurt all existing members.

[Flipper]

In theory...we're adding Boston as a media market.... In theory